Gran Turismo 7 adds VR, ‘superhuman’ AI, and the coolest car of all time

Gran Turismo 7 has just received its 1.29 update, and it’s a significant one. The patch introduces support for Sony’s new PlayStation VR 2 headset, a fearsome new racing AI, a classic GT track, and five new vehicles, one of which — alright, maybe two — can lay claim to being the coolest and most beautiful car ever produced.

This is the real news: Virtual Reality Mode. Gran Turismo Sport,All races are available, as well as all game modes (except two-player splitscreen). There’s also an exclusive VR showroom for ogling the game’s gorgeous car models. The following is an extract from Digital Foundry’s John LinnemanThis is a very special mode; can this patch change it? GT7 Is this the ultimate app for PSVR 2’s PlayStation VR 2?

PSVR 2 support isn’t the only remarkable bit of tech being added to Polyphony Digital’s game in the latest update. The “revolutionary superhuman AI racing agent” Gran Turismo Sophy, developed by Sony’s AI labs and first revealed a year ago, is engineered not only to be unbeatably fast but to race against others aggressively while still respecting racing etiquette. You can pit yourself against Sophy — either one-on-one in identical machinery, or in other race settings that might give you a fighting chance — in a special time-limited mode between now and the end of March.

Grand Valley is the classic Gran Turismo track. It’s one of the most difficult and technical of all the Polyphony-designed tracks. It returns to the series for the first time since 2013’s Gran Turismo 6. And the five new cars are two versions of the Italdesign Exeneo (a Vision Gran Turismo concept car); the 1965 Honda RA272, a classic Grand Prix machine; the iconic 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS, perhaps the most desirable 911 ever made; and… the Citroën DS.

The Citroën DS is not a fast car. It’s not even vaguely sporty. It’s a French sedan, known for its employment of quirky technologies like hydropneumatic suspension and directional headlights, and for looking like it was from the future. Frankly, this car — which, bear in mind made its debut in 1955 — still looks like it’s from the future now. This is it in Gran Turismo 7.

Image: Polyphony Digital/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Polyphony Digital chose a 1970 DS 21 Pallas model with shark-like headlamp units. Here’s another one, in the real world. It is amazing!. Are you familiar with a better-looking car?

Photo: Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images

(It’s at this point that I should confess that my maternal grandfather, a lifelong Citroën loyalist, owned two of these things, so I’m a bit biased. But still!)

The DS is undoubtedly a car of historic importance — the aerodynamic body by Flaminio Bertoni was shocking at the time, and hugely influential, predicting at least the next half-century of automotive design. But it’s also just ineffably cool, and cool in a way racing cars can never be. Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo’s mastermind, and the Polyphony crew have again demonstrated their class and deep love for automotive history by including it.

And yes, I’d probably have the Porsche, too.