The Drive of Your Life: Gran Turisimo 4

June 05,2005

TODAY’S FAST PACED LIFE DEMANDS INSTANT RESULTS. The popularity of food stuff laced with labels ‘quick’ and ‘easy’ are enticing enough for people to purchase—even at the expense of taste and cholesterol levels. The same story goes for just about any other aspect of life: professional, personal, even down to the intimate. If you need convincing, ask yourself this: when was the last time you relished the fact that your food came up fifteen minutes too early? When was the last time you actually conversed with your dinner partner in a topic other than the restaurant’s slow service? But let’s not look at the negatives here. There are some good effects brought about by the instamatic lifestyle, and on that note, I have to agree—especially after finishing a lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in a Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, barely edging past a SLR McLaren.

Welcome to the world of the instant professional racer, brought to you by Gran Turismo 4—the latest installment of the world’s most famous and convincing driving simulator for Sony’s Playstation 2 gaming console. With new competition from other software makers, developers Polyphony Digital and Sony Computer Entertainment went the extra mile to make sure that GT4 would be received better than its lackluster GT3 A-Spec predecessor. Everything in GT4 is painstakingly detailed: the lush virtual environment, the hundreds of cars, the minute reflections—it all comes alive as you race down the start/finish straight at 300 km/h. The opening movie alone is worth the almost 4,000 peso admission price as you watch some select cars like the Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34), BMW M5 and Audi

R8 Le Mans gun down different circuits to the tune of Van Halen’s “Panama”. The 1980’s driving music aside, what really makes GT4 shine above any other game is the experience.

And what an experience it is, with the more than 650 cars in the game physically accurate down to their behavior during acceleration, cornering and braking. The programming team, headed by the talented and young Kazunori Yamaochi spent at least two years traversing four continents so that they could actually sample and digitally each car (or real-life race track). They certainly are the envy of motoring enthusiasts and journalists alike as they punished cars around a test track way ahead of their public debuts. Cars such as the new BMW 330i (E90), the V10-powered M5, Volkswagen Golf GTi (Mk. V) and 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse actually debuted (or will debut) simultaneously with the release of the game. The usual slew of Japanese brands is here including several tuner cars from HKS, Spoon and Tom’s. Regular sports sedans, hot hatches and sleek coupes aside, GT4 contains exotica from Aston Martin (including the DB9), Pagani, Saleen and Ruf, naming just a few. Conspicuously absent, but not missed are Ferrari and Porsche—whose licensing rights proved to be too expensive. Those nostalgic with be happy to know that there are more classics in GT4 than any of its predecessors. Among those that have made it to the list include the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, Dodge Charger 440 R/T, Jaguar E-Type and even the Mercedes-Benz 300SL. More recent cult classics such as the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4, Subaru Impreza STi-22B and the Toyota Sprinter Trueno have made the cut as well.

As with other Gran Turismo games, GT4 contains the familiar ‘Arcade’ and ‘Gran Turismo’ modes. And while Arcade already gives a lot of options to play with (Time Attack, Head to Head, LAN Battle and such), the heart of the game is of course, the Gran Turismo mode. In here, you start out with a measly 10,000 credits (not even enough to buy a new Honda Civic Type-R) and no racing license (although if you have GT3 A-Spec, you can export both cash and racing licenses to your new saved game). Like any aspiring Kimi Raikkonen, you have to earn your racing stripes first in a series of license exams. Each segment teaches proper cornering and braking techniques, all of which are surprisingly accurate to real-world racing situations. Those who have gone through the Tuason Racing School clinic will surely remember a thing or two. After that, you participate in a series of races or championships, most with special requirements. During the countless days or weeks of sore thumbs, rewards will be bestowed on you in the form of special cars, usually concepts (Audi Nuvolari), racing cars (Chevrolet Corvette C5R) and ultra-exotic sports cars (McLaren F1).

Don’t be ticked off with the seemingly long playtime time. For starters, anyone who considers himself a car enthusiast will definitely be submerged with the sheer amount of cars and tracks in the game. The learning curve isn’t that steep too—a few minutes, perhaps an hour at the most, is all that’s needed to find the best way to tackle a challenge. Probably the biggest challenge in the game is getting the right set-up for each car. Since GT4 is a driving simulator, expect the more than 20 engine, drive train and suspension set-ups to be unique, varying even on the type of track you’re about to race in. If this is too complicated, GT4 introduces a new mode called ‘B-Spec’. Here, you can play professional team manager ala Flavio Briatorre. And like the Renault F1 boss, you order your driver to push the car, overtake a competitor or even conserve fuel and tires.

Completing Gran Turismo 4’s extensive list of features is the ‘Photo Travel’ and ‘Photo Mode’ options. For once, here’s a mode for those who wish to explore their artistic side by using a SLR digital camera. In these two modes, you can take your car to any of the racing venues in the game or some selected photogenic locations around the world including Beacon Hill, the Grand Canyons and downtown Tokyo. You can set-up the perfect shot by adjusting just about everything from focal length, shutter speed, aperture, white balance and the like. The icing on the cake here is that you can either print your photos on a number of compatible Epson inkjet printers or save them on a USB flash drive with a resolution of 1.2 mega pixels!

So while the world has become accustomed to one-minute managers, thirty-minute meals and run-flat tires, the team behind Gran Turismo 4 is living proof that being obsessive in the details is what makes a product a cut above the rest. And although you’ll probably find the aspect of becoming an instant racing champion all too silly, that really doesn’t matter. What counts is that Gran Turismo 4 gives an unparalleled sense of realism in just about every aspect of competition racing: whether it be from behind the wheel, on the pit wall or behind the lens.

By Ulysses Ang | Photos By Ulysses Ang. Courtesy of Gran Turismo 4’s “Photo Drive” Mode
Originally Published in The Manila Times

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