Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Polyphony Digital
Release Date: 22nd February 2005
Think of a car, any car you like. Chances are that it's featured on Gran Turismo 4 somewhere in its lineup of over 700 cars. The large car list is what initally drew me to this game, tired of having 50, maybe 100 cars to choose from it seemed that the possibilities would be endless with so many vehicular options. There's also over 20 tracks to choose from, and full career, arcade, multiplayer and time trial modes.
The gameplay is as you might expect for a title in the racing genre, and although there's not as many types of race as an arcade racing title, the wider range of cars and tracks added to the simulation handling make for a more real racing experience. In "Gran Turismo" mode, you can buy cars, unlock and win championships, earn licenses and take driving missions to improve your skill.
There's many different types of championships in Gran Turismo mode, most with specific entry conditions based on each cars power, production date or country of origin. As the player progresses and wins races, they'll receive prize cars with which they can enter other events and championships. Although it's a repetitive formula for a career mode, in the context of a racing game it works well and there are many types of race available including endurance and rally.
Races all have their own point rating, based on which car you use to enter them. A 200 point race means you've chosen a car with a smaller chance of winning when compared to the AI controlled cars. There's no real reward for collecting these points, but it's nice to know how difficult the race you're entering will be. Also included is a B-spec mode which allows the computer to race for you. The more you use this, the more skill the computer player develops.
The handling on the cars can be a little hard to master for those used to arcade racing games, but for a simulation game, I found it to be good. Most cars feel pretty different from one another and you'll soon find favourites from the game's large selection. Unlocking every car in the game is perhaps more tedious than it needs to be, as you'll have to complete every license test with a gold time, every driving mission, win every championship and then buy every car that's not a prize car. I'm currently about 95% of the way to having them all, but it does make you feel like giving up every now and then.
The game's AI is sometimes rather predictable, it'll usually follow the racing line unless you bump it off course, and much of the time there's places where it makes silly mistakes. I'd say that it's easy to find the right difficulty level for your style of play, however since you're allowed to choose better or worse cars to enter in races most of the time.
Graphically the game's car modelling is quite impressive, with a large amount of detail on all of the vehicles and their features. Unfortunately this isn't the case for the scenery and tracks, some of which is decidedly 2 dimensional, and can look rather poor when travelling at very high speeds. Of course I'd rather the focus was on the cars, but there's room for improvement in this area. The game's soundtrack features a mixture of indie rock music and electronic tracks with some success, most of the songs are likeable, even if they're not something I'd listen to outside of the game.
Overall Gran Turismo is a great game if you're looking for something with a large car and track list, with a lot of licenses, races and championships to complete and simulator handling. It does what it's supposed to very well and looks and sounds nice on the whole. I'd say it's one of my favourite games in the racing genre and while it doesn't have the fun "pick up and play" appeal of arcade racing games, there's a sense of pride from mastering the game and unlocking all of the vehicles.
Rating: 86/100
Grade: B
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