March 6th, 2005 cmsj
I should start out by saying that I am a big fan of GT3, but I only played GT2 a little bit and hardly played GT at all.
With that out of the way, I think GT4 is a fantastic game. To be fair though it is only really the culmination of what GT3 could have been and isn’t a huge leap forward. That is ok though, GT3 was released 4 years ago and probably took a couple of years at least to write, so a lot will have been learned since then about exploiting the PS2 to the fullest. The addition of a huge library of cars and a good number of tracks only improves the experience. Disappointingly absent is online play, instead we get LAN play and a particularly silly photo mode.
Very few games have equalled even the performance of GT3, but GT4 goes better in looks, sounds and feel and will certainly be tough to beat.
I happen to have a Logitech GT Force wheel, which was the official GT3 wheel and it makes any racing game many times more fun than with a controller, but the Gran Turismo games get a particular boost because they are so technical. Snow and rally tracks are something of a challenge to whip the wheel round for opposite lock, but that tradeoff buys you exceptional control for drifting round the corners and seems to be well worth it. I just got a gold on the IA license snow track after getting a bronze first time and then two silvers, so the wheel must definitely be helping because I’m not normally that good ;)
Therefore, if you are looking for a really good, but quite serious driving game, look no further. If you enjoyed GT3 a lot, this would be a good time to refresh the memory with a slightly new twist :)
In addendum, it is said that engineering samples of the PS3 have been produced, so let’s hope that one is on its way to Polyphony Digital so they can blow us away with a stunning evolution in the GT series to launch with the PS3 (including full and amazing online support damnit!)
GT4 - IA license - snow track (Gold).
Click for a larger version
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March 1st, 2005 cmsj
I got fed up of waiting for Gran Turismo 4, the very finest of driving games, to come out here so I ordered a copy from the States for slightly less than the recommended retail price here (although still more than the cheaper outlets); hurrah for the free market I guess. According to the scarily efficient FedEx, it should arrive by midday tomorrow. Woo!
Right now it’s about an hour outside Paris, having come from California via Indianapolis. I’m really not sure why FedEx think I need to know this, but I can imagine it must greatly appease overbearing execs waiting for shipments ;)
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December 4th, 2004 cmsj
I really didn’t think it would go this smoothly at all, but I have just been playing Half Life 2 and Counterstrike:Source at pretty acceptable rates in Transgaming’s Cedega. Woo!
It’s a really impressive engine - realistic physics is definitely going to make games a load more fun :)
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October 30th, 2004 cmsj
It’s scant hours since the release of the latest in Rockstar North’s venerable GTA series and we’ve been giving the game a good bashing; these are my first impressions.
The last GTA game, Vice City, was itself a dramatic improvement on the preceeding titles and Rockstar have continued the evolution of their beautiful engine with a variety of changes and new features that make the game more engaging and sustainable.
Prime examples of this are the attributes of your character, CJ. As you undertake activities your skill at them improves (so shooting more people improves your aim and opens new combat style movements for gun battles, running more improves your stamina). Overall this seems to make the game far more engaging, although attributes such as hunger are more annoying and it seems to be possible to starve your character to death if you don’t buy it a burger every so often.
The map is *huge* and in the same way that Vice City was blatantly Miami, this is blatantly LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, the Sierra Nevada desert and some of the coastal stuff, plus a bunch of bits that didn’t look obviously like anything I know of. Only one corner of the map is unlocked to begin with, but thanks to some sneakiness at the airport we managed to steal a jet and fly over the rest of the map (getting shot down by the Air Force in the process ;) and it is simply stunning. The Vegas stuff looks particularly good, I expect the missions there will be interesting; San Francisco also looked cool although I kept crashing before I could figure out if Alcatraz is there.
As much fun as the missions are, I still like the odd one-man-army style rampage, so it is most helpful that the weapons cheats are the same as in Vice City. The new and vastly improved aiming/targetting system makes taking on multiple characters much easier than before, but when you start gaining weapons skills the speed and accuracy of your character is amazing, he can fell crowds in seconds. A good way to attract the police, but also a good way of taking them out too.
Being able to recruit gang members is cool, although they have an annoying habit of shooting at other gangs at every available opportunity. Getting shot at by rival gangs all over the place is not cool, but it makes it more interesting I suppose ;)
So, if you liked the previous GTA games, I strongly suggest you take a look at San Andreas, it seems like it is the best of the bunch. If you’ve never played a GTA game and you can safely detach virtual violence from the real thing, pick up a controller and get shooting/stealing/racing/kidnapping/etc.
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