Gran Turismo 4 - Hands On Preview

At the recent Tokyo Game Show, Sony gave the Japanese audience what it wanted: a concrete Gran Turismo 4 release date. On December 3rd Japan will finally be allowed to race through the most realistic environments yet seen on the PS2 (although TVG has recently learnt that European gamers will have to wait until 2005 â?“ ed).

At TGS, we were surprised by the progress GT4 has made since the release of the somewhat disappointing Prologue demonstration.

AI in this latest build is certainly improved, but whether later races will reveal computer-controlled Ayrton Sennas remains to be seen. At least Gran Turismo 4 will offer a more realistic challenge than its predecessor, though: we tried to overtake on the outside and â?“ lo! â?“ were outmaneuvered by the car in front. Damn Toyotas.

As you probably know already, GT4 has had its online potential torn away in order for it to be released prior to the next millennium. Which is disappointing, yes, but there are many new modes in this game that go some way towards compensating for the loss. We were happy to take arty snaps in Photo Mode, and printing them off with a USB printer couldnâ??t be easier. B-Spec Mode, too, which served us a kind of racing management option, should have budding Bernie Ecclestones in a frenzy of tactical driving and post-race bitching. Neat.

Every aspect of GT4â??s graphics engine has been tweaked just shy of perfection. We didnâ??t notice any areas which obviously needed working, and we were left a feeling of utter satisfaction: GT4 looks as impressive as we had once expected GT3 to be. The level of detail trackside is very high, and visual effects on track â?“ such as tyre marks and reflections â?“ have never been more convincing. Gran Turismo 4 really blurs the boundaries between videogame graphics and televisual event coverage.

This has been Sonyâ??s highest priority game for what seems like an eternity. When itâ??s finally released in December, weâ??re now confident that Gran Turismo 4 will easily validate the length and breadth of its life in development.