Gran Turismo 7 review: An excellent racing game buried in dull exposition - VGC

From VGC: "If you can suffer through the clunky menus, endless dull dialogue and 100 visits to the cafe, then there’s an excellent racing game somewhere hidden in Gran Turismo 7."

[Mr Pumblechook]

VGC - VideoGamesChronicle gives Gran Turismo 7 a 3/5 equivalent to 6/10 which is 60%. For a high profile 'triple A' game this is a score that indicates that the game is below par.

We know that professional reviewers give their subjective opinions based on qualities that they can objectively comment on so if you read multiple reviews they will likely be in the same ball park, of course with some difference but often not more than 10%. But as a reader, when I see only two reviews for GT7, and the IGN score is 9/10 and the VGC score is 6/10 it makes me wonder how two experts have a 30% gulf in their opinions and score.

[ThisPlaceIsToxic]

Crap review based more on the games menus/transitions than the actual racing. Anything to do with the actual racing, this reviewer loved.

So basically, one negative (the menus) and all else positive, 60% 🤦‍♂️

[EvertonFC]

So they knock about 30% off the score for menus and going to the cafe 100 times ?
I don't even know why half of gamers even play games sometimes.
Also why review GT if you don't really like racing games is the impression I get, I guess they gave flight sim a really high score I bet

[outsider1624]

"They’re the perfect weight, they feel incredibly rewarding to master, and there’s a tangible difference depending on what model you decide to race."

This is all i needed to know. Its funny he complains about menus lol.

[DigitallyAfflicted]

Swap VGC for KHR (Knuckleheads reviews) and it starts to make sense, " got confused in the game menus " 😂

But hay ill find out soon as they could be right...

[EvertonFC]

Sounds like the reviewer hates sims or misses the whole point of GT games and prefers holding hands arcade racers with rewind.
What did this reviewer give flight sim then ?

Edit: just checked 5/5 suprise suprise the menus got highly praised

[senorfartcushion]

It’s almost like they’re alllowed to write whatever reviews they want.

Why are you trying to only stick up for positive reviews? I’m getting GT7. I’m probably going to agree with the reviewer. Games have too many stupid menus nowadays. This game looks no different. I’m still playing it regardless, because I have to make MY OWN review for GT7.

Please don’t send me horrible messages if I dislike the menus please.

[Tacoboto]

Imagine being so butthurt over a score you need to invalidate the opinion by looking through his review history.

This reviewer didn't even write their review for Flight Sim! It was someone else

[Atom666]

Yeah, he didn't review Flight Sim.

However, he is the heathen who gave Forbidden West and Uncharted a 5/5, though.

Surprise surprise.

[mkis007]

Imagine someone who hates Souls games being allowed to review Elden Ring and giving it a 5 because it is too hard.

[UnSelf]

I never got the appeal with a single mmorpg. Guess what - I don’t knock them in the least. I’m sure their high scores are meritorious

[solideagle]

currently sitting at 88 like Horizon on meta: https://www.metacritic.com/...
I knew some sites will give a low score but to give a 6/10 depicts its a broken game with bugs etc

[senorfartcushion]

Maybe most mainstream outlets score AAA games too highly?

Deathloop is grindy - 10 from IGN

Halo Infinite literally has no wind in the world and the world itself being open is pointless. 9+ from IGN.

Seems as though outlets only care about how AAA the games are nowadays

[Nyxus]

@ SenorFartCushion:

"It’s almost like they’re alllowed to write whatever reviews they want."

"Maybe most mainstream outlets score AAA games too highly?"

Which one is it?

[EvertonFC]

I loved HFW but i cant excuse the 5 system crashes while playing 1 being a total fresh reinstall cause it wouldn't repair the SSD and boot backup.
I also got the black screen about 10 times when finishing a arena challenge again a reboot.
Add to that more than enough pop in of scenery, sometimes clunky controls while climbing.
That's why I gave it a great 8/10. I would have give it a 9 if it hadn't had the system crashes as 5 crashes and 10 black screens is unacceptable imo.

[senorfartcushion]

No. Your analysis of reviewer objectivity is wrong.

Every game has the change to be reviewed differently by a consensus.

I mean, this is obvious? People review games. People review different games differently. There’s no chance of a “ball park” being made. If there was, then this would be classed as a reviewer being paid off,

[DarXyde]

Do you see the problem with this review, though? There's a bit of an odd emphasis on the menu. Why? It really just felt like nitpicking to the point that they mention there's an excellent game here... But menus. You're missing the forest for the trees. My question is, does it play well? Sure sounds like it. It's like DF going out of their way to talk about the uncapped frame rate in Control's photo mode on Xbox. That's nice, and you're certainly welcome to mention it, but really? It's not a particularly professional review.

Do you believe that the issues with the interface (not at all core gameplay, mind you) should detract from the score? Or maybe it makes the most sense to say the game is excellent. There's a lot of menu clunkiness and cafe visits, so if you don't mind that, game's a gem.

Does it detract from the score that much? Seems off. If I'm being charitable, an interface grievance, at most, knocks 0.5-1 point off. I'm under no illusion the score would otherwise be perfect, so how much of this score is from the interface? It's oddly evaluated and I think any objective person will weight different aspects of any game score accordingly.

[Neonridr]

it's only one person, don't worry yourself. The game will be a solid 9 I'm sure.

[Yi-Long]

To be fair, I watched IGN’s review of GT7 and considering the negative points addressed in that video (always online, mediocre soundtrack, expensive in-game car-parts and even colours(!), meh ray-tracing, and an outdated car-selection,), I didn’t expect them to give it a 9/10. Sounded more like it would get an 8 or 8,5.

Of course, a 6/10 seems (far) too low for this game, but I also feel that for this reviewer the menus probably got in the way of just playing and enjoying the game. I think we’ve all experienced games where you sit down with a new game and just want to go and enjoy it, but the game first forces you through slow introductions, explanations, slow-paced hand-holding tutorials, and it just completely kills your mood and the experience.

The reviewer states the actual racing is great, so it’s just about the stuff built all around it that frustrated him. Some reviewers can and will forgive a lot of negatives when the positives outweigh them (which might be the case with the 9.0 IGN review, but something we also saw a lot with the Forza Horizon 5 reviews which were very positive, but now that the game has been with us a few months the community seems a bit less forgiving about the negatives than they were in those first few honeymoon days/weeks).

I think all we can do is just read/hear the positives and negatives, weigh them up, and decide for ourselves how important they are to us.

[EvertonFC]

Exactly, it's why games shouldn't get a score imo.
The reviewer should just point out the pros and cons for the games or pop in, gameplay, sound, controls, character development, game crashes etc.
Some gamers might not care about occasional pop in of scenery cough riders republic cough HFW, some gamers might not care about music soundtrack or menus, some gamers don't care for story but gameplay moment to moment etc.
As long as the reviewer mentions all the pros and cons its upto the individual to decide then cause as it stands gamers see anything below a 8/10 as a bad game which isn't always the case and lots of great games suffer sales wise because of that?

[Zhipp]

3/5 isn't really equivalent to 6/10. They are different rating scales -- there's no direct conversion between the two. 3/5 implies that they think the game is functional, but just "okay". It's closer to a 7/10 in my opinion.

[Starman69]

Reviews hate on big AAA for reasons that are that they are AAA. Same as some reviews overscore for AAA

[philm87]

The dull exposition described is something that a lot of people might revel in.

[generic-user-name]

Can it be skipped?

[monkey602]

I think so. I also think it's going to be a lot of the reason people glue to this game for months on end.

As for me it's actually the reason I've no interest. Personally I don't want an encyclopedia worth of reference material needed to figure all that out.

But I've just done what I've always said people should do. Decide this game just wasn't made for them and move on. Might pick up Grid Legends instead soon

[EvertonFC]

I love my GT always have alway will but agree with the museum and encyclopedia stuff. If I want a car history lesson I have Google.
Most GT fans just want tuning, licensing, campaign and online mode at the end of the day cause that's the main 4 points why we love GT for all these years.
Funnily enough I have a friend who spends 1000s of hours in photo mode and doesn't really race much lol. Still can't figure out my friend after 30 years of friendship haha.

[senorfartcushion]

Virgins would.

[stefd75]

yep we would

[senorfartcushion]

@Shrek

No, they’re the idiots who are currently ruining how films are made and distributed. They’re anti-media. Nerds today have no respect for themselves in the face of art. They use companies like sports teams and grovel to billionaires. They’re the reason we have fanboys, microtransactions, The Mandalorian, Disney Remakes, crap Spider-Man films, crap Warner Bros films, crap game genres like dungeon crawlers and other nerd crap like Fortnite. Look at the IMDB top 250 to see the damage they’ve done. Check user reviews too. Most things they come across is barely surviving being unfairly review bombed to no one’s surprise.

No, lonely virgin nerds only care about ruining the preservation of art by pretending to care about preservation.

[GamingSinceForever]

This reviewer clearly expected an arcade racer which GT7 is not. It’s as much to do with building and tweaking cars than it is about driving them. As a result he deeply impacted the Metascore.

[Ninver]

They can impact the metascore all they want. We all know the developers poured their hearts and souls into making this game and it shows. GT7 will sell millions, which will in turn enable the devs to create the next iteration, that's all that matters.

No one cares about what these basement dwelling, useless "reviewers" have to say.

[TreMillz]

Unfortunately alot of developers get paid bonuses depending on their metacritic score, while it's current 88 is by far no slouch, I believe 90 would scored them a higher bonus, IF Sony even does what others do regarding scores

[Sarcasm]

You can thank Forza for that. The most recent Forza 7 has glitz and glamour which reviewers like this probably likes.

[Gunstar75]

Maybe FH5 is just a lot more fun for many?

[NobleRed]

Not even giving this clown a click for this garbage "review"

[Blaze929]

Yet here you are, commenting on the N4G submission making the temperature higher and giving it more visibility.

[-Hermit-]

What a big baby. You haven't even played the game yet yourself.

[wwinterj]

Then don't. All reviews are for the most part is just someones opinion who has actually played the game. Just because this persons review score doesn't match a score you've made up in your own head without actually playing something doesn't mean it's worthless.

[porkChop]

How do you know it's garbage if you haven't read it? Because, without even playing the game, you have some magic score in your head that the game deserves?

The reviewer praises the actual racing. They just don't enjoy the clunky menus, dumb dialogue, or fluff like the cafe. It seems like, at least from their perspective, all the extra fluff gets in the way when all they wanted to do was race and enjoy the game. Obviously I haven't played GT7 either, but that seems like fair criticism.

[Bigman4k]

I'll see for myself on 3/4

[ThisPlaceIsToxic]

Overall, reviews look overwhelmingly positive.

This guy has earned his moron award and well deserved 😂

I heard Cruisin USA’s menus a pretty sleek; someone should let him know since that’s all he’s looking for in his racing games.

[patriotZero]

i would give 2

[Killa78]

Poor review, seems like they're out their depth in understanding car culture.

Whilst UIs in Gran Turismo games have always been abit funny, knocking marks off for focussing on car culture and arguably the redeeming features of GT is ignorant and perplexing.

Consider it a Souls like game of the racing world, the more time you put in, the better it gets. There's a certain beauty in the intricacies and skills required to appreciate the game.

[FPS_D3TH]

I have a feeling op doesn’t know what gran turismo has always been about. It’s literally an homage to racing and vehicles themselves. It’s a bit of an artsy game because of this. It’s not some fast and the furious need for speed arcade title or even a flashy showcase like game like forza. It’s like going to a car museum and soaking in all the details about cars, driving and racing.

[Mr_Luke]

Nice, sensless reviews are already starting like HFW. That's fine, waiting for the review bombing from the Sony haters, i'm waiting for the 0 and 1.
Same thing for all the great games out there bombed by idiotic morons fanboys, whatever the console is.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

The same reviewer also gave Horizon: Forbidden West a 10/10. How exactly does "Sony haters" and "bombed by idiotic morons fanboys" apply here? Seems like it is the fanboys that are upset when a game isn't being universally praised by every single reviewer.

https://n4g.com/news/246601...

[TravsVoid]

A 10 is a senseless review because no game is perfect.

[Father__Merrin]

Poor baby doesn't like menus. GT has always had a kind of hang out feature where out of racing there's lots of other things to do

[metalgod88]

Ah yes, here come the reviews from people who want to complain about each and every thing, but think the game is perfect. Bam 60%. Like... if the game is good, rate it as such. You can nitpick all you want, but it shouldn't have such a huge impact on your score...

[frostypants]

GT always has terrible UIs. You kinda just exect it at this point. The car porn makes up for it. 6/10 seems harsh when they acknowledge the core game is good.

[oldenjon]

Time for more sensational clickbait shit reviews making the top stories on n4g.

[derek]

Yeah let's doc 40% becuase we don't like having to do or listen to things before we race, which we admit is excellent. Idiots!

[UltimateRacer]

So let me get this straight the reviewer loves the driving/racing which is the most important part of the game but gives it a 6/10.

[Orchard]

What's with all the big racing games struggling to have raytracing during gameplay? It should be easier for them than most games...

Forza Motorsport this year may have it, but I won't be surprised if it doesn't.

[purple101]

Forza motorsport does not have the detail in the physics engine that Gt does. And horizon is almost need for speed levels of basic handling, so they may have some headroom for Ray tracing as you say.

As I always say to people though, to see for your self if you try Nuremberg ring. on GT sport and then try it again, on Forza, it's night and day!

on GT sport your stomach dips and goes light as you crest over bumps. Even trough the DualShock 4 controller on PS4, you feel every bump in the road.

On Forza you have some buzzing triggers, that I find just irritating. They give you no sense of the road, while the handling is somewhere in between horizon and GT.

[Starman69]

Gran turismo is the best! Real racing. End of discussion.

[siLENTEsKI]

VGC gave Gran Turismo 7 the same score as Rainbow Six Extraction. Lol. That tells you all you need to know.

[FyBy]

I read most reviews and so far I know its good old GT. Apparently here reviewer wanted to race as quickly as possible. But what I loved always most on GT was that lazy browsing through categories, menus, cars, informations, tinkering etc... So....Im happy with it and looking forward to it.

[Charlieboy333]

OK so this guy would rather just pick a car and race. Pick a car and race. Pick a car and race. Completely misses the point that this game is about 'experiencing' cars and everything around them. Is this their first Gran Turismo game!?

[JL2930]

Only 400 out of date cars. How lame. Forza had 700 out the box.

[mkis007]

This is what happens when someone reviews a genre they dont already like. You forget that what he may not like is expected for people who like the genre.

[Agent75]

Watch reviews and game play videos, it’s hardly changed. No game in the series has come close to Turismo 3 or 4 on the PS2. Cardboard backdrops and still those cardboard trees. £70 on the PS5 and you get old tracks, but new ones are coming soon. Even Forza throws out the same old tracks. They just don’t get it. Arcade racers have died. Project Gotham, Ridge Racer and something new from SEGA to break up the painfully tiring racing genre.

[anast]

Ha. This is funny.

[Dfooster]

To be fair they also gave it the same score as IGN gave arguably the best alien game ever made.....erm erm

Unfortunately here the guy who did the review couldn't shake off the menu issue and it impacted his score. As in life there will be days when I wake up and I just want to race and not be pestered with the car culture thing. And other days I will wake up and want to soak in every little detail the game has to offer. The guy here woke up on one of the latter days and then wrote the review. Then to add insult to injury he was burdened with a marking system that jumps in increments of 20%.It could easily have been 4/5 on another day.