Gran Turismo 4

"Its really Gran Turismo 3.5; Rent or buy used"

After all of the hype, constant delays, literally back to the drawing bord after all of these years, the end result is VERY disappointing. You'd think this would be new and something radically different...or at least with some cool new features...but nuope, Gran Turismo 4 is the same old game with new features that are irrelevant and useless.

Graphics: 8/10: GT3 pushed the envelope in terms of graphical capabilities of the PS2, and its the same here. The graphics are a lot more brighter, crisper and fresher this time around with more pronounced weather effectrs such as glare. The graphics in the new photo mode are also gorgeous. The disappointing aspect of the graphics is this new and very annoying feature where the camera shakes and jarrs violently whenever you hit a barrier or your opponent. It very irritating, very useless and one of the many useless new things.

Sound: 5/10: Same old sound effects, from the last time. The music playlist leaves much to be desired. The Classical music outnumbers everything else, which is strange. Who would bump classical music during a race? The Classical are poorly remixed verisons to boot. Whats worse, unlike before where throughout the game you could change the jukebox. Not so here, it makes things very inconvienient.

Controls 10/10: The controls are solid; a lot easier to handle than last time.

Gameplay & Value 4.5/10: This was the biggest problem I had with this game. Its the same old game as before right down to the importation of the same races from the last 2 GTs including the dreaded license exams (they're seemingly harder now) the much more dreaded endurance races. The AI is just as stupid as ever. Why couldn't they just make it so that you can adjust the difficulty settings like in R:Racing Revolution? R:Racing had some very interesting and cool concepts such as the radio chatter, and the ability to frustrate and thereby mess up the racing of your opponent. It would've been nice to screw with the minds of your fellow opponents and take advantage of that to win the race. Why isn't that in?

The two player mode, the reason why this game was so delayed is also useless and disapointing.

Another new addition is the director mode in which you sit back and essentially remote control your car during the race. While this comes in handy for the endurance races or whenever you've got better things to do with your time and you just set things up and walk away, but it takes the fun out of it, and its again, useless. Its just replay mode, only this time you control the car. Speaking of replay mode, its the same from always with, again, more useless features.

The arcade mode which used to exist as an largely seperate and fun entity in the last GT's is reduced to an addition or a novetly to Gran Turismo mode. So whenever you finish Gran Turismo mode, you're left with an useless arcade mode.

The photo mode, that allows you to put your car against a backdrop of interesting places worldwide is cute and teaches novies a thing or two about photography, but its also useless in terms of doing anything to the game.

The same problem that I had in the last one is back here: Endurance races and races that have mroe than 5 laps. This doesn't make the game any more harder or cooler, but longer and boring--especially since the AI is so stupid. The game becomes a bore and a chore than something fun and exciting. No one with a life is going to sit down for many hours and hold down the X button for 100 laps.

There are bright-spots in the gameplay area: The biggest improvement and the best thing about this game are the cars. 600 cars & 20 new companies from all eras. Its pure bliss for car geeks such as myself. In addition to the old tracks, there are 20 new racetracks that are very fun, interesting, and wonderfully developed. The used car section is thankfully back after an absence from GT3 and instead of going to the dealer this time, some cars now have access to independent tuners.

This game was so disappointing on so many levels. I wasn't expecting something dramatically different, but something along the lines of San Andreas where you had the same game with many of the old flaws removed and the new improvement useful and enchancing to the experience. Nothing of the sort here. Its the same game with more cars more tracks, and many many more useless features. If you're new to the GT series, by all means get it, but if you're an old-skool GT-ster like moi, you're better off renting this first or getting it used.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/11/05