The best in the series

User Rating: 9.2 | Gran Turismo 4 PS2
I didn't have very high hopes for GT4 as after getting GT3 and finding something lacking about the game as a whole and then witnessing the atrocity that was GT:Prologue I'm sure you can appreciate my scepticism at the hype surrounding this game. On first loading this game and sitting through the intro, my heart sank - what had I brought! Firstly in its defence the intro "movie" has to be the single most photo-realistic set of computer-generated graphics I've ever seen. However, what have they done with the music?! The "opera" during the build up to all the cars flying around is perfect, but when the music kicks in and the cars start screaming round the track, I was left thing "this is very, very wrong", the music just doesn't sit well and seems to be totally independent from the action on screen, but enough picking holes. I was pleasantly surprised by the improvements that are instantly noticeable, the UI has been cleaned up and everything is easy to navigate (which is a good thing as there are a lot of options to get through!), although I found that in GT (A spec) mode, the world map is sometimes annoying, as you can be right next to the icon you want to jump to but due to the fact it's at a diagonal you have to go down one option then across and up to the icon rather than just being able to move straight to it. One very, very annoying thing is the data transfer, GT4 helpfully informs you that you can transfer your data if you have a GT3 or Prologue save however, while transferring your Prologue save gives you all the licenses you have passed a GT3 save doesn't - why!!!?? Surly having played GT3 you're qualified enough to at least get B and A spec to start off with? Anyway, on to the main game, the most impressive thing for me was the number and quality of the new tracks, there are lots and lots of these with about half brand new and where they have 'classic' tracks they've been revamped with nice little touches (suspension bridges anyone?). This coupled with the now huge selection of cars and I was as happy as can be!! The graphics on this game really are (in my opinion) at the pinnacle of what the PS2 can achieve, there's a crispness that no other game on PS2 has come close to matching and everything moves so fluidly, Polyphony Digital have really outdone themselves. This games only downfall is the music, gone are the GT3 days of "indie-rock" and in comes a strange and often eclectic mix of tunes that somehow seem very mis-matched with the whole idea of this game (not exactly songs to drive to), I don't know if Polyphony took a chance with some new bands or if they actually thought the music suited this game... Whatever reason I don't think it has worked and to be honest is the only area I can fault GT4 in. GT mode, while a chore (at first) is very rewarding in the end and it will take a very long time to complete! Fantastic things that have now been included are the ability to have custom tuning shops for specific brands of cars (although these all seem to be Japanese tuning companies) as well as having the ability to fit NoS (although as far as I can see, not a NoS "shot" like in Need For Speed, instead this is a whole bottle of NoS that just ups the power of the car for the duration of the race - assuming you set the correct rate of flow etc) and rather unexpectedly, the ability to transfer your photos out of the game via a USB stick and put them on your PC. GT4 is the best the PS2 can hope for and rectifies so many problems that GT3 and prologue highlighted, recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in cars.