Check out this loser review

[Parnelli Bone]

I was surfing around on the net and found this webpage.

http://www.mastergamer.com/granturismo.html

It's alot of text, but interesting nonetheless. Check out how he predicts Gran Turismo wouldn't hold anyone's interest for more than a weekend. Also, he's *****ing about the license tests. What a siss!

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Gran Turismo Review
For PlayStation

Rating: Good

Hardcore racing game fans may think that Gran Turismo
is the greatest video game of all time, and while I agree that it is a truly great game, it runs out of steam too
quickly to be a must-have product.

First of all, the graphics in Gran Turismo are the best ever seen in a home racing game. Sure, they pale in comparison to such Sega Model 3 arcade games as Sega Rally 2, but this doesn't matter since Sega Rally 2 runs on a $10,000 arcade machine and Gran Turismo runs on a $150 PlayStation.

Say what you will about the game's music; I think it rocks. The music fits the mood and intensity of the gameplay almost perfectly, more so than any other racing game on the market.

Now, onto the gameplay. Gran Turismo makes the best use of the Sony Analog Controller yet. Playing Gran Turismo with the d-pad and then playing it with the analog controller is like playing two complete different games. The control with the d-pad leaves a lot to be desired, but the analog control is dead-on (most of the time...). Gran Turismo has two modes of play- Arcade Mode and Simulation Mode. Arcade Mode lets you choose from a small lineup of cars and compete in time trials against your own best times, or race against the computer on one of four initially selectable tracks.

The tracks are well-designed and it's very addicting, but the Arcade Mode would be infinitely more enjoyable if could simply race all the available tracks on a points basis in a mini-season, instead of just taking it one race at a time with no cumulative results. The real game of Gran Turismo lies in the Simulation Mode. Here you start out with a small amount of money (10,000 credits) and buy a car you can afford from one of many dealerships.

After suffering through a painful, meaningless, and repetitive process to get your first racing license, you can race through a mini-season on a select number of circuits, earning cash as you go. You can use money you earn to buy new cars or upgrade your current cars. In all, the game has an incredible 166 total cars, many of which can only be obtained by winning a particular curcuit.


After a couple of days of extremely addictive fun, the game then begins to slowly fall apart. The main problem is that it often seems that whether you win or lose depends not on how well you race, but how fast the computer cars were programmed to go. There are many control issues that need addressing such as certain surfaces like sand where the slightest contact with them can (and usually does) send you spinning uncontrollably. Control problems like this and the occasional human error will never allow you to race 100% perfectly, but the computer cars somehow manage to go through every turn flawlessly almost every single time. It's as if they're mocking me, saying, "Have fun skidding around on the sand, mere human! I'm running on pre- programmed Artificial Intelligence, and I never mess up!" The Arcade Mode has three difficulty levels, and the Simulation Mode would have benefited from this more than words can describe. Instead, there is only one difficulty level in Simulation Mode, and it will prove just as frustrating for racing newbies as it proves easy for racing veterans.

The Time Trial modes offers an initially fun alternative to the various circuits you can race on in Simulation Mode, but even the Time Trials get old after a while. For some strange reason, the Arcade Mode has extensive time-tracking features such as tracking your Top 8 finishes on all the tracks, but the Simulation Mode's Time Trials only record your all-time record. Shouldn't it be the other way around? In Simulation Mode, you should be able to track more Time Trial records, not less, so you can put into perspective how far you've progressed over time.

Despite all its flaws, Gran Turismo is a great game and for now at least, it is the mother of all racing games. I rented Gran Turismo and played it almost non-stop for three consecutive days, and for a time there it was among the most enjoyable video games I have ever played and probably ever will play. But unfortunately, the game lost its magic almost as quickly as it originally gained it.

Gran Turismo is the greatest weekend rental of all time, but it's still just a weekend rental.

 

[Uncle Harry]

Agree, this review is bad. He has totally missed the point.
I bet he never won the Mega Tuned Series.
That took me 3 months to master.
The bit about perfect driving but the AI still beat me. LOL

 

[Parnelli Bone]

"....the ai goes thru all the turns perfectly while I spin in the sand..." Well duh. What are you doing in the sand? The dude obviously never learned to drive very fast.

 

[JohnBM01]

It's times like this I just want to say... HOLD ON, PLAYER! Let me set this chump straight on Gran Turismo...

* "...a painful, meaningless, and repetitive process..."
excusez moi? The license tests are for you to improve your driving. This is usually the most common complaint about Gran Turismo games. People probably just want to believe that just getting in and playing a racing game should be like Halo or one of those other recent first-person shooters I've lost respect for. Maybe he needs to know that practice makes perfect. That will be a lesson you NEED to understand to be at your best. Dumb call. (Verdict: 4.00/10.00)

* "After a couple of days of extremely addictive fun, the game then begins to slowly fall apart."
This is something you're going to have to get used to. ANYONE can win ANY race. It just takes hard work and dedication on your end. My biggest struggle when I first played was about trying to control the rear-wheel drive cars. I got so scared of rear-wheel drive cars when I first played GT1. After a while, I learned how to properly handle RWD cars, and I've gotten better at it. This "computer limitation of AI speed" is pretty much rubbish. Try saying that when you do the Megaspeed Challenge. There, you NEED a fast car. That means tuning up a car to be at its absolute best. Or in this case, full speed. Difficulty varies in terms of what cars you are up against. Think your stock Miata can knock off GT race cars? I don't think so. (Verdict: 3.50/10.00)

* "The Time Trial modes offers an initially fun alternative..." This isn't so much a free run. It's basically two laps to prove yourself. Two lap intervals won't show your progress, which I'll agree with. But don't go talking about that it is initially fun. I don't think Time Trials were meant to be fun; it's a way to test your car's performance. You can save your setups and stuff. Maybe you can write down your settings for a car. I don't agree with "initially fun." (Verdict: 4.00/10.00)

* "Gran Turismo is the greatest weekend rental of all time, but it's still just a weekend rental." Just a weekend rental? Player, don't you realize that if it weren't for this game, that Gran Turismo basically wouldn't exist? The fanbase for this game has been the results of (going on) ten years of satisfied racing fans, and here you are calling this the best WEEKEND RENTAL? You want a weekend rental? It's called "Burnout 3: Takedown." It's called "Pro Race Driver." It's called "Burnout Revenge." This game gave people the best racing experience before companies like Microsoft, Sega, Codemasters, and a bunch of others were just getting hot in the racing genre. (Verdict: 2.00/10.00)


And now, it's time for my final verdict. JOHN SOUNDS OFF: Bogus GT1 Review

Nothing boils blood on an issue like this than for someone to call a game like this a "weekend rental." Or for that matter... ANY GT rental. Gran Turismo is all about a long-term commitment. Those who make that long-term commitment will be rewarded with a deep and promising adventure that will take well over a mere rental to complete. I'd probably go on level of saying that Forza Motorsport wouldn't have existed had GT not been the racing juggernaut that it is and has been. Gran Turismo 1 is a game ANY GT fan should get. I don't care who you are. If you love Gran Turismo, I recommend you get this game just to have some old school fun. Reviews like this are the result of Mama's boys who wear diapers and drink baby milk. Gran Turismo isn't the deepest of sim racing games, but it isn't the most boring or most uninteresting. GT was NEVER about cheap thrills. The games are so good that it takes more than a while to enjoy ALL of what the game is worth. But if that's true, then I guess all sim racing games should be Burnout crashfests. They should be cheap thrills. They should be so that SUVs handle like Ferraris. I guess tuning is for dorks. I guess appreciating cars is only for rich people who graduated out of Harvard or Stanford. I don't buy a word this jive turkey wants us to believe. Players, you want to believe this cat? If so, you're about as silly as this review he gave out. I'm not buying his arguments and neither should any sane and conscious human being. To make a long story short: (bogus GT1 reviewer = OWNED!!! Owned by John of Houston, TX. Don't mess with Texas, and ESPECIALLY don't mess with GT1. You dig, player? (Final Verdict: 2.75/10.00)

All rise! Court is adjourned.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Keep in mind that he wrote this review in 1998 when the GT series was still new; hence, his ‘weekend rental’ comment was more of a prediction that Polyphony was producing a product that ultimately would be tossed aside. I bet the dude never even completed the frickin' Clubman. There's no way he managed to do the entire game in 3 days. Master racers never complain about sand after all, because they rarely spend time dealing with it!

I gotta agree with him about the way records are kept, tho. It would be kinda cool to have your Top 8 saved for any sim races instead of one Lap record. But whatever. A very minor detail.

 

[Pupik]

I'll say this, SportWagon managed to play Gran Turismo for about 24 hours straight, basically stating that you could concievably play this game in a single weekend, as there's about 80 races and 24 license tests. (Wow...remember when the game only had 24 license tests! Now there's almost 4 times that.)

However, the average gamer is going to need more time than that; considering we're talking about a 7+ year old review, it's obvious he's not much of a fan of the racing genre. Then again, I wasn't terribly thrilled with the original GT (borrowed it from a friend), since you had to do those same tests and use "slow" cars. I didn't get much further than the Sunday and Clubman Cup.

I played around with the Arcade Mode of GT2 for a while, and then tried out Simulation Mode with a super-slow car, which took the pressure off winning (or finishing 5th, for that matter). Using that Fiat 500R for all it was worth did it for me...

 

[JohnBM01]

Gran Turismo games have great replay value most of the time. I sometimes believe that you can never be DONE with a GT game. When a game has many hidden depths that can't be complete in a single play, then you know a game is good. Even when I first played GT, I wanted to overcome every mountain as best as possible. GT1 remains the only GT I've beaten, in the sense of clearing all the races. I once cleared all the races to GT2's Special races or something. I've cleared Beginner and Amateur modes in GT3's sim mode, in addition to clearing most of (if not all of) Arcade Mode's quick races.

Even Kazunori Yamauchi claimed that he didn't think his project would be successful. What happened? This game got a lot of publicity, devoted fans, a special-edition car, its own award at SEMA, and not to mention GT-sponsored race cars. It was all the result of hard work and determination. Many racing game franchises probably wished it had the success GT had, even if it's looked down on by many players. The only way GT is going to no longer be a power is if PD decides to somehow end the GT franchise.

If it meant anything, GT1 didn't have a Win/Loss count. So if you lost a race, that's okay. If you lose the championship, you need to win it over again. I still recommend to people who only have GT4, go out and get all the past GT games so you can experience what each one had to offer. GT1 is still the king of GT games, and that's not likely to change unless a future GT game can completely surpass it. I know I said GT4 was a great game, but I'm still giving serious love to GT1 because it was the game that started the GT craze. So go get GT1 if you don't already. There's almost no excuse why a GT fan shouldn't get the game which started the craze. Who knows? Maybe PD would plan a special 10th Anniversary edition of GT1 with all the updated graphics and a number of different tweaks to classic races and levels. Much like what Sega did with Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution and its VF 10th Anniversary Edition game.

 

[liam2maps]

Gran Turismo is so good that it still captivates people so many years after, look at us for example. Is it the highest selling Racing Sim of all time or does that belong to the F1 series?

 

[SportWagon]

I'll say this, SportWagon managed to play Gran Turismo for about 24 hours straight, basically stating that you could concievably play this game in a single weekend, as there's about 80 races and 24 license tests. (Wow...remember when the game only had 24 license tests! Now there's almost 4 times that.)

I actually finished it in two sessions, taking a little over 32 hours.
I hadn't managed to optimize my start time to allow for 24 hours straight.
I took slightly more than 24 hours even if you take out my sleeping time, because I took such detailed notes. (Every lap time for the enduroes )

But true, that's just mere details. And that's a lot less time than a weekend.

But it took me a lot more than a weekend to "master" it to the degree that it would take me only a weekend, but I am relatively unco-ordinated, and was totally unused to that style of controller. But yes, this guy clearly wasn't a master. Touching sand should cause you trouble ("that's not a bug, that's a feature"), and in GT1 it didn't send you instantly out of control; you could usually recover.

"the computer cars somehow manage to go through every turn flawlessly almost every single time" sounds like a formulaic race-game review. One of the revolutionary things about GT1 was that the AI actually needed to control the physics model the same way you did. Sometimes they made spectacular mistakes (NSX on first lap of Grand Valley 300), and other times they made consistent time-consuming errors (tuned cars hitting walls at Clubman R5 or Special Stage R11).

Wow. We sure have a lot of lurkers in this forum, don't we?

 

[SportWagon]

Who knows? Maybe PD would plan a special 10th Anniversary edition of GT1 with all the updated graphics and a number of different tweaks to classic races and levels.

First I echo what others have said, and say modern marketing would never allow that.

Much like what Sega did with Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution and its VF 10th Anniversary Edition game.

But then that once again gives me hope it might actually happen.

 

[BMWteamPTG]

i was lauging my a** off at this guy. granted this was back in 98 and he would take back everything he said now. but, if you want to rent it for a weekend, and race a few races, then so be it. most of us however want to be able to perfect our driving style and actually win the races without cheating and have fun doing it.

bad review - next!

 

[Parnelli Bone]

¾¾

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Gran Turismo is so good that it still captivates people so many years after, look at us for example. Is it the highest selling Racing Sim of all time or does that belong to the F1 series?

I'm putting my money on the F1 series for now..only because Gran Turismo can only be played on PlayStations are far as I know, and F1 is multi-platform. Anybody can correct me on this, I'm just guessing.

 

[TMM]

Weekend game, it took me 2 years to complete the game from start to finnish, admitidly I was racing every winnable car in every eligable race including spot races. It took me many many years to master the game and I'm not at the same level as many players in this forum.

 

[Appie]

it was a funny review, but its his opinion so we have to respect that:tup:

 

[SportWagon]

After suffering through a painful, meaningless, and repetitive process to get your first racing license, you can race through a mini-season on a select number of circuits, earning cash as you go. You can use money you earn to buy new cars or upgrade your current cars. In all, the game has an incredible 166 total cars, many of which can only be obtained by winning a particular curcuit.

Actually, being very unfamiliar with Playstation games, I spent my first few days doing nothing but "Spot Races", since it took a while to get even my B license. (Get all the way around the High Speed Ring with no accident? Wow!)

I even found that fun, and gradually upgraded my MA70 Supra so I could reliably win and get Cr1500 per race. Stabilizers considered useful.

 

[HACKr]

it was a funny review, but its his opinion so we have to respect that:tup:

Everyone has the right to their opinion, unless its deemed wrong by ME.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

it was a funny review, but its his opinion so we have to respect that:tup:

Actually you should check out some of the other reviews from that website. Just click on the link I posted up above and go to other game reviews. It seems these guys were critical of anything.

I agree with their review of GT2 (other reviews from the same time period {early 2000} tend to glorify GT2 and make no mention of all its faults) but calling Tomb Raider crap? It seems these master gamers would get about as far as the first challenge, then they would give up.

Gotta agree with their review of Army Men though.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Actually, being very unfamiliar with Playstation games, I spent my first few days doing nothing but "Spot Races", since it took a while to get even my B license. (Get all the way around the High Speed Ring with no accident? Wow!)

I even found that fun, and gradually upgraded my MA70 Supra so I could reliably win and get Cr1500 per race. Stabilizers considered useful.

I guess I was lucky. When I started GT1, I had just finished Ford Racing® and was eager to jump into more thoroughly customizing cars. Early replays I saved show that I made mistakes, but not as many as I would have if I had just jumped into GT1 cold with no racing experience.

 

[SportWagon]

My early replays look like I'm driving drunk.

 

[Dave A]

My first Gran Turismo race was in GAME, the day the game was releaed here, I wen't with my dad to pick it up and the had a huge TV and someone had just finished a High speed ring race in an R33 GT-R so I just hit retry (had no idea what an R33 GT-R was at the time, didn't know much about car's in general back then) and I lost control on the final corner and wen't from first to last , I bought the game and was playing it more thna I've spent playing any other single game, before or after. Gran Turismo got me interested in car's more than anything else, sure before then I would see a Ferrari and go wow, but I never read up on car's, I never learned anything about how they work and I didn't know who made what etc. I loved GT1, it was hard at first, and trying to find what car could win the untuned car series (I forget what it was called) took me a long time. Regarding this review, sure the guy is alowned to not think too much of the game, but is i a 3 day rental, no, if you only spend 3 days on it, I'm guessing you've experienced less than 20% of it. I loved trying to win than Viper GTS-R in both colours and the Racing TVR Cerbera's and buying all the special models etc. No GT game since has held me for as long, but that's a symptom of tried and tested and starting to get repetitive. The series need's a shake up imo.

 

[JohnBM01]

Look at it this way. GT had no personality back then. Not a lot of people would expect that Gran Turismo would still be played and enjoyed by avid fans to this day. I actually didn't enjoy slower cars back then. Live4Speed, you proudly bear TVR's logo. I wouldn't know what that company was or what cars it made eight years ago. I sometimes look to Gran Turismo to learn about the world of cars. The Gran Turismo series would go on introducing all sorts of car companies in its time. Hell, GT1 could have been ALL Japanese cars, but this game taught me about TVR and Aston Martin. You have to appreciate a racing game that can feature real cars and teach something to inexperienced car people. I can still remember when I was first getting into cars. I first thought a Camaro Z-28 from the late 1990s was a supercar. GT1 had the Z-28, and I loved getting it in Cayenne Red Metallic because I love red and blue colors for cars. I can also remember doing either USA vs. Japan or USA vs. UK when I had my Race Modified Camaro against two other identical Camaros! This game was great fun. And again, who would have thought that GT would have such an impact not only in video games, but also outside of video games? To be honest, Gran Turismo has gone further for a racing game than almost any other racing game or even any other game period. Love Gran Turismo. Hate Gran Turismo. At least admit it's gone very far in video games and real life. Whoever can forget the Gran Turismo Awards? What about the Best in Show deal whereas the SEMA winner has his/her/their car in the next GT? We seen the Buick Special and the HPA Motorsports R32 Stage 2 (or whatever it's called)? Gran Turismo 5 is going to have some sport compact love as the very popular figure Stephen ("Step") Papadakis will put in his AEM Honda S2000.

Do you think someone would come out with a bogus review of an All-Time classic even in this day and age? If so, that person has no respect for racing games, much less Gran Turismo.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

My early replays look like I'm driving drunk.

LOL lord have mercy!

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Do you think someone would come out with a bogus review of an All-Time classic even in this day and age? If so, that person has no respect for racing games, much less Gran Turismo.

Trust me, I've read many reviews of the GT series because I'm fascinated with it. This is one of the only ones I've seen which speaks badly. It's a rare opinion, basically.

 

[Mach 10]

I'll say this, SportWagon managed to play Gran Turismo for about 24 hours straight, basically stating that you could concievably play this game in a single weekend, as there's about 80 races and 24 license tests. (Wow...remember when the game only had 24 license tests! Now there's almost 4 times that.)

However, the average gamer is going to need more time than that; considering we're talking about a 7+ year old review, it's obvious he's not much of a fan of the racing genre. Then again, I wasn't terribly thrilled with the original GT (borrowed it from a friend), since you had to do those same tests and use "slow" cars. I didn't get much further than the Sunday and Clubman Cup.

I played around with the Arcade Mode of GT2 for a while, and then tried out Simulation Mode with a super-slow car, which took the pressure off winning (or finishing 5th, for that matter). Using that Fiat 500R for all it was worth did it for me...

Yes, I remember reading one of his interesting logs about that, sound slike a fun idea. If only my old copy of GT1 wasn't cracked...
Hmm, this review is basically what to expect from an inexperienced GTer.

 

[TMM]

I even found that fun, and gradually upgraded my MA70 Supra so I could reliably win and get Cr1500 per race. Stabilizers considered useful.

Ahhh I remember when I first found how useful the stanilizers where...

My early replays look like I'm driving drunk.

Have you ever tried playing the game when drunk? A good advertisment for not drinking and driving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Yeah stabilizers make a huge difference in GT1...not like other games. It's about the 2nd statement. I've driven Gran Turismo on several substances over the years....and drinking is the sloppiest!

 

[Super T]

Oh how wrong can reviews be . I wonder what this guys up to now ?

The Gran Turismo series has it's downsides (6 cars per race and still no decent A.I. after four installments) but we all still play it anyway. I've still got all my Gran Turismo games. My first PS2 came packaged with GT3, (I'm now on my third PS2 since buying it and I bet most of the reason I keep burning out my PS2's is Gran Turismo!)

I live in the UK and I'm a self confessed petrol-head. I'd never seen a Skyline before Gran Turismo, now I see one virtually everyday! (I did own one for about 8 months so thats cheating but you see my point?) The import scene exploded over here to the point where you can actually buy GT-R's, Evo's and the like from the main dealers. 👍 That was never the case before Gran Turismo, coincedence maybe, who knows?

I'll agree, Gran Turismo probably isn't everybody's favourite game, (see there's even a song about it!!) I know at least a couple of hardcore gamers who see it as just another racing game but they're not car people so maybe they and this reviewer are missing the point.

Long live Gran Turismo and all who race in her!!

 

[TMM]

Yeah stabilizers make a huge difference in GT1...not like other games. It's about the 2nd statment. Ive driven Gran Turismo on several substances over the years....and drinking is the sloppiest!

I was racing R cars and I'm hard on the cars when sobber, I tend to brake as I enter the corners unless it's a really sharp corner, so when drunk I pushed even harder and found myself slamming into walls and barriers and off into the gravel. I gave up, sobber up and raced the next day when I won the series and then celebrated.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Oh how wrong can reviews be . I wonder what this guys up to now ?

The Gran Turismo series has it's downsides (6 cars per race and still no decent A.I. after four installments) but we all still play it anyway.

Yeah I wonder too if he's like "ah..on second thought".

I think the day Gran Turismo has more than 6 cars per game is the day the PlayStation becomes unaffordable to the masses, know what I mean? The way I see it...in real-life GT racing, the leaders very often stay in the lead unless they have car trouble. GT is just giving us this perspective. Even if there were 20 cars in the field, ideally most of the people who play GT would be up in the lead somewhere.