And in his place, I shall be talking about GT4, which I picked up as well yesterday, because I'm a racing whore. I've got a soft spot for the GT series, which is kinda funny, because the first one I played was GT3, after I saw the commercials for it when I picked up my PS2 in the first place. So my 2nd experience so far with the fabled (and oft-delayed) series? So far, so good.
I will say that my right hand is currently in pain because of all of the mashing of the "X", "O", and Square buttons trying to get golds on all of the tests on the B License so far. Let me say this: if you thought some of the license tests were hard to get gold on in GT3, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Now granted I just started playing the game, but there was one test, B4, that I must have been doing for at least 2 hours, just trying to shave off 1.2 seconds from my overall time on a 1 minute course, all while having to follow a pace car. Argh.
Anyways, the game is very beautiful. I really can't believe that Polyphony Digital got the graphics that they did out of the PS2. Shows what you can do when you have intricate knowledge of the hardware you're working on, I guess. It's silky-smooth so far, and the car models are all really nice and shiny, which is great. The courses all look good as usual, and I've only seen 3 or 4 of them so far. The map for Gran Turismo mode now, is much cooler than in GT3, and it also makes much more sense. There's sections for each country that has a manufacturer now, so you can go to each country and look for makers in each country to buy directly from them, or enter in special races for cars made from one of those manufacturers or take a look at the classics they offer.
I really need a lot more time to fully reflect on just how much this game is going to consume my life over the coming months, but rest assured, if you're a racing fan, you're going to absolutely love GT4, I know Richie and I are so far.
-Jack
