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Hello and welcome to my car reviews site. This is
a website devoted to a variety of vehicles found in the Gran Turismo® games.
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I
started writing these just a couple weeks after getting into GT1 way back in December 2003. Originally I used my reviews
as a frame of reference so that if I drove a particular car for awhile, months later I'd still have some notes on it.
After getting into GT2 in March of 2004, I had somewhere between 15 and 20 of these mock-reviews
written. Looking back on them, they seem almost primitive!
One day in May of 2004, it dawned on me that instead of
writing reviews by hand and later typing them into Pagemaker, I could directly type them into my own webpages. And here
we are.
You wont find a review for every single car in these games, but I've driven and raced
a wide variety of vehicles, and have written about those that I've been inspired by. These reviews are somewhat similar
to what you might find in any car magazine; except that I try to compare what I know about the real-life cars to
those in our games. As a mechanic in real-life, I also get to drive plenty of cars found in our games (although I don't get
to drive them at Gran Turismo speeds!). By reviewing, I am therefore judging these cars in a detailed, systematic way
that plots reality against the game's mock-reality.
There are plenty of walkthrough sites and Cheat/FAQs on the web that describe how to get thru
the game to the fastest cars as quickly as possible, and with a 100% win ratio. They usually suggest using "overkill" cars
while ignoring slower ones. There are plenty of these types of sites around, but hardly any websites with detailed descriptions
on how the cars (fast or slow) actually BEHAVE.
Currently, I'm still exploring GT4, having raced about half the cars of GT1 and perhaps a third
of the ones in GT2. I also did most of GT3: A-spec as well; however I eventually got bored with the limited selection
of autos in this game. Our experience from game to game is important. The cars in Gran Turismo tend to be designed to drive
differently in each version of GT; many times, even the same make and model will have various strengths and weaknesses
when placed in different scenarios found in each Gran Turismo.
To summarize, GT1 is often thought of as the hardest of the series by many players. Money doesn't
just roll in until you're hitting the most advanced races. Such features as pole-position qualifying and the license tests
are more difficult to achieve in GT1. GT2 has hundreds more cars than GT1, but feels incomplete at times. It is the easiest Gran
Turismo in my opinion; money is ridiculously EZ to come by even if the driver has mediocre talent. However, GT2 has
some difficult races here and there. GT2's license tests vary in difficulty. Overall, the entire GT2 experience feels
a bit "rushed", as there are so many inconsistencies, mistakes, and glitches it can get annoying. But GT2 has many features
(like the Event Generator, the ability to set up to 99 laps in arcade races, and tracks such as Red Rock Speedway, Grindelwäld,
and Rome Nite, not to mention several hundred cars, and the ability to share track records between multiple memory cards)
that are missing from the other GTs.
In GT3, Polyphony obviously put more detail into quality and it's a beautiful game,
but it lacks the variety of cars in GT2, which (at the time) pissed lots of gamers off. Some of the racing in GT3 starts off
extremely easy...to the point of idiocy...but as you wind your way towards the Professional League, it gets alot more intense.
There is lots of driving and lots of racing to accomplish in GT3. One of the biggest faults with this game is the monotony
of it all. Not only is there a huge lack of cars we all expected the 2nd game, you'll also find yourself bored as
you drive the same tracks over and over and over.
GT4 cured the monotony with dozens of models (hundreds), many of which are not
found in any of the previous three games. Also, there are many new tracks. The feel of the game as you drive is
also improved. Many have complained how "slow" GT3 feels, which is actually because of the way the view is portrayed
as you drive, not because you're going slower. GT4 cured this, too, and feels alot speedier than 3.
Some faults of
GT4? It's still an easy game in alot of ways....still possible to cheat your way through, and still there's no damage if you
wreck. However, the "maintenance" angle (with oil changes) started in GT3 is further defined in GT4, as it's now possible
for a car's handling to get worse and worse with time as you add miles and drive over bumps. There's too many new features
in GT4 to mention here, actually, so I'll move on.
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This is a fairly detailed account of each vehicle's usefulness from a monetary standpoint;
which should be especially useful to beginners (all 6 of them reading this) because they'll be able to purchase a car based
on how quickly they can actually drive it, modify it, and they'll also get an idea of how well the car stacks up credit for
mile. Lots of times, beginners are swayed by how cool a car looks. Some of the 'cool' looking cars in the game are actually
too much for a novice to handle, and some of them are absolutely useless in the long run. This web site is a series on how
efficient each car is from a monetary standpoint. More advanced racers might find some usefulness here as well.
--Also on this site are some web pages devoted to "fair racing", and they include ways to
make GT2, 3, and 4 closer and more challenging. Go check out the Racing Guide links below (and in most of this
site's margins) to find out what they're all about.
This website is public domain and may not be used, in whole or in part, for profit of any
kind. No part of this document may be used without the express permission of the author. If you would like to host any
of these pages on a website, please contact me at www.GTPlanet.net ..my username is Parnelli Bone. Gran Turismo is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., copyright
1998. All manufacturers, cars, names, brands, and associated imagery are trademarks and/or copyright material of their respected
owners. All rights reserved.
Founded May 22, 2004
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