Gran Turismo

Introduction

I was never a huge fan of consoles, because I prefer simulations rather than action games. How can you duplicate a simulation without a keyboard?

I was wrong: Gran Turismo is a simulation, and the Playstation has enough buttons on a joypad to give you full control over your car.

Gran Turismo is the reason why I own a Playstation. It was a mates’ fault: he let our household borrow a PS1 and left a few games, the original Gran Turismo being one of them.

I was hooked. After a couple of weeks, a small syndicate lottery win saw me with just enough cash to splash out on the console.

Why do I like the Gran Turismo series?

There are two reasons why I like Gran Turismo. The first is that it has “real world” physics, and the second is that you can see them happening.

Accelerate and the nose rises. Brake and the nose drops, steer and the car rolls. Drive a softly set up front wheel drive car around a corner under power, then let go of the accelerator, and the tail will start to hang out. Drive a road going, powerful rear wheel drive car and you soon learn to respect the limited grip that you have from those rear tyres. In essence, the cars drive like their real counterparts, at least, from what I have experienced.

If the original Gran Turismo is a hoot, the sequel is even better: it adds more cars and more tracks. The original game had a large number of Japanese cars, which Gran Turismo 2 redressed with many more European cars, including the Ka and the Puma. Gran Turismo 3, for the PS2, looks and sounds much better, but requires a lot of the “noddy” features turned off to feel more realistic.

Accuracy

I can’t presume to know exactly how accurate the Gran Turismo games are, simply because I have not driven a Dodge Viper on a racing track. And I’m sure there are little detail changes, approximations, and simplifications simply because it is a computer simulation. But the cars that I have driven both for real, and within the game, do feel similar.

The Ford Ka in Gran Turismo 2 is a little different to the one that I drive on the road, at least in the power delivery area. The GT2 Ka is based on the original Ka, with taller gear ratios and no power steering. Given the taller gearing, the engines power delivery is pretty much spot on: when using automatic transmission, the game will stretch the engine to over 6,000 rpm whereas in real life, you’d not really want to get the revs up there!

The handling is pretty much spot on, too. It darts into corners with some body roll and will understeer if you try too hard. Shut the power down, and it tucks back into line, but dab the brakes and the rear will unstick itself. If you’re a capable GT driver, you can catch the slide and create some rather pretty replays.