Gran Turismo has long been known as the definitive racing series for car enthusiasts. With realistic settings and true-to-life physics, the series has allowed gearheads to lose themselves in tuning their favorite car in order to get the best possible lap time. Gran Turismo 4 is no different in this area, in that it still retains all the options and specifications that enthusiasts look for. Fans should rest assured that the newest installment still holds the spirit that series creator Kazunori Yamauchi envisioned when he first came up with his idea of a game where he can virtually drive his own car.
Those who are new to the series need to understand one thing: this is not OutRun 2, with unrealistic drifting at blinding speeds that anyone can pick up and play. This is a hyper-realistic racing simulator. It is challenging to learn proper gas and break use, not to mention how to handle such issues as under-steering, grip and drift, cornering, and least of all speed management.
If you are capable of handling the unforgiving physics you will find yourself a sweet reward in terms of having access to a wide range of racing opportunities. With the ability to race over 650 cars in over 200 championship races across 100 different courses, players will have their hands pretty full. While some cars have many variations that occupy a large portion of the list, Nissan’s SKYLINE being the most excessive, with 37 variations, there is still a huge variety from over 80 different manufacturers around the world.
Veterans of the series will likely have guessed that Gran Turismo 4 offers no story for you to follow, no respect to earn, no repercussions for losing. Instead, you’re provided with a percentage of the game’s completion to judge your progress. Now, Man versus Percentage is not one of the great narrative struggles, but the developers built a game around it nonetheless.
When first starting the game in Gran Turismo mode, you are given few options. You can play a few races, though you won’t get too far if you don’t have any of the required licenses that have become some of the hallmarks of the series. If you just wanted to take any car and race, your best bet is to avoid Gran Turismo mode for a while and head over to the Arcade mode. Not all the cars or tracks are available in Arcade mode from the start, but there is a decent selection. As a small consolation, you can choose your car’s color.
Given the restrictions you’ll face, however, you’re likely going to find yourself trying for the license tests before long. Yes, license tests are back; yes, they are tedious and put artificial restrictions on your driving. Polyphony Studios helped fans of the series who have their Gran Turismo 3 saves by allowing them to import their B and A license tests, not to mention up to 100K worth of credit. This will save veteran players a good chunk of time and irritation, allowing them to jump into a good portion of the game right from the start.
For those new to the series, or those who erased their saves to clear up some room, will have to go through 16 tests to earn their licenses for each skill level, from B through S. Things start out simply enough and soon progress into excessively challenging. There are many inherent problems with this. Most of the situations are not consistent with the in-game races and few things teach you more than what’s needed for that specific challenge. On the plus side, they show novice racers new things and how best to navigate certain courses, even if it does use a frustrating pace car.
After getting their starting cash and a low-grade license, most players will then head over to the used car dealership and find the right car for them. Your first used car will probably have 35K miles on it, and will not be as shiny as it used to be. For the small price of 100 credits, you can go and get your car washed and have an oil change done. Sparkly as new, you’ll then be ready to take your driving machine on the road and see how you stack up.
Many players will initially find themselves outclassed and will frequently have to struggle within 500-credit races until they have enough for a new engine or better exhaust. At times, it may seem exceedingly painful to collect the credits needed to buy upgrades and parts for your vehicles. Luckily, there are a few prize cars worth 6 digit credit amounts and that are easily won. They can also be won repeatedly, which allows you to get on with racing your favorite car and not needing to worry about the grind of doing full championships over and over for prize money.
Depending on your tastes, you may or may not be pleased to learn that Gran Turismo 4 does not use a rubber-band race AI, nor does it use Ridge Racer-type, cars-maintaining-a-constant-pace AI. If you make a turn too fast, spin out and find yourself 10 seconds behind the leader, you better hope you have them really outclassed in either speed or skill; getting back to the lead is going to be tough. At times, the AI can seem like it is dead set on staying on the designated path, leaving you rear-ended or slammed on many occasions. It’s also interesting to note that the game does not tailor races to balance difficulty based on your car choice. If you have your high-end Cadillac CIEN and go to the low-end Sunday Cup, you will always win. The benefit is that there are enough courses and races to enter that you can always find a good challenge.
Even if you do end up taking your high-end car to lower-end races you will still, more than likely, end up enjoying yourself just with the simple act of driving. The control in the game is fantastic. You will definitely feel the difference between driving a brand new Ford Mustang and a 1968 Nissan Fairlady Z. Unlike arcade racers where taking your foot off the gas is generally a bad thing, Gran Turismo requires you to learn the nuances of each vehicle to squeeze out an extra second from each course. That kind of control, and the feeling of that control, is well conveyed with solid reaction time from input to on-screen. Learning how best to handle all the varieties of cars is very important to progressing in the game.
The game will take many players a long time to complete 100%. I can get lost in just the pure driving of it all and go for hours. There are a few races to be wary of: the Nurburgring 24-hour endurance, Circuit De La Sarthe 24 hour I, and Circuit De La Sarthe 24 hour II (reverse). These races require you to drive your car for 24 real-time hours straight while paying attention as to when to make pit stops. The only way to take a break is to pause; there is no saving, just you, a controller, the road and time. A game requesting this kind of commitment from you has guts. The only way to get around the length is go into B-Spec mode where you can speed up the game to three times its normal pace, allowing the race to be minimized to eight hours.
This seems like a good point to cover B-spec mode. I am not sure how much the game was built around this mode, but it feels like a bonus feature on a DVD, much like watching a movie with the director’s commentary on. Put simply, B-spec mode allows you to direct an AI driver on what course of action to take throughout the race. It’s an interactive replay mode, if you will. This mainly requires you to tell the driver how aggressive to be. For the right person, this mode can be a nice variation from the normal game and requires less of your attention. You still get to build the up and tweak all the gear ratios and statistics, but don’t have to worry about performing. It is still your car, only someone else is driving it.
The other bonus feature of the game is Photo Travel mode. While it provides no added benefit within the Gran Turismo mode, Photo Travel mode is a nice distraction that allows you to place your car in 15 different locations and to take photos from a saved replay file. To get the most out of this, you will need a USB memory card to transfer the pictures to your computer. All images are taken and saved in JPEG format. Photo Travel mode allows you to do everything from angling the wheels on your car to adjusting your focal length. Be careful though, as this little distraction from the game can turn into a large distraction while searching for that perfect angle from which to shoot your car so that you can have a rocking pic for your PC desktop.
The end result of the Photo Mode is a damn convincing image, which is saying a lot. Sony’s Gran Turismo 4 website has a small section that allows you to guess between two photographs: which is real and which is in game. Some of these are quite obvious, but I was surprised to see that I had not always guessed correctly.
In fact, the Photo Travel is a fine example of the game’s visual quality, which can be simply amazing at times. All the cars feature over 5,000 polygons, and the textures used on the courses and backgrounds are both realistic and convincing. This helps immerse you into the game, making the couch, the living room, your reading lamp, and everything else just melts away as you focus your attention on that Audi A3 off in the distance with a 2.413” lead.
There is at least one thing that will distract from being completely engrossed. Unfortunately, the crowds are still paper cutouts of people. Given, they are slightly rounded so as to provide a 3D effect, and they feature a good amount of detail. The crowd is not as static as it is within most racing titles. You will frequently see people sitting on walls or peeking out of doorways in the back streets of Italian towns, only to hide when you get close. Thankfully, the level of detail in the rest of the game is such that you often just notice the crowd in a passing manner, easily ignoring the fact that they are paper cutouts.
One of the game’s few major flaws is the excessive amount of loading times that it has between menus and tracks. Some of this problem can be alleviated by removing all the tracks from the built-in jukebox for menus and driving music, though there are still many intrusive moments of loading. Music is another important point in a racing game, especially in one that asks for as much time from you as Gran Turismo does. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is a weak link in the game, but the excellent sound effects more than make up for it.
Overall: 8.5/10
Sony’s most recent real driving simulator, Gran Turismo 4, definitely lives up to its predecessors reputation. The graphics are some of the best the PS2 has to offer, the sound is very immersive, the control is responsive and tight, and the features are extensive. It all adds up to a very worthwhile purchase for returning fans and for those entering the series for the first time. The only true black mark here is that license system has returned with all its flaws intact, proving that Polyphony does not always listen to their fans. Despite the fact that it’s been delayed more than once, there’s no online play, and there’s still no car damage, Gran Turismo 4 still succeeds at offering an amazing experience.
