Gran Turismo 7 in 2026: Spec III & Power Pack

 

Gran Turismo 7 (GT7) is truly the gift that keeps on giving. I've been playing the game since it came out in 2022, and I've now logged 200+ hours of gameplay. Free updates are what keep me coming back to the game. If it weren't for the free updates, I would've shelved this game quite some time ago. But every week the game has 5 featured races, and typically 1-2 of them are brand new. The featured races are only featured for a week, so every week I log into the game to check them out and complete the ones I've never done before. In addition to the weekly featured races, the game has an update once per month that typically adds a couple of new cars and races, and periodically adds a new track. These featured races and monthly updates absolutely keep me coming back to the game in 2026. Its continued support keeps me interested in continuing to play the game.

In December 2025 the game received a larger, paid update called Power Pack. My longstanding view on the Gran Turismo series is that they are great car games and OK racing games. GT7 is the best racing game in the series, and the Power Pack DLC focused on extended race weekend setups with advanced AI drivers, so I was interested in playing this. After finishing 8 out of the 50 races offered in the Power Pack, I would say this is a step in the right direction and I hope it is expanded on in Gran Turismo 8. When you look at major racing series such as F1 and Indycar, they have a well established weekend layout to their races where practice occurs on Friday, qualifying for the race occurs on Saturday, and then the race occurs on Sunday. The GT7 Power Pack recreates this format with a practice-qualifying-race approach to each event. I have extensive experience with these tracks, so I always skip practice. However, having the ability to qualify for the race is a very nice feature of a race event, and the Power Pack DLC is the first time in the Gran Turismo series where qualifying is available. The races in the Power Pack are arranged by category - American cars, European cars, etc. but are stand alone races. I'd like to see the extended race format offered in various championships in these categories. That seems like the most obvious way to expand this setup, so hopefully that is what we get in GT8.

I want to briefly mention Sophy. Sophy is Gran Turismo's advanced AI driver. It has been featured in select races prior to the Power Pack being released, but the Power Pack features version 3.0 of Sophy. Long gone are the days where NPC drivers are on a rail with no reaction to what is going on around them. Gran Turismo's non-Sophy drivers are generally good, and I do think the NPC drivers when incorporating Sophy are more realistic. I remember a situation where I was approaching the final corner of Laguna Seca, a very sharp and slow left hander, way to fast. The Sophy driver in front of me actually moved off the racing line to avoid being hit, presumably because it checked its mirrors and noticed that I was approaching out of control. Prior to Sophy, I would have likely hit the car and punted them into the wall. 

All told, the weekly and monthly updates keep me coming back to this game even 4 years after its release. The continued support (mostly free at that) is amazing, and it is encouraging that Sony continues to support this game. I would have quit playing the game a couple of years ago otherwise. While I don't think the paid Power Pack DLC is a must-buy for the casual player, I do think it is worthwhile for the more hardcore player. It demonstrates encouraging changes and technology to the series, that I really hope continues to evolve with the future release of Gran Turismo 8.

Legend of Zelda Manga: A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, & Majora's Mask

After the mammoth 11 part Twilight Princess manga book, the remaining books have been much shorter, typically in 1 or 2 parts. Subsequently, I have a little to say about each one but not a lot, so I decided to combine their posts into one larger post where I discuss all of the remaining books. After Twilight Princess, I read A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask. Following the chronologic order of the game's release, I will start with A Link to the Past.

A Link to the Past (LttP) is one of my favorite games in the Zelda series. It's on my podium or top 3 list of favorites. Somewhat paradoxically, the manga book was one of my least favorite books in the series. The gameplay in LttP is fantastic and what makes it such a great game. Level design, visuals for the time, music etc. are really quite good and hold up well even decades later. Looking at the game from the perspective of a story that you can read in a book, however, you realize that the plot is really quite thin. Because of this, I don't fault the author for this book being not great. I think the story of the game just isn't robust enough to support a book. They also introduced a new character, likely to add something to the story, but who ended up not contributing much. Beyond the book's visuals, I'd stick to the game for this story. 

Ocarina of Time (OoT) the book was similar to LttP the book. The plot to OoT is more substantial than the plot of LttP, and thus easier to base a book around, but the story as told in the book is not as good as the story as told in the game. Again, a large part of the game is based around temple design which simply doesn't translate great to a plot of the book. The most interesting part of this book in my opinion was the two short stories following the main story. One short story focused on the Skull Kid, which is one of my favorite side characters in the Zelda series. He appears in OoT, as well as more prominently in Twilight Princess and Majora's Mask. The second short story introduced the Watarara, a bird-human hybrid race which evolved into the Rito. My first introduction to the Rito was in Breath of the Wild (BotW). They play a large part of the story in BotW, but much like the Korok race that was discussed in the Wind Waker (WW) post, seemingly came out of nowhere since I had not played the WW until recently. From the context of the games, the Rito first appeared in the WW, but were based on the Watarara race introduced in the short story at the end of OoT. To my knowledge, the Watarara have not appeared again in any format.

When it comes to the Nintendo 64-era Zelda games, I go back and forth in my mind on which one is my favorite - OoT or Majora's Mask (MM). OoT is largely regarded as one of the best video games of all time, and thus 99/100 people would say OoT is better. I would agree with that in terms of gameplay and level/temple design. The plot in OoT is also very important in terms of the greater Zelda universe. However, taken from the perspective of an individual game, the story from MM is quite good and lends itself to the plot of a book quite well. It takes place in an alternate universe, features a great plot where the moon is crashing into earth all because the Skull Kid stealing Majora's Mask, and the book features Anju and Kafei's story, which is likely the most famous side quest in the entire Zelda franchise. Out of these 3 games, MM is arguably my least favorite if I had to rank them. However, it has the most intriguing story and thus translates into a book the best. Thus, it was my favorite book of the three.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

 

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (WW) has always been a game that intrigued me. The visuals of cartoon Link combined with the open world consisting of a sea was such a change of pace from what we had seen in all of the prior games in the series that on the surface I wasn't sure what to make of the game. It seemed almost like it would be more of a side game or one that would exist on a Gameboy system. That was not the case, however. WW was the main game of the Zelda series on the GameCube, and it being on a main system made it even more intriguing because you knew it should be more than an experimental game, it should be really good. I never owned a GameCube, and thus never played this game, until now. 

The Switch 2 includes a few GameCube games as part of its online+expansion pass, and WW is one of the games that is available (fingers crossed that the GameCube version of Twilight Princess becomes available. The 40th anniversary of the series seems like the perfect time to include this game...). I was excited for the opportunity to play this game, because it is the only main system Zelda game that I've never played, and one of only a few Zelda games at this point that I've never played. Immediately I noticed that it suffered from a poor outdated game design decision: inverted camera controls, which were mirrored compared to the camera controls of literally any other game I've played in the past 10+ years. Luckily you could remap the buttons to fix this. Otherwise, I may not have been willing to play the game.

Once I got past the camera controls, however, I really enjoyed this game. It took me a bit of time to get used to the visuals, but once I did I really started to like how this game looked. I wouldn't want every Zelda game that I played to look like this, but toon Link, with his fantastic facial expressions, and the way explosions and fire looked was really cool, almost like a cartoon or comic book that came to life. 

The gameplay was mostly classic Zelda. You take on a few temples, then have to find pieces of the triforce that have been scattered across sea-covered Hyrule to restore the energy of the master sword, before taking on Ganon. One unique aspect of this game is that not only do you meet champions or sages who help you along your way, they actually join you in a couple of the temples. Oftentimes having a sidekick can be a pain, especially in older games, but I think WW did a good job with the concept. You use their abilities to help unlock certain portions of the temple, which adds to the gameplay and level design. As you advance in the game, you pick up new items which are needed to advance in the temple and defeat the boss. These items also allow you to access other parts of the world that have side items, quests, etc. All and all WW featured classic gameplay. My only two minor complaints with the gameplay is that (1) traversing the sea was a bit tedious and boring, honestly, and (2) the game gave zero direction or indication on how to find the triforce shards. Luckily, as the game progressed it did unlock a fast travel system. I had to use a guide to find the shards, however, and paying Tingle nearly 400 rupees to translate every map for the multiple shards was a bit tedious as well, requiring some rupee farming. 

A couple of random things that occurred in this game caught my eye as well. The first was the introduction of the Rito race. The first time I came across the Rito was in Breath of the Wild (BotW). However, I later learned that the Rito was inspired by a short story at the end of the Ocarina of Time (OoT) manga (more on that in an upcoming post), and I believe their first appearance in a game was WW. The second thing that caught my attention was the explanation of the Korok race. Similarly, my first encounter with a korok was in BotW. They appear in WW, however, and it is explained that they are the descendants of the forest children from the Kokiri Forest from OoT. After Hyrule was flooded, the Kokiri children were transformed into Koroks. Lastly, Link has the ability to sail using a leaf and magic, similar to how he uses his sail cloth in BotW, and I believe this game is the first game where this mechanic is used.

Overall, I really enjoyed WW. The gameplay is classic Zelda, and the game features a number of firsts for the series as mentioned in the above paragraph. The visuals are really cool, though I wouldn't want every Zelda game to look this way. The music is really good as well. I appreciate the change of scenery we get by flooding Hyrule, but navigating the sea was a bit tedious and boring, and so I do knock the game down a few notches on my favorite Zelda game list. WW does not make my podium, but I definitely think it is worth playing if you're a Zelda fan. I'd say it ranks somewhere in the middle of my favorite Zelda games. I'm glad that I got the opportunity to play it, even if it was 20+ years after it was released. 

Assassins Creed: Origins

 

I've never been interested in Egyptian history. I've always found the names confusing, the time period hard to wrap my mind around, and thus despite being referenced a lot in modern times, it is not anything that has piqued my interest. I've been playing through Assassin's Creed games, and with Origins being based in ancient Egypt, it may have been one that I wouldn't have selected to play in the past. However, we saw a replica exhibit of King Tut's tomb in North Carolina last year which has sparked my interest in Ancient Egypt. Additionally, one of my daughters is really interested in ancient Egypt, so I decided to give Origins a go. I was not disappointed. Below is ChatGTP's summary of the plot:

You play as Bayek of Siwa, a Medjay (protector of the people). After a mysterious masked group abducts Bayek and his son Khemu, Bayek is forced into a struggle that results in Khemu’s accidental death. The masked conspirators are part of a secret organization called the Order of the Ancients.

Consumed by grief and guilt, Bayek swears vengeance and begins hunting down the Order’s members across Egypt.

Bayek reunites with his estranged wife, Aya, who is also pursuing the Order. As they eliminate its members, they uncover a vast conspiracy manipulating Egypt’s politics.

The Order is backing Ptolemy XIII, while Bayek and Aya ally themselves with Cleopatra VII, who promises to restore Egypt’s greatness. Together, they help Cleopatra reclaim her throne with support from Julius Caesar.

However, Cleopatra ultimately sides with Rome and tolerates the Order’s continued influence, betraying Bayek and Aya’s ideals.

Realizing that tyrants will always rise so long as power goes unchecked, Bayek and Aya conclude that their fight must be bigger than revenge.

They form a hidden organization dedicated to fighting oppression from the shadows—what will become the Hidden Ones, the precursor to the Assassin Brotherhood.

• Bayek establishes the creed in Egypt.

• Aya (who takes the name Amunet) operates in Rome.

• The iconic Assassin tenets begin to take shape.

Aya later assassinates Julius Caesar, linking the series to real history.

Per the usual in AC games, the bigger plot is the Assassins vs the Knights Templar, in this game labled as the Hidden Ones vs the Order of the Ancients. What's especially cool about this setup in Origins is that it establishes the Hidden Ones, it is their Origin story. Additionally, roaming around in an open world set in ancient Egypt was just cool. The Great Pyramids are always looming, seeing the lighthouse of Alexandria on the coast of the Mediterranean, and thinking about how amazing it is that these structures existed thousands of years ago. The whole setting was quite enjoyable. And I have to mention my trusty Camel Billvadore, who transported me around for the duration of the game and was quite enjoyable to ride. 

Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Ptolemy, etc. are hugely famous historical characters that honestly I didn't know much about. Anything I knew about Caesar came from Shakespeare's play. It was really interesting to learn a little about these people and the political struggles of the area going on at the time. The scenes that take place in modern times are a weak point. They're confusing and pull me away from the main story. Other than that small complaint, I really enjoyed this game. It's definitely one of my favorite AC games, and is an early game of the year contender for me in 2026.

Fallout (Season 2)

 

Fallout season 1 was my introduction to Fallout. I was aware of the games but had never played them. I had a general understanding of the premise. Nuclear bombs were dropped, people living in vaults survived, and chaos occurred on the earth's surface with mutated animals, people, etc. Post-apocalypse settings have never been my thing, nor has first person views on games, and thus I never played the games. Season 1 got really good reviews, so I decided to give it a watch and I really enjoyed it. This led me to play Fallout 4, which I also really enjoyed, so much so that I made a trip to Boston to visit the Commonwealth. With this enjoyment and newly found love for the Fallout universe, I was really looking forward to watching season 2 of the show. I was only a bit disappointed. From ChatGTP:

Season 2 shifts much of the action toward the Mojave Wasteland, bringing in major factions and locations familiar to longtime fans:

• The New California Republic (NCR) emerges as a fractured but ambitious power trying to restore order.

• The Brotherhood of Steel faces internal conflict as its ideology is challenged.

• New settlements and rival warlords compete for control of technology and territory.

The season explores how different groups interpret “rebuilding civilization”—through democracy, militarism, or brute force.

I didn't include ChatGTP's expanded character summary, but basically Lucy traverses the Wasteland, arriving at New Vegas to find her dad. She struggles with her own moral code in how it conflicts with survival in the Wasteland. The Ghoul goes with her to find his family, but learns they've left their vault. Most of his important scenes are from the past, however, when he is Cooper Howard, interacting with Vault-Tec executives learning that they are responsible for dropping the bomb. The scenes from the past are great, but the show pulls the rug out from under itself when it first frames Cooper's wife as being the bad guy, but then retracts this by saying she was forced to move the bomb dropping forward by an unidentified external power (the enclave maybe?). 

The entire plot and writing of season 2 seemed to be a bit off. A lot of time seemed to be spent on inconsequential stuff, asking more questions than it answered, and feeling like it was purposely leaving questions unanswered in order to have something to discuss for season 3. Some of the side plots especially felt rushed, and it seems like this is a show that would benefit from a longer season as 8 episodes forced some rushing of the plots.

Not everything was bad, however. As always, the music was fantastic. The video game nods were amusing, even for games that I've never played like New Vegas. I enjoyed seeing New Vegas and Mr. House, and the slow-mo bullet shots were cool and featured in Fallout 4. The flashback scenes were very well done too, and some of the more enjoyable scenes of the season. I just think the season progressed somewhat slowly, and left a lot of important questions unanswered, but not in a good cliffhanger kind of way. I'll likely watch season 3 (though we're dropping Amazon Prime - more on that in a future post) and am excited about potential remakes of Fallout 3 and/or New Vegas, games not currently playable on the PS5.

Forza Horizon 5

 

My first post about Forza Horizon 5 (FH) diverted into a post about console wars and the importance of this game being on the Playstation. Since then, I've played FH quite a bit more, so it is time to talk more specifically about the game. Having previously never owned an Xbox, FH5's appearance on the Playstation last year was my first opportunity to play a game in the famed Forza series, and I was quite excited for the opportunity. The Horizon version of the Forza games are a bit more of an arcade style vs. the more sim-based games in the Forza Motorsport series, but I was so excited just to play any game in the series that I was fine with it being Horizon. The game has an open map where you drive around to various locations where races are being held. FH5 takes place in Mexico, and the feel of the map with lawless driving gave the game a bit of a Los Santos from Grand Theft Auto V vibe. There were times when I was a bit annoyed by how much driving I would have to do to get to some of the races (it takes about 10 minutes to get from the west coast to the east coast of the map), but then I realized that part of the charm of the game is the driving experience. This is one of the unique aspects of the Horizon games versus most other racing games, and is similar to The Crew Motorfest. My commuting car to get to the races was an Audi RS7, a fast and easy to drive car. Once you get to the race, you are given the chance to switch cars to whichever car is most appropriate for the race. And there are a lot of different race types, from off-road Baja style races, to street races, to cross country races. Additionally, there are various ways to interact with the scenery on your way to races, such as drift zones and jumps. All together, it took me around 30 hours to complete nearly all of the available events at least once. It's an impressive amount of content. 

Additionally, there are stories and missions for local Mexican car culture as well, which is cool. The number of cars is impressive, especially if you're a virtual car collector. You really only need a small handful of cars to compete in the races, however. In addition to the RS7, I utilized a C8 Corvette and Ford Hoonigan Escort quite a bit. The 'Vette was a great road racing car, and the Hoonigan Escort was great at the off road races. The stories told during the game were intriguing and did a great job of setting the stage in terms of why we were in Mexico putting on a car show and racing event.

The racing action was quite good. The competition would adjust based on the car you selected for a race, and if you were too good (or bad) the game would ask permission to adjust the difficulty level to make the racing more competitive. Overall I enjoyed the game quite a bit. The visuals were amazing (some of the scenes where storms were occurring were fantastic looking and sounding) and the game had a bit of a plot to it which was enjoyable and unique for a racing game. The racing action was engaging and enjoyable. As I said above, it took me around 30 hours to complete the majority of the events one time. This is a game that I could continue to play for hours on end, but after 30 hours I was ready to move on to my next gaming adventure. Forza Horizon 6 comes out later this year and takes place in Japan, and I'm quite excited about it. The next time I pick up a Forza game it will likely be 6 in Japan.

Long Way Home

 

Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman have taken some epic motorcycle rides across the globe. On this trip in Long Way Home, Ewan and Charley ride from their homes in the UK through Scandinavia and back through northern Europe on their way home. We've been watching their shows from the beginning, initially traveling around the world starting in London and then going across eastern Europe and Russia to Alaska and all the way across the US to New York City in Long Way Round. They then traveled from the UK to Cape Town, South Africa in Long Way Down. Next, they traveled from the southern tip of Argentina to Los Angeles in Long Way Up. Finally, their trip through Scandinavia on Long Way Home.

One of my favorite parts of a show like this is getting able to learn a little bit about different countries, especially their landscapes and geography. Scandinavia is a part of the world that we rarely get to see on TV in the US. All three countries - Sweden, Norway, and Finland - looked quite nice, but Norway was by far my favorite. The Norse mythology and Viking history is cool enough, and in addition to that the country was littered with quaint fishing villages squished against a mountain backdrop that was really quite picturesque. Finland was heavily forested, and seemed quite peaceful as well. I think the other country that caught my eye on the trip was Austria, with its valley towns surrounded by the Alps. 

Of course, the other major part of this show is the trip itself and the challenges they face on motorcycles. This time around, they both selected older bikes for the trip. They did face some minor malfunctions, and Ewan even some semi-major malfunctions, but overall their old bikes held up well on the lengthy trip. Of course, the landscape was nothing like crossing Siberia on Long Way Round, where there were large stretches without roads and they were crossing rivers without bridges. This trip was almost entirely on tarmac. 

The rarely seen scenery, the challenges of the adventure, and Ewan and Charley all make for an interesting and entertaining show. I hope they continue to make this series in the future, although at this point they've been just about everywhere on earth. Maybe a trip around Australia or more into Asia is in store next?