Everything GTR was and much, much more. And without Starforce, much much less!
When I heard about GTR, in was only just available in the states, and I wasn't a huge fan of driving sims. I enjoyed them, but I didn't know of a good GT sim, and GPL and F1C couldn't hold me the way a good flight sim could. Then, while flying online w/ Mark Reynolds, he mentioned that GTR was different.in that its physics model was awesome (they actually tested some of the cars in question, and had very good numbers for all of them), and my car was included (Z3 M). Now I knew I had to try it. Many hours, many crashes, and a full on Act Labs wheel, gearshift, and clutch/pedal set (but no championships) later, I was sold on the racing genre (by the way, the Z3 M low to mid end performance was modelled flawlessly; I haven't tested the high end speed stuff personally, but it's very believable).
The thing that impressed me most about GTR (and now GTR 2) is the sense of speed. Most games, the corners take you by surprise because you can't see them coming, and even when you can see them, it doesn't feel like you're going faster than 45mph, so instinctively you can't figure out why you just overshot into the infield on a turn it looks like a schoolbus could make. GTR 2 doesn't have that problem. If you overshoot, it isn't because you didn't have warning (the turn indicators on the side of the track and the optional turn cueing take care of that), it's because you didn't brake properly, shifted the weight of the car too far forward, and understeered exactly where you were trying to avoid.
When I heard about GTR 2, I wondered what it could possibly bring to the table. Then after realizing I wasn't a slouch at racing, but still couldn't win place or show (but would've made the ESPN highlight reel with spectacular crashes), I realized that maybe some training stuff and recommended car progressions could be added. Lo and behold, the driving school is possibly the greatest single addition to this program. It describes technique, consequences of success and failure in attempting said technique, gives you practice time, and lets you perform for score. The best thing about this is that when you fail and want to retry (or if you just want to go back and review the text), you don't need to reload the track every time! Imagine that: you spend more time racing than looking at a screen. Driving school gets my nod for best new feature as well as its elegant execution (no slapped-on feature here).
SimBin also made a smart move with the GTR series' transition to the rFactor engine. I'ma a huge rFactor fan as well,so when I heard that GTR2 would use a gorgeous graphics engine and an unparalleled physics engine, I was very happy. After opening the box, I wasn't disappointed. SimBin made great use of the rFactor engine. When driving the Z3 M on Monza, I was ecstatic. This sim is better in every respect. One eye-candy knock on the original GTR was daylight modelling. Specifically, the original engine couldn't change daytimes on the fly; it required loading a different track (same track with different graphics). Naturally, this causes issues for immersion purists on those 24 hour races. SimBin listened to the masses and fixed this with dynamic weather and daylight, and for further measure made the daylight transition scaleable (so you don't have to wait 24 real hours to see a full day's transition). Lastly, the interface is clean and well integrated. You can get to the configuration screen from about anywhere, and there is no load or transition time between screens as is often the case nowadays with interfaces bolted on in the 11th hour. Even the music is greatly improved from GTR 1! Quite honestly, nothing in this package seems either bolted on, nor 11th hour.
They did remove one thing, though from GTR 1: the Starforce copy protection scheme. For people who missed out on GTR because they didn't want the world's most aggregious copy protection program on their system now have no excuse to pass this one up!
All this, and for a $20 price tag. That's absoluetly incredible. I would've shelled out $50 for this sim, and I wouldn't have thought twice.
The only reservation on this product is for people who don't want the hardcore. Ladies and gents, this is not NFS: FIA! This is a sim, and you won't even make it around the track the first time, much less beat the AI or the clock. If you aren't sure about graduating from arcade physics, give the demo a whirl. You don't need more than two cars or one track to let you know whether this game is for you. Everyone else, come on in. This is the best GTR yet!
10/16/06 Addendum: After putting plenty of time into this sim, I find myself driving my real Z3 M a lot more "tactically", which is to say taking those 2-lane country roads at 70mph with better performance in turns. The fact that you can use sim driving techniques to improve real-life driving speaks volumes about the fidelity of GTR 2.