After a hefty wait that's tested the patience of fans worldwide, Sony and Polyphony Digital have finally let Gran Turismo 4 loose on the public. The highly anticipated sequel is the latest entry in the long-running series that has continually raised the bar for console racing sims and pushed Sony's hardware to its limits. For the franchise's swan song on the PlayStation 2, Polyphony has opted to throw just about everything into the game but the kitchen sink (and in this case, "kitchen sink" means "online play").

Gran Turismo 4 is finally hitting the streets! (In Japan, anyway...)

As is often the case with games that have seen delays, the biggest question that looms over GT4 has obviously been: "Was it worth the wait?" Based on our initial playtime, we have to say the answer is a resounding: "Oh, yeah!" Gran Turismo 4 boasts the biggest lineup of cars and tracks the franchise has ever seen, and for those keeping score at home, that means 700 cars and 50 tracks are included, and they've all been buffed up to a glistening sheen after having been on the receiving end of Polyphony Digital's trademark attention to detail. If that isn't enough, the game comes bundled with a 209-page "reference guide" that was written by the racing freaks at Polyphony.

Gran Turismo 4's feature set is massive in terms of game mode content and technical bells and whistles, thus ensuring that you'll be playing the game for possibly as long as it took to develop, which is no mean feat. As with the previous entries in the series, you can plan on choosing from the same core modes as before: arcade and Gran Turismo. Arcade will offer several different racing options for you to test your skills alone or with a friend. You'll find four race types: single, time trial, two-player battle, and multi-LAN race. Single is what you'd expect. It's a tear through any of the available tracks using any of the available cars. The tracks are broken up into four categories: real circuit, original course, city course, and dirt & snow. To give you a taste of the game's size, you'll find that eight of 19 tracks are open in real circuit; nine of 13 in original; five of 11 in city; and three of seven in dirt & snow. Of the four sets of tracks, every set of tracks except the real circuit courses can be played in normal or reverse layouts.

You'll find tons to do in just the GT4 arcade mode.

As far as cars go, the vehicles at your disposal are broken up into three categories. The first category, which initially contains 240 cars, lays out your standard assortment of vehicles (organized by manufacturer). The second category, initially featuring 87 cars, offers a greatest hits selection of classic cars from 1966 to 1999. The last category basically holds a favorite vehicle that you'll set aside for easy access. Once you've chosen a car, you'll be able to customize its paint job from a pool of colors that varies for each vehicle. After that's sorted, you can tweak the transmission and various options on the car. Before you start a race, you can choose to run a standard A-spec race or a B-spec one (more on B-spec in a second). You'll also be able to tweak more options on your car and the game. When your A-spec race begins, you'll see how many points you'll earn, should you win, displayed on the screen as the camera pans over the assembled competitors. The A-spec races play out the way they always have and offer hefty challenges for you in your attempts to cross the finish line ahead of the opposition. The points you earn will go toward funding your spending sprees to get cars and parts for them.

B-spec mode adds a new twist to the GT racing experience.

In addition to the traditional-style A-spec races, Gran Turismo 4 also contains a new racing mode known as B-spec, which offers an alternate racing experience. The mode essentially casts you in the role of manager and challenges you to guide your artificial intelligence-controlled car to victory via prompting. The race unfolds in front of you from slick replay camera angles that give the competitions broadcast-style appearances. A bar across the top of the screen lets you offer directions to your driver. Your advice is dispensed via one of five numbered buttons or via two icons that you'll highlight. Button one represents the slowdown command, and it makes your driver slow down, thus reducing tire wear. Button two is "relax," and it makes your driver take a much more conservative pace in the race. Three is "my pace," and it lets the driver keep the best pace for any given racing status. Four is "pace up," which makes your driver increase his pace while also making him race a bit more aggressively. Five is "hard push," which has your driver going to the absolute limits to pick up the pace. The downside to this is that you'll risk course outs and crashes, as well as maximizing tire wear. A two-car icon at the far right of your control bar is the "overtake" command, and like "hard push," it carries with it course out and crash risks. The final icon, a "P," makes your racer pit as soon as possible.

You'll have two ways to issue commands. When watching a race, you'll use the D pad to select orders one through five for your driver. Meanwhile, the triangle will command your driver to overtake cars, and the circle will make your driver pit. If you press the R1 shoulder button, you'll leave the race and come to a display menu that offers the same functionality as the D pad and also offers the option to speed up the race up to three times. While the B-spec mode may sound a bit dry in print, you'll find that you'll be kept on your toes almost as much as if you were actually racing. Your AI driver is far from perfect, though, and will make mistakes that are stress-inducing.