Started playing GT7 again for the first time since July 2022

I sold my PS5 a while back so I could buy my wife a camera and I already had an Xbox. Finally had the opportunity to get a PS5 again this year and started playing my copy of GT7 again.

The car culture is absolutely unmatched and this is the most I've enjoyed playing a racing game in years! I'm particularly enjoying how eclectic the car selection is, and getting the remaining golds in the licence tests. I know people want more racing cars in games like this, but I enjoy the oddball additions like the Renault Kangoo and the Suzuki Carry. I'd say overall this is the most invested in a GT game since GT5. I think the game has a lot of character and has that sense of fun while remaining a serious track racer. Other games can learn from this!

Love the addition of some of the legacy tracks like High Speed Ring and Trial Mountain. Grand Valley Highway seems mostly like a remake of Grand Valley Speedway but in a street track format and some different sections.

I think the physics are really good especially when playing with a DualSense, the haptic feedback when driving makes it really easy to drive without assists as you can feel how much you need to brake and accelerate. Something missing from racing games on Xbox is this feedback in the controller.

Sport mode is really familiar to me as I had 217 hours on GT Sport back in the day. It's nice to find mostly clean racing (S safety rating), worlds apart from Forza where the safety rating made virtually no difference. I'm still quite slow online at the moment as I'm relearning all the braking points etc after about three years of mostly playing open world racing games.

I'm currently working through the trophies as I want to platinum the game, I currently have 80% trophies.

I think overall a massive return to form after a forgettable GT6 and with Sport being mostly an online game.