[b]Playtest: Gran Turismo 4 - part one[/b]
Where to begin when you\'re writing about the most comprehensive driving simulator on the planet?
How about getting the bad news out of the way? Ok, here goes: you still can\'t damage your car, you still won\'t be getting behind the wheel of a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Porsche, and, well... that\'s about it, actually.
Which leaves us with the good news; again, where to begin?
[b]Racing against time
[/b]
Or should that be when to begin? Above everything, Gran Turismo is all about the cars, and GT4 condenses well over a century\'s worth of automobile history into a single game. Starting way back in the 19th Century with the world\'s first ever car, the Benz Patent Motor-Wagen 1886 (a three-wheeled contraption with a top speed of roughly 10mph), you can explore the progression of the world\'s most popular form of transport right up to the present day - and beyond.
A mind-boggling 86 manufacturers are featured in all, from the familiar (Nissan, Ford, BMW, Lotus), to the highly specialised (Caterham, Panoz, Pescarolo Sport), to the downright bizarre (Jay Leno, NIKE - both of whose vehicles must be seen to be believed). The PAL version of GT4 also enjoys the inclusion of 10 totally exclusive cars, including the Alfa Romeo GT, the Audi Nuvolari Quattro, the Golf IV R32 from HPA Motorsports, the Auto Union V16 Type C Streamline Race Car, the Chaparral 2J Race Car, and the Peugeot 905. And let\'s not forget the Aussie cars, which you can read about here.
Like every GT game before it, GT4 requires you to fulfil certain conditions to add some of the more special motors to your garage, be it winning certain cups, earning all bronze, silver, or gold trophies in a licence test, or even just checking out a used car showroom on the right day at the right time. Nevertheless, whether you\'re the proud owner of a Silvia or a Skyline, you can be sure that they\'ll be near impossible to tell apart from the real thing once they\'re on the road.
As well as being recreated in photo-realistic detail, every car now also benefits from a completely overhauled physics engine which narrows the gap between handling the real thing and its virtual recreation quite considerably. If you need proof, think on this: a test driver with 15 years\' experience of the infamous Nurburgring circuit drove a Nissan Skyline GT-R on both the real thing and the GT4 version, and achieved lap times with a mere one percent variation. Now that\'s realism.
[b]Drive the world[/b]
Such a comprehensive selection of cars warrants a similarly impressive spread of circuits and tracks to race them around. GT4 packs in 50 circuits (plus training courses and the beautiful Las Vegas Drag Strip) that mix up classic and all-new real-life circuits, real locations, and Polyphony\'s own designs.
Real driving aficionados will get a particular thrill from tackling the likes of the aforementioned Nurburgring - recreated in its full, punishing, 20.8km glory - and the entire Circuit de la Sarthe, home of the gruelling LeMans 24-hour race. For sheer visual thrills, though, any of the amazing Dirt & Snow tracks, such as Grand Canyon and Chamonix, or City Courses, like Hong Kong, George V Paris, and Costa di Amalfi, will stun you with their tremendous level of detail and the sheer beauty of the scenery.
All the circuits also profit greatly from the extra attention that\'s been paid to the humans, who\'ve gone from lifeless bitmaps to an integral element of the real-world atmosphere. Everyone, from the wonderfully animated drivers and pit lane crew, to the photographers that leap on and off the track during rallies and cheering onlookers, plays their part in bringing GT4 ever closer to seamlessly imitating reality.
[b]
Wish you were here?[/b]
Entering Gran Turismo Mode for the first time can be a bewildering experience. The uniquely-presented \'Gran Turismo World\' map is a sprawling hub filled with 38 different areas to visit, many of which are filled with dozens of additional sub-areas.
If you\'re not fortunate enough to have a Memory Card with your GT4 Prologue licence test prowess saved, your first port of call should be the Licence Centre, where you\'ll have to earn five different licences, each requiring the successful completion of 17 increasingly tricky driving tests. As with all GT games, it\'s not mandatory to pass them all - although you\'ll have to eventually if you want to compete in every event - but they are a great way to fully accustom yourself to the fantastically realistic new handling model.
Once you\'ve earned the right to race, trawling the 12 country-specific manufacturer areas or any of the three used car showrooms will open up numerous ways to spend your initial allocation of Credits (which you can add to if you\'ve got a GT3 save game). With your first car nestled safely in your personal garage, you\'ve started yourself on the extremely long road to Gran Turismo glory. And when we say \"extremely long\", we mean it - there\'s every chance you\'ll have to bequeath your Memory Card to your future grandchildren to ensure that someone makes it all the way.
[b]
Event horizon[/b]
With every licence eventually in your possession, you\'ll have to conquer numerous Beginner, Professional, Extreme, Special Conditions (ice racing, wet circuits, rallying) and Endurance (including the LeMans 24-hour race in its real time entirety) events. There are myriad specialised events for Japanese, American, European and independent manufacturer\'s cars, too.
As ever with the GT series, you\'ll have to ensure that your garage is filled with a good spread of vehicles, as certain events impose restrictions based on vehicle type, drivetrain, country of origin, size and even the date they were manufactured.
New to GT4 are the Driving Missions, 34 challenges that range from overtaking all rival cars to showdowns between old and new manufacturer models. Also new is the introduction of the A-spec points system, which awards you a score in unrestricted races based on whether you race at an advantage or disadvantage. For example, winning a race filled with 300BHP motors in a 12BHP Daihatsu Midget - unlikely as that may be - would earn you more points than if you participated using, say, a 489BHP Honda ARTA NSX.
For those who are more concerned about progression than kudos, it\'s an effective method of earning quick victories in some of the earlier races - provided you\'ve got the Credits to tune-up your car sufficiently, of course....
[url=\"http://au.playstation.com/news/gt4_playtest1.jhtml\"]Source[/url]
Playtest: Gran Turismo 4 - part one & two
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mobil1_oils
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Playtest: Gran Turismo 4 - part one & two
[b]Playtest: Gran Turismo 4 - part two[/b]
[b]
Getting in tune[/b]
Spending your hard-earned race winnings on tune-ups has always been an integral part of the GT experience, and Gran Turismo 4 provides an even wider range of motor-enhancing options with which to gobble up your valuable Credits.
Not only does every manufacturer have their own tuning shop, but there are also nine tuning specialists in the Tuner Manufacturer Village - such as Mine\'s, Blitz, and Amuse - who sell both extra parts and their own, finely-tuned custom automobiles.
If your interests lie purely in the superficial, you should head to the GT Auto car maintenance shop, which stocks numerous aerodynamic spoilers, plus a superior selection of wheels from nine top tyre makers, including Dunlop, Bridgestone, and Yokohama.
[b]Can\'t race/won\'t race[/b]
Making GT4 even more accessible to novice players and those who\'ve always struggled to stay on track is the new B-spec: Director\'s mode, which provides a unique, alternative way of competing in races. In stark contrast to A-spec mode, B-spec leaves the driving to a learning, AI-controlled driver who responds to your pacing commands (from \'take it easy\' to \'go hell for leather\') and basic instructions to overtake and pit in.
The option to take the B-spec route is always present, giving you the option to have a direct or indirect hand in amassing more Credits whenever you want. It\'s particularly handy for Endurance events, where you can use pit stops to alternate between A-spec and B-spec control.
You could view it as a way of earning cheap victories, but the truth is that B-spec mode makes GT4 by far the friendliest game in the series yet, particularly as a successful race in either \'spec\' will reap exactly the same cash reward.
[b]
The car stays in the picture [/b]
While B-spec mode provides a great way to admire the spectacular cars and tracks from afar, nothing matches the utterly original Photo modes as a way to fully indulge your autophilia. GT4 actually offers two flavours of car-snapping activity: Photo Travel and Photo Drive.
The former invites you to place your car into one of 15 gorgeous (albeit static) international backdrops and compose the perfect picture using a wide range of photographic techniques, the complexity of which can be altered depending on your confidence behind the camera. Photo Drive, on the other hand, lets you halt a replay - either in the Replay Theatre or after opting for a special Photo Drive runabout - at any moment and construct a shot using a very different composition screen to Travel.
Despite these differences, both share one thing in common: they\'re ridiculously compelling. As if the thousands of man hours required to make it through every licence test and race weren\'t enough to fill up a lifetime, the Photo modes will keep you snapping away for many, many hours more.
On the same note, it really doesn\'t help that you can transfer your shots to a personal computer using a USB Flash memory device, or even print them directly from your PS2 via a compatible USB printer. It seems that Polyphony really don\'t care that we all have lives that we really must attend to.
[b]Soundtrack of our drives [/b]
While previous GTs have had a decent selection of licensed music, GT4 really outdoes itself, featuring over 100 tracks that take in a wide cross-section of tastes, including rock (Franz Ferdinand, Queens of the Stone Age), drum \'n\' bass (Photek, Dieselboy), electronica (Fischerspooner, Freq Nasty) and even classical (Bach, Debussy).
Polyphony has also incorporated a Synchronised Replay function, a new replay viewing option that edits the action according to the accompanying soundtrack, complete with a range of stylish filters and special effects. It may be utterly pointless, but it\'s yet another thoroughly enjoyable way to while away many an hour.
[b]
The drive of your life[/b]
Four years is a long time to wait for any game, but unlike other, similarly belated releases you can see exactly where Polyphony has devoted each second of Gran Turismo 4\'s prolonged gestation period. The very size of this Playtest should alert you to the fact that this isn\'t a game that you\'ll easily breeze through over a quiet weekend; in fact, we reckon you\'d be hard pressed to see everything it has to offer during a quiet year.
What you\'re looking at is a game that invites you to explore the history of the automobile in the most entertaining way possible - i.e. by letting you drive, direct, or photograph the finest and most interesting cars ever manufactured around the world - and it\'s all been squeezed onto a single DVD-ROM disc. And if that\'s not proof of just how astonishing a feat GT4 really is, then we honestly don\'t know what is.
[i]In short: Gran Turismo 4 is driving heaven. [/i]
[url=\"http://au.playstation.com/news/gt4_playtest2.jhtml\"]Source[/url]
[b]
Getting in tune[/b]
Spending your hard-earned race winnings on tune-ups has always been an integral part of the GT experience, and Gran Turismo 4 provides an even wider range of motor-enhancing options with which to gobble up your valuable Credits.
Not only does every manufacturer have their own tuning shop, but there are also nine tuning specialists in the Tuner Manufacturer Village - such as Mine\'s, Blitz, and Amuse - who sell both extra parts and their own, finely-tuned custom automobiles.
If your interests lie purely in the superficial, you should head to the GT Auto car maintenance shop, which stocks numerous aerodynamic spoilers, plus a superior selection of wheels from nine top tyre makers, including Dunlop, Bridgestone, and Yokohama.
[b]Can\'t race/won\'t race[/b]
Making GT4 even more accessible to novice players and those who\'ve always struggled to stay on track is the new B-spec: Director\'s mode, which provides a unique, alternative way of competing in races. In stark contrast to A-spec mode, B-spec leaves the driving to a learning, AI-controlled driver who responds to your pacing commands (from \'take it easy\' to \'go hell for leather\') and basic instructions to overtake and pit in.
The option to take the B-spec route is always present, giving you the option to have a direct or indirect hand in amassing more Credits whenever you want. It\'s particularly handy for Endurance events, where you can use pit stops to alternate between A-spec and B-spec control.
You could view it as a way of earning cheap victories, but the truth is that B-spec mode makes GT4 by far the friendliest game in the series yet, particularly as a successful race in either \'spec\' will reap exactly the same cash reward.
[b]
The car stays in the picture [/b]
While B-spec mode provides a great way to admire the spectacular cars and tracks from afar, nothing matches the utterly original Photo modes as a way to fully indulge your autophilia. GT4 actually offers two flavours of car-snapping activity: Photo Travel and Photo Drive.
The former invites you to place your car into one of 15 gorgeous (albeit static) international backdrops and compose the perfect picture using a wide range of photographic techniques, the complexity of which can be altered depending on your confidence behind the camera. Photo Drive, on the other hand, lets you halt a replay - either in the Replay Theatre or after opting for a special Photo Drive runabout - at any moment and construct a shot using a very different composition screen to Travel.
Despite these differences, both share one thing in common: they\'re ridiculously compelling. As if the thousands of man hours required to make it through every licence test and race weren\'t enough to fill up a lifetime, the Photo modes will keep you snapping away for many, many hours more.
On the same note, it really doesn\'t help that you can transfer your shots to a personal computer using a USB Flash memory device, or even print them directly from your PS2 via a compatible USB printer. It seems that Polyphony really don\'t care that we all have lives that we really must attend to.
[b]Soundtrack of our drives [/b]
While previous GTs have had a decent selection of licensed music, GT4 really outdoes itself, featuring over 100 tracks that take in a wide cross-section of tastes, including rock (Franz Ferdinand, Queens of the Stone Age), drum \'n\' bass (Photek, Dieselboy), electronica (Fischerspooner, Freq Nasty) and even classical (Bach, Debussy).
Polyphony has also incorporated a Synchronised Replay function, a new replay viewing option that edits the action according to the accompanying soundtrack, complete with a range of stylish filters and special effects. It may be utterly pointless, but it\'s yet another thoroughly enjoyable way to while away many an hour.
[b]
The drive of your life[/b]
Four years is a long time to wait for any game, but unlike other, similarly belated releases you can see exactly where Polyphony has devoted each second of Gran Turismo 4\'s prolonged gestation period. The very size of this Playtest should alert you to the fact that this isn\'t a game that you\'ll easily breeze through over a quiet weekend; in fact, we reckon you\'d be hard pressed to see everything it has to offer during a quiet year.
What you\'re looking at is a game that invites you to explore the history of the automobile in the most entertaining way possible - i.e. by letting you drive, direct, or photograph the finest and most interesting cars ever manufactured around the world - and it\'s all been squeezed onto a single DVD-ROM disc. And if that\'s not proof of just how astonishing a feat GT4 really is, then we honestly don\'t know what is.
[i]In short: Gran Turismo 4 is driving heaven. [/i]
[url=\"http://au.playstation.com/news/gt4_playtest2.jhtml\"]Source[/url]