Gran Turismo 4

A veritable auto mall of virtual cars makes up for the lack of online competition in Sony's comprehensive driving sim.

Memorize every meter of tread-eating tarmac as thoroughly as the potholes and crosswalks on your morning commute. Roller coaster altitude changes, steep bobsled-style banks, switchback bends--Nurburgring is too technical, too unforgiving to blindly bump and grind around. GT 4 reproduces the goliath (the German circuit runs 14 miles in its current incarnation) in consummate detail, right down to the sponsor banners, and you can measure your progress by the brand names you pass, much like the string of Applebees and Wal-Marts on your way to school or work Learning the line (racing lingo for the shortest route around a track), however, only counts if you can keep your car on it.

Photo-Realistic Finish
Steering assist notwithstanding, these cars don't drive themselves. In fact, if you're used to arcade racers where horsepower and a high top end are all it takes to see you from start to first-place finish, you might doubt that they even drive at all. Each automobile has its own character and attitude, and you don't race the things so much as enter into relationships with them, feeling your way through a few rough first dates, buying gifts (i.e. parts and performance upgrades), and gradually getting under the hood, until the two of you work together well enough to collect trophies. Practice, in other words, makes perfect, and the feeling is sublime when you stop clattering over curbs and start popping your car out of each corner, perfectly aligned for the following chicane. Plus, with 700 or so cars, there's something for every taste (Ferrari, Porsche, and Lamborghini are no shows, but with trucks and turn-of-the-century motor carriages in his game's garage, you can bet that producer Kazunori Yamauchi tried his best).

On the Offline Road Again
None of this, however, is new. The experience is expanded in that there are more cars to collect, polished in that it's much prettier, and refined because, rather than adhering to a single fixed route, computer-controlled competitors now do unto you as you do unto them--but these tweaks don't qualify as new. Only A) the ability to shoot virtual snapshots of your auto and then print them on actual paper and B) a driver-management mode qualify for that distinction. The former makes for a fun diversion, the latter is too hands-off to be gratifying to all but the hardcore, but neither is the online play that Sony promised.

Still, it's hard to complain about what GT 4 doesn't do when it sets the standard for driving sims with what it does. Flawlessly paced progression keeps you playing for leaner lap times; a newfound sense of speed makes each race seem like protracted suicide; and down-to-the-nuts-and-bolts details assure authenticity--as the box says, this is the drive of your life.

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TwistaG

I love GT it was the second (pole postionwas the first) racing game I played on the PS and I fell in love with it. I will always say the GT will define the racing genre and I don't think anyone will beat it although Forza came close.

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