Monday 4 April 2011

Gran Turismo 4



Gran Turismo 4: The Real Driving Simulator.

How true that ended up being.....

My roomate has an ancient (yes, anything 4+ years old is ancient) PS2 so I decided to get it out and play a little bit of GT4. I had played my fair share of racing games in the past including Burnout 3 and 4, Need for Speed Undergrounds and Most Wanted some other random unknown titles. Playing those games had gotten me into a certain style of racing that just doesn't translate across to GT4. In those games it was all about nothing but accelerator tap the brake to slide into and around corners whilst going from 0 to 250+ in 2 seconds.

First I had to get my B-grade license and what I thought would be some easy tutorial telling me what the accelerator etc. was turned out to be quite an ordeal. Turns out in GT4 the brake actually gets a fair bit of work for a change and the line you take into corners and the speed at which you take them can make massive differences to an overall race. After failing the first corner challenge utmost times by just throwing the car into the corner and expecting it to bend to my will I decided to take a somewhat more a conservative approach. And voila, picking the right line and speed into the corner almost acts like a slingshot out of it.

I was impressed overall by the realism of the game. Sure you can cut corners here and there and going over gravel etc doesn't seem to have any adverse effects so far but maybe GT has found the balance between being to realistic and not enjoyable and having enough realism to get the satisfaction of nailing a race/corner/passing maneuver.

Overall I would say the game takes a bit of getting used to but when you start getting the hang of it, its really quite rewarding.

38 comments:

  1. Looking forward to this! Getting it soon :D

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  2. I actually played GT5 and it was, in my opinion, way better than 4. You should give it a try!

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  3. Oh the GT4 times... I used to play the gran prixes of 24 real hours man, never again. It took me and my brother a whole week to beat only one, we had to leave the ps2 on and go to school xD

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  4. I remember ripping up the og gt on playstation before they even called it psone. FUCKIN AWESOME

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  5. I've never really played any racing games except for GTA 4. Would you say this is a "good" way of learning how to handle a real car? I need some extra training :)

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  6. I've always played the Need for Speed series. how does this compare?

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  7. I used to hate the GT series, too slow for my taste. I liked NFS better.

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  8. You aren't the first to laud this game. Maybe I'll get around to trying it.

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  9. This one and GT2 are the best imo.

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  10. I've actually never played! I'd like to. Gotta scrounge up the change, though :)

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  11. Haven't played this in years. I used to go round my friends house and we'd race for hours.

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  12. Its such a shame that games like these are so hard to play on PC if they're available at all. Glorious PC gaming master ftw!

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  13. Im gonna buy Grand Turismo 5 with G25 i hope one day :D

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  14. yeah its pretty real try the next one!

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  15. best racing game ever was quantum redshift!

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  16. It seems like I'm the only person alive who doesn't like racing simulator games. Oh well...

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  17. My father saw a commercial for gt4 and it almost made him go out and buy a ps2. I told him to get forza and saved him the 200 bucks.

    i should really find some way to check out the GT series. the only one i have is for the psp

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  18. Mind posting on GT5 for me? I'd like to see how that compares.

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  19. driving games are too frustrating :s

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  20. Such a great old game. Definitely a classic

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  21. I was never really into the realistic racing sim kind of games, but these ones always look like they're worth playing.

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  22. Realism is fine and all, but what I really enjoy is car customization in the terms of painting designs on cars and stuff. Which is why I liked Forza.

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  23. GT4 is an intense game compared to all other racers. I remember my first time playing it and I demolished my friends car so bad. Apparently the person who won the multi-player contest was allowed to drive an actual car on one of the race tracks and he drove it like a natural.

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  24. Nice review of the game, maybe i should go get it

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  25. Man I remember playing GT4. The memories of the game rocked.

    Just racing and failing hard. My uncle was the undisputed God of that game.

    Memories. Thanks for the read.

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  26. That game is for sure a classic

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  27. i'm gonna look for this, thanks for the recommendation!

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  28. It isnt one drivinggame that beats GT!

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  29. not a big driving game fan, but will give it a go

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  30. I tried GT 3 and 4 but I wasn't really fond of it. Could you write about GT 5 please?

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  31. gt4 was great, i remember playing with the suzuki mountain climber car haha. pretty funny stuff, very realistic

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