GT4 Update & Ultimate Media Blowout!

Detailed new report on Gran Turismo 4 along with over 300 screens spanning 24 pages - including all-new tracks! Plus four new videos, including B-Spec Mode.

It's not very exciting, there are no sparks, and you can't drift around corners. And yet, people are foaming to get their hands on Gran Turismo 4. Kazunori Yamauchi and his team at Polyphony Digital Entertainment have been working on the game for a long time.

When Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec came out in 2001, people were underwhelmed by the lack of cars and tracks relative to the PlayStation offerings. It's taken over three years - and a few rather shameless cash-ins en route - but the series is just about ready to inhale the lives of car aficionados all over again.

Kokusai Forum (Photo Mode)

On 24 September, day one of this year's Tokyo Game Show, Yamauchi held a press conference at the swanky Manhattan Hotel around the corner from the show to get everyone on the same page. He had a number of surprises for us, both good and not-so-good.

Ice Race Course

First, that bad news - as you've no doubt heard, online play has been removed from Gran Turismo 4. The reason proffered by Yamauchi was that the infrastructure is not in place yet to deliver what the game needs. Getting the resources up and running on a global scale is something that's not possible right now.

That said, within the next 12 months, those very same infrastructure deficiencies are going to be taken care of, at least according to Sony, as an online-enabled version of Gran Turismo 4 is already in the works. Quite how Sony will handle this is currently a mystery, but the likely scenario is that there will be a new release of the game with online play and possibly some additional incentives.

El Capitan

The biggest surprise of the day came in the form of the announcement of B-Spec, or Director Mode. Gran Turismo 3 was originally supposed to contain both A-Spec and B-Spec modes. A-Spec is the Gran Turismo we've come to know and love, the one that has you practising that chicane at Laguna Seca over and over in order to cut down your best time by a fraction of a second. B-Spec, on the other hand, is basically Gran Turismo without the driving.

Grand Valley

The post-race replays are of the crowning visual achievements of the series, and they're a personal favourite of Yamauchi - he admitted to driving the courses over and over just to get to the replays. In Director Mode, you don't do any of that nasty driving yourself. Instead, the race is run in real-time (or faster) by AI-controlled drivers while you sit in the director's chair coaxing the best footage out of the race.

Shibuya (Photo Mode)

The new interface allows you to observe the race as it happens. What's more, you can run races in faster-than-real-time (up to 4X), meaning that a 24-hour race can be staged in 6 hours. By choosing the type of camera shot and which car to follow, you can construct dramatic footage of fancy overtaking manoeuvres or catch the winner crossing the winning line in fist-pumping victory. And yes, if you're aiming for that elusive 100% completion, you will have to put time into Director Mode (though Yamauchi did not specify how much time would be required).

High Speed Ring

If driving cars is not your thing, Gran Turismo 4 has you covered in other ways too. Two Photo modes have been designed that allow car lovers to take in the visual splendour of these fine automotive creations. Think of it as virtual porn for car lovers. Using a high-spec digital camera, you can take photos of your car in exotic locales from across the globe.

Given a location, you decide where to place the car and then take the picture exactly how you want to. In a great bit of virtual-to-real crossover, these images are stored as JPEGs, which can either be stored on memory cards or printed on compatible printers. Sony had several units - of the petite, new PlayStation 2 model, actually - set up to test out this feature, and the resulting 8" X 11" pictures come out looking quite decent indeed.

Laguna Seca

Of course, most people buy driving games to actually do some driving, and Gran Turismo 4 caters to those folks superbly. With development on the project finally coming to a close, we can at last get solid numbers regarding cars and tracks.

Opera Paris

Gran Turismo 4 will contain over 650 cars, each of which has been lovingly modelled in an arduous month-long process. This troupe of vehicles represents automotive history, spanning from the very beginning of the car - seriously, the 3-wheel Daimler from the 1880s is in the game - up until the newest concept ideas just barely off car show floors.

Nanzenji (Photo Mode)

Among the more interesting vehicles are those in the Unique cars category, which contains such monstrous creations as Jay Leno's tank car - it contains the engine from an honest-to-god tank - and exclusive car-designer Hommel's RS Coupe.

One of the deficiencies in Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec for the hardcore driving game fans was the relatively small size of garages. Fear not, because these have received a significant upgrade. Gone is the meagre 300-car limit, and in its stead is a cavernous warehouse capable of storing 1000 cars.

Trial Mountain

All this impressive automotive engineering predictably needs someplace to breathe, and the 50 tracks on offer (excluding the reversed versions) will certainly sate that desire. In addition to returning tracks from previous series instalments, several of which have been completely recaptured to increase their veracity, there are a handful of new tracks.

Yamauchi revealed four new courses at the press conference: Suzuka and Twin Rings Motegi in Japan, Infineon Raceway in California and El Capitan at Yosemite National Park. Extensive photography and detailed mapping have been used to create the most accurate representations possible of the tracks.

Las Vegas Drag Strip

Looking at the screenshots, it's clear that Polyphony are extracting performance out of the aging PlayStation 2 that many didn't even know was there. One nice touch is the animation of the drivers. Not only do they look good, their range of movement is impressive too. They cross their arms while steering, peer over their shoulders to check for traffic in blindspots, rest their hands on the gearshift and lunge forward when braking. And it doesn't end there.

Hong Kong

There is a general increase in on-screen action off the race tracks, like the car wash, which now features actual car washers that give your vehicle a thorough clean 'n buff, or the pit mechanics, who get you racing again as quickly as possible. Nuances like these make the game feel a lot more real and consequential.

Nurburgring Nordschleife

With the release of several arcade racers taking the bulk of the spotlight recently, and a number of driving simulations in the works at other developers, Gran Turismo 4 faces more competition than the series has before. Whether the game will both live up to its own hype and outdo its competitors will soon be decided.

Times Square

Gran Turismo 4 will be released for PlayStation 2 on December 3 in Japan, December 5 in North America, and sometime during December in Europe - unless of course, the release is delayed until next year altogether for Europe. Which still might happen, according to reports.

NEW SCREENSHOTS: ULTIMATE BLOWOUT!
Part 1: Ice Race Course
Part 2: El Capitan
Part 3: Grand Valley
Part 4: High Speed Ring
Part 5: Laguna Seca
Part 6: Opera Paris
Part 7: George V Paris
Part 8: Costa Di Amalfi
Part 9: Suzuka Circuit
Part 10: Trial Mountain
Part 11: Las Vegas Drag Strip
Part 12: Hong Kong
Part 13: Nurburgring Nordschleife
Part 14: New York
Part 15: Citta Di Aria
Part 16: Fuji Speedway
Part 17: Grand Canyon
Part 18: Tsukuba Circuit
Part 19: Kokusai Forum - Photo Mode
Part 20: Nanzenji - Photo Mode
Part 21: Shibuya - Photo Mode
Part 22: Sagano - Photo Mode
Part 23: Various - Photo Mode