The legendary Gran Turismo returns, but stalls on a few key elements.
GAMEPLAY
Gran Turismo long ago perfected the racing simulation. That carries over into GT4: all the cars behave realistically as you would expect to them to. The license tests are still here, though and that annoys me. While the license tests aren’t bad themselves, it’s the way they’re implemented: they are required to advance further in the game.
Some would argue that the license tests teach you to be a better driver. While that might be the intention, all they actually do is scare away casual race fans, and make the game less accessible to a wider audience. And for the more advanced players, they just become a nuisance. It’s like you’re driving to the Indy 500, and getting a flat tire on the way: you need to change the tire before you can get where you want to go. GT4 does give you the ability to transfer your A & B licenses from a GT3 save file, but bottom line is the license tests are more of a mini-game than a useful game play element.
There’s also the problem that the opponent AI is as dumb as ever. It doesn’t feel like you’re racing against other drivers. Instead it feels like you’re driving against mindless drones that just stick to the preferred racing line. Sure, they will occasionally go off course, or bump each other, but they are otherwise lifeless. The AI is so stupid; you can even use the AI cars as a “cushion” when taking sharp turns. Just drive into the corner, and ram the AI car in the side. The AI will be so confused, it will actually push you back on course, and you will gain the position. No excuses Sony: this is the same AI that was in the first GT game. I’ve seen puzzle games with better AI than this.
GRAPHICS
This is GT4’s strong point. It looks amazing. The cars are incredibly detailed, and life-like. There’s still no damage modeling, but that can be forgiven considering how detailed the cars are. The game always runs at a smooth 30 fps. You really have to see it in motion to believe it. You can literally walk by someone playing it and think it’s live TV of a race. It’s that good.
The only problem with the graphics is that you can tell some of the tracks had more attention during the development stages than others. You can also see a noticeable difference in the quality of environments from normal 6 car races to the rally races. The spectators will follow your every move in rally races, but are static in the street races. You can also see that the spectators by the track are in 3D, but the ones in the grandstands are still flat 2D characters. You wont see this as you’re driving by at 200mph, but you will notice it in the replays. Again, a minor detail in the grand scope of how great everything else looks.
SOUND
Sound and music are another strong point for GT4. Special attention was paid to the sound a car makes on the track. Collisions have a nice thump, and each engine sounds unique. You can actually start to hear the tires loosing grip before you feel it. Now that’s a nice detail. It’s also great to hear the crowd roar as you drive past. The only affect that’s missing is a nice “whoosh” of air as objects fly past you.
The licensed music is hit or miss depending on your taste, but at least it all sounds great. There’s a wide range of music selections too. Everything from classical to rock is included. And the intro with Van Halen’s “Panama” is great.
VALUE
With over 700 cars in the game, you’re sure to find something that appeals to you. Some of the car selections seem odd, though, and you can tell the developers padded the number of cars in the game. For example, the legendary Shelby GT500 is not in the game, yet the lesser-known GT350 is. There are also 57 different versions of the Nissan Skyline, yet no Ferraris or Porsches. Still, there are an absolute ton of cars to collect and race.
You’ll spend most of your time in the career mode unlocking new cars and tracks. There’s also an arcade mode, and a new “B-spec” mode, that puts you in the shoes of a crew chief. You issues orders to your driver like when to pit, when to pass, etc. It’s not that well fleshed out, though, and feels more like an experiment than an actual game mode.
What’s really missing is online play. Nearly all other racing games have online play, but GT4 has none. Even with all the delays they were not able to get the online working in time for launch, and it’s sorely missed. Another problem with GT4’s lasting value is the lack of a consistent difficulty.
Part of the problem is the crappy AI, but in addition to that many of the races only have minimum horsepower requirements. This means that you can very easily tune a car to blow away anything else on the track. It really only evens out later in the game because you’re reaching the top end of the power limit on these cars.
Also missing is the ability to fully customize your car. You can tune the internal parts to your heart’s content, but the only physical change you can make is to your wheels, and adding a racing wing. No custom paintjobs. No fender replacement.
GT4 is still the best racing sim for the PS2, but better games have come out on other systems. GT4’s rival on the Xbox, Forza Motorsport, has full online play, better AI, and full customization. The only thing keeping it from completely blowing GT4 away is fewer cars, tracks, and graphics that aren’t quite as good. That being said, GT4 is still a great racing game, and worthy of a hardcore racing fan’s money. But the series has failed to evolve over the years, and these problems need to be addressed in GT5 or race fans will look else where for their racing-sim fix.