Celebrating 20 Years of Gran Turismo

I'm actually surprised the series isn't older. It feels like ages since I grabbed a copy of the first entry. It also seems like ages since the jump to PS2. Oh well, I just grabbed GT Sport on discount today. Tough decision since I have no idea what to expect from a game that isn't GT7 or Prologue, but yesterday's nostalgic freebies and the holiday spirit got the better of me. :)
 
Beautifully written. The whole passion and aura of Gran Turismo is amazingly captured in that one article.

GT3 was my first Gran Turismo game when I was just 7 years old but it's undoubtedly what made me fall in love with the automobile. Also, much like yourself with the Mk3 Supra, I still smile every time I see a 1st gen Impreza Wagon or a Mitsubishi FTO.
 
I've been a long time Gran Turismo fan too, I played 1, 2, 3, 4, Prologue 4, 5, 6, and now GT Sport, I'm impressed where Gran Turismo has come from and I'm excited to see where it goes, it a great racing game for race fans who would love to race a real race-car but don't have the funds, I'm eventually going to upgrade to VR and the new G29 wheel which I'll use for both Gran Turismo on the PS4 and iRacing on the PC. I hope the new people to Gran Turismo have a great experience that I have had from the beginning as well. Happy gaming everyone! Lets celibate 20 years of Gran Turismo!
 
Fantastic article - really catches the ethos and uniqueness of Gran Turismo.

Props to the contributors quotes as some are really moving in terms of bringing back similiar memories.

Here's hoping PD can sucessfully balance all the different customer expectations as GTS evolves further.

This franchise to my mind has always been a celebration of the automobile environment & car culture. GT has always strived I believe to be a driving game that can appeal to many different people rather than an out and out racer with hardcore physics.

Pleased to see GTS as reboot of the series still achieves this - well certainly for me from the first moment I booted it up in mid October !
 
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A wonderful article. I share so much of the sentiment and history with the writer... I was interested in cars before GT, but GT was my car education, it taught me the difference and and nuances between different brands and models, it made me appreciate new cars I’d not heard of before and like mentioned in the article I see cars in real life now and instantly link them back to early GT memories. I’m proud to be a fan of the series. Here’s to the next 20 years...
 
Nothing can't take me most wonderful moments of my youth that PS1 and GT1 & 2 gave me...!

No toy, candy, good grade or money couldn't parry to magic than PD spread all over me...

And today, when generations changed, years passed and life became far more cruel, I still have Gran Turismo!

Thank You Polyphony!
 
Very well written article. I was 19 years old when i started to play GT1. It grew on me the realistic driving physics to how the cars looked from the first time i played GT1 then progressed to GT2, GT3, GT4, GT5 Prologue and GT5, GT6 and now going to start playing GTS Christmas night. Will be a blast playing this game with all the new updates.
 
Excellent article!

My first experience with the Gran Turismo franchise was GT5. It certainly wasn't my favorite game, but it got me hooked on the series. My fondest memories of that game were racing with my friends: We hooned VW Samba buses around Daytona, held some NASCAR "hell races" on the Nürburgring in complete darkness with 100% rain, and messed about in general with some of the silly cars like the 1968 Fiat 500 and Toyota Prius. I hope to be able to play the original games one day because I love reading this community's wonderful, nostalgic stories. Anyway, GT Sport is incredible and I am so excited for future DLCs!
 
Well, I had more time to read this article than I expected since I cannot connect to the game. I don't have recollections of the first game, but remember we were so impressed with the sequels that my friends and I stopped off at Laguna Seca in October 2001 on our US trip as it was always in our minds around that time from the hours spent driving round it in the game.

Happy anniversary. Meant genuinely. I'll
never forget the excitement of meeting Kaz at the Orange Box last year, a long held dream made to come true :D

(Now go fix those damn servers please ASAP :lol:)
 
Ah the Memories from GT1 when i was 3 not knowing what the hell i was doing spending all the money my father had on car wash & Fully upgading uselees cars & deleting his saves multiple times resaulting at him becaming angry at me lol.
To GT2 where i spent all the time doing the same thing + Driving the Tigra Ice Race Car on dirt.
On GT3 I was hiting every possible wall all the time & win with super OP cars & gathering money that i will lose every time i turned my PS2 off since my father removed the memory card when i was play because of the ressons mentioned above lol but as was growing up i was driving normaly so in order to beat the endurance races we switched place kind of like a real racing stint.
By the time GT4 came around i start understanding Driving physics etc better & i was develoing as a driver BUT the worst thing in that was 1. The IA Challenge with the 125 Evo DTM on the Nurburgring the closest i came to finish was in the final freaking corner when the safety car braked out of nowhere & i crushed into it when this happend i was so furious! & 2. The save file becoming corrupted 7 times.
Then GT5 comes & because i was like 11 years old i thought ubdates may cause the save file becaming corrupted on GT5 as well i progressed all the way up to Formula GT championchip on Version 1.00 god that was painful.
Then i realized that in order to the FGT i had to go online & then i descavered a new reallity in GT
& i Understood how **** i was
but i was improving day by day
also there i met one of my best friends @jontikis & we have come a long way.
On GT6 nothing Special happend
really,but trough this 14 years GT has stayed the one & only loyal friend. So i have onlyvone thing to say Thank you Kaz & Thank you PD for every single moments you gave me!
 
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Ah, I love this franchise. I remember playing GT3 for hours! I remember listening to the Christmas music in GT5 for the first time back on Christmas Eve in 2012. And I am happy to see where the franchise is heading towards. I am holding off buying GT Sport though, as I want it to evolve further and get bigger in terms of content.

Also, I STILL need to buy GT3 again. If I’ll ever do that, I don’t know. Maybe tomorrow. ;)
 
Congrats Kaz and Gran Turismo. I have been here since the start and had all Gran Turismo 1-6 concept editions on ps2 and prologue and of course Sport. So many fond memories of Gt 1 and 2 hehe it came with 2 discs and for the time, Gt was mind blowing. Always went a GTR when I could afford it as well and so many feels when Gt league came back and r34 GTR too and rx7.

1st edit: I feel old knowing Gt is 20 years old lol. And I remember going out with friends and I would leave Playstation on and in B Spec mode. Gran Turismo has been a huge part of my life and I’ve always loved cars naturally and Gt let me drive dream cars I’ll never afford.
 

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Great article, and well written. GT has nostalgia all over it for me too. Having played and enjoyed all of them from GT1 through to GT Sport I have seen all the changes.

I look forward to seeing how the future of GT sport goes, with regular Updates and DLC until the new PS5....Who knows? but I know I have lost many hours of my life to all GT games over the years....

This video is great to watch to see how the graphics and game design UI has changed over the years.

Happy 20th :cheers:

 
Gran Turismo 4 could be said to have been the turning point of my addiction to all things cars.

Will always remember GT4's intro with Panama, and changing the oil on my R92CP to get over 1k bhp mark for that GT1-class championships.

GT left a mark on my life that set me up for the future of understanding racing and car culture. Can't wait for what they'll come up in the next 20 years.
 
I have still vivid memories of reading a VG magazine (don’t remember which one, sorry) back in August 1997, with an exhaustive preview of a racing game being developed by a relatively unknown studio in Japan. The pictures shown on the magazine were amazing and I was thinking they were screenshot from the presentation.
In the preview it was written the game was going to be released in December in Japan, and later (spring 1998 I think) in Europe.

The day after I brought my PSX to be modded for reading Japan and USA games, and ordered the Japanese import version of Gran Turismo.

I received it between Christmas and New Year, and spent the Holidays with GT, playing and navigating through Japanese menus. LOL
 
Played GT4 prologue and full game till death but i still have great memories of GT1 to GT3.
GT5 was about playing online with friends. Won’t forget those nights races at nordschleife and Mount Panorama.
GT6 was a GT5 refinment even though it was still enjoyable it did not make a great impression like GT5 did (for me at least)
Unfortunately, GTSport is late to the party because ps4 has been out for years now (maybe so that pd does not have to release more than one game on ps4?) so there were other titles like AC who opened some people’s eyes on how good physics & ffb could be and other buggy ones like pcars which forced me to buy a pc to play other sim. racing games.
Still GTSport is by far a complete game from impressive photomode to online races to campaign to ranking system. It is by far the best GT game ever released. I see this game as the only GT game to be on PS4 and that is not a bad thing.

Thank you PD and GTPlanet for great memories.

Merry Christmas and happy new year everyone.

:gtpflag:

:cheers:

VLN_endurance_series by M-Bimmer, on Flickr
 
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