I haven't had a chance to play with my wheel yet, but here are my impressions so far.
Looks: I don't care about graphics in a new GT game these days. PS4 Pro on 4K, it looks great and like a GT game. It looks exactly as you'd expect. Crazy detailed car models, unrivaled lighting with lots of nuance between time of day, but still some lack luster details track side. Replays make everything super pretty, but the wow factor is not nearly as high in real time. I don't really have much more to add in the gfx department than hasn't been picked over to death. I will say it ran smoother than GT5 and GT6 though. So on to the actual driving...
General driving feel: Um, yeah all these cars are super easy to drive. I had all of the assists off and even with a controller I could throw them around without much issue. It still feels like the same old GT tire model. Lots and lots of grip, you can break mid corner without much of an issue than a little under steer, you can snap off throttle with no issues. Smash between gears, no problem you will never spin out, just lots of revs. I am not noticing a whole lot improved from GT6 other than it feels like there are assists still on even with them off. I felt like GT6 was a little less forgiving.
Tuning: Same shit different GT. You can change your downforce balance from 200/400 to 300/150 and the car feels the same other than more or less cornering grip and top and speed change. The areo modeling still feels super basic and looks to be ripe for exploiting yet again in online races. Didn't change the BoP rating at all on the car. All the other shit is identical. Wack on a ton of camber for more grip with no down side
Tire mode: No wear on yet, so hard to tell. But no sign of temperature or anything more detailed. Who knows what is to come, but so far feels like GT6
Sounds: Ugh. Still really poor. Compared to other GT games like GT6, oh yeah big improvement. Way more character with the transmission sounds, bumps, curbs, over run, backfires etc. However, the overall notes of all the engines still have that distinct GT artificial vacuum sound. When I grided up for a 20 car race, it didn't sound like a grid of powerful race cars, it sounded like the same old tinny GT garabge. It is the best sound GT game without a doubt, but it still feels so so far behind where the competition has been for ages now. Absolutely no excuse for how shitty these games still sound.
Online: I had a chance to actually do three races in the G.4 cars (Renault Megane for me) at the short Brands Hatch. Racing with other people is definitely going to be the saving grace of this game. As long as the sportsmanship rating keeps people in check (in my three races people still drove like idiots smashing in to each other) there could be fun to have despite all the flaws. The netcode seemed atrocious. Every car was wiggling all over the road, blinking around and even when not tweaking out, they never quiet looked smooth. My ping was 40-50ms the entire time and the experience was quite poor. I know it is beta, but I was not left feeling confident.
Overall: Pretty disappointed with the lack of progress this franchise has been making game to game and hardware generation to generation. I am genuinely baffled as to where all of this time and money goes. So much of this game already feels immediately familiar, and not in a good way. I could convince myself it is an early beta and the launch is months away so lots could change, but PD has done nothing in the last 10 years to convince me I should expect to be surprised instead of disappointed. I expect to play this game online only and with cars that run on Sports tires only. The lower class cars are still where this game's physics shine and a lot of fun is to be had despite the well known flaws that have seemed to follow us all the way to GTS. I look forward to the GAF racing league revival