Gran Turismo 4 first impressions

While we're not having much luck laying hands on a PSP thus far (the Y7,000-or-so premium that shops with stock are charging doesn't turn us on much), we did come by a copy of Sony's long-awaited Gran Turismo 4 today. After a couple of hours play, here are a few scrambled first impressions:

Graphics

We really have no choice but to tackle this one first. While we have to confess that we tend toward the Sunday driver end of the spectrum when it comes to gaming and aren't totally up on the standards of realism that may have been set by other PS2 titles, our bones tell us that something special is going on. There are points when the race replays come close to the experience of watching motor sports on TV, especially if you switch over to the display mode, in which the visuals get treated with a series of lighting and exposure effects. A good job has also been done on the drivers in the open-top cars available--considerable study has obviously been put into replicating things like the wrist flick with which people who are really really good at it execute gear changes. When playing the impression is marred somewhat by the fact that your eyes inevitably tend to go from rushing expanse of asphalt to corner marker to track map and back again, but there's definitely a greater sense of realism and detail--trees, sky, grass are more finely drawn, camera flashes go off in the stands as you roar past, and so on. We did notice the occasional lag with redrawing the scenery in the rearview mirror, and there are times when pre-start sequences or replays for night races max out the hardware to the point where things momentarily go jagged, but overall, we could exchange this paragraph for a single word: Wow.

Sound

The impression is helped by the sound. The music's been improved, so while the dubious lightweight heavy metal instrumentals are still there, there's a good quota of dance tracks that are more, well, 2005. More than that, though, the cars sound better: things like the Dodge Viper come off with an intimidating rumble that adds a lot to the pre-start adrenalin. There's also more ambient sound--the thing we liked most was the wind noise, which adds a lot to the sense of speed when you're cranking it up the straights.

Cars

Our first reaction in arcade mode on getting to the car selection screen was to start giggling. The range available is unbelievable; even without unlocking any of the hidden extras, you get everything from modern-day Aston Martins to classics like the AC Cobra, with more obscure vehicles like the Jensen Interceptor (and for some reason, all sorts of antique hatchbacks) thrown in for good measure. There's also a nice option to search for cars on a timeline. This being the democratic world of driving games, however, no amount of LeMans-quality machinery will stop you being thrashed by some computerised bastard in a 1970s Toyota unless you get your game on.

Gameplay

While we don't recall having too many problems tapping our way around the track with a non-analogue controller for Gran Turismo 3, our instinct with GT4 was that analogue was the only way to go. It definitely feels like you need a more delicate touch to get around the track than in GT3. That said, the Sunday League races in Gran Turismo mode still offer a pretty lenient learning curve for the uninitiated. The variety of races on offer in GT mode looks to be way more extensive than in GT3, too, though we didn't have time to do much more than scratch the surface in a first try. One thing we'd note is our impression that more races require a license than in GT3, and that you'll probably want to pass the test for at least the basic license early on in the proceedings if you want to open up enough competitions to keep things interesting.

Conclusions

The approach has obviously been to improve on what's there rather than reinvent, and the game will be immediately familiar to anyone who's played previous titles in the series. However, the greater range of races, tracks and cars, and the quality of the graphics, sound and driving experience should ensure that anyone who was into GT3 should find that GT4 gets them revved up all over again. We'll have to put some more time in to determine whether there's enough in there to hold our interest over the long term, but things initially look good.