Hey! Where Are All The American Cars?
Written: May 12 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Every single thing except...
Cons: Not a lot of American cars, social life destroyer, not so hot arcade mode
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| awoolcott's Full Review: Gran Turismo 1 for PlayStation 1 |
It was torture the day I bought this game. I needed batteries for my discman before a trip to Lake Geneva, WI (but this is not a travel review, so moving on..), and stumbled into the electronics department (Wal-Mart I think). Anyway, Gran Turismo had just came out. Being the spaz out I used to be back in 1998 (some say I still am, but nevermind them..I swear, I'm fine!), I quickly tossed $40 on the counter and got it. Well considering I was headed out of state, I didn't have the chance to play it right away. Despite my motion sickness problem, I ripped off the plastic, tore open the box, and read both (yes there is two) manuals, cover to cover. All 130 pages or so. I fought nausea, dizziness, and all other health problems just to read a silly instruction manual!
Finally, I actually made it home, to give this game a try. FINALLY. To say it was worth the waiting and whining and moaning to get home (sad for a at-the-time 19 year old), would be like saying Sammy Sosa is a home run hitter (or something like that). I popped it in, and headed for the Arcade mode.
The arcade mode is a bit, um, "flaky." I guess. Anyway, you first pick your difficulty level (easy, medium, hard, you know, the usual). Then you get a handful of cars to choose from, and the cars have a certain class (no not that class, THAT class. Oh forget it); class A, B, or C. A being the Vette's of the world, and the C's the tipsy-type sissy-mobiles (if anyone detects any writer's block, let me know; I still have that editorial shin-dig going on in my head..I am getting help for that thankfully).
After that, you pick a track to race on. Wow, just like any other racing game. If you win the race on certain difficulty levels, you open up more tracks and cars. It's best to race on hard so you unlock everything, but it's so unmercifully hard at first you may think about smashing your disc into two, shiny, sharp pieces.
But don't do that yet. Give the simulation mode a try. This is the "meat and potatoes" of this game. You start off with 10,000 credits (not dollars, I wish, then I could try printing my money and retire!), toward the purchase of a car (after all, you can't race if you don't have a car!). You can do Spot Races, where they just toss cars on a track for minimal money (sort of like the penny I get from the latest sucker who reads my reviews..why do you keep coming back??). But I advise you hit the license tests right away. In order to completely open the game wide, you have to get all three licenses, B, A, and A International. Each test gets progressively harder (DUH!) and a lot of the time you have to try over and over again. A lot of the tests are fun (especially the very first, where you take this Mazda MiniVan that goes zero to sixty in 2.5 days and do a test of braking skills), and some are just so hard you'll get mad, turn the system off, toss the disc half-way across the room, swear it off forever, yet still come back 25 minutes later to try again.
Once you pass the license tests (and trust me, you won't do it in a day, at least not on the first try playing it), you need to start racing the money races. First buy a car (only used, no new ones start under 10,000, I recommend a Honda Prelude, it worked for me), use the rest of the money on parts and such (I'll get into that later). Enter the Sunday Cup, and race through. I pretty much guarantee that if you can handle driving the car, you will win the tournament. You win that good-old MiniVan. Sell it (you get 10,000, but make sure you sell it back to the manufacturer), sell your Prelude, go to Mitsubishi, buy a GTO used (1992's are the cheapest and have the same power anyway), and juice that sucker up. Race the Sunday Cup over and over, along with working on getting that A license. Eventually you can move on to the other cups.
There are many different races and cups; the afore mentioned Sunday Cup, Clubman Cup, GT Cup, World GT Cup, Coffee Cup (wait, no scratch that one), and well, those are the four cups. There are also races just by drivetrain. 4WD, FF, FR, and Lightweight (some cars, like the FTO, can be used for multiple races). Also, there are US vs. Japan, UK vs. US, Japan vs. UK, Kramer vs. Kramer (no, that's not a race mode! By the way, if you don't think I am funny, just NR me and go on your merry way. I know I am not funny anyway). There are also my favorites; the endurance races. The Grand Valley 300, if I recall, takes almost two hours to finish. The only difference between the endurance races and the rest is the fact that your tires wear out and you have to get new ones every so often (but trust me it's so easy to win you can pit every 5 laps and still win by a landslide). Some people would say the endurance races aren't for them because they don't have the patience to do it. Neither do I, but still, I couldn't pull my lazy butt away from the TV to do actually stop.
There are 11 tracks, from a two tracks built for speed, one built for cornering, one built for developing suicidal tendencies if you drive rear-wheel drive cars (Autumn Ring Mini), and three courses that are flat out cool (the night ones..if it's dark on a track, the cars actually put their headlights on!). You can also race the tracks in reverse, and a few really do race a bit differently than the regular version.
Along with that, there are two neat features, one that drastically changes your car, and the other just keeps it pretty looking. The big one is the tune-up mode. Now I am no car expert, but I can tell how the slightest tune up can affect your ride beyond measure. You can get engine upgrades, better brakes, additional computer memory (no not a P3, just some sort of computer chip), different type of tires, transmission upgrades, and weight reductions. With the weight reduction, it allows better movement and handling of your car, at least most of the time. Also within that mode, you can get a racing mod. It gives you the lightest car possible, along with a spiffy (geez what a cheesy word) paint design. A lot of times you can pick from two different patterns.
The other thing that was so neat? That would be the Car Wash. That's right, for a measly 50 credits, you can get your car looking all nice and pretty. Any importance? No, it's just cool to watch you dirty car get spun around on the screen, then come out all shiny (so I am a loser. What you gonna do about it?).
If you are still with me, you are wondering, how 'bout the graphics? In a word, amazing. Each car is detailed beyond unbelievable, and if you can't tell the difference between a GTO (a 3000 GT in the US) and a Corvette in this game, you need help. The tracks are also very well detailed, with a bit of pop-up, but then again, you should be too busy racing around the track than worrying about that one tree that appears out of nowhere. The replays? Man where do I start? There are umpteen different camera angles, the whole thing looks like a silly little TV race! You may double take and ask yourself when you put on ESPN.
Still here? The sound is good, effect wise. The music is okay, but not great. The one Garbage tune "As Heaven Is Wide" sticks out, but the rest is just forgettable blahness. The engine sounds are different. Each car has a different engine sound at first, until you upgrade a bit. Then they seem to all sound the same.
But the sound isn't important anyway. It's the control. Excellent. The heavy cars are lugged around, the light ones are slippery (and some you can get to race on it's side wheels), the RWD ones will come out from under you in a flash, the 4WD's are solid all around, and the FWD ones are steady as well. It's almost like driving the car for real. I think. I haven't exactly driven Vipers and GTO's and Supras in my lifetime. How should I know?
Anything wrong? Somewhat. This game has 166 cars. About 5 of them are US cars. Yes, they beefed the US cars in GT2 (I also did a review on that one, it's lonely for hits by the way), but still there isn't a lot here. I can deal, because there are plenty of cool Japanese cars to race as. It's no biggie.
If you can't tell I love Gran Turismo, you obviously didn't read this. It's not the greatest racer ever (GT2 gets that nod) it was the best (till GT2). If you want a cheap racer (only $20 these days) that will keep you playing for a long time, I say get your butt out and get Gran Turismo. You won't be disappointed.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
awoolcott
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Location: Arizona
Reviews written: 409
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Okay, scratch that...Uncharted 2 - Game of the Year.
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