10 / 10
21 Jun 2006 at 23:00
Review by: GhettoBandit
Yet again Gran Turismo 4 takes the prize for being one the best racing/driving simulator currently available for the Playstation 2. The game contains over 700 cars and 50 tracks but as the case says, it is, ‘The Real Driving Simulator’ and the games which are released to compete with the GT series are nowhere near close to the quality amounted by Sony.
The amount of cars to chose from is mind-blowing, from the legendary Ford Model T to the out-of-this-world Pagani Zonda F, no matter what the car is the handling and dynamics of every car is so realistic that, at times, you’ll feel as if your actually there. The amount of work that has gone into the detailed tracks shows just how proud they are of the game, from the minute Paris tracks to the 9 mile Nurburgring the attention to detail makes you stop to enjoy the view at times.
The main thing that this game is enjoyable for is it’s career mode in single player mode, your goal is to win race after race, gain car after car whilst earning a sh*tload of cash in the fun-filled process, once you’ve gained the 100% your task is complete. Parts of this mode are very tiring whilst still attempting to challenge even the most enthusiastic petrol-heads out there, examples of this are the 24 Hour Endurance races, these last for hours even days at a time but the rewards for completing them are great. The great thing about Career Mode are the Driving Licenses you need to gain in the game, so even if you’ve never played the game before you can still grasp the essential controls/skills needed. These Licenses range from the simple National B Licence (B) to the challenging Special Licence (S). They even attempt to calm you down with the ‘Coffee-Break Challenges’ in each licence, this is where you basically drive in and out of cones like an amateur stunt driver, there are no time limit on these so you can drive around in circles, do handbrake turns or generally do whatever you want in these. Another good point about the game is that you have to buy cars to progress further into the game, you start off with 10,000 Credits but that won’t be enough for the task in hand so you need to buy a cheap car, do a few easy races whilst gaining experience and cash. Once you’ve got enough cash you can either buy a new car or upgrade the one you already own, you could turn your Fiat Punto into something with the same BHP as a BMW M5 if needs be.
It may not have an online play mode but I’ve been reliably informed that the multi-player is not lacking in quality, with it’s horizontal-split screen you can work out the best route around your opponent without having to jeopardize your position at the same time.
Before each race you have the option to tune/tweak your car, this gives you an advantage to put on the Slick Tyres if the weather is wet, tune your breaks to give you that extra bit of cautiousness through the corners etc. In the Endurance races you have no choice but to refuel and change your tyres in the pit-stop, if you don’t do either of them your wheels will wear away giving you no grip whatsoever and if you don’t have any fuel, well it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work out what will happen there. If long distance races aren’t really your thing you can put your car into a new mode available on Gran Turismo named B-Spec Mode, this essentially lets you take command over the proceedings without having to drive the car, you can tell the driver what speed he should go at, when he should make a pit-stop, whether or not he should use the option to overtake etc. Each option will have a different effect on your final position, if you don’t let him overtake, put him on the lowest speed possible and refuse to let him pit-stop then it’s only a matter of time before things got t*ts-up.
There is also the option to take photographs of your pride and joy in different worldwide locations, you can choose the angle of the camera, the light effects, distance from the lens etc and the best thing is you can save these photos to your memory card, upload them to your computer and show them off to anyone daring enough to disagree that you are the master racer around.
The graphics in the game are second to none, scenery, sounds, motions etc they all make you feel as if your actually there, they’re just simply sublime. The game is never ending so you won’t be bored after a few weeks as you will with the other race games currently out on sale.
My verdict for the game is a 10/10 – I’d like plenty more GT games like this from Sony if you don’t mind.
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