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| To tell you the truth, I've never been a big Gran Turismo fan. Simulations weren't really my type of game. I've always liked games such as NFS, and ones similar to the Burnout series. But GT wasn't my type of racer. Sims just felt too constraining. I loved the sense of speed and a certain control. I despised that of GT's when I first touched the controller. To this day, I'm still not the biggest fan of simulations. I give kudos to Moto GP 2 for detail, graphics, and an all around solid game, but it's just not the game for me. With all the reasons as to why I don't like this type of genre, it's a wonder why I'm interested in GT 4. Control, my biggest problem with simulations. I don't like slowing down on a turn, and I hate slow acceleration. I'm into games where you go fast around a turn, and when you crash, you speed right back up with everyone else. But because of GT's reputation of being realistic, it's not that simple. Instead, slowing down on turns, and trying your hardest not to crash are one of your biggest feats that you have to get upon playing the game. If you don't play wisely, and you drive recklessly, you won't get far into this game, which is one of its best features to those who're faithful to the genre. But those people who're Midnight Club faithfuls, may not be as pleased with it. The eye-candy in this game are jaw dropping. Polyphony Digital has done an exceptional job of using the PS2's power like little have done before it. Reflections are precise, courses look identical to their real life counter parts, and the cars now define the meaning of realism. I'm not over exaggerating on this one. They've gone the extra length to make this game look it's finest, literally leaving GT3 in the dust. People thought that GT3 was flawless, but compared to this, it doesn't even come close. The graphics on this game are so good, that when two pictures are held up side by side of a course, and it's video game counter part, it'll take you a while to tell the difference. That's what they were going for and they hit it right on the nail. Physics are at a high as well, dust flies in the air from the back of the car with fluidity, and the cars react to bumps and crashes properly. Each car is the weight it should be, so no vehicle will act the same in a physical incident. Online play is a new and expected feature coming from the people of Gran Turismo. Now, the die-hard fans of the series can race with each other to compete against fellow fans similar to themselves. It's every GT players dream to this, and Polyphony is bringing this to life. Six players will be able to enroll in some vehicular races via broadband adapter. They've even gone as far as to let people from different countries race each other, and account info telling you how many races you've one and things of that sort will appear in this game. Just another marvelous move made by these people. The cars, courses, and physics aren't the only thing that makes this game real. The sound is very impressive. Each car will sound like they do in the real world which is to be expected. Making sure each vehicle do so was no easy task, because a sim of this magnitude never is. But the outcome proves to be another little feature that Polyphony did to make the game even more life-like. Which then means another factor that makes it look that much more better. The one thing this game does not do realistically is the damage. When you crash, there will be no sign of damage anywhere on the car. One might ask, why? The game's highly realistic, and yet something like damage doesn't show up in the game? Well first off, one little thing left out is not going to totally ruin the game. Heck, they could take out half of the aspects in GT4 and it'd still be decent. But the reason behind it is a logical one. Damage was wanted to put into this game, but probably because of time, they couldn't get too the sheer realism that they would have like becaus time wouldn't have permitted. To continue, hitting objects will hinder our chances of winning and coming in a good place, so it's still appropriate not to crash into things. I've finally figured out the reason as to why I'm interested in this game. So much work has been put into it, that it's impossible to not pay attention to. From the realistic sounds, to the realistic courses, to the realistic cars, this game is very realistic, and as a result, it makes it intriguing to a high degree. A game this authentic deserves a lot of credit because this game breaks new ground when it comes to simulations. Polyphony Digital has made the most impressive racer of this genre I've seen so far, making all others that come before it, and probably in the future as well, bite the dust. I'd say that the only game to top this will be GT5. They just keep raising the bar when it comes to quality and I have no doubt that somehow, they'll inevitably do it again. |
| Gran Turismo 4 |
| Game: Gran Turismo 4 Genre: Racing Developer: Polyphony Digital Release Date: TBA Anticipation: Very High |