OT: GT4, playstation geek stuff Options

[lapuwali]

After wasting hours and hours for years on Gran Turismo 3 on the Playstation 2, I picked up Gran Turismo 4 yesterday.

They've added the full "old" Nurburgring, which alone was reason enough to get it. It's the current incarnation of that track, complete with the Armco and spray-painted graffiti on the track surface. It's quite unlike the rendition in Grand Prix Legends (for those of you who remember that). They also added Sears Point, both with and without the "NASCAR loop". I've been on that track (unlike The Ring), and it feels pretty much like the real thing. The major difference is they're using the current landscaping, with most of the hills removed. My laps were back in the days when they still had hilltops between turns 2, 3, 4, and 5. The full Suzuka is there. Laguna returns from the previous version, and has been updated so it looks more or less like it looks today.

Lots of "historic" cars from the 50s and 60s, in addition to the 80s on stuff they had in GT3. No Porsches, though, just like before. Licensing issues, apparently. No Ferraris, Maseratis, or Lamborghinis, either. I know the Elan S2 and Europa are there, along with several Elise variations, and I'm told the Lotus 25 is in there somewhere. They even have an Alpine A110...Of course, they still have a zillion sub-variations on the Skyline and other Japanese stuff, as before. Some muscle cars are included (I saw an early Pontiac GTO), though I haven't yet seen if they handle as badly as I expect them to.

The physics has been altered from GT3. The car now feels like it actually has suspension, and esp. the little road cars you're forced to start with have lots of brake dive. You can get the car sufficiently out of shape to completely spin now, which was pretty difficult to do in GT3. Coming up over a crest a bit too hot and hitting a curb will put the car into pretty serious gyrations that "feel" fairly realistic.

There are some graphics glitches (odd jitter) here and there, but overall it looks nicer than GT3. The menus are easier on the eye, but rather harder to navigate. They've really jumbled up the racing structure. I've just barely scratched the surface so far. There's a lot there.