Gran Turismo 4 impressions - Part II

Charles Starrett • Feb 24, 2005 • Comments ()

Our second installment in our ongoing series of Gran Turismo 4 impressions looks at controls, graphics, sound, as well as more gameplay notes. Also included is our current list of prize cars and several new additions to old features that...

Our second installment in our ongoing series of Gran Turismo 4 impressions looks at controls, graphics, sound, as well as more gameplay notes. Also included is our current list of prize cars and several new additions to old features that we've found.

Read part one of this series here.

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One thing we're excited about is a new option to clear previously won races so you can win prize cars again. If a prize car can only be one once, you recieve a warning at the bottom of the screen. Speaking of prize cars, neither the Toyota nor the Pontiac gave you any money for selling them. Not good at this point, as the selling of prize cars has always been one of the sacrifices you had to make to progress through the game, at least at a reasonable pace. Here's a list of the ones we've found so far:

B License (Bronze) - Volkswagon Lupo 1.4
A License (Bronze) - Pontiac Sunfire GXP Concept '02
International-B License (Bronze) - NIKE One 2022
Sunday Cup - Autobianchi A112 Abrath
Japan '90s Challenge - NISMO 400R '96
4WD Challenge - Toyota Motor Triathalon Race Car '04

At this point, the controls are feeling as solid as ever, which bodes well for the PSP since basic gameplay won't be affected by the lack of a right analog stick or the two extra shoulder buttons. Car physics are indeed much improved—and that really is saying something. Due to this fact, pure horsepower doesn't matter quite as much as it has in previous games—you really do need the suspension, brakes and tires to stay competitive.

The graphics for the game are the best ever on the PS2, but of course the PSP is a different beast and so the importance of how the game looks on the PS2 is marginal, as is PS2 version's sound. However, if they manage to pack in all of the music tracks included in the PS2 in the PSP release, it will be a very impressive feat.

As for the A-spec points you earn during races, our best guess at this point is that new practice tracks become available at certain point levels. There really isn't much information on them in the Instruction Booklet, which is meager at best. Overall, the game is looking even better than we thought it was when we posted our last article. We've been playing for probably about 12 hours now, and we're not even 3% done. Gran Turismo truly is one of the best gaming values around.