Gran Turismo 4: The Real Driving Simulator for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

Gran Turismo 4 is a pretty amazing game. There's over 600 cars and trucks. They added two new features to the game. The first is the used car dealers. The second new feature is the photo viewer. You can take pictures of your cars and make a slide show or you can print them out. The graphics are good up close but get jaggy far away, but when you start racing you don't even notice it. The game play is the same it's always been, very realistic. This is one of the longest games I have ever played. So if you renting it be aware that you are going to have it for a long time if you want to finish it. The game has defiantly improved from the last one. Also some of the competitions take over an hour to beat, but luckily you can stop in the middle of the competition now to save and come back to it later. This game is definitely a driving simulator.

Visual: Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Every single car is a perfect representation of its real-life counterpart down to the molecules in the door handle. And thought this is a PS2 title, the system's ages does not show at all. Just watching the opening movie will make your jaw drop with the flawlessness that is manifested on the screen. You can tell that the developers put a whole lot of effort in to making what you're looking at a dead-on videogame version of every real world locale, car and any other imaginable detail. Though it is still a shame that the cars take absolutely zero damage no matter what you do. And though they are perfect, there isn't anything flashy about these polygons.

Audio: What you would expect. Engines, tire squeals, bleeps and bloops in the menus, nothing too exciting, just really well done. And the music selection is pretty extensive, though there isn't a whole lot of stuff the average Joe has heard of.

Mechanics: The camera will not give you any problems at all, and it even gives you some beautiful shots during the replay that you can admire. The controls are standard racing fare. Gas. Brake. Reverse. Turn. But they are very difficult to master, and until you learn all the intricacies of the game's extremely realilistic physics system, expect to careen off the road because you aren't hard enough on the brakes.

Gameplay: As with any Gran Turismo title, this is purely for the car enthusiasts. Races aren't too fast, and the game overall still retains its brutal real world difficulty. The beginning of the game forces you to slog through dozens of races to build up the money to really get the game going, but once you're through, it's pretty enjoyable, it just takes a lot of patience. The game isn't Need For Speed or Burnout. There aren't turbo pads or weapons. But if you expect this series to do any of that, you're looking in the wrong place.