Gran Turismo 4 has amazing graphics, hundreds of cars, and improved controls that make it the best GT game so far.
The graphics in this game have improved greatly. The cars look smoother and more realistic, and the environments are actual photos shot at scenic locations throughout the world! You can't get much better than that. The sound in this game was also good, and they had a few tracks that I liked. The car sounds were amazing, except when you get into higher speeds, all the cars sound like they have jet engines. If you read any of the game articles on GT4, you would see that they actually used real car sound effects for each of the cars, which was a great idea.
The gameplay in Gran Turismo 4 has improved also. Even though you will find many of the same races and tracks that you saw in the older Gran Turismo games, there are a lot of new features that have been added to them. As I said before, the special condition races were a unique addition to the game. It was an edge-of-your-seat driving experience for most of those races because usually if you won the races, you'd win by a hair, squeezing by the other car through the slim roads of the race tracks. They also added some new environmental features, such as snow. The snow trakcs in this game added a new level of difficulty to the game, because you would often have to change from street driving to snow driving, meaning that the conditions would change throughout the race track. I liked the winter courses since they were challenging, but fun at the same time.
The photo editor was another new edition to this game. I thought it was kind of a strange idea at first, but once I tried it out it was actually quite interesting. You might think that it is stupid to take pictures of your cars at first, but once you see how nice the pictures look with all of the unique landscapes, it was actually really nice to have a photo editor. This game also gave you the ability to print your pictures or send them to a computer file, which I thought was a pretty good idea. Even though the photo editor is not really vital to the game, it is still an extra feature that adds something unique to the series.
There were a few things that I didn't like about this game. You can't change the color of a car once you have bought it. I would have also liked to have seen modifications like graphics and side/hood stripes. These are only minor things that don't affect the gameplay that much. I also thought that the multiplayer mode should have been improved a little. It needs something more than just 2 player battles. Those get kind of boring, especially when the cars are unfairly matched.
Gran Turismo 4 is a solid racing game with a lot of exotic cars and a lot of races to win. The scenery is truly amazing, and the cars look great no matter how old they are. The steering wheel works great for this game too, so be sure to make use of it if you have one. If you have money and you like racing simulators, get GT 4, but if you don't feel like spending a lot of money, get GT 3 instead. They are both great games.