Gran Turismo for the PSP

Eleven years ago, Mustafa bought the first Gran Turismo game for the Playstation. When I got ahold of it, it was a revelation. Real cars from real manufacturers with real driving characteristics. There wasn't another racing game like it. I played it religiously. Passing the license tests, winning the races, earning the money, and most importantly, getting all the cars. That was what made it most fun. I can't afford an Aston Martin DB7, Dodge Viper, Nissan Skyline GT-R or a Chevrolet Corvette. But thanks to the game, I was able to (virtually) own each one. But it wasn't just supercars. What made the game so fun were all the regular cars. Honda Civic, Nissan Pulsar, Toyota Starlet, Mazda Demio, and other pedestrian cars were also in the game. GT2 upped the car count from about 150 to 750 with a corresponding increase in manufacturers and more races tracks as well. GT3 for the PS2 brought the car count back down to 150, but the graphics were so much better thanks to the much more powerful Playstation 2. GT4 took greater advantage of the PS2's abilities, not only taking the car count back up to over 700, but adding the Photo Mode feature as well. Pick a car, go racing, then take photos of it in replay, or take the car to a specific photo location and create all the beauty shots you want. Save them to your USB memory card and use them as wallpapers or share them with other GT fans. This is what I love best about GT4 and what keeps it interesting for me even after four years.

Lancia Statos rally car: Mid-engined evil with the heart of a Ferrari

The only reason I've ever bought a new video game console was just so I could play the latest version of Gran Turismo. So when Polyphony Digital announced they were working on Gran Turismo Mobile in 2004, I knew I'd be buying a PSP to play it. What I didn't realize is that it would be five years before I'd have to buy it. The protracted development time was due to the work that was going on to create the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3, their motorcycle racing game Tourist Trophy, and others. But it's finally here, and I've finally bought my PSP.

Not just the heart of a Ferrari... It IS a Ferrari!

For a car guy like me, the big question is, WHAT CARS ARE IN THE GAME!? The car count is up to an amazing 850. Nearly the entire car list from GT4 is included with only a few exceptions. Cars that required sophisticated modeling, like the Model T Ford, Caterham 7, Benz Patent Wagen and others are out. But just about everything else is in. There are a few new cars as well. The 2009 Nissan GT-R, 2009 GT by Citroën, 2009 Chevrolet Covette ZR-1, and the 2008 Mazda Furia are in it. But the big news is the inclusion, for the first time ever in the GT franchise, of Ferrari and Lamborghini. The Enzo Ferrari, F2007 grand prix race car, and the 1974 and 1988 Lamborghini Countach are in the game.

Go! Go! Godzilla!

This is one of the best looking racing games on the PSP. The problem with a small screen like this is that there is a lot of aliasing inherent in the game. So to combat it, an anti-aliasing algorithm needs to be written into the game. But that puts a lot of stress on the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). With the entire game needing to fit into less than one gigabyte of memory, they can't really afford it. So they came up with something clever. There are actually two unaliased images, each one off by one pixel from the other, alternating with each other at 60 frames per second. When you pause the game, it looks poor, but when you play the game, it looks great. Clever, and it saves the file size of the an anti-aliasing algorithm.

And the Focus takes the inside line on the Starion!

Another reason this game looks so good is that all of the car models are based on the upcoming GT5 which is due to debut some time in the next six months, and not on the current GT4. For the first time in a Gran Turismo game, there's an announcer. But instead of a regular voice actor, they've hired probably the best known car guy in all of America: Jay Leno. This isn't his first association with the GT franchise, either. His "Tank Car" was included in GT4. An artist named Randy Grubb built it using a 1791.7 cubic inch (29.36 L) Continental V-12 from a Sherman tank. He called it the Blastolene Special and Leno bought it. The game developers put it in the game when they went to his garage to sample engine sounds and saw it. Unfortunately, it's not included in this game because it's too detailed for the PSP processor.

Nice day for a drive.

There are over 100 driving challenges, and there all the race tracks to upgrade for more money. Road courses, street courses, original course, dirt courses and snow courses all test your driving skills. There are no limits to how many cars you can own. If you want to buy every car in every color, knock yourself out. But only four manufacturers are available at a time. They change every two game days, and there's a 70 day cycle so it continually recycles. A lot of fans are disappointed there's no career mode, but with so many races and so many cars, it's not a problem for me. There's always another car to buy and race.

JGTC: Japanese for "wicked awesome"

It's fair to say that Gran Turismo is just about the only game I play, with very few exceptions. I wasn't sure what to think of it on PSP. After all, what does it offer that GT4 doesn't already? But I'm enjoying it. It turns out it's a lot of fun, even on the less powerful PSP. The racing is fun, and the driving challenges are, well, challenging. The game is available by itself, or you can get it bundled for free with the new PSPgo. However, you get it, you will be having fun playing the best driving simulator for the PSP.