Gran Turismo 4
A first look at Polyphony's ambitious racer, straight from Gamers' Day 2003.
Published: September 20, 2003
GT3 is still damned impressive, which should say something about how well developer Polyphony Digital works with the hardware they're given. Even Gran Turismo 2, which looks archaic by today's standards, is a remarkable accomplishment on the PlayStation. GT4 has already been shown off a few times, and we've had the good fortune to be there to check out the major U.S. unveiling at E3 this year and spend a little time with the game, so you'd think we'd cease to be wowed by the game. Well, we thought as much, anyway. We were wrong.
At this year's Gamers' Day in San Francisco, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi once again took us through the game's paces, demonstrating both an all new incredibly tight race through the claustrophobic alleyways of Italy and the new physics model that made navigating the tighter turns possible. 50,000 digital photos of the real-life Italian course were snapped and then squeezed into the game to create what is arguably GT4's most impressive course yet.
From the start, the GT series has tried to incorporate as much of the racing experience as possible into a single game, which each new iteration adding finer details to expand on the main racing mode of the game. With GT4, that focus has shifted – albeit only slightly – to include what Yamauchi describes as "the human element" (which complements the car and environment elements that were previously held in the fore). This is a catch-all description that encompasses not only people themselves, but the smaller touches they add to the races. For instance, on the rally courses (which feel incredible with the new Logitech steering wheel, but more on that later), literally hundreds – if not thousands – of people are now animated on the sidelines and actually react to the races instead of being canned, cycled animations, so when a car comes around a bend and sprays dirt into the onlookers, you'll actually see them cover their faces with their arms.
There's also the element of driver interaction, or more appropriately showing off that kind of interaction for the first time. The game will finally feature open cockpit convertibles and Formula 1 racecars, and although it wasn't implemented in the build we played, you'll actually see the driver reacting to the physics and doing things like shifting when appropriate. The latter isn't new; it's been done in racing games for a few years now, but seeing the former in action should add another level to the on-screen action that will be incredible to witness.
GT4, more than any other game in the past, is also striving to recreate the progression of racing through history. To that end, over 500 cars (some of them possibly from around the turn of the century) will be available in the game, and everything from American muscle cars to the aforementioned convertibles to Formula 1 racecars to street racing machines and their variants will be included. The idea is to chart from past to present how racing has progressed and how cars have changed over the years.
As in previous games, GT4 splits its courses over real-world and original tracks, though again this has been taken to another level. Real-world courses are no longer relegated to just race tracks like Laguna Sega, but have actually spilled out into city streets and landmarks. The latest build we played boasted the same tracks as E3 build (New York, Tsukuba Circuit, Grand Canyon Rally), plus two new ones, the aforementioned Citta di Aria (translated as "City in the Air") in Italy and the Fuji Speedway in Japan. While they weren't shown off, we did get the chance to see three new courses in screenshot form; a snow-drenched rally course, a nighttime street race and a midday race through an expanse of bamboo forest were all shown off – the latter was especially impressive when it game to the reflections in the windshield.
Graphically, the game somehow manages to put GT3 to shame, but it's more in the subtle details that GT4 really shines. Polyphony has extended the draw and mip-mapping distances out so far they're damn near impossible to judge, resulting in clarity that extends pretty much as far as you can see down the course. This is especially evident in the fantastically detailed background images – particularly the ones at the Grand Canyon and Citta di Aria courses.
Oddly enough, with the previously mentioned physics overhaul, the game felt a little harder to control. There seemed to be a much smaller (of not non-existant) dead zone, so you'd have to constantly steer on straightaways, which would sometimes result in overcorrections. We noticed quite a few people slamming into walls, particularly on the rally courses. On the plus side, the rumble feedback, which has already been among the best ever felt in games, felt stellar, especially on the loose dirt of the rally courses. When coupled with Logitech's newest GT Force wheel, the overall impression was probably about as accurate as we'll ever feel without stepping into a really rally race.
GT4 has a bit longer to go before it hits next January, but so long as the new physics model is adaptable to the general public, there's no reason why the game won't go down in history as the best racing game ever made.
At this year's Gamers' Day in San Francisco, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi once again took us through the game's paces, demonstrating both an all new incredibly tight race through the claustrophobic alleyways of Italy and the new physics model that made navigating the tighter turns possible. 50,000 digital photos of the real-life Italian course were snapped and then squeezed into the game to create what is arguably GT4's most impressive course yet.
From the start, the GT series has tried to incorporate as much of the racing experience as possible into a single game, which each new iteration adding finer details to expand on the main racing mode of the game. With GT4, that focus has shifted – albeit only slightly – to include what Yamauchi describes as "the human element" (which complements the car and environment elements that were previously held in the fore). This is a catch-all description that encompasses not only people themselves, but the smaller touches they add to the races. For instance, on the rally courses (which feel incredible with the new Logitech steering wheel, but more on that later), literally hundreds – if not thousands – of people are now animated on the sidelines and actually react to the races instead of being canned, cycled animations, so when a car comes around a bend and sprays dirt into the onlookers, you'll actually see them cover their faces with their arms.
There's also the element of driver interaction, or more appropriately showing off that kind of interaction for the first time. The game will finally feature open cockpit convertibles and Formula 1 racecars, and although it wasn't implemented in the build we played, you'll actually see the driver reacting to the physics and doing things like shifting when appropriate. The latter isn't new; it's been done in racing games for a few years now, but seeing the former in action should add another level to the on-screen action that will be incredible to witness.
GT4, more than any other game in the past, is also striving to recreate the progression of racing through history. To that end, over 500 cars (some of them possibly from around the turn of the century) will be available in the game, and everything from American muscle cars to the aforementioned convertibles to Formula 1 racecars to street racing machines and their variants will be included. The idea is to chart from past to present how racing has progressed and how cars have changed over the years.
As in previous games, GT4 splits its courses over real-world and original tracks, though again this has been taken to another level. Real-world courses are no longer relegated to just race tracks like Laguna Sega, but have actually spilled out into city streets and landmarks. The latest build we played boasted the same tracks as E3 build (New York, Tsukuba Circuit, Grand Canyon Rally), plus two new ones, the aforementioned Citta di Aria (translated as "City in the Air") in Italy and the Fuji Speedway in Japan. While they weren't shown off, we did get the chance to see three new courses in screenshot form; a snow-drenched rally course, a nighttime street race and a midday race through an expanse of bamboo forest were all shown off – the latter was especially impressive when it game to the reflections in the windshield.
Graphically, the game somehow manages to put GT3 to shame, but it's more in the subtle details that GT4 really shines. Polyphony has extended the draw and mip-mapping distances out so far they're damn near impossible to judge, resulting in clarity that extends pretty much as far as you can see down the course. This is especially evident in the fantastically detailed background images – particularly the ones at the Grand Canyon and Citta di Aria courses.
Oddly enough, with the previously mentioned physics overhaul, the game felt a little harder to control. There seemed to be a much smaller (of not non-existant) dead zone, so you'd have to constantly steer on straightaways, which would sometimes result in overcorrections. We noticed quite a few people slamming into walls, particularly on the rally courses. On the plus side, the rumble feedback, which has already been among the best ever felt in games, felt stellar, especially on the loose dirt of the rally courses. When coupled with Logitech's newest GT Force wheel, the overall impression was probably about as accurate as we'll ever feel without stepping into a really rally race.
GT4 has a bit longer to go before it hits next January, but so long as the new physics model is adaptable to the general public, there's no reason why the game won't go down in history as the best racing game ever made.