14 DAY TRIAL // 
After the perfect Gran Turismo 3 game, Polyphony Digital had to pull a pretty big rabbit out of their hat to please the fans and I have to admit that they did a pretty good job. There aren't many driving simulators for the consoles, let alone series that define the genre. In these four years that passed since the third game was released, Polyphony Digital had all the time in the world to correct the faults of the previous game and add new modes and cars to the already gigantic database.
Concept Have you ever driven 700 cars? I think that not even 1% of the gamers worldwide can brag with such driving experience, unless they've played Gran Turismo games since the first one was released. Once you've skipped, I mean watched the intro cutscene, you are taken to the main menu where you can choose to play a Career mode called Gran Turismo or the arcade mode. The first may seem a bit of a pain as you really need to think your moves ahead and buy the stuff you need being limited by the amount of cash you have. The currency in GT4 is credits and if you're familiar with the GT series, this won't surprise you. Speaking of which, you should know that you can change the units of measurement from the options menu by selecting miles or kilometers or horse power for the torque.
If the human opponents or the AI don't provide enough competition for you, feel free to take on a time trial and try to defeat those ghosts. Every track in GT4 can be played in its normal version or the reversed one, increasing the game's replayabillity. In case you get bored of the driver's seat, you can enjoy the B-spec mode that allows you take control of the pit and be the manager of your driver. You'll have to tell the man what to do, at least stuff that has to do with cornering, speeding up or surpassing other cars. If the tires receive a lot of damage, you can call the pilot to go to the pit for a quick change of tires.
I don't remember ever playing a game with such a huge database, and GT4 is a virtual encyclopedia of cars, manufacturers, models and spoilers. 700 cars, 240 of them being available right from the start and 87 cars from different eras will be available for all of those 4-wheel vehicles aficionados. There are even F1 cars in those fancy showrooms you'll visit while playing the career mode. 100 years of automobile history has been condensed into one DVD that got the name Gran Turismo 4 and you'll be able to see or drive cars that our grandfathers saw as "cool rides" when they were young.
There are 4 types of tracks you can race on: world circuits, original circuits, city courses, dirt and snow tracks, summing up to 100 wonderful locations.
Autumn Ring, Nurburgring, Laguna Seca, Seatle, the Grand Canyon are only a few of the famous tracks you'll see in this Gran Turismo title. They're designed according to the real circuits and each turn and hairpin will challenge your driving skills, if you have them. If you don't, it's time for a little training, thanks to an option called "Licensing." If you're a noob at this type of games, you'll be drifting all the time, of course without wanting to.
Such a driving style can become useful in a snowy environment or those nasty off-road challenges. I suggest you take those license tests, because they can prove to be extremely useful teaching you the basics of driving. You'll also get some new cars and tracks after you'll have completed some of them. The license tests are divided into: B license, A license, International B license, International A and the Super license. While the first two involve doing boring stuff like cornering or finishing laps in the allotted time, the international challenges will surely make your palms sweat and increase your reflexes' responses.
Loading times will make browsing through Gran Turismo's many menus a real pain and there's also that annoying music that will never change and it seems that it will also be a part of Gran Turismo 5. That's only a speculation considering I've only played Gran Turismo HD, the preview version of GT5. Back to the fourth installment, you'll be surprised to find out that you have a diary, where you can see what races you've won or lost and the cars you had, sold or tuned in your fancy garage. The whole game is structured according to an unlockable-based system that lets you progress only by following certain steps. Don't worry about any pre-defined script, because there are billions of combinations you can do, by choosing cars, adding racing improvements to them and enlisting in crazy races.
Gameplay Taking license tests is a must if you want to get accustomed to GT 4's driving system and you'll have quite a ball with those. Cornering, taking turns, accelerating and breaking within a certain marked space, these are the things you'll do in order to gain access to new challenges and vehicles. A thing that always frustrated me in Gran Turismo games is the limited number of cars you can race against, 6 for this game. Also, I would have really enjoyed a race with more competitors in the 2-player mode. Those few cars don't seem too keen on winning as they don't do their best to get past you once you're in front of them.
Sadly, there's no damage concept in GT, so you won't see any metallic parts flying around when you hit a wall at 100 miles per hour. The only damage you'll see is the tire damage shown by a little display on the left side of the screen. Here's where the realism kicks in and the car will take turns in a very odd way if you have extremely damaged tires. If you're planning to use the pit stops, be warned that they last much longer than those you've seen in the Formula 1 races and some races will be lost or won thanks to those tire changes.
In Gran Turismo 4, each car part influences how the whole vehicle works. Make a small adjustment to the car's weight or exhaust and you'll feel (and hear) a slight change in the car's max speed and torque. While playing the Gran Turismo mode, you should be careful not to waste those precious credits, because you're going to need them...bad! You start off with a second hand car, an Asian one I suppose. You move on to upgrades, start winning races and sooner or later you'll be driving a beautiful Dodge Viper with all the racing improvements attached. For the melancholic players, there's a photo lab that allows them to take pictures of their cars and place them in the locations where they have raced. Save them on an USB stick and print them to show your friends the exotic locations you've seen.
Control the car with either the D-pad or the analog control, with a slight advantage if you pick the second option. The combination left analog-right analog will make you win lots of races, as the directional pad will give you thumb-aches and some lack of sensitivity. An analog approach of GT 4 allows the player to use the right stick to accelerate and break, and the left one to change direction. That solves the problem of switching fingers and losing that half a second when you move your finger from the X (acceleration) to the square (brake button).
Choose between a manual gear shifter and the automatic one if you're sure that your fingers can take the pressure of pushing the shoulder buttons at the right time. Sometimes, while playing in 2-player mode, a gamer with a precise gear shifting can outrace the guy with the automatic gear shifting turned on. Tires damage, the weather, blurred vision, even the time of day can influence the way you handle the challenge during the races. It may be the Sun blinding you, a slippery track or just some bad choices when tuning the car, so if you want to blame someone for your failure, blame the producers and GT 4's realism.
For more credits, you must do special cups that require certain parameters to be entered. It might the car's class, its engine power or simply the brand, but I assure you that those challenges are worth the effort, because they're the only game modes where you'll find some real AI. Probably that happens because they award you lots of cash, new cars and tracks to race on. Some gamers out there buy each GT for its goodies and I'm not talking about any normal BMW or Peugeot, but those F1 models, or hidden oldies tuned up to the present versions. Shelby Cobra, Lotus, Aston Martin and some very cool Chevies are the worst of these cars...imagine that!
If you're really into cars, you'll be amazed by the details that were included in Gran Turismo 4. Not only will an Aston Martin be driven in a totally different way than a Viper, but you'll see cars of the same brand showing their weak points or advantages. While searching for the ride of your dreams you'll learn a bit of history, a bit of mechanics and some fun facts about all the brands and models you've ever heard about. Even those limited edition vehicles were added and you'll find constructors that produced one single car in their entire existence. Chasing better cars for bigger wins is not the only thing you'll do when a beautiful drag race awaits in Las Vegas. This is not an attempt from Polyphony to reach EA Sports' status acquired thanks to the NFS titles. Even if AI in poor races are not that easy, you can make them that way by cutting corners or using the other cars as bumpers. There are no penalties and you can do anything you want as long as it makes you win the race.
Video The graphics in Gran Turismo 4 are the climax of the PS 2's video rendering capabilities and you'll surely enjoy every bit of the scenery and every pixel of the vehicles. I didn't quite like the fact that I was being limited to 3 views and 2 of them were from inside the car. The behind-the-car camera is useless, because it's placed too close to the vehicle and you'd better use one of the other two views if you want to start earning credits. One stunning effect that puzzled me was the fact that when you hit a car or a wall, the screen gets blurred and you lose control of your ride for a few seconds. Also an extremely high speed also gets you blurred vision.
Remembering the beautiful cutscene from Gran Turismo 2 with The Cardigans' song played through it, I have to say that Polyphony Digital exaggerated with the first FMW, making it something suited for an Onimusha title, rather than a driving simulator. Leaves flying around, a soft violin music and a car filmed like it was the most beautiful girl in the world (for some it is). Each vehicle in GT 4 is made out of 5000 polygons and you'll see some stunning car details and beautiful models.
Never before have photographing men been so threatened like in this game. It might be their job, but you'll see people almost jumping in front of your car trying to snap some pictures of your spectacular progress. Flashes everywhere, beautiful lighting effects, realistic day-night shifting, class A weather effects, Need for Speed are you dead yet? Also, there are those very accurate replays that you can save and show your friends, by using all sorts of editing options, so many of them that you'll even seem to be winning a lost race, at least in the replay. Fast-forward, rewind, add a blurring effect, darken the image, skip a couple of seconds or change the camera view. It's almost as professional as FIFA's re-runs.
Sound The music is suited for this genre, as it's made out of rock or techno tunes that I would listen to when I'm driving my (real) car. They may not be Cardigans, but some very cool licensed songs will make you turn up the music's volume up a bit, and the engine's volume down. We wouldn't want to miss the sounds of those angry engines underneath our hoods. Smashing into other players' cars will be delicious, to say the least and that metallic sound will almost make you go outside and see if some drunk driver rammed into your real ride.
The race starts are the same in every GT title, the "3-2-1 go!" signaled by some siren and the roaring engines that will accompany you till the end. Collision sounds will make your day, although they will be heard at times when you'll wish that the race was over sooner. Check out the differences between car models and hear the loud engine of muscle car or the kitty-like purring of a Mini Cooper. They sound as good as they look, if not better.
Multiplayer For a beautiful game like this, the lack of an online multiplayer mode can only make a gamer sad. We have that LAN mode that allows 6 players to race, but the original fun is in the 2-player races, with the good old split screen. Pick any of the tracks you raced on in the single-player mode or import the car you've tuned in Gran Turismo mode and take on the street followed (or preceded) by one of your friends. The only trouble is that the game suffers from some mysterious blurs when you race near the opponent or drift at the same time with the other car. Otherwise, the multiplayer mode is pure fun, allowing you to browse the whole list in the search of the perfect ride in an attempt to kick your friend's behind.
Conclusion We're dealing with THE racing game, one of those rare titles that define a genre and match the exact definition of the type of production they are. GT 4 is a realistic driver simulator in its essence and its arcade elements are zero, unless you count the damage concept. Not having so many competitors in this field, it's easily the best game of the genre, challenging even mildly-related games like Need for Speed, TOCA Race Driver or the Test Drive series.
