Gran Turismo 4

Written by Adam Woolcott  on June 18, 2003

First Impressions: The server ate Adam's SAC (Smart Ass Comment)

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Gran Turismo is perhaps the crown jewel in Sony's solid 1st party PS2 lineup - the previous Turismo game sold millions of copies (and still sells in buckets today as a Greatest Hit), and is still, 2 years later, one of the best looking games on the PlayStation 2. With this in mind, it's no surprise that Sony has wasted little time in unveiling the 4th entry in the legendary racing series, aptly titled Gran Turismo 4. Developer Polyphony Digital is going all-out with this 4th installment, building in a monstrous car and track selection and online play, and further tweaking the outstanding gameplay engine to perfection. One thing's for sure - racing fans with PS2s are eagerly awaiting the 2004 release date, with bated breath.

GT4 is all about expanding ideas from previous Turismo games. Polyphony promises up to 500 cars from which to select, running the gamut from everyday vehicles to the speed beasts for which the game is known. That's 3 times the amount of cars compared to Gran Turismo 3. Speculating, it's also possible that with online play and the eventual release of the PS2 hard drive, more cars could possibly be downloaded...but nothing about that has been mentioned yet.

More importantly, Gran Turismo 4 will come with 100 or more tracks to race on, both of the rally and pavement varieties. I'd expect most of the classic tracks will return (I want my High Speed Ring, damnit!), along with a mixture of real world tracks (given their presence in a great many other games, I'd expect Suzuka, Le Mans, and Donington to be part of the mix), and Polyphony creations. Either way, the track selection is so large it's going to be impossible to complain about track variety.

Also, Gran Turismo 4 will fully support online play through the PS2 Network Adaptor. Six humans will be able to race each other - hopefully with a purpose, instead of in repetitive single races. Most likely, the game will be broadband-only, as the amount of cars and high speed of the beasts would really lag out 56k users. If that's the case, the headset would be a great accessory to make compatible with the game.

Polyphony is promising a new AI system to make later races more challenging, promising a more competitive opponent that makes fewer mistakes and can keep close if at all possible. While this does stink like the rotten stench of Rubberband AI, it's hopeful that it will be a form of it and not full-on arcade style AI. Talk about alienating your fanbase; that would definitely be a hitch.

Finally, we come to the issue of graphics. GT3 is still one of the most beautiful racers around, and despite being 2 years old, hasn't really been touched yet by other racing games...until GT4 was unveiled, anyway. As you might expect from Polyphony, Gran Turismo 4 sucks as much power out of the PS2 as possible, delivering beautiful, lifelike cars and highly detailed terrain on which to race. In pictures, it looks great; in motion, it looks heavenly. Despite being over 3 years old, the PS2's hardware is still being pushed to the limit by the Turismo team and by the time the game finally releases, it could look even more spectacular.