How do you top a game like Gran Turismo? For Polyphony, the answer seems to be that you don't even try. You just bung in a few new tracks, a whole load of new cars, and hope that the suckers will suck it all up again.

Gran Turismo was a monster of a game, the perfect arcade racer, with huge number of tracks and cars. Added to that the option to tune your car for better handling and performance. Performance that you could see and handling that you could feel... it was the perfect race game ... more >>

How do you top a game like Gran Turismo? For Polyphony, the answer seems to be that you don't even try. You just bung in a few new tracks, a whole load of new cars, and hope that the suckers will suck it all up again.

Gran Turismo was a monster of a game, the perfect arcade racer, with huge number of tracks and cars. Added to that the option to tune your car for better handling and performance. Performance that you could see and handling that you could feel... it was the perfect race game for those too impatient to play a sim style F-1 game.

GT's big omission was that you could not crash the cars. Oh, you could wipe them out stylee! But they landed back on the track, back on their wheels, and without even a scuff. This was enforced on the game by the car manufacturers, who don't want to see their beautiful machines getting scrapped at every turn.
To be honest, it was pretty dull. It even encouraged a kamikaze style of driving that lead you to take corners at top speed, looking for a deflection off an opponent to make the bend. GT2 discourages this by degrading performance based on damage, but without the spills to make it worthwhile, and the visual indication of damage, it's just a drag.

There's much here for fans of the original game... the chance to take to the track behind the wheel of a good old fashioned Mini for instance. But those expecting something new might be disappointed. << less