Gran Turismo Sophy Arrives in GT7: Hands-On First Impressions

Gran Turismo 7’s February 2023 update includes the public debut of GT Sophy: a new artificial intelligence that you can compete against in a free “Race Together” special event.

I had the chance to preview the new Sophy races at PlayStation’s North American headquarters.

[Flawlessmic]

I know a lot of people are excited for VR but dont sleep on sophy being a part of the update, sophy is the real game changer here!

After giving sophy a run last night, i can safely say the actual racing in future GT's is going to be Fu***** amazing!!!

even on intermediate the AI was coming back at me waiting for me to slip up, attacking the space if i left the door open for them, honestly felt like i was racing against people and not some very limited AI that once i passed them they may as well have been eliminated from the race like GT ai normally is.

pump it up to expert and its a real challenge to stay ahead, the next level up from expert man the AI kicked my ass, like badly.

i remember when sophy was first annouced all the nay sayers said its a pipe dream and we will never see it implemented and here we are a yr later and sophy is being tested in game for us to try out and is every bit as good as whats been promised.

VR plus racing against sophy, the only thing more real would be being in an actual real life race.

sophy will change the game for all future gts and more importantly finally fix the one area that has been seriously terrible in recent gts

[SullysCigar]

Yeah it's amazing - I tried it last night!

Like you said, you feel like it's real people. Glad you can adjust the difficulty! I don't think I thought it was bad before, that's just how racing games are offline, rarely straying from the racing line, etc.

One thing I did notice is that they held a grudge - if you used one to 'help you corner', you can be sure they're gunning for you so avoid them like the plague!

But with Sophy it's like how real people behave - eagerly nosing for gaps and such - but it hasn't once felt unfair, so far.

And my just PSVR2 arrived an hour ago... GT7 was already awesome. It just got TWO game-changers overnight!

[Flawlessmic]

Enjoy brother, looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how gt7 is in vr.

I can imagine it's gonna be pretty sickk!!

[outsider1624]

I haven't got home yet to try it out. But are the rolling starts still there? Seeing as how the ai has improved, im guessing you now start races at starting grid?

[Knushwood Butt]

The two races I played were rolling starts.

It's pretty cool though. I like how Sophy attacks Sophy and not just the player.

[Flawlessmic]

From beginner to expert it's rolling starts but ur in the faster car.

The hardest mode is grid start, and all I can say is good luck keeping up. Even on expert with a slight faster car and a head start it was super hard

[ApocalypseShadow]

Dat Sony innovation. VR, AI, 3D sound, haptics, triggers. Just on fire. On fire.

[masterfox]

aww damn it I thought I was going to be able to race against a t-800, oh well.