The latest Gran Turismo 7 update just released, and for the 25th anniversary of the franchise, Polyphony Digital went a bit extra on this one - although, looking at the previous updates, one can wonder if they didn't intentionally held back some features to have a more significant update for the World Finals.
First thing is on the content side. No surprises there, as Road Atlanta and the 3 new cars were already confirmed :
The ability to sell cars was one of the most requested features, even before the game released, and it's finally back in Gran Turismo. It is not just a simple "get rid of your car for a small amount of credits" feature though: you need to visit the used car dealer to get your car appraised. Several parameters will affect the final selling price: mileage, parts, condition, but most of all, current market value. Every car's value evolves independently through time, with the game even offering you a graph showing the market's evolution within the past 2 weeks. One thing to note though, you can only sell one car of the same model per day: this most likely comes in as a countermeasure against a car tickets glitch exploit performed by many players a few months ago, allowing them to built a virtually infinite reserve of Honda NSX Gr.B cars.
Regarding qualifying, the options available to a lobby host are similar to what Gran Turismo players are used to, but with a nice new twist: the lobby doesn't automatically transition from the end of a qualifying session to race start. Instead, racers will be brought back to the lobby menu, with the ability to change their tyre compound for the start, while the host manually starts the race when he wants - or end it right there. This will be very practical for events organizers as you have time to write down the times before eventually launching back a Q2 session, and then manually set the grid for the race.
Game mechanics changes haven't been advertised, so it could have been easy to miss another very good change brought by this update. The weather evolution rate has been slowed down massively, meaning you now have more time to react to clouds appearing on the radar before they actually hit the track. The rate at which water levels change once it starts or stops raining is similarly affected. The result is more realistic and way less chaotic behavior, as before the update, track surface could go from full dry to full damp within half a lap. The weather system now looks to be well balanced and very usable. Additionally, although BoP or global physics didn't change, it looks like individual cars got their parameters tweaked, as performance changed noticeably for some Gr.3 cars.
Overall, this is the biggest update yet for GT7, bringing in good changes, which should make the game more playable - although lobby stability doesn't seem to have changed for now. For the full patch notes, click the spoiler below.
- The following four new cars have been added:
・BMW M2 Competition '18
・Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth '87 (Purchasable at 'Used Cars');
・Nissan Silvia K's Aero (S14) '96 (Purchasable at 'Used Cars');
・Gran Turismo Red Bull X2019 25th Anniversary (Obtainable from the 'Gran Turismo 25th Anniversary' banner at the top right of the World Map between 24 November and 3 January
2. Tracks
- The 'Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta' race track has been added.
3. World Map
- A number of events and a special themed map have been added to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Gran Turismo series. Please check the "Announcing the 'Gran Turismo 25th Anniversary' and 'World Finals' Celebration Campaigns!" article for further details.
4. Brand Central
- New Museum section for 'DS Automobiles' has been added for Europe (France.)
5. Used Cars
- The new 'Car Valuation Service' feature has been added. Please check the 'Car Valuation Service' section of the online manual for more details. The 'Car Valuation Service' will appear after clearing Menu Book No. 39 ('Championship: World GT Series') and having watched the ending.
6. Café
- The following two Extra Menus have been added:
・Extra Menu No. 12: 'Collection: Renault' (Collector Level 31 and above);
・Extra Menu No. 13: 'Collection: Nissan Skyline GT-R' (Collector Level 40 and above);
The new Extra Menus will appear after clearing Menu Book No. 39 ('Championship: World GT Series') and having watched the ending.
7. World Circuits
- The following new events have been added to 'World Circuits':
・Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
- Race of Turbo Sportscars
- American FR Challenge 550
- Gr.1 Prototype Series
・Brands Hatch
- European FR Challenge 550
・Willow Springs Raceway
- Historic Sports Car Masters
8. Scapes
- The 'Road Atlanta' and 'Illumination' locations have been added as featured Curations in Scapes.
9. GT Auto
- 23 new paint colours have been added to the Real Car Paint section of the Paint Shop.
10. Multiplayer
- Qualifying and Grid Start features have been added to Lobby.
11. Showcase
- A new 'Popular Users' category has been added to the Discover section;
- A list of players who have 'Liked' or 'Reposted' a User Generated Content can now be displayed in said content's details section;
- Christmas songs have been added to the music track list.
12. Options
- It is now possible to calibrate a handbrake controller under [Options] > [Controller] > [Steering Controller Settings].
- It is now possible to set race functions for the push button dials on the THRUSTMASTER® T-GT by selecting 'Other Buttons' on the bottom left of the [Controller] > [Steering Controller Settings] screen.
- It is now possible to set race functions for the control stick buttons on the Fanatec® GT DD Pro by selecting 'Other Buttons' on the bottom left of the [Controller] > [Steering Controller Settings] screen.
- Adjusted the initial downforce values for the following cars:
・Super Formula Dallara SF19 Super Formula / Honda '19
・Super Formula Dallara SF19 Super Formula / Toyota '19
2. Race Screen
- Fixed an issue wherein setting 'Show Race Info' to 'Off' in 'Display Settings' would cause options such as tyre menus to not display on pit-in.
3. Showcase
- The 'Content Type' function has been changed from a dropdown menu to buttons. This also applies to the gallery function on 'My Page.'
4. Penalty Line
- The location of the Penalty Line has been adjusted for the following tracks:
・Deep Forest Raceway - Reverse
・Trial Mountain Circuit - Reverse
5. Braking Areas
- The braking areas on Trial Mountain have been adjusted.
6. Sound
- Fixed an issue wherein rain sound effects would not play properly on replays;
- Adjusted the engine sounds for certain vehicles.
7. Localisation
- Fixed various text localisation issues.
First thing is on the content side. No surprises there, as Road Atlanta and the 3 new cars were already confirmed :
- BMW M2 Competition '18
- Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth '87
- Nissan Silvia K's Aero (S14) '96
The ability to sell cars was one of the most requested features, even before the game released, and it's finally back in Gran Turismo. It is not just a simple "get rid of your car for a small amount of credits" feature though: you need to visit the used car dealer to get your car appraised. Several parameters will affect the final selling price: mileage, parts, condition, but most of all, current market value. Every car's value evolves independently through time, with the game even offering you a graph showing the market's evolution within the past 2 weeks. One thing to note though, you can only sell one car of the same model per day: this most likely comes in as a countermeasure against a car tickets glitch exploit performed by many players a few months ago, allowing them to built a virtually infinite reserve of Honda NSX Gr.B cars.
Regarding qualifying, the options available to a lobby host are similar to what Gran Turismo players are used to, but with a nice new twist: the lobby doesn't automatically transition from the end of a qualifying session to race start. Instead, racers will be brought back to the lobby menu, with the ability to change their tyre compound for the start, while the host manually starts the race when he wants - or end it right there. This will be very practical for events organizers as you have time to write down the times before eventually launching back a Q2 session, and then manually set the grid for the race.
Game mechanics changes haven't been advertised, so it could have been easy to miss another very good change brought by this update. The weather evolution rate has been slowed down massively, meaning you now have more time to react to clouds appearing on the radar before they actually hit the track. The rate at which water levels change once it starts or stops raining is similarly affected. The result is more realistic and way less chaotic behavior, as before the update, track surface could go from full dry to full damp within half a lap. The weather system now looks to be well balanced and very usable. Additionally, although BoP or global physics didn't change, it looks like individual cars got their parameters tweaked, as performance changed noticeably for some Gr.3 cars.
Overall, this is the biggest update yet for GT7, bringing in good changes, which should make the game more playable - although lobby stability doesn't seem to have changed for now. For the full patch notes, click the spoiler below.
Main Features Implemented
1. Cars- The following four new cars have been added:
・BMW M2 Competition '18
・Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth '87 (Purchasable at 'Used Cars');
・Nissan Silvia K's Aero (S14) '96 (Purchasable at 'Used Cars');
・Gran Turismo Red Bull X2019 25th Anniversary (Obtainable from the 'Gran Turismo 25th Anniversary' banner at the top right of the World Map between 24 November and 3 January
2. Tracks
- The 'Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta' race track has been added.
3. World Map
- A number of events and a special themed map have been added to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Gran Turismo series. Please check the "Announcing the 'Gran Turismo 25th Anniversary' and 'World Finals' Celebration Campaigns!" article for further details.
4. Brand Central
- New Museum section for 'DS Automobiles' has been added for Europe (France.)
5. Used Cars
- The new 'Car Valuation Service' feature has been added. Please check the 'Car Valuation Service' section of the online manual for more details. The 'Car Valuation Service' will appear after clearing Menu Book No. 39 ('Championship: World GT Series') and having watched the ending.
6. Café
- The following two Extra Menus have been added:
・Extra Menu No. 12: 'Collection: Renault' (Collector Level 31 and above);
・Extra Menu No. 13: 'Collection: Nissan Skyline GT-R' (Collector Level 40 and above);
The new Extra Menus will appear after clearing Menu Book No. 39 ('Championship: World GT Series') and having watched the ending.
7. World Circuits
- The following new events have been added to 'World Circuits':
・Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
- Race of Turbo Sportscars
- American FR Challenge 550
- Gr.1 Prototype Series
・Brands Hatch
- European FR Challenge 550
・Willow Springs Raceway
- Historic Sports Car Masters
8. Scapes
- The 'Road Atlanta' and 'Illumination' locations have been added as featured Curations in Scapes.
9. GT Auto
- 23 new paint colours have been added to the Real Car Paint section of the Paint Shop.
10. Multiplayer
- Qualifying and Grid Start features have been added to Lobby.
11. Showcase
- A new 'Popular Users' category has been added to the Discover section;
- A list of players who have 'Liked' or 'Reposted' a User Generated Content can now be displayed in said content's details section;
- Christmas songs have been added to the music track list.
12. Options
- It is now possible to calibrate a handbrake controller under [Options] > [Controller] > [Steering Controller Settings].
- It is now possible to set race functions for the push button dials on the THRUSTMASTER® T-GT by selecting 'Other Buttons' on the bottom left of the [Controller] > [Steering Controller Settings] screen.
- It is now possible to set race functions for the control stick buttons on the Fanatec® GT DD Pro by selecting 'Other Buttons' on the bottom left of the [Controller] > [Steering Controller Settings] screen.
Other Improvements and Adjustments
1. Physics Simulation Model- Adjusted the initial downforce values for the following cars:
・Super Formula Dallara SF19 Super Formula / Honda '19
・Super Formula Dallara SF19 Super Formula / Toyota '19
2. Race Screen
- Fixed an issue wherein setting 'Show Race Info' to 'Off' in 'Display Settings' would cause options such as tyre menus to not display on pit-in.
3. Showcase
- The 'Content Type' function has been changed from a dropdown menu to buttons. This also applies to the gallery function on 'My Page.'
4. Penalty Line
- The location of the Penalty Line has been adjusted for the following tracks:
・Deep Forest Raceway - Reverse
・Trial Mountain Circuit - Reverse
5. Braking Areas
- The braking areas on Trial Mountain have been adjusted.
6. Sound
- Fixed an issue wherein rain sound effects would not play properly on replays;
- Adjusted the engine sounds for certain vehicles.
7. Localisation
- Fixed various text localisation issues.