Well, The Beatles pulled it off: “Magical Mystery Tour” was a terrific record, even if it wasn’t as stunning and genre bending as “Sgt. Pepper.” And Gran Turismo 2 is a terrific game, even if it isn’t as mind-blowing as the original. Gran Turismo has incredible depth, with more than 40 tracks -- three times the original -- and more than 600 cars from around the globe -- four times the original. It also features strong graphics and sound, and the gameplay still excels, especially in the surprising and somewhat misnamed arcade mode.
Gran Turismo 2 certainly is a rush, but unfortunately in more ways than one. Sony clearly put too much pressure on Polyphony Digital to finish this game in December so it could put it in the hands of holiday shoppers. That’s a shame, because the rush job left some aspects of the game unfinished and unpolished. Still, Gran Turismo 2 remains the benchmark of PlayStation racing simulations. But the gulf between it and its competition isn’t nearly as wide. GT2 wins the race, but it doesn’t lap the field. Read on to find out why. Gameplay:
The gameplay of Gran Turismo 2 truly is a tale of two games, in more ways than one. First, the arcade mode and simulation mode are so deep and full of details that they each have their own disc. But GT2 is a somewhat of a two-headed game because the arcade mode truly represents a finished product, while the simulation mode unfortunately has enough minor bugs to indicate that it was rushed through development by a greedy publisher – Sony -- that put profits before total quality.
Let’s start with the heart of the Gran Turismo series, the Simulation Mode. The basic philosophy of this mode is unchanged from Gran Turismo: Pass license tests, win races, earn money, buy cars, upgrade cars and sell cars. It sounds like a “See Spot Run” production, but anyone who has played either GT or GT2 will tell you it’s much more than that. It’s good that neither Sony nor Polyphony Digital changed the basic system of the game, because it is absolutely brilliant.
But the feel of the gameplay in the sim mode is a bit different in GT2, starting with the license tests. They’re much easier than the tests in Gran Turismo, reducing some of the thrill and challenge. It took me nearly two weeks to earn all of the licenses in Gran Turismo. It took me less than three hours to earn all but the Super License in GT2, and that’s all you really need to enter all of the races in the sim mode. It’s still very, very tough to earn gold medals in the road tests – it’s a breeze in the rally mode – but passing is pretty simple. Maybe that’s because I was familiar with the handling characteristics of the cars from countless hours of playing Gran Turismo. But I still think the tests have softened a bit. That cheapens the overall experience for me a bit, as I can still remember running around my basement, screaming in a victory dance after finally earning my International A license in Gran Turismo. There was no such relief or elation due to any stiff challenges this time.
The artificial intelligence of the computer-controlled cars is much more aggressive in some races in GT2. And it’s much more bizarre, too, in some events. There is a lot more bumping and grinding on some races in the sim mode, especially the sprint races on the Rome and Seattle street circuits. Sometimes those races devolve into contests of aggression, like a NASCAR short-track race at Bristol, instead of a display of graceful precision. That’s a shame, because Gran Turismo is all about precision and excellence, not bumper cars. And sometimes the computer-controlled cars raced four abreast, completely blocking the track from overtaking, in some sprint races in the sim mode. That’s very unrealistic. Race drivers are taught to slipstream and draft, staying in the racing line until deciding to pull out and pass. They’re not taught to drive in echelon formation like the Blue Angels at an air show. This odd spacing and formation often forces human players to smash through a wall of sheet metal to gain access to the front of the field. It’s unrealistic. And since there are no more qualifying laps, players in some short city sprints are forced to barge through to the front. I don’t miss the qualifying laps, as it’s usually pretty easy to get toward the front of the field in most races. But I do miss the smart racing tactics by the computer drivers.
Despite the sometimes questionable AI of the computer cars, GT2 still remains a fun and strong challenge. In fact, it’s more of a true racing game than the original. In Gran Turismo, players could soup up cars heavily and simply blow away the field in most races with sheer power. The biggest challenge was keeping the car on the road and cruising to victory. Driving was more important than racecraft. Well, the new horsepower limits for races – a brilliant addition – stops that sandbagging. Most races have horsepower limits that prevent players from running a 900-horsepower Nissan Skyline GT-R against a 276-horsepower Subaru Impreza. This keeps races close and puts a premium on racing tactics, especially in the events in which the computer cars display proper AI. It’s great fun and definitely increases the pure “pucker factor” of this game. Most races are very, very closely fought, and even the slightest mistake can lose a race. That’s a refreshing change from Gran Turismo.
The cars still handle with incredible realism, too. A rear-wheel drive car will have vicious oversteer if the power is applied too fast when exiting a corner, while a front-wheel drive car will understeer into the corners, plowing like a bulldozer sometimes. The handling of the computer cars is mostly accurate, too. It was great to watch half the field of heavy, balky muscle cars sail into the first-turn gravel trap on the first lap of a race at Laguna Seca. The weight of each car is modeled sublimely, too. A 1,400-pound Lotus Elise requires a much smaller stopping distance than a 3,500-pound Aston Martin DB7. And parts upgrades have significant impact on a car’s performance. For example, I couldn’t get my stock Shelby Cobra 427 to handle well at Laguna Seca, as the horsepower was devouring the stock tires. So I added extra-soft racing slicks, and the car handled like it was on rails. Awesome. And the incredible setup changes – including spring rate, ride height, camber, toe, stabilizers, turbo boost, gear ratios and downforce, adjustable to the thousandth in some cases – provides incredible range and detailed gameplay rivaled by no other racing game on any console. Even the subtlest tweak changes the handling of the car, an ultra-realistic touch that makes this game a tinkerer’s dream.
But the major flaw of the Simulation Mode remains the lack of damage and its effects. That’s simply inexcusable, especially considering that damage was modeled into the Arcade Mode! GT2 cannot be considered the ultimate driving simulator of all time without damage. Race cars crash. They get bent. That’s reality. Sure, Sony and Digital Polyphony will claim that manufacturers wouldn’t license their cars to the game if damage appeared. Well, then how did Electronic Arts get damage approved for Need For Speed: High Stakes and V-Rally 2? And how did the damage get approved for GT2’s Arcade Mode? No visible damage appears on the cars in the Arcade Mode, but their handling is ruined by heavy crashes. That should have been included in the Simulation Mode. Either Polyphony Digital did a shoddy job of programming, or more likely it was rushed by Sony into releasing the game without sim damage.
Without damage, too many sim races can be won by simply smashing into the field with a couple of turns remaining. It’s way too easy to overcome a deficit through Harvey Wallbanger tactics. That’s a real shame. Because the lack of damage is what truly separates the Simulation Mode in GT2 from true racing nirvana.
Earning money and bonus cars was a crucial component of the sim mode in Gran Turismo. Players earned money for winning races and cars for winning series. It was a fantastic and very challenging formula. It wasn’t easy to pile up wads of cash without investing serious amounts of time into the game. That formula has been tweaked a bit in GT2 to make the game more inclusive. In other words, it’s too easy to gain enormous amounts of money and prize cars quickly. For starters, players earn bonus cars for winning individual races in GT2, not series. That’s just too easy. It rewards the player for excellence in one five-minute stretch instead of excellence and consistency over possibly 30 minutes of series playing. And it’s too easy to win supercars that have $250,000 trade-in value. In fact, winning the awesome Ford GT40 – perhaps the greatest sportscar ever built – for victory in the Red Rock Valley race of the Mid-engine Challenge is like getting a Visa Platinum with an unlimited credit limit. A player can then take the GT40 and blister the field by 15 or more seconds in that Red Rock Valley race four times and trade in each subsequent GT40 prize cara for $250,000 each. That’s a cool million for about 20 minutes work. It’s too much instant gratification. I really had to struggle and work hard to improve my driving skills to earn my first million in Gran Turismo. Now even mediocre drivers can pile up the cash like Bill Gates in GT2. It opens the game to a new legion of players, but it might seem a bit too easy for hardcore followers of the original.
The Rally Mode is a nice addition. The cars handle realistically and are a blast to drive. The only flaw with this mode is the tracks. They’re too wide to be considered real rally tracks and don’t have varying weather effects and rarely have varying surfaces. But it’s still a heck of a lot of fun to blast a Subaru Impreza or Ford Focus rally car around a twisty dirt track, complete with bumps and jumps.
The Simulation Mode of GT2 is a fine piece of gaming. But the tweaks made by Polyphony Digital have “dumbed it down” a bit. Gran Turismo was a nutcracker of a game, exhilarating because it was so damn hard. GT2 still is tough and realistic, but I think its distinguishing characteristic no longer is superb gameplay. It’s still the most realistic driving game, but it’s not in a galaxy of its own. V-Rally 2 and Formula 1 99 are right in its mirrors.
And the shame is that Polyphony Digital probably could have kept GT2’s sim mode in a world of its own if it had six more weeks of development time. There are just too many examples that this game was rushed, especially the Simulation Mode. For instance, why aren’t best lap and course times automatically saved after each race in the sim mode? Why can a car of any nationality race in any country’s nationals? Shouldn’t it be restricted to cars made in that country? Why was I allowed to race a hardtop Lotus Elise and hardtop Honda Prelude in the Convertible World Challenge? How could I race a coupe in the Luxury Sedan Challenge? Where is the Drag Racing Mode? The answer is simple: Polyphony Digital wasn’t given the proper time to finish the game. The developer simply isn’t that sloppy. The tight, nearly flawless Gran Turismo is an example of that.
But the gameplay of GT2 still reaches the rarefied air of a 9 because of the surprisingly fun Arcade Mode. The pure driving gameplay of the Arcade Mode is much better than that of the Simulation Mode, as strange as it is to believe.
First, there is damage in the Arcade Mode. It’s optional, but gamers would be insane not to activate it. The damage isn’t visible, probably in an effort to protect manufacturers’ egos, but a few good whacks will cripple the steering of the car. A screen display indicates the level of damage on each wheel. So the bumper-car tactics that can be used with great success in the sim mode are useless here. That increases the driving challenge significantly.
The Arcade Mode also is much more closely linked to the Simulation Mode in GT2 than in Gran Turismo, a great feature. First, drivers must complete their sim mode license tests to open more tracks in the Arcade Mode. Second, drivers can use in the Arcade Mode any car from their garage earned in sim mode. And the computer automatically creates a well-matched lineup of competition. For example, a human-controlled Lister Storm will see a field of such supercars as Vectors and Venturis. This programming stroke of genius guarantees close competition in a race that requires precision driving due to the damage model. Computer-car AI also is much more realistic in the Arcade Mode. Cars don’t drive in echelon formation, spreading across the straightaway on some races. The racing in the Arcade Mode is everything that the Simulation Mode could have been and should have been, without the car purchases and upgrades and tuning options.
If players are looking for the true GT2 experience, stick to the Simulation Mode for the sheer ability to purchase and sell cars, upgrade parts and make myriad tuning options. But if players are looking for the ultimate driving challenge, they should load up on bonus and purchased cars in the sim mode and then head for the Arcade Mode for some great, realistic racing.
Longevity:Is there any way that this score can be raised to 20? That’s how deep Gran Turismo 2 truly is.
This is the deepest driving game on the PlayStation – by a galaxy. In fact, it’s the deepest game I’ve ever played on any console in my life. This game has more shelf life than a slab of carbon-14. The longevity section of this review is shorter than probably any other aspect because the longevity is faultless.
The incredible depth starts with the cars. Sony indicates that there are more than 500 cars in the game in its advertising and PR, but some intrepid gamers on Usenet and the Web have found more than 600. That’s right, more than 600 legitimate cars. Not just different-colored cars like in the feeble Ridge Racer Type 4, but 600 legitimate cars. Sure, some of those are just different versions or editions of certain models, but they do perform or handle differently. So it’s legit.
Gran Turismo included around 150 cars, and many gamers complained that the scales leaned too heavily toward Japanese cars. Those cries are silent now. Manufacturers represented in GT2 include: Citroen, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Venturi, Peugeot, Fiat, Lancia, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, RUF, Audi, Volkswagen, Lister, Opel, TVR, Jaguar, Lotus, Mini and MG, Dodge, Shelby, Ford, Vector, Chevrolet, Plymouth, Acura, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Daihatsu, Tommy kaira, Mazda, Nissan, Suzuki, Honda and Subaru. Drooling yet? Sure, there are a couple of omissions, Porsche and Ferrari being the most notable. But Sony and Polyphony Digital at least went to the trouble to create a clever workaround to the lack of a Porsche license. RUF is a company that rebuilds high-performance Porsches, much like Saleen does with Ford Mustangs in the U.S. So RUF essentially is Porsche. Excellent.
The extensive tuning and modification options will keep players lost in love with this game for months, if not years. It’s that deep from a car standpoint.
Not including each manufacturer’s same-make races, there are four racing circuits, 42 series and 129 races in GT2. Incredible. The circuits include the GT League, Special Events, the new Rally Events and Endurance Events. The GT League features respective countries’ national events. Players who win all of the nationals advance to the Euro-Pacific League series. After winning both series in the Euro-Pacific League, the player then advances to the Gran Turismo World League. That ladder system of promotion enhances longevity and provides more challenge. The Special Events include some of the classic series from Gran Turismo, such as the Sunday Cup, Clubman Cup and challenges for each different type of engine and drivetrain setup, such as Front-Front and Four Wheel Drive. It also includes great new challenges for Compact Cars, Convertibles, Muscle Cars, Historic Cars, Station Wagons, 80s Sports Cars, Pure Sports Cars and many, many more. The depth and range of gameplay is stunning. The new Rally Events offer off-road competition on dirt circuits in various locales, including the serpentine Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Finally, the Endurance Events feature racing in events that can last more than two hours, including on the famed Laguna Seca Raceway in California, providing quite a test of will for players. Have a couple of frosty beverages and snacks ready for those races. The same-make races provided by most manufacturers enhance longevity even more. It allows players to race against identical models of cars, similar to the IROC or SCCA Neon Challenge series in the U.S.
The surprisingly challenging arcade mode also adds to longevity. Driving enthusiasts will never tire of the buzz gained from pinpoint driving, avoiding damage and fending off aggressive, well-matched computer-controlled cars. It’s great fun.
Controls:Sony used to use Gran Turismo as one of the main reasons to purchase a Dual Shock Analog controller. The company’s PR and reviewers everywhere went to great lengths to explain how much more control a Dual Shock gave drivers in this game, not to mention the incredible subtlety of the vibrations while driving. It was true. And thankfully, nothing has changed with GT2.
Cars almost feel like an extension of your hand in GT2 when using a Dual Shock Analog controller. The control is that precise. Steering and acceleration/braking can be modulated to small increments when using both analog sticks, and sometimes that precision is necessary to control certain rear-wheel drive cars such as the powerful Dodge Viper, which will spin like a Tilt-a-Whirl with sloppy driving. The vibration of the Dual Shock continues to be supported superbly, with subtle vibrations occurring during shifting and weight transfer and heavy vibration during collisions. Superb. GT2 still is the leader in this area of PlayStation driving games, with only V-Rally 2 in the same universe.
Both digital and analog controllers are completely mappable. That’s right – any function can be set to any button, providing unmatched setup options. It’s only fitting that Gran Turismo, which allows gamers to make countless setup changes to their cars, lets them do the same to their controllers. Why can’t all driving games be like this? Any developer that releases a racing game – arcade or simulation – with just three or four “default” configurations should be hung by the thumbs for a few days as punishment. GT2 again sets the benchmark that all should follow for controller mappability. The default control setup for analog sticks is nice, especially the important rear-view being placed on the L1 shoulder button. It’s ergonomic and easy to use. But it’s nice to know that gamers can set up the controller any way they like.
The menus in GT2 are extremely intuitive. It’s easy to wander from series to series and race to race. It’s also easy to make setup changes to cars, and buy cars. It’s also nice to know that if you get really lost, you can just hit the triangle button to return home. Smart touch in a menu system as layered as that in GT2.
Polyphony Digital faced quite a quandary when trying to devise the car lot setup for GT2. It was easy in the original – simply put the names of all the available manufacturers under icons on a fictitious city map. Players simply moved their cursor to their desired dealer, clicked the X button and presto. But with so many more manufacturers added to GT2, there was no way the developers could cram all of those names on one screen. So they came up with an ingenious setup: Divide all the manufacturers into four cities. The West City features French and Italian cars, the North City British and German cars, South City U.S. cars and East City Japanese cars. Brilliant. Once players enter those respective manufacturers, not much has changed from the original. Players can buy new cars from every manufacturer, and buy used and special racing model cars from most. Every manufacturer offers parts upgrades, and in a new wrinkle, most offer racing series featuring competition from just one brand under its umbrella, sort of like the IROC or SCCA Neon Challenge series in the United States.
There are also two impressive new and convenient wrinkles in the menu setup. The first is the Game Status screen. It allows players to check on a number of game statistics, including: total races entered, total races won, winning percentage, average finish for all races, number of cars owned, current highest license owned, number of medals earned during license test in each medal category, total money won, total value of cars, and the most daunting stat – percentage of game completed. This statistical nerve center provides plenty of vital and trivial information that only adds to the value and depth of this game. The second neat addition is the ability to sell used cars from the Garage area. In Gran Turismo, players had to return to the respective manufacturers’ car lots to sell cars. It was cumbersome and tedious, especially considering how important the sale of used cars was to gathering wealth for upgrades and supercar purchases. That’s all in the past now, as players can simply ditch prize cars and worn-out cars in their garage right from the Garage area. Wouldn’t it be cool in real life if the car dealer came to your house to handle the trade-in? Well, that’s what happens in GT2. Very cool.
Saving to a memory card is more vital in GT2, especially in the simulation mode, than probably in any other driving game. The tournament-like, marathon nature of the game begs for frequent saves, whether it's new licenses earned, new victories, new cars, new parts or car setup options or even new controller layout options. Thankfully, GT2 handles this with aplomb. In fact, the memory card functions are even easier than in the original. Players are offered the option to save their overall game and entire array of options after each race. The prompt appears right after the race. Or players can continue and save from the main menu screen. Saving is quick and efficient despite the enormous amounts of data that often are logged. There has been backlash on Usenet toward Polyphony Digital for its omission of the memory-card functions from the Garage area. Uh, so what? With the option to save after every race, saving data has never been easier.
Another great aspect of the memory-card functions is the automatic loading of all GT2 data on any memory cards plugged into the PlayStation upon startup of the game. Players don’t need to load their games when firing up the good, old gray box for a few hours of GT2. That’s a great touch and one that all games should follow, period.
All is not perfect, though. There are two significant control omissions and one nagging problem in GT2. First, what happened to the starting lineups for each race in the simulation mode? There are none. Gran Turismo had complete starting lineups with car name, weight and horsepower for every car in the race. That provided vital reconnaissance for human players. In a strange move, starting lineups exist in the arcade mode. But there are no car weights or horsepower ratings. It’s a glaring omission. The inclusion of the lineups in the arcade mode and exclusion in the sim mode – shouldn’t it have been the other way around? – leads one to believe that the lineups were a victim of Sony’s rush job to publish the game before Christmas. That decision is a shame that really robbed gamers of vital information. In fact, page 26 of the User Manual indicates that an Entry List was supposed to be included in the Simulation Mode. So Sony is guilty as charged.
The other control omission is basic information about the entry requirements for each series. Gran Turismo featured a button that players could press to learn what kinds of cars are eligible for each series. GT2 lacks this, and neither the User Manual nor Reference Manual includes it. It’s a glaring oversight that leaves players totally in the dark. No wonder there have been so many requests for good Frequently Asked Question Web sites for GT2 on Usenet. Whether it was Sony’s rush to push the product or a major oversight, Sony and Polyphony Digital left too many gamers in the dark, especially those who never played Gran Turismo.
The only nagging problem with the controls in GT2 is the automatic default to the replay mode after each license test or race. Polyphony Digital obviously was impressed with its sterling work with the replays in Gran Turismo, and so were countless gamers. But that doesn’t mean that everyone wants to see a replay after each license test or race. It’s easy to stop the replay, but it’s an annoying, unnecessary step. The developers should have given gamers the option to watch replays instead of automatically starting them.
Graphics:The graphics in Gran Turismo 2 remain pretty much unchanged from those in Gran Turismo. That’s a good thing, because the graphics in the original were jaw dropping and time zones ahead of the nearest competition. But some of the PlayStation world has caught up to the brilliance of Polyphony Digital’s artists, and GT2 no longer is the best-looking racing game on the PlayStation. Ridge Racer Type 4 – a shallow, simple arcade yawner – and V-Rally 2: Need For Speed are both better looking that GT2. But GT2 still is a pretty, pretty game.
Every car in the game looks realistic and well formed. Polyphony Digital’s artists again paid close attention to detail in recreating all aspects of the more than 600 cars in the car in painstaking detail. But so did all of the cars in Gran Turismo. Polyphony Digital was one of the first designers in any genre to really push the architecture of the PlayStation to its limit with Gran Turismo. There wasn’t much fudge factor left for GT2, especially with all of the new tracks, cars and races hogging so much memory. So there isn’t any huge improvement in the appearance of the cars.
Still, the details are handled right. Smoke wafts from the tires at the start of each race and during hard cornering. The level of detail in some of the new city courses is superb. The Kingdome can be seen on the Seattle street courses in all of its pallid glory, and the Colosseum is easily visible on the Rome street courses. I’ve spent a decent amount of time in Seattle, and the road that parallels the waterfront piers along Elliott Bay looks like the real thing.
The only detail that is overdone is the shine effect on some of the cars. The artists went to great lengths to add a high-sheen gloss to all surfaces of the car, including the windows. Sometimes it’s just a little too much, making some cars look like they’ve been dipped in Wesson oil.
Frame rate isn’t a problem in GT2, continuing the tradition of excellence in that area from the original. Everything streams smoothly, even when the background is filled with mountain scenery on the Grindewald track and five cars and battling for a small section of a corner. But there is minor pop-up and draw-in with the backgrounds. It’s certainly not distracting to the level of the suddenly sprouting grandstands in NASCAR 2000, but it is evident at times. Again, Gran Turismo was the master of smoothness and lack of pop-up, but such silky graphical titles as Formula 1 99 and Ridge Racer Type 4 surpass it now in those areas.
The replays after each event in GT2 are just as stunning as the original. They’re almost television quality, with the camera angles changing automatically at just the right time. Such details as suspension compression on corners and smoke floating from straining tires can be seen in the replays. Players can also focus on any car in the race during the replays simply by hitting a button. Very sweet.
GT2 has the same three camera angles as in the original: The distant rear-car angle, close rear-car angle and the front-bumper angle. Three cameras usually isn’t enough in this era of PlayStation gaming, but it’s more than enough for GT2. That’s because unlike so many other racing and sports games, all three angles are excellent and useful. There’s good vision and perspective from each, and each offers a different feel for the game. Any of the angles can be set as the default in the options menu, a nice touch. The front-bumper angle also includes a working rearview mirror that provides excellent vision and depth perspective of opponents. Digital Polyphony was smart enough to realize that foolish angles such as blimp cams and overhead cams have no place in a racing sim.
The only glaring omission from the camera-angle options is a true in-car angle. But it would have been a tall order for Digital Polyphony to recreate the dashboard and cockpit environments for hundreds of cars, especially under the rushed conditions in which Sony forced it to work. No biggie.
There are only a few minor flaws in the graphics that prevent them from reaching the top step. First, there is some overlap of cars during collisions. GT2 certainly isn’t the first racing title to suffer from this, as the outstanding V-Rally 2 also has too many blending fenders. The problem is minor but noticeable.
Second, the surfaces of the Tahiti Road courses are very pixelated. Sure, Polyphony Digital was trying to recreate the rough macadam surfaces of the tropics, but the end result looked like a messy patchwork quilt of pixels. The surface of the rally tracks all looked similar, regardless of world location, with alternating vertical strips of dark and light dirt. That’s unrealistic, as soils vary widely throughout the world. And finally, some of the backgrounds and scenery are pixelated and lack the same three-dimensional crispness and definition as the cars. V-Rally 2 has set the new standard for depth and detail in background scenery, and GT2 doesn’t quite match it.
Sound:Once again, Gran Turismo 2 proves that superbly recreated car sounds are more than enough for a racing game. No cheesy announcers are needed. The engine sounds and other ambient noises of racing are more pure in this game than any other console game I’ve played. And the game throws in an excellent soundtrack, too. It’s a fantastic combination.
The car engine sounds are sublime. Just as in Gran Turismo, Polyphony Digital has gone to exhaustive lengths to accurately re-create the distinct engine sounds for each car. The high-pitched, high-RPM whine of the four-cylinder Honda S2000 sounds distinctly different from the throaty moan of the V8’s churning under the hoods of the stable of late-60s and early-70s Chrysler muscle cars.
The level of detail in the engine sounds is amazing, too. Engines literally sing while climbing and falling through the gearbox. The roar of a souped-up Lotus Elise is stunning in full frenzy, for example, and the engine can even be heard backfiring while downshifting before turns. Absolutely brilliant. This game just begs to be played with either headphones or a high-fidelity sound system. The stereo effects of a high-revving, turbocharged Japanese car trying to pass you on the left side in the left speaker and a throaty TVR Cerbera trying to pass on the right side in the right speaker are stunning. And the sounds of the engines rise and fall perfectly as the cars approach and fade from your back bumper. The sounds are so accurate that sometimes the rear-view mirror isn’t needed to determine the position of your opponents. Sometimes the roar of an opponent’s engine is so close even Ray Charles could figure out that car is breathing up your tailpipe.
Other ambient sound effects are handled well, too. Tires chirp, screech and complain while struggling for grip at the start of races and during cornering, and the resounding thud of collisions is spot-on. The faint roar of crowds can be heard when cars zoom past grandstands on the tracks that include large banks of seating. The fan noise never overwhelms the engine sounds, which remain the bedrock of the audio of this game. That’s the way it should be.
Fans of modern rock – I raise my hand as one – will rejoice over the soundtrack in Gran Turismo 2. It’s filled with top modern rock bands, such as Garbage, Soul Coughing, Rob Zombie, The Cardigans, Stone Temple Pilots and The Crystal Method. Pre-release hype from Sony indicated that Beck, Filter and the Foo Fighters also had tracks in this game, but I’ve played for nearly 15 hours total and still haven’t heard a note from these bands. They might be in there somewhere, or they might be a victim of the rush job.
The strong music doesn’t stop with the soundtrack. The menu music, a mix of upbeat modern jazz and light techno, also is catchy and tasteful. It’s very refreshing to play a driving game without crunchy techno or heavy-metal riffs swirling through the menus. Gran Turismo 2 is the classy gold standard of racing games, and the elegant and tasteful menu music reflects that.
Overall:Gran Turismo 2 still remains a stunning game, but in a different way from Gran Turismo. The original simply overwhelmed the genre in every aspect: gameplay, longevity, controls, graphics and sound. GT2 retains the title as the best overall racer on the PlayStation simply because it’s the deepest racing game in the universe.
GT2 no longer enjoys the gameplay or graphical gap over its rivals. Games such as V-Rally 2 and Ridge Racer Type 4 are better looking, and V-Rally 2 and Formula 1 99 have pure driving models that are nearly as realistic. But no game ties it all together better than GT2.
Still, while enjoying the fruits of Polyphony Digital’s labor of love, there’s still a gnawing sensation that Sony screwed the development house out of pure brilliance. It’s almost like someone pulled the paintbrushes out of Michaelangelo’s hands when he was finishing up the Sistine Chapel, saying painting must stop because the Vatican was losing too much tourist revenue during the work. Fortunately, that didn’t happen to the master artist. Unfortunately, it happened to Polyphony Digital, making this feel like an incomplete masterpiece. Let’s hope that Sony doesn’t make the same mistake with the next Gran Turismo, especially if it expects it to be one of the flagship launch titles for the PlayStation 2. The Gran Turismo series was, is and always will be held to a higher standard by dedicated gamers, and Sony needs to realize that.
PC Games | Xbox | Sony PSP | Nintendo DS | Zodiac | Phantom | N-Gage | Playstation 2 | Playstation One | GameCube
Gameboy Advance | Nintendo 64 | Dreamcast | PC Demos | Forums | Cheaters Wanted | Search
Gamers Wanted is © Wewp! Entertainment | Terms of Use | About Us | Links | Advertise | XML RSS Feeds 
