Gran Turismo. Hands (or should I say hoods?) down, this is easily my personal favorite racing game, even with Forza Motorsport included. What car nut wouldn't savor the opportunity to race their favorite sport compact, or at least lawl whilst watching widdle-yet-they-really-exist! K-Cars squeal about a tiny track?

Now Forza Motorsport 2's coming out, promising even more stuff than GT4 (well duh, it's on a succeeding-generation system!) save for an equally-large car list. This includes lots of customization and online capabilities, something that the NA GT4 strangely omitted. And of course, there's also the damage...but let's be honest, do you really want to see your favorite car get trashed when it comes right down to it?

Of course, FM2 has still managed to retain the Ferrari/Lamborghini/Porsche trio - hereafter referred to as the Felampos - that has seemingly been exclusive to American and European game franchises over the generations. GTHD has the 599 Fiorano...but that's the only current Ferrari not on FM2's list. Coincidence?

So why does GT appeal so much?

Gran Turismo was a smash hit simply because it let people try out the cars they couldn't find elsewhere. The RX-7 and NSX were available in America around that time, but who was really interested in them apart from the niche collectors? Who outside of the then-obscure street racing community had heard of a Skyline in 1998?

Gran Turismo very likely also helped birth America's recent fascination with the Fast and the Furious, even if in a fairly low-key manner. The super-Euro exotics that were pinned up on everyone's walls were replaced by Eclipses, 180/Silvias, and Supras decked out in god-awful paint schemes and body kits. Of course that's not to say the cars themselves weren't nice as stockers or that there were some great tuned models...but most of these "tuners" never had taste.

GT1 featured mainly cars in the size categories that Americans were familiar with. They saw that eventually, that there were kids that still and would go back to wanting their lovely Euro-exotics. But with all the Felampos at EA with only RUF to sooth them...GT decided to continue providing...everything else.

Venturi, Pagani and Spyker among others have been around for a while...but what better way to gain exposure for these obscure brands than through the world's most famous racing franchise? And let's not forget that GT2 brought us a whole slew of adorable-in-a-really-sexual-orientation-questioning-way K-Cars along with some good ol' American Muscle to help the guys return to their senses. Perhaps somewhere in our subconscious, we seemed to gravitate more/back to those adorable little J-compacts when the greenies started taking over.

GT3 was really just a technical demonstration of the PS2, they knew everyone was waiting for the Four. One could easily say that about GTHD compared to GT5. Meanwhile, PGR arrived on a competing system with its own lineup of the most familiar exotics...but they'd been there and done that. What obscure models it did introduce remained in obscurity because the series itself didn't take off as much compared to GT or FM. Then again, it's not as if those limited-edition concept games that were released only to Japan were noticed by most of the rest of the world.
 
So what did Mr. Yamauchi do for GT4? Easy. He and his boys did everything else.

They expanded to cars from pretty much every conceivable automotive era, even futuristic concepts (from shoe companies, among others) and *gasp* TRUCKS. They included a Photo Mode that could save to a USB Flash Disk so you could make your own pin-up posters. And just for extra kicks, they used the same GT4 engine to create a game featuring the Kaffe Boy crotch rockets. No crude American Harleys today (though Buell is Harley's sportbike division.)

That's when Forza Motorsport came out, capitalizing on the customization craze...particularly the exterior. GT4 only had spoilers and rims, and the Racing Modification function was removed in the generational gap. Of course, GT4 still held the upper hand because there were lots more cars, lots more tracks including originals, it was on a more popular system and so on. If you were a severe car nut, you could also tweak the settings as deep as you wanted if you could get the parts.

I suppose then it's little wonder that Kazunori Yamauchi just entered his third consecutive year on Motor Trend magazine's 50 most powerful people in the auto business.

It's important to remember though that Polyphony Digital can only do so much before it's backed into a corner. GT5, the "Driving Life Simulator," will have to really put the throttle down when it comes to doing what it does, because once you can do everything, there won't be an "everything else." Then again, if they can do everything...why would there be anyone else doing anything else?

But we'll leave circular logic for another day. For now, if you have a PS2, get GT4 or its motorcycle cousin Tourist Trophy if you haven't. If Al Gore ever has his way and outlaws anything that burns gasoline, we'll at least have these games to remember our beloved horseless carriages by.