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Gran Turismo 2 Preview
Mark Simons
00/12/0000
One for the driving enthusiasts to keep an eye out for.
The next game to come out under the GT name is the simply titled Gran Turismo 2, and it is for the PlayStation. At first glance you may not be that impressed, and that says more about the visual impact of the first game rather than this one, but as with the original GT, go beneath the surface and you will find a game more than capable of taking hours, even days of your time.
Gran Turismo 2 is limited by the format it is on, simply put the PlayStation is not powerful enough for what the people behind this game want to do, you will be hard pushed to notice this when playing though. Graphically it is stunning, pushing the PlayStation technology to its uppermost limits, the cars are more detailed than ever and the courses are noticeably better than previously, if you are expecting a huge visual leap then you will be disappointed, but what did you expect from a machine that is over five years old?
As with the graphics the handling of the cars is not obviously more realistic, the physics engine has been improved considerably and after much playing you will really appreciate the effort that has gone into crafting this game. There are some significant new additions to the game though, such as the different type of racing that occurs in game. No longer limited to straight road races you have the option of Drag Racing, which is well, drag racing, Dirt Track racing which is point to point rallying against the clock, as well as normal racing on dirt tracks, Standard racing which is your traditional tarmac based racing and lastly there is Classic racing, this is one of the more interesting options. Ever wanted to race the classic Corvette in Gran Turismo mode? Well now you can race that and more with this Classic American muscle car mode, fantastic!
All of the best features of Gran Turismo are in place, which when you thing about it is the whole thing! The game is still split into Arcade mode and GT mode, the former being a gentle introduction (and large enough to be a game in its own right) and the latter is the real meat of the game that will keep you up all night. Still in place is the genius touch that is the license tests, there are 60 of the things and you will use them to hone you skills in every aspect of GT racing. Here is another genius touch: if you have your saved game from Gran Turismo with all of the license tests completed, and you load that into GT2, you will not need the tests, hereās hoping that you can transfer all of your cars as wellā¦ The replays, which were so compelling in the original, are back and as amazing as ever, watching the cars fighting for position, and the amazingly good artificial intelligence making mistakes and fighting as every bit as hard as you are just makes the races look strangely real.
Perhaps what kept me going back to Gran Turismo was not the huge number of cars, or the realistic physics and A.I. but the courses. For me there is nothing better than putting in a blistering time on Deep Forest, or Clubman Stage R5. The course design in Gran Turismo was amazing, I can remember all of the courses and they could almost be real tracks. Gran Turismo 2 not only brings in some new courses, including the licensed Laguna Seca Raceway, which by the was is a great course, it keeps some of the original courses, which are the Test Circuit, High Speed Ring, Clubman Stage Route 5, Special Stage Route 5 and Autumn Ring Mini. It will be a welcome return to these courses with new and better cars, and what a lot of new and better cars there areā¦
If you thought that Gran Turismo had a lot of cars, think again, whilst the original had just over 290 licensed cars, Gran Turismo 2 features 594, which is just phenomenal. They include some big new names such as Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ford, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz, Mini Cooper, Shelby and more. Quite frankly the number of cars in this game is bordering on the ridiculous, more ridiculous is that each is of such high graphical quality that you can spot the differences between different models of the same car. Even if a driving game from now on offers me one hundred cars it will seem a pitiful amount, oh well the bar has been raised.
This game is not the generational leap that many are unrealistically expecting, what this game does is to refine the whole experience of Gran Turismo, and then stack it full of cars and tracks, topping the package off with stunning graphics, amazing A.I. and sound effects. There will be one driving game on the PlayStation for the real enthusiast and the casual gamer alike, that game will be Gran Turismo 2. I can tell you now that I for one will be playing this game for a long time indeed, and I expect that many of you will be as well.
