WHY THEY TAKE THE ONLINE COMPATIBILY OFF? I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO SMOKIN DUDES IN THIS GAME!!!!! DOES ANYBODY KNOW?? BESIDES THAT ITS BEEN ALMOST 2 YEARS SINCE IT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE RELEASED I REALLY HOPE THEY DONT DISSAPOINT THE FANS WIT IT, TOO BAD NO ONLINE THO ! OH WELL I CANT COMPLAIN CUZ THE FIRST AND SECOND GT DIDNT EVEN HAVE THAT OPTION SO ITS ALL GOOD BUT IT COULD OF BEEN BETTER *sigh*!.
I picked up a copy of this game the day it came out (just two days ago) and I love it. I will, however, admit that it does have its share of drawbacks, but there still isn't a racing game out there that can hold a candle to this one.
To begin, the graphics absolutely rock! For as many cars and as many tracks as there are in this game, with as customizable and unique as so many of the cars are, I'm absolutely astounded. It's one thing for a game that has, let's say 10-20 cars, to have rockin' graphics, but when a game has put such meticulous detail into each and every of the 600+ cars, you've got to be inspired (granted it did take them forever and a day to move from the previous sequel to this one).
The tracks are incredible and even include moving people. That, in itself just blew my mind.
There is the addition of the ability to manage a racing team, which, I'll admit, I have yet to try, but I just bought the game two days ago, so I'm sure I'll get to it.
There's also the picture taking feature, another thing I have yet to explore. That particular feature doesn't particularly appeal to me, but it's still a neat idea.
The level of customization has, again, been increased over its predecessor, although I question how much more can really be done. The one thing I wish they had in this regard was the ability to repaint your car, but I can live with that.
And, lastly, for anyone who thought far enough ahead to save their GT3 data, you can transfer the A and B licenses, in addition to $100k to the new game. This is definitely a bonus after having put into GT3.
Addressing some gripes:
First of all, no, your cars don't suffer damage, but this was intentionally left out. In an interview with the creators/developers, the discussed how they had considered adding damage, but decided against it for a few reasons: 1-Most players (the developers and myself included) prefer not to drive damaged cars. I'm sure most of you may disagree with this until you're blue in the face, but I'm just passing along the information. 2-Probably more importantly, although this game is supposed to be "all about the realism" as a driving simulator, the sheer amount of data added by including realistic damage, would certainly lead to processor lag time with the (now) limited hardware of the PS2. And, to avoid having all damage and wrecks look exactly the same on all cars, different styles of crash damage would have to be added for each and every one of the hundreds of cars. I would much rather have the developers focus on other, more important aspects of the game. Nuff said.
Another complaint addresses the lack of Ferraris and other exotic cars. This issue was addressed during the development of GT2 and 3. It's the same reason that there weren't any Fords in the game, initially. It's all about licensing issues. Ferrari (and I assume Lamborghini, although the Lamborghini GT appeared in the Japanese release of GT3) would not sell the license to use the cars in the game. Why? Because Ferrari decided to contract out and develop their own game, which fell completely flat. If Ferrari doesn't want their cars in this game, then I say to heck with em!
As for online play issues, I have yet to play the PS2 online, so that isn't of any concern to me either way.
So, in conclusion to all of my ramblings, is this game perfect? No, not quite. If some obstinent car companies would sign on (*cough-Ferrari-cough*) and, maybe, throw in a few more American cars (there are probably 2 or 3 to one as many Japanese cars as American) I would think that it was pretty darn close. I would give this game 4.5 stars if I could, but I'll go with 5 since there seem to be so many nay-sayers. It's simple, really: if you liked the previous installations of this game, you will like this one.
The Gran Turismo series is absolutely incredible. I own 1-4, and this is one of my favorites. $20 is a steal; I paid $50 for it when it came out, and I'd pay it again and again as the GT team dishes out more games. Gran Turismo continuously raises the bar and sets a new standard on what a racing simulator should be. The creator of Gran Turismo is a huge fan of photography, so you can also have plenty of fun taking pictures of your cars at about 10 different locations. You pick the camera angle/settings, the car, the location, and if you like what you shot, you can save it to your memory card to show off later. If you're let down at ALL by the content of this game, let's all remember that PlayStation2's capacity is what has limited this game's full potential.
My personal favorite besides GT4 is GT2.
"The seller was great but the game didn't live up to my expectations. Forza is better"
"It's really fun game. The selection of cars is vast! My 13 yrs old son loves it!."
