Jack of
a few trades, that is.
Let me make it extremely clear : I am more of a fan of the arcade-type racing games, such as your Need for Speed Underground(1&2), Project Gotham Racing 1 and
Project Gotham Racing 2, and its older cousin Metropolis Street Racer. I try to avoid games like GT4 at all costs. But on this occasion, I couldn't stand the hype. I had to try 'the greatest driving game ever'. While I'm fairly impressed,it's hardly the greatest. This game is more of a Tyson than an Ali. Dem is fighting words if you kwim.
Truly, the hype machine is wrong again. In terms of graphics, this game brings it. The cars look very realistic. One problem : when viewing the cars, there's no option to do so in a showroom type fashion, such as you find in PGR 2. You have to go through each individual manufacturer,like VW,Honda or Toyota, and look through each of the cars individually. Even worse, you cannot spin or rotate the cars yourself with the controller - you have to wait for the PS2 to move it around, which it does very slowly. Quite frustrating indeed. So it takes a long time to actually have a good look at each car. The cars' horsepower and torque numbers are displayed below the picture of each when they come up on screen. The selection of cars is second to none. Expect to see plenty of cars that you've never even heard of as well, even if you're a car enthusiast like me. For example, a car made by MG, an AC Cobra(that one I've heard of), plus there's even a Land Rover concept among the plenty of others. Each car comes with its own unique sense of speed. So your Toyota Prius will seem hella slow compared to say, your Nissan 350Z. But, as such, each car is made that much more realistic. Are the braking systems the same for all cars? I have no idea. I would imagine a Land Rover can stop in a comparable time to a Honda Civic - that all cars braking power would be comparatively equal and that they used a certain formula or program to boil that all down. I could be wrong. I have no idea what I'm talking about :).
The courses look fine, although not quite as good as I expected. Again, I prefer PGR 2 in this category. One real problem I have with the courses is the lack of arrows or signposts. Maybe it's just the few courses I've played, but every course I've tried does not have any signals or indicators to let you know that a turn is coming up. So, you can be rolling along at 120 miles per hour, and only notice at the last second that the road ahead is blocked off. That SUCKS,especially at that speed. Not to worry, in arcade mode, at least, the cars don't take any damage. I really preferred the graphics on PGR 2 for Xbox. Yes, I'm an Xbox fanboy, but honestly, the courses, pound for pound, look better in that game. Take some screenshots of both games. They are comparable, but overall, the Xbox game wins out. If GT 4 was on Xbox, that may be another story. You must realise the PS2 is several years old at this point. It's like a 2000 Honda Civic - somewhat rusty, plenty of miles on it and the sunroof, power locks and mirrors are starting to fall apart. It's time for a replacement,Sony. Are you listening?
I haven't used my PS2 very much at all. It has been collecting dust in a box for the past few months, for the most part. I don't even have a memory card to speak of. One controller, the system and the cords, plus Parappa the rapper 2 and a few demos is all I have to show for myself. So, keeping that in mind, GT4 limited me as to the type of game I could play. No memory card, the game asked? Tough luck, you ain't gonna be playing gran turismo mode. GT mode is where you race cars, do challenges,etc. to earn new cars and upgrades,etc. So, I have not played it. That also sucks. Why am I not allowed to play this on a game I have paid for? What is the use of that? I don't care if GT4 thinks I need to save it. Yes, that'd be more convenient, but if I just want one or two hours worth of play, who gives a rat's behind about saving?
As far as the controls for this game go, I don't like them at all. The default controls are counterintuitive, at least to my way of thinking, and the way I have my settings for PGR 2(which are the default, I believe): R for accelerating, L for braking, X for powersliding, A & B for changing gears, Y for looking behind the car. Something like that. So in order to actually play GT 4, I had to change the controls to my preferences. Thankfully there is that option. Once I changed them they were fine, although the PS2 controller just doesn't feel as crisp,heavy or as good in terms of quality as the Xbox controller-s that I'm used to. Speaking of changing the controls, I'd like to comment on the menus in this game. Maybe the developers were going for a retro look - surely, they must have been. The menus look like they are 10 years ago, from an ugly old Apple computer. Is it retro? I have no idea. Again, the menu system does its job, and its easy enough to make mods to the car, change the course or type of car, mix up the settings, music and gameplay. But the menus just look plain awful. Some interactive, updated menus with pictures of cars surrounding the screen, with large text, etc. or a more basic updated design would really have helped in this area.
So, most importantly, how is the gameplay? Well, when I went out and rented this game, I was hoping that I would be able to get a sense that I was actually test driving the cars while playing. Not so. Or, more accurately, I didn't get the *sense* that I was anticipating. The game does not convey the sense of speed that I would have liked - something you'll find that is significantly better in Project Gotham Racing 2, Burnout 3(one word: WOW) and NFSU2. To me, some parts of the game just look plain and dated. I must admit, the intro is very nice,but besides that my first impressions, aside from the impressive array of cars to choose from, was not all that good. I was really bummed that I couldn't play the better half of the game without a memory card. The developers/publishers of this game are going to get A LOT of people frustrated because of this. Without the gran turismo mode, this game loses a lot of replay value, and quickly. It does have some unique features, and stuff that will keep you coming back(read: you can change the car's power to weight ratio-can you say addictive?). The fact that,(as I've read from other Epinions reviews) online play was cancelled at the last minute is an amazing kick in the teeth, especially considering the huge anticipation and following that the game and the hype-mongers had brewing. Sony has dropped the ball here. This could be a make or break move. I hope it breaks them,I really do. With this game, they have fallen flat on their face. Call me biased, I don't mind. I like my arcade racers, but I was thinking that maybe I could like this game, just maybe. Maybe I could appreciate the game's graphics(good), get used to the controls/controller(poor), and enjoy the courses(fair/good). Maybe, I thought, I could get used to less powersliding and more early braking. Less sliding out of the corner and more easing up on the clutch for a split-second. Downshifting rather than sliding through the turn? I was willing to give it a try. This game has disappointed me. Yes, I love that there's so many cars to choose from, and that the game really has come a long way graphically. Still, I was hoping to see some photo-realistic cars while racing. None of the games have graphics that good. Still,a kid can dream, can't he? I love PGR 2 for the reason that the graphics look so real, but after awhile, I realised...I'm watching a cartoon, not a real car. The cars are modeled accurately, but when you boil it all down,
you're basically racing comic-book cars in photo-realistic cities. Overall I'm giving this game 2 out of 5. I have found it to be a major disappointment, as I've outlined above. I like the graphics, to a certain degree, and the selection of cars. However, the positives stop there. Try
Project Gotham Racing 2 instead.
