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Polyphony claims that it won’t touch it until it can be modelled with perfect accuracy, but is it really that realistic to be able to take tricky corners by colliding with your opponents as they gently cruise around the track? And those chaps aren’t getting all that smarter. If you prefer Erik Satie to the Eagles of Death Metal, there’s no reason why Gymnopodie no.3 can’t soundtrack your next race meeting.īut there are some questions, and they’re the same ones we were asking last time around. If the 97 strong song selection makes for an odd mix of cutting edge indie, dance, and metal, at least you can tune the driving playlist to suit your own tastes. From the big apple to the Grand Canyon, from Paris to the Umbrian hills, the locations actually tempt you to slow down so you can take the sights in.Īnd while I’m by no means qualified to discuss the exact pitch or tone of sports car engine notes, the sounds are just as top notch. In normal play the effect is impressive, but in replay mode the visuals get frighteningly close to that most abused of terms, photorealistic.

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In terms of lighting, trackside scenery, car modelling and texture detail, this is the PS2 at the top of its game, and an easy match for anything seen in Project Gotham Racing 2. Then you take a second look and realise that it’s all in the detail. On initial impression, GT4 doesn’t look all that much different to GT3, less a turbo-charge of the graphics engine than a rigorous polishing of the ports.

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But then, like a playground, it’s full of swings and roundabouts.

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The new B-Spec mode means that most races can be played from the pits, with you advising the driver on how fast and how rough to play it.īasically, If GT3 was an automotive sandbox, then this is the whole gas-guzzling, pedal-pushing playground. You don’t even have to drive if you don’t want to.

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Leave the safety of the garage, the license tests, and the initial beginner competitions, and there are championships and tests in Europe, Japan, and America, manufacturers with their own challenge cups, extreme races, endurance tests, speed trials, drag races, dirt and snow races, custom parts shops and probably a whole lot more I haven’t managed to take note of. The arcade mode is just about manageable, but enter the Gran Turismo mode proper, and the map of options is simply bewildering. Yet even these numbers can’t really prepare you for exactly how big GT4 really is. We already had a chance to sample the Grand Canyon, New York and Cita di’Aria tracks in GT4: Prologue, but Paris, the Swiss Alps, Seoul and Le Mans are now included, along with the terrifying Nurburgring: an epic raceway of sudden twists and dives, deservedly legendary amongst the educated motoring enthusiast. But GT4 benefits hugely from a strengthened line-up of real world tracks. Tracks? We’re up to 52 now, with many of the old favourites – Autumn Ring, Deep Forest, etc – still hanging on in there. This is nearer than most of us will ever get. You find yourself wondering how a classic Alpine sports car would fair against the modern Mazda equivalent, and who can resist taking a Plymouth Cuda for a drag race along the Vegas strip, or the Land Rover Stormer on a quick jaunt through Yosemite. This alone should make GT4 irresistible to the leather-jacketed goons who line up for a place in the Top Gear audience, but it’s worryingly good news for the less car-crazy gamer too. That figure includes a host of new and current models, some superb 1980’s and 1990’s models (available second-hand for the budget-conscious novice), a wide range of classics and some great concept cars. For example, GT3 had around 160 cars to choose from, but Gran Turismo 4 makes that look puny with around 700 different models from just about every major manufacturer, the only big exceptions being Ferrari and Porsche. We could just start with the specs, because those big numbers just keep on getting bigger. On the other hand, it’s one of the best – some will say the best – driving games ever.

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In fact, we have a sequel that feels less like the next game in a series than a new, improved, feature-enhanced iteration: Gran Turismo 4.0, if you will. A sequel that does something to fix key criticisms of the series, but not enough to halt them. Here’s the Gran Turismo 4 dilemma: on the one hand, we have a sequel that – to the casual observer – looks and feels very much the same as its predecessor.