I can' t believe nobody but me has played this game. Or at least cares to talk about it. I rented it a few weeks back because I wanted to see the Xbox-killing graphics it was supposed to have (it doesn' t kill the Xbox, by the way) as well as some of the other new features. While the graphics are improved, they are still jag-city. What' s more is that the game supports HDTV 1080i which helps smooth a few of the jaggies out (only a few, but still...) . 1080i also means 16:9. This is the only way to play the game. Unfortunately when the race is over and it' s time to select from a menu, the game reverts back to 480i. Apparently the PS2 is powerful enough to run millions of polygons per second in psuedo-HDTV, but asking it to show a simple text menu in HD is out of the question. The programmers messed up there. Constant resolution switching is not a great thing for many TVs, but what does Polyphony care? Oh well, it was only a rental.

The music sucks ass. It starts out with the same operatic music that was in the Japanese version and suddenly turns into... Van Halen' s " Panama" which was written in 1756. The good music from the Japanese version has been removed and instead we get licensed crap. Ug! Sony is starting to turn into EA with their horrible music selections. What' s more is that there was crappy, wimpy music in the Japanese version as well (from a different composer) and THEY LEFT THAT STUFF IN!

As for the game itself, it' s pretty slow and prodding. Go to earn a license and take a test. Then go to the next test. Then the next test. Then another test. Yaaaawn.... and it' s another test... then an asinine COFFEE BREAK! I hate coffee. And you don' t even drink any coffee... instead you take another test which must be completed but doesn' t count. This means you are halfway through your tests. Try not to fall asleep.. it is hard not to. The handling is OK but the actual racing action never reaches adrenaline-pumping levels. I imagine gran Turismo fans sit around and talk to each other while playing the game saying things like " Good show old chap. Brilliant!" The control of the cars is not accurate since I have never seen a real car be controlled by a PS2 controller. teh suck. And I ain' t sinkin' money into the tiny little steering wheel they have for it. Anyway if you like being bored, this game is for you!

There are some cool options like photo mode which let you take pictures of your car. the PS2 actually renders this in very, very high resolution (takes it a few seconds to render the frame). This can then be saved to a PS2 memory card, a USB storage device, or printed directly to a USB printer. I couldn' t wait to try this out, so I had to endure earning at least one car. I postioned my car and snapped the pic. SAVING TO USB DRIVE ------- USB DRIVE NOT DETECTED! What the hell? I tried both Compact Flash and Smartmedia and neither was recognized by the PS2. OK. I can still print it right? I connect my printer. PRINTING ----- PRINTER NOT CONNECTED! WTF? The PS2 can' t even recognize an HP printer? HP' s are some of the best printers out there. Then I realized something. My USB storage devices and printer were not made by Sony. How nice of them. Oh well.

In a releated story I rented Project Gotham 2 for the Xbox and it sucks ass.

thanks for your post Joe. You have now confirmed my belief that I do not need to play this game. About the whole printing thing, could it be perhaps a conflict between USB 1.1 and 2.0 devices? I believe he ports on the PS2 are 2.0(don' t quote me on that) and it may require that you use 2.0 devices. Still though, pretty stupid if that' s the reason, as it doesn' t exactly take the speed of 2.0 just ot send one photo over.

In a related story I rented Project Gotham 2 for the Xbox and it sucks ass.

Yeah, it isn' t really THAT good, but at least it' s better than GT4...

I bought the game a few weeks ago and sold it after a couple days. The game at times is just so boring! I wasted far too many hours of my life on GT3 and I' m not going to repeat the mistake with this!

I bought Prologue when it was released a while back and it just continued to confirm just why I dislike the Gran Turismo so much. I absolutely hate the controls, I MUCH prefer the road gripping controls of arcade racers.



I never got around to Project Gotham 2 but have always wanted to give it a try. Why does it suck? The original was ok but I losted interest in that one quick. Game looks great in still shots though!

Gotham 2 sux b cuz it haz no xploshuns! Actually I felt the game controlled too stiffly.

The PS2 has USB 1 ports since USB 2 was brought out long after the PS2. But even still, USB 2 is downward compatible with 1. You just get ass-tastic speed. The PS2 simply couldn' t find my devices. The Flash card lit up and blinked when I plugged it into the PS2. Maybe my PS2 was made in Mexico and speaks a different language.

Grand Turismo just never seems fast enough...now Burnout 3 on the other hand....wow

I bought the game when it came out.I coudnt play it because my PS2 cant read it.Then i borrowed my friends ps2 and played the game.This is the WORST racing game ive played in my life.I Will Never Play another game by poliphy digital again.

luckily i have a demo of Forza motorsport.


The graphics are the same as GT3 if not worse.The Controlles are as fake as they get.(Its like Playing Cruizin' the world on N64 with out the fun stuff)

after a long wait, i finaly got the chance to play gran turismo 4. i deliberately not bought me the prologue version, becouse it would kill the surprise. and i am glad i did that.

GRAPHICS: 9. when you first see the game, it looks prettier than part 3. especially the backgrounds are more detailed. but after longer playtime i noticed that the car detail is scaled down compared to GT3A-spec. also the mirror has less detail. but overall, i guess its the best that playstation 2 can offer.
if you want prettier games, wait for gran turismo on a playstation 3.

SOUND: 9. there is a lot of music in here, witch suites the game well. most cars souds nice and phat. but still there are a few cars sounding more like a lawnmower than a real race car. so no 10 for this section of the game, but the different music in the (really good) intro, and everything else fits the game nicely.

PLAYABILLITY: 10. sure, i never played a bad gran turismo game. especially with the GT steering wheel its really good. just ignore the new wheel that can rotate 900 degree' s, becouse then hard S curves or chicanes are way to hard to tackle becouse you keep on turning your wheel from one to the other side. but with the wheel that came with Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, its heaven to controll. also with the gamepad the game plays nice. but, like the gran turismo' s before this one, you have to like " simulation" handling, arcade fan' s better look elswhere.

LASTABILLITY: 10. and again the real deal for GT4. but what can i say with so much content, game modes (system link is in there, so we can usekai
xlink evo 7 to have some fun online racing !), and tuning possibillity' s, i can' t take a other conclusion that if you love simulation and racing, you came at the right adress. you will find more than 180 hours of playtime funn here. and then i am not even talking about unlocking everything. so there' s time trialls to improve your racoing, and get all driving licence tests on gold witch does not count towards the 180 hours of playtime. in fact, games like this can be played endlessly, wheren' t it for the fact that technology does not stand still, and better games will come.

TOTAL SCORE: 9. yes, barely a 9, and not a percent more. after reading the above, you' d come to expect a higher score, but to be honest, i also got something negative to report. the computer controlled opponents have not been improved. so they still ignore where you are on the road. they just drive their pre programmed line, no matter where you are. this means that you will win quite easilly after recognizing their driving style' s. also when you expected GT4 to be really a jump forwards compared to GT3, there awaits you dissapointment. but that does not mean i have regret that i bought this game. its good, its huge, and if (like me) you are a GT fan, you can see trough those minor foults. the fact that you can play online trough kai xlink evo 7 adds some real longlivety to the game, and you get worthy opponents. so get unlocking, and then come online for some real racing action.

i know not everyone will agree with my opinion, but i think its not fair to totally burn this game to the ground. its good, but it has not been improved a lot compared to its forebearer.

about the printer, it says in the manual that its only compatible with Epson printers.

That is retarded. What is even more retarded is that they actually expect people to read the manual. Real gamers never read the manual!

i did play it in fact here is my review-

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/granturismo4/reader_review.aspx?id=3493092