Gran Turismo? More like . . . Grand Turismo!!
From the game's main menu you have eight options, the first of which is called "Single Player". When you select this option you will then be asked to set three different preferences, the first of which is the game mode. For game modes you have three sub-options, the first is "Time Trial". In this mode you run unlimited laps (racing against a ghost car simulating your fastest lap) all by yourself on the track of your choosing, attempting to set the fastest lap time possible. When you first select this mode a list of your fastest lap times is displayed.
The second sub-option, the main mode of the game, is called "Single Race". In this mode you compete against three computer controlled cars of the same class, the higher your finish the more money you earn for that race. You start out on the D license rank, but as you win races and earn credits you will eventually unlock higher license ranks (C, B, A and then S). With each increase in rank the competition will get a little stiffer, but also the rewards will get a lot higher! When you first select this mode a breakdown of the rewards is displayed, and you can also edit how many laps you want to set as the default as well as toggle limiting the races to a single manufacturer if you so wish.
The final sub-option is the "Drift Trial" mode of the game. In this mode you are out alone on the race track, sections of the track are broken up in to drift zones. Maximize your drift in these areas to earn points and set the highest score possible. When you first select this mode a breakdown of your top drifting scores is displayed.
The second preference you have to set under Single Player is the vehicle you wish to use. As you play through the Single Race mode, like I said, you earn credits. You can then trade these credits in for cars. A list of all the vehicles you have unlocked will be displayed here, and you can sort them via various categories (last 100 acquired, last 100 driven, favourite, or manufacturer). Select your vehicle of choice and you are once stop closer to starting the action! Once you select your vehicle you can choose to view detailed historical information on it, and if it's one that you've favourited, you can also adjust some of it's settings such as tire type and steering, or simply choose to go with the QuickTune option. FYI, there are 87 total car manufacturers in the game, offering 830 vehicles for sale.
The third and final preference needed to be set under Single Player is the race track. There are 45 total tracks offered in this game, with 27 of them able to be run in the reverse direction, essentially giving you 72 options to choose from. The harder the race the bigger the reward. This is where you select the track you wish to race on, and they can be sorted via different categories like the vehicles can (all tracks, real circuits, city courses, original courses, or dirt and snow). When you do finally select your track you can adjust a few settings on it, including whether you want to race it forward or reverse (if available), the license rank level, and toggle the driving line on/off.
Set these three preferences and you are then taken off to your event!
Getting back to the main menu the second option you come across is the "Multiplayer" mode, which is broken up in to two sub-options. First is the "Ad Hoc Race" mode, in which you can go online and compete against other live human beings, racing head to head. The other sub-option is called "Share & Trade" and focuses on the vehicles in the game. You can choose to Receive Cars (copy other players' car collections, minus any vehicles you have already purchased), Trade Cars (one to one permanent trading, once you've traded a car away it's gone for good), or Share Cars (give a copy of your car collection to another player). I can't really say how any of these online features work as they don't seem to be available anymore.
Third on the game's main menu is the "Dealerships" option. As you play through the game only four dealerships will be available at any given time for you to peruse, with a maximum of eight selected cars per dealership on display. These four dealerships will rotate every so often. This option is where you go to trade in your earned credits for the vehicles of your choosing.
Fourth comes the "Driving Challenge" option, which is basically the game's introductory tutorial mode, quickly helping you get acquainted with the workings behind Gran Turismo. When you enter this mode you will see 17 sets of driving challenges (categorized as challenges A through Q), which each contain 6 separate but related challenges (totalling 102 available challenges). Each set of challenges focuses on a different aspect of Gran Turismo's gameplay and philosophy, the categories include: Learning Driving Basics, Types of Corners, Mastering Difficult Situations, Get to Know Your Corners, Get to Know Your Cars, High Speed Driving, Celebrated Corners from World Circuits, Overtake Your Opponent, Advanced Overtaking, Mastering City & Dirt Courses, Mastering Supercars, Driving On Snow, Advanced Combined Corners, Ultimate Challenge: Part 1, Ultimate Challenge: Part 2, Nurburgring – The World's Toughest Course: Part 1, and Nurburgring – The World's Toughest Course: Part 2. Depending on how you finish each individual challenge you will be awarded a gold, silver or bronze trophy (or none at all if you are abysmal) and earn an amount of credits relevant to the trophy you won.
Next on the main menu is the "Status Report" option, which is a screen that gives you a quick breakdown on your progress through the game. On this screen is displayed the total number of vehicles included in your car collection, your total distance driven, the total amount of credits you've earned, your total number of victories (in both the Single Player and Ad Hoc modes), your Driving Challenge completion rate (including a breakdown of gold, silver and bronze trophy wins), as well as your license rank progress (a breakdown of how many tracks you've upgraded to each of the license ranks). From this screen you can also go in and view your entire car collection (able to sort them the same as you can when selecting a car to use in the game, as I explained near the start of this review) or view a list of recent events (basically just breaks down the order in which you purchased your cars).
"Gran Turismo Theater" is what comes next, here you can view the Intro Movie, Ending Movie, any saved Replays, or any saved Driving Challenge Replays.
Seventh on the main menu is the "Options" option, which is divided up in to four sub-options. The first of these is called "General Settings", where you can toggle the opening movie on/off, toggle the auto-save on/off, set a slider for the time limit function (or turn it off), toggle the video output between PSP/external video output, toggle the button display function on/off, toggle units between kph/mph, toggle horsepower units between seven different options, and toggle torque measurements between three different options. Second is the "Control Settings" sub-option, where you can view the overall layout of the PSP's control scheme and assign command functions to whatever buttons you wish, should you desire to change the default controls. Next comes the "Audio Settings" sub-option, where you can adjust sliders controlling menu BGM, race BGM, replay BGM, menu SFX, race SFX, replay SFX and user BGM. You can also set the user BGM folder from amongst three options, toggle the dynamic range between normal/natural, or adjust the speaker equalizer slider. Last is the "Game Data" sub-option, where you can adjust sliders for the delay point ratio, shuffle base, and shuffle radio. You can also select the options to install UMD data or transfer car collection data.
The eighth and final option from the game's main menu is "User Manual". This is simply an electronic version of the game's instruction booklet, divided up in to thirteen different sections.
Once out in the game there is nothing really to watch out for per se. This is a racing simulator so there are no pickups or powerups to worry about, just plain old racing! That being said, there is a lot of information offered up on the game screen that you'll need to pay attention to. In the top left corner of the screen you'll find a number indicating your current race position, and just to the right of this the lap indicator. Just below this display is a small map of the track you are racing on, with blue and red icons indicating the current position of the four vehicles. In the top middle of the screen you'll find the elapsed time of your current lap being displayed. In the top right you'll first find a time indicating your best lap time, and just below this a time indicating your last lap time. Down in the bottom left corner of the screen is an amount representing the prize money you'll win based on you finishing in your current race position. In the bottom right corner is a clock representing the time of day in your simulated racing experience. Finally, along the bottom middle of the screen is a kind of dashboard presenting a lot of information on your vehicle's status such as warning lights, speedometers and tachometers, gear indicator, etc. When you are playing the other, secondary modes of the game (Time Trial and Drift Trial) certain elements of the game screen change, but for the most part it remains the same. In Time Trial there is no prize money so that indicator disappears, and of course there is no race position mentioned as it is not a race. In Drift Trial everything is the same except that in the top left the section of track you are working through is mentioned instead of the race position, in the top right your best score/current score are indicated as opposed to your lap times, and of course there is no prize money mentioned as you don't earn any in this mode either.
A screen display you'll see often is the one that appears after you have selected your race and been taken away to your event . . . the race menu I guess you'd call it. Displayed here will be a list of the starting grid, with picture icons representing each of the four cars competing. From this menu you have the options of starting the race, viewing the race replay, saving the race replay, adjusting event options (number of laps basically, which effects the prize money amounts), adjusting course options (toggling forward/reverse layout if applicable, change license rank level, or toggle the driving line on/off) or adjusting car options (change transmission, TCS, ASM, active steering, driving physics, and front tires/rear tires).
The only other screen worth mentioning at this point is the pause menu, which is pretty sparse as it only contains three options. These options are Continue, Restart, and Exit. All pretty self-explanatory . . .
Next comes the game controls, which for such a detailed race simulator are actually quite simple. The analog button is used to steer your vehicle. As for the D-pad, Up is used to shift down, Down is used to shift up, while Left and Right can also be used to steer your vehicle. The L button is used to look behind you during a race, while the R button engages your emergency brake. Both the X and O buttons can be used to accelerate, whereas the Square button is used to brake and the Triangle button is used to reverse. The Select button changes the view of the action behind your steering wheel (from about 4 different perspectives, if I remember correctly) while the Start button pauses the game action.
As for the presentation behind Gran Turismo, it's pretty bloody good! The cars look fantastic in this game, with very detailed graphics and some vivid colour schemes. The race surroundings are also very well done, with a great amount of detail going in to the race tracks, keeping them pretty faithful to the real things. The sound is well done too, with realistic car noises and some solid menu music. Although the soundtrack in the game doesn't quite compare to the console versions of Gran Turismo, it is still nothing to shake a stick at . . . whatever that means. The controls are excellent, they respond perfectly and are very easy to get accustomed to. Overall it's a very good looking and sounding game, doubly so when you think about them packing all that in to a game fit to the small screen!
The pros and cons to this game kind of equal out in the end. On the plus side, as I just mentioned, the presentation behind the game is fantastic. The look, sound, control, everything about the game screams a top notch effort. I also enjoyed the insane amount of unlockable vehicles in this game, that really went a long way in making me continue playing this game for a long time. The various amount of game modes also helped to make my experience that much richer. Finally, the realistic nature of the racing simulation keeps you coming back for more, to try and improve and really learn how to race. Now, on the down side, in the various console versions of Gran Turismo the racing events are packaged up in to various types of series that get more challenging as you complete one and then unlock the next. This helps give the game some structure and pinpoints definite start and end points to the game. This portable version doesn't have that, you basically just compete in one off races for as long as you want, there is really nothing much to achieve per se other than unlocking cars and upgrading license rank levels. That kind of left the point of the game hanging in limbo a bit. The other major thing I didn't like was the randomly rotating car dealerships. In the console versions of the game you can go to any dealership at any time, and purchase the car of your choice. In this game the cars that are available for you to buy at any given time are left entirely to chance. Finally, I don't like how you can't modify cars and soup them up like you can in the console versions, every vehicle in this game stays as is.
In terms of tips and tricks, there are a few I can offer up. First of all, when you initially start the game I recommend tackling the Driving Challenge mode first. It will teach you not only the basics but also some more advanced skills that you will need to know to get through this game. And it's not a waste of time either as at least you'll be earning credits for your efforts along the way. Also, be vigilant about going back and checking on what dealerships are available at any given time. Because of the crapshoot nature of dealership availability, if there are cars you really want to buy you've got to pay close attention. The dealerships change every three or four completed races or so. Finally, because you won't be making many credits at first, don't be tempted to spend them all on inexpensive, underachieving vehicles. Try and put some credits aside to purchase higher end cars as soon as you can. Using these vehicles will ensure that you speed through the game at a much faster, more exciting clip.
To summarize, although not nearly as well packaged as the various console versions of the Gran Turismo franchise, Sony has brought the essence of their racing juggernaut to the small screen in a very competent, action packed way. It has a couple of very obvious flaws, but the fun and diversity the game offers more than makes up for them. Another great effort!!