Yet despite the feeling that GT Sport's car roster is a little padded out with same-model iterations, there are still plenty of notable and desirable motors available to win and buy. Each features its own unique tune, engine power, and bodykit, but nevertheless, there's no getting away from the fact that they're all based on the same chassis. Along with a standard road model, there are Gr.B Rally, Gr.B Road, Gr.3 and Gr.4 versions. There are five versions of the Mitsubishi Evo Final Edition, for example. While there are more than 150 different cars to race, look a little closer at the roster, and you'll see plenty of single-model variants. Some elements of the car list are also disappointing. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se-some of the new tracks are actually really enjoyable to drive around-but I feel that I should mention that for a game that brands itself The Real Driving Simulator, it is somewhat lacking when it comes to real-world courses. While fifteen real courses sounds reasonable enough, it breaks down to five Willow Springs tracks, four Nürburgring courses, two Brands Hatch and Suzuka circuits, and single loops for Interlagos, and Mount Panorama. The track selection is good, but may well be a little disappointing to those who enjoy racing world famous circuits. It's a decent amount of racing content, but not outstanding. There are 17 track locations with 40 variants (including reverse modes), and 162 cars to drive. Gone are the huge car and track rosters of yore, and instead we have a far more modest affair that sits somewhere between the original game and Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec in scope and scale. Since it's an all-new game that contains no legacy assets, GT Sport is essentially a hard reset for the series. However-and I bet you knew that was coming-there are some issues. It delivers by far the finest driving experience the series has ever offered. I'll be up-front with you: In many respects GT Sport is a truly fabulous racer that melds absolutely outstanding audio-visuals with a deeply impressive and involving handling engine. So now-finally-I have it, and I've been playing it obsessively. Once again, it became The Game I Absolutely Had To Have. It showed a tremendous amount of promise, and my excitement was further heightened when I got the chance to speak to series creator Kazunori Yamauchi, and he told me that GT Sport represented the first of a new generation of Gran Turismo games. The release of a new game in the series is a banner event for me, and I've been keenly anticipating GT Sport ever since playing it at E3 last year. Here we are, 20 years later, and I'm still feeling the passion for Gran Turismo. I collected all the cars, won every one of its contests, and still came back for more. I'd certainly never played a racer like it, and I loved it with a passion. It raised the racing game bar by such a degree, it would take years for anything even remotely resembling a competitor to appear. That December, on the day after Christmas, I picked up an import copy of the game, and ended up in peak gaming heaven for the rest of the vacation. It vastly eclipsed what we'd seen in previous benchmark racers such as Test Drive and Need for Speed, and after getting the chance to sit down and actually play it, Gran Turismo immediately became The Game I Absolutely Had To Have.įortunately, I didn't have too long to wait. As a racing game fan, it seemed like a dream come true-especially when the PR person reeled off details about the game. The more I watched it, the more impressed I became. Sony came in with a preview copy of the game, and I remember seeing it from across the room-someone was driving a Honda Civic around a race track lined with trees-and my jaw pretty much hit the floor. I first saw it in October of 1997 when I was working at IGN (back when it was still known as the Imagine Games Network). I just realized that it's almost exactly 20 years since I fell in love with the original Gran Turismo.
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