Perfect for Quick Play. But without career mode GT seems a little pale.
There are no championships, no trophies and to that end, no sense of achievement. You're just grinding races. Being forced to race the easy grades for each and every race is bloody infuriating. That's hours of monotonous play time spent light-years ahead of the pack on an empty course.
For all intents and purposes GT on PSP looks like GT4 with lower resolution textures and some unfortunate graphical glitches. It's easily the most visually impressive racer on the PSP, for the most part running at a silky 60 frames per second, but dotted white lines that appear on the tracks and scenery give the game an almost rough appearance. The built up courses are by far the most impressive, boasting stunning detailed buildings and gorgeous views, and the vehicle models are what you'd expect from a developer that clearly loves everything about cars. There's also a solid audio track list and each of the cars sound authentic - you can even play your own MP3s once the feature is unlocked.
Within the single player, you have time trails, single races and drift trails, as well as a set of challenges. The challenges aim to teach you how you're supposed to tackle driving skills that start with braking and go through more complex acts such as driving through S-bends and taking on corners and will take some time to complete.
When you're on the track, the game controls fairly well. The PSP's analog nub has never been as responsive as a real controller. At times it feels as if the car you're driving isn't turning as hard as you want it to, but there's rarely any point where you don't feel in complete control of your vehicle. Gran Turismo's console brethren rely on pressure sensitive buttons for the gas and brakes, and hitting either too hard would often result in a spin out.
When playing with a friend, you had better hope they're in the same room as you because the only way to play Gran Turismo with more than one player is through
Make no mistake, this is Gran Turismo as you remember it but on a handheld, and done in a way that betters what I imagined was possible. It looks great, plays superbly and has an absolute ton of content to work through.