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A closer look at the other stars of Gran Turismo 7 — the people

A closer look at the other stars of Gran Turismo 7 — the people

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Beautiful cars and, um, less-than-beautiful bystanders

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Gran Turismo 7 is full of gorgeous, true-to-life re-creations of cars, both new and classic. Having an obsessive eye for the details of automobiles has always been a hallmark feature of Polyphony Digital’s storied racing sim since its debut on the original PlayStation. (My colleague Sam Byford has a full review of the game here.)

The latest iteration — which launches on March 4th on the PS4 and PS5 — includes an even more deeply satisfying photo mode than before, offering countless ways to make your ride look even more phenomenal. But I can’t stop turning the camera to look at the low-poly people.

Sure, you can pause any second of any race replay, walk around your car, angle the camera just right, and adjust numerous other nerdy settings before taking a desktop wallpaper-ready snapshot. You can zoom in closely on the ray-traced details (the light bounces off and around taillights in a particularly impressive way) or work the angles to make your car look even better in exotic (or admittedly, very plain) locales. You can choose to keep the mud, scratches, dents, and broken front or taillights that your car has suffered during a race, or tweak some settings to make your ride look pristine.

Even my one-off photo here looks good enough to be a desktop wallpaper.
Even my one-off photo here looks good enough to be a desktop wallpaper.

I spent far more time in photo mode that I expected to in Gran Turismo 7, and I spent a little more time looking at people than cars. The stadiums and racetracks are lined with people who, I’m sure, developer Polyphony Digital would prefer you didn’t investigate as closely as its cars. Nevertheless, I became obsessed with taking photos of the unsung attendees who show up. Sure, this is mundane business compared to shooting cars, but someone needs to be one with the people.

The sampling that I snapped looked like a mix of scans of real people, mixed in with some, shall I say, PS2-era polygonal delights. I captured all of these snaps on the PlayStation 5.

<em>“I’m here for the big race. I heard it’s going to have cars. Can’t wait!”</em>

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“I’m here for the big race. I heard it’s going to have cars. Can’t wait!”