Part of it was that we went for the glamorous lines of the incredibly sexy Skyline successor: the almighty Nissan GT-R. Having four-wheel drive couldn't save us from slamming all that weight into more than a few walls heading out of the tunnel and around the chicanes that would eventually put us right back into a couple tunnels, but eventually we learned to play the game exactly as we should: like a sim. We pulled back, braked early, pointed things in the right direction and floored it. And then we spun out. Hm. A bit more practice, though, and we were quickly tearing around the track with reckless abandon.

One thing that struck us as we learned to tame the beast that was the GT-R was just how uncompromising the game's visuals were. Here was a gorgeous re-creation of a familiar track, complete with soft shadows, gleaming chassis and blaring sun flares, and yet it was all running at a rock-solid 60 frames a second. Hardly any PSP games have been able to match that framerate, and none of them have done it while pumping out visuals this clean and detailed. Not one. The screen real estate is used as best it can, cramming a detailed hud with things like traction control, speed, RPMs and the usual. It's no doubt used to lessen the amount of space taken up for the game, of course, but it's useful too.

That's especially true now that the game no longer has the analog button travel of previous games. On the PS3, the triggers could be used for gas and brake, but even the face buttons have always allowed a feather touch. Using the d-pad, Kaz-style, and the digital buttons made things feel far more squirrelly than before, but we quickly adjusted to just tap-tap-tapping the gas or brakes to get it all to work right. Braking, especially, was important because rear-wheel drive cars would kick out the back very, very easily if one were to just press and hold the accelerator without properly lining everything up. Yes, this is Gran Turismo, and it feels awesome once you come to grips with a more rigid set of rules governing how the game accelerates, turns and breaks.

Now, for one of the other bummers we ran into: the game's progression is a little more open than before. That means missions rather than location-specific circuits that are followed. It's not a huge deal (and for those that want 'em, the license tests are back as missions, but not required anymore). The missions are also a bit more loose in vehicle selection this time around, allowing players to go with a car that suits their driving style (at least to a degree).

Cars are no longer unlocked as part of a normal 1st place finish, but rather over time, and broken up into unlock-only, trade-only and trade-but-keep variations. This is important, because the trading aspect of the game is fundamental to the way Polyphony Digital wants PSP owners to play the game. It would take ages to actually unlock everything manually, but when multiple users that have unlocked entirely different rides get together, they can mix and match their stables to round out the collection. It's an interesting (and decidedly PSP-focused) way of handling the auto roster.

Gran Turismo is, without question, a massive boon to the PSP library. It supplies the same core driving practices and techniques of the full-blown console versions, but feels uniquely suited to the PSP, and should help move more than a few PSP gos if our play time was any indication. Now the only problem is that we'll have to wait until October to start unlocking and trading all those rides.