The Gran Turismo series has been one of the best racing game genres ever. It’s strongest asset has been the realism. Now Gran Turismo 4 has taken this goal to new levels. It is easily the most realistic racing game ever. It delivers everything you could want in a racing game. It has great racing mechanics, along with many things to do. You will be drawn in by its good looks at first, and that will be followed by the amazing gameplay. If you’re a racing fan, you will definitely enjoy this game. It has raised the bar for all racing games. It has very few flaws, so you will always be noticing something good in the game. First off, Gran Turismo 4 has an unheard of 700+ cars that can be obtained. They come form all places, such as America, Japan, UK, etc. This surpasses all other racing games including previous Gran Turismo games. What is unique about the Gran Turismo games is that the creators of the game go out to the various cars they put in the game, and chack their weight, controlling, etc. They put those aspects of the car into the game to deliver the most realistic feel of the game possible. They also include every detail of the courses that they use in the game. They are all real, and are extremely similar in looks to the real thing. The Gran Turismo mode is the core of the game, and the most fun. As in previous games, you will start off with a small amount of money. With this money (10,000 to be exact) you will be able to buy a fairly cheap car from the used cars in the game. With this car, you will start to enter the beginning races. With winning races, you get money. And if you finish the individual cups, you win cars. At first the cars are old ones that you may want to sell to get money, but as you go into bigger races, you will get some pretty good cars when you win the cups. As you collect money, you will be able to upgrade your car, or buy a new one. As I said, you can upgrade your car. You do this by tuning it. You can buy new things such as brakes, engines, drivers, suspensions, nitrous, etc. This will improve your car’s performance greatly. Depending on what car you have, you must go to certain tuning shops. For example, if you have a car from Japan, you will have to go in a tune shop at Japan. Long with the tune shops, there is a GT Auto shop. Here you can get an oil change, a car wash, buy new rims, or get a wing on the back of your car. Most of the game, you will actually be racing yourself. So you’re probably asking yourself is the actual racing good. And it does not disappoint. There are the basic controls, the X button to accelerate, the analog stick or D-pad to move, the square button for the brakes, the circle button for the emergence break, and the triangle button to reverse. But you can also use the right analog stick to accelerate and brake. All you do is move it up to accelerate, and down to brake. And as I said before, each car has a different feel and weight to it, so you may have to get used to certain cars. If you’re not an experienced player, the Gran Turismo game may be hard for you. But you’ll be able to manage by. There is a new B-Spec mode in GT4. This is where you will get a view of your car. Basically you will be the manger of your car. So you can tell the driver to increase speed, tell him when to try to overtake, and when to take a pit stop. But after that there is nothing else. So this makes the B-Spec mode kind of boring. It was a good idea, but was not all that good in the end result. It is a forgettable feature in the game. As in the previous Gran Turismo games, the license tests are back. Some people like them, and some people hate them. I personally don’t like them. Everything has to be right. It’s a great way of teaching you how to play the game well, but everything need to be perfect. If you’re doing a cornering test, you cannot go off the road or you fail. I don’t know about other people, but I’ll some times cut threw dirt or grass, and it works to my advantage. But for people who want to be really good at Gran Turismo 4, they’ll probably like the license tests. They are good at teaching you the fundamentals in the game, but they can be difficult and frustrating. The AI of the other drivers is disappointing. Mostly, all of the other drivers will just try to hit you all the time. This usually results in you overtaking their place in the race, so it doesn’t really help the other drivers. The other drivers will do well with turns and all of that, but there really isn’t anything noticeable that will make you recognize the AI as great. You will more than likely be losing races because of your own driving skills, not because of the talent of the other drivers. But this is only one of the very few flaws, so don’t be too mad about the sub-par AI. There is multiplayer in the game. You can play split screen. This is fun, but as everyone knows by now, there is no online. Everyone was shocked when it was announced that there would be no online play. Everyone including me wonders why they didn’t make it online. There wasn’t really anything that would stop them from doing it. Even though I’m not an online gamer, no online play is a factor that makes Gran Turismo less enjoyable than it could be for online gamers. Graphically, this is one of the best looking games ever created. Everything looks like real life. As the Gran Turismo games always set out to do, they have achieved amazing realism once again. The opening cinematic is one of the bets looking ever. At first I didn’t think it was real, but coming to my senses I knew this was just the visuals of the game. It is truly amazing with what they have done with Gran Turismo 4 in this department. Everything looks so good. This includes all of the environments. You will recognize places such as Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. They are different courses throughout the world in Gran Turismo 4. There are places in the USA, Japan, Australia, etc. And you can see things such as the glint of the sun on the road, the skid marks of tires on the course form other racers, scraping snow, etc. Gran Turismo 4 is visual eye candy. It is one of the best looking games ever. The sound in the game is another strong elements. The music is very good. In the menus you will hear jazzy music. But when you get into the actually races most of the music is rock. Including Van Halen’s “Panama” in the opening cut scene. There’s also a lot of techno and up-beat music that fits in with the game. But the sound effects are also great. The roar of the engines all sound believable. And the you can hear the screeching of cars when they break. It sound exactly like a real car. This help deliver the realism and the great experience that Gran Turismo 4 offers. In the end, Gran Turismo 4 will not disappoint. It brings everything you love from the series and improves it, while bringing forth some new things. It has awesome gameplay, great sound, and some of the best graphics ever. It is a must own for PS2 owners. And if you do or don’t like racing games, you’ll still probably enjoy this game. It is easily one of the best, if not the best racing game ever. It is also one of the best games to come out this year. You’ll want to get this game if you are a PS2 owner. You’ll regret it if you don’t.
Gran Turismo 4 could be considered one of the best Playstation 2 games ever made. As the fourth game in the series, Gran Turismo 4 improves greatly on the previously successful Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, which seemed unthin... Read Full Review
The Gran Turismo games are known for how realistically they depict car racing, and Grand Turismo 4 definitely lives up to the name. What this game lacks in flash that many arcade-style games have, it makes up for in eve... Read Full Review
