Gran Turismo 2

THE BAD:
Endurance races still fairly boring

SUMMARY:
This game was the sequel to the popular Gran Tourismo and offered more cars, more tracks but still kept the playability. A new addition was the Arcade mode where you could pick a track, pick a car (one from your memory card or a pre-set one) and race away for a certain number of laps which was set in the option menu. Another new addition was the introduction of rally stages and cars including the Subaru Impreza, which was pretty much the only rally car I knew when I bought the game.

Almost all the key aspects from the first game return here. The objective is to win races and build up your winnings to enable you to buy better and faster cars. There are still 4 types of car: rear wheel drive, front wheel drive, four wheel drive and mid racer. All of these have advantages and disadvantages. You start off with only a small amount of money to buy a slow car and you work your way up. You can also only compete in a small number of races to begin with. You need to earn licences to compete in more races. To earn a licence you need to pass a series of tests, which involves completing a certain section of track in a given time limit without putting all 4 wheels off the track. If you pass a test you move onto another one. If you pass all 20 tests then you will be given the licence allowing you to compete in all races that require that licence as well as the ones you already can race in. If you manage to beat the gold time in all 10 tests for a licence then you will be rewarded with something extra. Getting the ‘A’ licence allows you to compete in pretty much every race there is.

This time round you also have rally races as well as just road ones. To compete in those races you need to buy a rally car otherwise you won’t be able to compete in them. The handling of the cars on dirt surfaces is different to the road as you will find out as a few rally tracks have a bit of concrete at the start/finish line. To compete in rally races though you need to obtain the rally licence in the same way you do for the road races.

Sadly, for me anyway, my Mitsubishi Skyline was nowhere to be found in this game although I did find other ones just as good. There are more car manufacturers and more cars in this game than there were in the last one. There are also even more ways to tune your cars although not all upgrades can be used on all cars. There are still very expensive cars to be bought and these usually are souped up cars capable of winning you most races, but they can’t generally be upgraded any more than they already are. One of them is a red Skyline GTR (if I remember correctly) which was basically a drag racer meaning it was mega-fast but couldn’t turn very well. There are many more expensive cars than there were in the last game, but some of them had pretty bad handling and I usually had them off the road as they spun out very easily.

There are tons of races to keep you going and there is more variety as well. One race you can only use a “Ford Ka” for so you need to buy one of them to be able to even compete in that race. Endurance races are still here and the old Grand Valley Speedway is ever present. Most of these endurance races use fast cars, which usually requires you to buy one of the more expensive cars to keep up. You do get a lot of money for winning these races so if you can be bothered to race around one track for 1-2 hours then it is profitable. Your tires do wear out though and this is shown by a meter at the top of your screen. When your tires go to yellow or red your performance will start to be affected and it’s best to take a pit stop to get new tires. There are all the tracks from the first game as well as new ones. The Laguna Seca Raceway is one of the more interesting ones. It has a corkscrew turn on it, which features in one of the licence tests. Trying to master this corner took ages and trying to fly down it perfectly without failing was highly frustrating and I must have spent hours around that one corner. Whenever I race on that track I screw doing it the proper way and I just slam into a wall and slide my way down the side as it saves me the hassle of taking it the proper way. Just as well cars cannot take damage here.

I found this game highly enjoyable and played it for hours upon end doing the various races. I never managed to complete every single race and I filled my garage up to the maximum limit (which is 80 or 100, can’t quite remember). The appeal of this game is it’s realism and the fact that it is even more playable than the first game. Some people might be drawn to it by the fact it has real cars and possibly ones that you own or have owned in the past. Whatever reason people played this game for, I don’t know too many people that were disappointed by it. Only downside is that it is pretty similar to the first one at the basic level, but the designers included enough new things in to keep the game fresh and exciting.

THE BAD:
Only a few things (my personal knit-pickings):<br>-Computer drivers. Although the AI technology used in the game developement was top-of-the-line for 1998-2000, it doesn't match the rest of the game's main aspects: they're all way ahead of their time.<br>-Music. Some is good, some is bad, and even more is worse. Only two songs I find helpful and enjoyable in the whole list of songs. I'd rather there be a lot of techno, some hip-hop, and some hard rock to raise your heartrate like in many other racing games.<br>-A ton of cars isn't necessarily a good thing. I find Honda Civics and '88-'91 Nissan Silvias take up space that could have gone into whole companies - Pontiac for example. A number of cars (and even a few companies *cough* Daihatsu *cough*) don't really need to be there taking up disc space because they're boring and slow. The game doesn't need to sacrifice gameplay for realism. But that's just my opinion.<br>-License tests. The number of licenses could be reduced, or atleast the required times increased to make them even slightly easier. Perfect golds on all six licenses can only be achieved by either a professional GT2 player or a supernatural being (even that's questionable).

SUMMARY:
Overall, this game was and still is great. A remade version with better (read '<u>better</u>', not <u>more</u> cars, better and more songs, and up-to-date game execution (graphics, sound, AI) would sell like heaters in Antarctica. Polyphony Digital did an especially good job for their budget and time constraints (only two years?), and I'm not slamming them at all for the side effects of it. <br><br><b>Value:</b> 10/10 (I got my copy for $10)<br><b>Graphics and Sound:</b> 9/10 (utterly breathtaking for a PS1 game)<br><b>Gameplay:</b> 9/10 (fun and addicting in all ways imaginable)<br><b>Replayability:</b> 10/10 (hard to find a longer lasting game)<br><b>Ease of use:</b> 7/10 (I find the navigation in simulation mode confusing)<br><b>Difficulty:</b> Hard<br><b>Would I buy it for it's original retail </b>$50 US)<b>?</b> Yes, without hesitation.

THE BAD:
Music - There are only a few good tracks in this game, and whoever thinks music does affect the game should re-think on buying it. The game does have a lot of Music Sound tracks, but they are just too(ooo) boring. Mark out of 20 = 5 Skill - Ah, now on to the real part. Unlike all the racing games out there this game requires you to have skill. You just can't go out there and race like you do normally in other games. You have to learn different techniques on how to drice different type of cars. For example a 4WD car would act completely different to a MR car on a turn, so you have to learn new skills. Without skills you cannot play this game at all. The mark here really depends on what type of a Person you are at driving, If you really suck then this could be a huge challenge for you. Mark out of 20 = 15

SUMMARY:
Overall: For a Playstation One Racing game, this game rocks, The racing challenges will keep you addicted to the game for quite a long time. For Improvement I think they need to Lower the number of cars in there and replace them with good ones. Allthough there is a wide variety of cars, some of them are just crap. Now coming back to Music, I think they should add Hip-Hop/Rap, Rock , Metal and some Techno in there. Hip-Hop/Rap and Techno would be really god to get the beat going of a person while Rock and Metal could get the person really Hyper (you know what I mean!). They could also have an option to switch the tracks, because when you play the Endurance Races which can take upto hours and hours you really get sick of listening to the same track over and over again, So I just used to turn the volume off and put some Music of my own ^_^ Now on to some Maths! Mark of Cars = 20 Mark of Tracks = 18 Mark of Graphics = 20 Mark of Music = 5 Mark of Required Skill = 15 Total = 78/100 = 39/50 = 3.9/5.0 (Pretty good!)

THE BAD:
Simulation tires

SUMMARY:
This games has everything, arcade, simulation, a lot of cars (street, luxury, sports, supercars), good development of the game, a lot of tracks. Why not 5.0? Is it just me? or is this game made to complete in 2 years? It´s ok, but I think it is too long, even for it´s gameplay. Also, at first, you pass a lot of adversities. Race the same track 7 or 8 times. but as soon as you start earning cars, the game becomes almost automatic. The licenses are another little issue. they are very, very challenging, but, at least with me, i get tired of trying the test by the 5th time. All of those that have gold in all the test, you mus be gods or you have a lot of patience. By far the best game ever made for PS

THE BAD:
Computer cars AI

SUMMARY:
I like GT1 a lot and, sadly I cannot say the same about GT2.

The thing that turn me off is race AI by computer cars. I see three great problems in my view of a racing "SIMULATION" (not arcade):

1- Autocompensation is far too much: when I'm on the lead the other cars catch me at a unnatural rate. When I'm behind, they wait me. I hate this, as it doesn't let you to appreciate if you are doing a good race or not, and it negates the effect of car upgrades. All amount at a fake close finish.

2- Computer cars are too close together: IA cars race far too close, without almost any difference among them. They pass you "in block" and suddenly you pass from 1st to 6th. It doesn't allow you to see how you fare against the different cars of the opposition, as they are all the same in race perfomance.

3- Computer cars race in an unnatural racing formation: Computer cars go in an "idiotic" starting grid formation, in two columns of three or four cars. It is most unlikely in real racing. Moreover, when they reach a slow corner, the IA throw the cars all over the place.

Conclusion: GT2 in "simulation" mode is really an arcade. GT1 was more a simulation. I fully respect the opinion of everybody who loves this game. Congratulations and enjoy it. I just prefer the "simulation" feel over the "arcade" feel.

THE BAD:
nothing really

SUMMARY:
This game is like the best. Lots of cool cars fot you trune up. I even play this game more than grand turismo 3 because its easier and more fun. The game is preatty easy and fun to play all the time. It is one of the best racing games but the graphics arent that good. I think its a great game even that they have grand turismo 3. I have both but i perfer grand turismo 2 better because of all the fun in that game.

THE BAD:
nothing

SUMMARY:
Before Gran Turismo 3, this game was my most favorite racing game. The races, the sound, and the graphics make you feel like you are really in a Street Race.