Virtual Reality Definitely seen as a bit of a luxury, a gimmick in some ways. I think the former is true, the cost of entry is high (and even higher if you want to connect the headset to a PC or console), but it’s definitely not a gimmick.The case for seeing is believing in VR, hence Sony’s Game console VR2 Headsets and controllers sparked another wave of “can’t explain how good VR is” discussions.That’s true to some extent, but I’m here to tell you that you should buy a PS VR2 to play Gran Turismo 7. Very good. And I’m not really a Gran Turismo fan.
As I write this, I’m still recovering from that moment in Resident Evil Village when my head movement was out of my control (during a cutscene), causing momentary nausea. Having played Drive Club VR on the original PS VR, I was expecting similar intuitive churning results to the GT7. To my surprise, and honestly, I was relieved that I could play GT7 in VR for hours without any issues. I’m not (at all) tech-savvy enough to explain why this is, but the GT7 is a safe entry point into VR – but if you’ve never experienced VR before, proceed with caution.
What a great entry point this would be. If your first experience with VR was the gorgeous Gran Turismo 7, which in my opinion is just a slight downgrade from the full PS5 version you can play on your TV, then you hit the VR lottery. Start it up, hop into the race, and you’ll be sent into the cockpit of the car as the start counter ticks. where are you. Actually there. It feels really good.
Sitting in a car is so good that I half wish I was constantly staring at drivers of other cars in order to get them excited and they’d wave (or make a rude gesture) at me. I kind of expected them to show their true colors, but they were silent but clearly said things that shouldn’t be repeated. It’s all fantastic, and there’s a certain thrill to even looking back through the rear window or glancing at the passenger seat. Simply put, the things that actually matter, like the sense of speed and track undulations, load better in VR.
No doubt now someone is going to drive into the comment section at 100 mph, honk the horn desperately and tell me I’m actually an idiot for not talking about a random game in 2016 that offered this on PC VR . I’m sure that’s true. What’s not true is that mainstream consoles have offered mainstream (frankly, huge) racing sims in VR before. Even if you could stress that, it’s definitely not the quality of experience you get on PS VR2 in GT7.
I should point out that while the GT7’s VR experience on PS VR2 is excellent, it’s not perfect. Everything outside of the actual race and VR garage mode is in VR, just throw the monitors onto a giant cinema-style screen. It’s perfectly functional, the real highlight here is the actual racing, obviously, but some sort of real VR interface would be nice.
A bigger problem is how you might feel like you’re not in the right place in the car. Everything feels fine most of the time, but sometimes I get too close to the wheel and sit too high or too low. You can fix this by repositioning the head and then resetting the VR position, but it’s kind of annoying and takes away the experience for a while.
But these are small annoyances in the grand scheme of things. The main point is that PS VR2 has taken me from just being so-so with Gran Turismo 7 to eagerly playing a few more games whenever I get the chance. I love it, and if you’ve bought a new PlayStation headset or are considering one, unless you really don’t like driving, you need to make the GT7 your first experience.
