Average guy review:

Turismo is a classic example of the type of games this site is geared towards. It’s an extremely popular game that a lot of gamers spend a lot of time playing, and it’s damn good. Since the release of the first Turismo, it has been considered THE racing sim. It’s so dominant a game that the few games that have challenged it (Sega GT, Forza) have been anything but a challenge.

Gran Turismo 4 takes more of the same formula that has made the franchise so good, and improves on it once again. It has the multitude of cars, fantasy and actual tracks (including a very well done Nurburgring Nordschleife), and the same annoying licensing tests that believe it or not, do improve your driving skill in the game. This time they added more realistic driving characteristics, GT wings that allow you adjustment of down force (or if you want to rice out), a hood camera view, a camera mode and slightly more challenging A.I. As always, there is both Gran Turismo mode, where you buy, upgrade and race your cars, and Arcade mode, where you can race friends, do time attacks, and complete objectives not related to Gran Turismo mode.

The camera mode is one of the more interesting additions because you can select a track and take pictures while you drive, or you can go to one of many pre-selected world locations and set up your own virtual car photo shoot. They let you get very detailed with the camera (they have a professional mode that lets you adjust focal range).

There are a few problems I have with the game. First and foremost is that the game is designed with an insane amount of detail on the tracks, and then they remove things until the game plays at the frame rate they want it to. That’s all well again good, but there are times when all 6 cars are bunched together and it causes a “jitter” effect that is visually annoying. The fact that there are only 6 cars is still a problem. I realize it’s still 6 because they’re limited by the hardware, but I like a little more competition and little more challenge on long races. My two largest complaints are the lack of online play and of physical changes to the car itself. The online play part was axed because American bandwidth (we’re talking high speed) is more restrictive than the Japanese have. As for the physical changes (I.E. body kits, changing the look of the exhaust when I buy a racing exhaust etc.) they chalked that up to them wanting to give you more cars. For every new car part, you’re taking up memory that could go to putting in a different car, and that’s more important to them. I agree by the way, but it still erks me.

All in all, it’s a fantastic game, especially if you like racing, and it’s a great game for extended play. It also has high pick up and play ability. If you are looking for a scale rating, I’d give it a 9 out of 10.

Geek at large review:

Basically, most of the stuff is the same, except this time all technical aspects are very rewarding. It used to be that you could just buy a racing suspension and add tons of horsepower and you would dominate. This time around you have to spend a lot of time finding the correct spring rates and adjusting the dampers correctly or you’ll lose. The suspension, gearing, L.S.D. (limited slip differential for you 420 losers) and down force settings, as well as tire selection are enough that with no other modifications, you can beat almost any other car, regardless of its state of tune. A well balanced car goes a long way, and is by far the most rewarding part of the game in my eyes.

My complaints are few, but I feel need to be addressed. Caster. I can adjust camber, and toe, but I can’t adjust caster? Maybe I don’t want gobs of negative camber for straights and breaking, but I’d like a little more for turns? That could be helpful for a track sim, and more beneficial, in my eyes, than toe adjustments.

I’m also a little tired of the stage upgrades. I realize that most people who play the game don’t care, and don’t know, but I’d rather pick individual pieces to modify my car than buying a stage package. If you wanted to have a cam section and then have a stage 1-4 for cams, I’m fine with that, because if you’re going to buy cams, retainers valves, and valve springs are almost a given, so why buy those individually?

External mods. As addressed above, this is a must at this point. I know it takes up space that you could be using to put more cars in the game, but you have like 8 different versions of the R34 skyline. I could do without 2-3 of those and you could make aero parts for cars. The spoilers are a good start, though, I don’t totally agree with the being able to adjust front aerodynamics without a front spoiler. And could I see the exhaust change when I change the exhaust? Games like Tokyo Xtreme Racer have been doing this since 99. Their car selection isn’t nearly the same size, but it was right on par with the amount of cars Polyphony saw fit to release for GT3.

My final complaint is the lack of online play. This is my smallest complaint though. The reasons they gave are good enough for me. That, and I had purchased Capcom’s Auto Modellista and hated the online experience. I would take the perfect driving line, and beat people through 3/4th of the course only to have someone crash into me and smash me into a guardrail on the final turn and finish last. It got to the point that I would only play with my friends in private rooms. Polyphony had talked about a penalty system for bad drivers, but if it’s anything like the one they have in the game now, I don’t want it. It gives priority to the higher placed car, so if you out break and dive inside of the leader, and he decides to smash into you to stop you, you get penalized. There’s a lot of work to be done, and I would prefer it’s perfect before they release it, but honestly, at this point, they can’t not have it in the next game, and it should have been included in this one.

I know it seems like I did nothing but complain about what the game should have had. The things is that the game play is so good, it outweighs all of its flaws. If you take the right line and hit all your apexes, the feel and your lap times are so rewarding. Gran Turismo 4 is, without a doubt, the real deal. If you even remotely like cars, and want a game that you can put hours into and pick it up 4 months later and not miss a beat, it’s the game for you.

Click here to buy Gran Turismo 4 at Amazon.com

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment