Bigger, Longer & Uncut

From what we can gather, GT4’s offline play modes will be similar to the previous games. The game is a lot bigger this time with up to 100 courses including New York City, the Grand Canyon, and Tsukuba Race Circuit. Unofficially, Polyphony Digital has been sighted at Sears Point and well as Laguna Seca. The trip to Laguna Seca is interesting in that one, the track is already in GT3, and two, Laguna Seca was the track racing legend Bob Earl had complained about. Mind you, that “up to 100” number that Sony handed out would count a ‘mirror track’ as two courses. For comparison, GT3 only had 20 courses, and 36 if you included the mirrors.

Exxon paper crowd

Stars & stripes

Urismo 4

Polyphony Digital has gone to great lengths to provide realistic driving environments, especially in the “showcase” street track New York City, which will feature real landmarks down to the billboards. That doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to hop into your Evo and play the most realistic Grand Theft Auto 3 driving sequence yet (i.e., mowing down pedestrians), but rather it’s similar to what we’ve seen from games like Project Gotham Racing – closed streets, enclosed areas.

Solberg?

Swinging wide

No brakes?

Authenticity and attention to detail is what sets Gran Turismo apart from other racers. Polyphony Digital is constantly looking at ways to improve the breed. GT3 set the standard for car-game physics (drafting, anyone?), and this new game is looking to take realism and accuracy up another notch. It all starts with getting exact data and specs for each of its featured cars. Polyphony Digital made many special “field trips” out to capture data. Hundreds, if not thousands of photographs are taken of every vehicle. Cars are ‘mic’ed’ and their sounds from idle to redline are recorded. Numerous measurements of dimensions are made. In fact, one bloke who owns a 1971 TVR Vixen Series 3 had his car inspected and probed by Polyphony Digital. He wrote up a little piece on the experience, which you can inspect and probe for yourself.