Gran Turismo 4
Release Information
US: 1 October 20
Europe: 1 October 20
Introduction
Think back a couple of years. Remember that small, unimportant release? You know, the cars racing around that track. Do you remember how good it was? I'll give you a moment to wipe the drool from you mouth before continuing, and ill also assume you know exactly what I’m talking about
Yes, Gran Turismo 3 was that damn good. It still remains one of the Playstation 2’s biggest selling games since the consoles launch and talk to any PS2 lover about which games stand Sony’s machine higher the competition and GT3 will be one of the games highlighted time and time again. Despite not actually being a driving simulation, despite what it said on the box, Gran Turismo 3 still established itself as one of, if not the finest racing game on any platform. It had lots of cars, unrivalled lastability and was immensely fun to play. Hell, I’m sure some of you are still going to back to it even now, and even if you don’t already own it (shame on you), you can now pick it up for less than £20. Some will argue it’s been far too long since the last GT release, especially after the very disappointing GT: Concept, and so it will come as great news to hear that the next in the series is not too far in the distance. GT4 has slipped down the release date grid time and time again, but things are looking up and we’ll be able burn rubber all over again in no time.
Preview
Creating a series of several racing games is an ok idea, as many games developers will tell you, but after a while gamers will soon find that new games in the series will become nothing more than simple updates, and won’t offer much in the way of new and initiative gameplay ideas. After all, it’s racing. There’s not a lot you can dramatically change about 6-8 cars driving around a track. GT has evaded such an outcome though so far, with each new game in the series always offering something new. However, without new and improved features, the GT series is in danger of driving down the wrong road. The men behind the GT series are determined to keep GT4 on the track, and he’s going the right way about it. GT4 will take one of the biggest steps forward so far in the series. The game will feature a staggering 500 cars, around 100 tracks, an improved career mode and online play. Could you really ask for anymore new features from a racing game?
So, 500 new cars, eh? Seems quite a lot doesn’t it. Well, if we put it into perspective, you'll see how amazing 500 cars actually is. GT3 had around 140 different cars, and we were spoilt for choice even then with cars ranging form standard street cars to fastest F1 machines. So what type of new cars will GT4 offer up? Obviously, on top of all the street cars that featured in GT3, you can bet they'll be plenty more new motor’s available in GT4. This time the game will also feature cars from the past as well as the present, with the man behind the series, Yamauchi promising us the chance to drive some of histories classic cars. Other car styles will include convertibles, racing cars, Formula 1 cars and Rally vehicles, just to name a few. Of course, pre-defined cars are fun to drive, but nothing feels better than fitting your new motor with some brand spanking new parts. GT4 will of course include a new range of motors, gears and other parts that you can fix into your car, and although nothing specific is known at this point, you can expect even more of what was seen before. Now you can experience the thrills of fine tuning your beast of a car to perfection, or of course, ruining the entire car by mucking about with the engine if your crap at mechanics. It’s all good.
You can quite happily spend hours under the bonnet of your new car, tuning each little part of your engine, but if you don’t have any tracks to race the end product on, then there’s not much point, is there? Thankfully, the GT team look set to cater for our needs again by providing 100 tracks to race our cars on. Some are real life tracks, some are based on real life tracks and some are purely made up, thought up by the games designers. The tracks will be in various different locations ranging from vast open spaces, to the tight and confined streets of the inner city. At last years E3, where GT4 was announced, there were 3 different tracks on display. They were the Grand Canyon, New York City and a Japanese circuit. The tracks chosen were perfect examples of the variety you can expect from the other 97 tracks in the game. The Grand Canyon is a rally based track while the other 2 are designed for road vehicles. The New York track, as you can imagine, is raced on some tight, confined roads surrounded by skyscrapers and neon lights, while the Japanese track is completely the opposite, with not much of anything other than grass surrounding the track. These are just 3 of the 100 tracks set to be included in the game, so you can expect a lot of other different locations and track styles besides the 3 mentioned.
Gameplay wise, GT4 will not differ all that much from GT3. At first glance, you'll do well to spot any differences. The HUD is the same and not a lot has changed graphically (could they have made it any better than GT3?), but the cars physics and computer AI have all been improved. There will also be a couple of new driving modes added to the game. Players will be able to select ASM (assisted stability management) and TCS (Traction Control System) to help them keep control of there car on the track. The computer cars will behave a lot better than in previous GT games, and will make fewer mistakes. Rather than randomly smashing into your car, the computer will try and evade crashing if you become too close. The career mode has been given a big boost again this time around, with the promise of yet more competitions and the cool option of visiting different places to buy different cars. For example, if you want to buy a classic car, then there’s a museum where you can visit to check out some of the old classic cars from years gone by. You can also buy from a used car dealer. Presumably, used cars will be cheaper to buy, yet not quite as reliable as the new cars, so you'll probably still need to pump a lot of money into your used cars to get them in full working order.
Anticipation
New releases don’t come much more anticipated than this, and GT4 is deffinently up there with the likes of Halo 2, Half Life 2 and Pro Evolution Soccer 4 on my personal lost of most wanted games coming out this year. There’s a whole host of new tracks and more cars than most of the other racing games out there put together. The addition of a new online mode and assurances of a much expanded career mode are sure to add much more to the series and the racing genre in general than ever before. I’m extremely excited about this one. You should be too.
Preview by: Chipps
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