Well I got my copy yesterday and I'm luvin it. The downside I think is that I only want GT4 even more now.
School mode is done nicely, getting golds on the first section on every test is pretty much a breather, accept for 2 or 3, where you need to put some effort in just beat your ghost a few times and gold should be easy. The second part however is quite a bit more challenging. If you wanna win you gotta beat everyone, which for me is still quite a challenge, overtaking 2 cars is easy, but beating the leader means you gotta drive better than perfect.
Physics is great now, longer braking distance needed, and also controlling a car in the braking zone gotten harder; easier to loose control. Just takes some time getting used to, and a few more months before I brake my way into corners like I could do in GT3. Handling has improved a lot I think, but with the dual shock you do kind of miss the perfect control. Because of the 900 degree turning model, putting the control stick completely right or left, will now take your wheels longer to travel from fully left to fully right. The only thing that can fix this is with the wheel I guess.
You can't just slam your way in as if you were using the steering wheel, it's really neccasery IMO...oh well, just wait a bit then I'l get a playseat with steering wheel.
It's exactly what I've expected, and the sounds are updated too, however I find the sound one of the weakest aspects of the GT series. Sure the way it sounds might be the same as the real engine sounds, but as far as realism go, they still have a long way to go. I mean just the sound of a real world good engine makes your blood flow faster, heart pump faster, and makes my hands sweat. I mean that's what I feel when I see an awesome car taking off. I just miss that here. No heavy basses either. Sometimes I even think I'm driving a vaccum cleaner, or driving a huge big bumblebee (ahum; takata dome nsx). That's just not right. Same thing for rally. If you see a wrc car the grippy tires just schreech over the asfalt when drifting through corners. Also the rally engine sound is an unique sound (impreza wrc) which doesn't even come close to the real thing in GT4.
It's a demo so I keep in mind there's still a lot of updates to see in the full version (no retarded ai, 3d crowds etc) and the sound might never sound real in games, guess it's just a thing I have to accept. But as far as physichs go I think they got it down dead accurate, and to make a game that uses the full 100% power of ps2, and make it this much better in so much ways is just unbelievable. They might exagerate a bit regarding the "if you can drive in GT you can drive in real life" thing a bit. Very real though, love the licenses, nice car selection, this makes a great great warm up for GT4. Nothing more nothing less, for 40 euros....
My 2 cents...
