Gran Turismo 4 is actually coming out this year. No, really, we mean it. Many PS2 racing fans have eagerly been waiting for what is arguably the “best driving simulator on any platform” for three years now, with a slight amount of disappointment when each holiday season passes without its release. Well, mark your calendars, because on December 14th, GT4 will be on shelves for all gamers to enjoy. We were lucky enough to get our hands on the latest, and last, previewable code before the game is manufactured last week, and it’s simply one of the most visually impressive titles we’ve seen in a while. First of all, though, we will have to confirm the most painful omission to hardcore driving fans: initially, there will be no online play for GT4, a feature touted for at least a year or two which has become a standard for most racing games. However, there will be an online version of the game (somewhat like an expansion pack) released sometime next year that will rectify the lack of online play. Yet what it lacks in online competition it more than makes up for in additional features. In fact, the older modes that have been substantially enhanced while making room for many of the newer features that gamers will be talking about for months to come. GT4 players have become used to the wide amount of car models found within previous Gran Turismo games. GT4 literally blows these games away, with more than 650 car models included in this game. Even more impressive is the time span these cars hail from - ranging from 1886 to today, including concept cars from at least 80 manufacturers, GT4 is more like a car enthusiast’s history of automobiles showcase. Each car will wind up having descriptive text or even voiceovers to provide some info on the make and model currently selected. That’s also not counting the ability to modify a car via paint jobs or other tweaks, substantially increasing the number of cars you can put on a course into the thousands. Drivers into manipulating their cars will be pleased to know that there are a number of tuner companies with aftermarket parts included GT4 will allow players to store up to a thousand of your won, purchased and modified cars in a garage for instant retrieval at any time. There will be at least 100 courses found within GT4, including many of the older courses that fans of the series will remember. However, these aren’t simply included with minor touchups; instead, the designers revisited the entire track and recaptured the course entirely, providing greater detail and realism to every single race and city track included in the game. There will also be more than 200 championships within the career mode to challenge players, and you’d better believe that every single license challenge in the game has been redone and added to. One of the more impressive modes included within GT4 is the B-Spec mode, which allows players to take on the role of a racing manager directing a driver along a track. Here, you can direct your racer with a sliding scale for racing aggression: signaling a one will make him calmly drive down the course, while a five will force him to assertively take turns and accelerate near his competition. You’ll also tell your driver when to pass opponents and when to pull into the pits for maintenance. It’s a creative addition to gameplay, and it actually forces much more strategy than simply keeping your players on a “pass everyone, drive aggressively” setting. For instance, we saw a nasty hill on the El Capitan track that literally threw a driver into a wall because they forcefully took a curve as they tried to overtake a competitor. On the next lap, we knocked the meter farther down and not only was the recovery on this hill much better, the racer received a greater line to overtake an opponent. Outside of this feature, the other remarkable mode is the Photo mode, allowing you to take shots of your favorite cars. Unlike a generic area where you simply control the camera swooping around a vehicle, Photo mode gives you the option between action shots of your car in the middle of a race and staged location shoots in fifteen locations around the world. You’ll be able to manipulate the camera to take a shot from virtually any angle, and thanks to the inclusion of USB printer support, you’ll be able to print our the snapshots taken. We got our hands on some pictures that’d been printed that way, and the images looked like they were taken from Car and Driver or another professionally published magazine. Simply take a look at the pics included within this preview and you’ll see what I mean. While the final soundtrack hasn’t been announced, we’re sure that it’ll be as sweet as this game plays when Gran Turismo 4 burns into stores. We can’t wait until December to get our hands on this game, but you can expect a full review when it hits shelves. Check back then for the full review! Questions or comments about the upcoming release of Gran Turismo 4 for the PlayStation 2? Talk to us! [ E-Mail Jeff 'Linkphreak' Haynes ] [ Comment in our Forums ]

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