Campus Times
March 4, 2005
In early 1998 a racing game called “Gran Turismo” quietly debuted on Sony’s Playstation videogame console. In the seven years since, that deafening silence has morphed into a deafening roar that has brought Subaru’s WRX and Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution to North America, elevated series producer/creator Kazunori Yamauchi to rockstar status and, most recently, swept “Gran Turismo 4” (or “GT4” as it is known to the faithful) onto American store shelves.
But is this fourth installment in one of the gaming world’s true dynasties an adequate reparation for the four long years American gearheads and gamers have had to wait while the rest of the world got to enjoy special releases like “Gran Turismo: Concept” and “Gran Turismo 4: Prologue”?
Will it make you forget about the numerous delays and the shocking eleventh-hour withdrawal of online play from the final product?
Well, if all you care about is looks, all should be forgiven…and then some. If you thought it would be impossible for Polyphony Digital to outdo the graphics found in 2001’s “Gran Turismo 3,” you were wrong. There are far too many incredible visual touches in the game to list here, but one of the highlights would have to be the animated drivers who pilot most of the convertible and open top vehicles in the game. Watching the helmet and firesuit clad pilots cranking the steering wheel and banging through the gears is truly a sight to behold.
And just in case you are not convinced the visuals in “GT4” are photorealistic, you can actually take virtual “photographs” of your in-game rides. Whether you prefer posing your car at locations like the Grand Canal in Venice or the rim of the Grand Canyon, or setting up action shots from race replays, the aptly-titled and all new for “GT4” Photo Mode has enough options and features to satisfy photography novices and lifelong shutterbugs alike.
Another new addition to the series is B-Spec Mode, which places the player in the team manager’s seat and hands the actual driving chores to the computer. The player selects how fast or slow the computer’s pace is, as well as when to pass another car and when to pit for fresh tires and fuel. B-Spec Mode is especially useful for the endurance races, which can last as long as 24 hours.
As with previous installments of the “GT” series, the heart of the game is GT Mode, where players complete tests to earn their racing licenses, buy cars, compete in races and win money to buy performance parts for the cars they have or buy new cars, all the while dealing with ultra-realistic physics modeling.
“GT4” is easily the biggest title in the franchise yet, with over 700 cars from 80 manufacturers, and those cars can be raced on almost 100 tracks, including Germany’s mighty Nürburgring.
The downsides to all this? Well, the artificial intelligence, though improved over previous versions, still seems to be in a state of denial with regard to your presence on the track. That makes the lack of online play even harder to swallow. Also, there is still no damage modeling, and the vehicle roster is still in overwhelming favor of Japanese machinery (About 50 Nissan Skylines and one Cadillac? Come on.). In other words, “GT4” continues to the series’ tradition of avoiding radical departures from a winning formula, a practice that may bode well for upcoming challengers “Enthusia: Professional Racing” and “Forza Motorsport” from Konami and Microsoft, respectively.
But until those two titles arrive later this spring, “GT4” will remain undisputed King of the Driving Simulator Hill.
Tom Anderson can be reached at tanderson1@ulv.edu.