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WARNING: Another possible thread of massive posts!
Time to REALLY get technical. See how most of my discussions aren't the same old "will _____ be in GT5?" My stuff remains relevant rather than repetitive or unusual. This one is a unique look at how GT should look as far as Arcade and Simulation/GT modes. I'm taking the approach of "looking back, moving forward." Here is a look at how navigating GT has been like. The term "GT Mode" was applied for GT4 only. I'll use "GT Mode" to mean "Simulation Mode" for GTs 1 through 3.
--- Gran Turismo 1's GT Mode ---
Simulation Mode in GT was this fantasy city with 11 manufacturers (unless you count Honda and Acura seperately, then 12). Facilities such as the License center, car wash, machine test, and GO RACE are all there and waiting for you to visit.
GT1's My Home featured your garage, Load and Save, and Trade. I haven't traded cars, but you can use that feature to buy cars from another Memory Card. GT1's spec sheet for cars is available as well as a list of all equipped parts. You may use the icons along the left of your screen to access the World Map, Go Race, Home, and Load and Save.
You were greeted to a theme of either rock or electronica when you visited each of the auto makers. I personally loved the themes to TVR, Honda/Acura, Nissan, and Subaru. All Japanese makes have used cars as well as Special Models. The Special Models you could save your hard-earned cash on to acquire them for racing. All of them had actual groups like Mazdaspeed and NISMO among others. So you want a car? The company wants your money. Almost all cars are available in white except for cars that don't come in white. You had no idea as to what colors there are for a car unless you cycle through all the different colors for each car. Just pay the money, and the car is yours. Almost every car has a nice info page giving you more information on each car. GT1 features the most specific information on car specifications of any in the series. The information is very broad such as the type of suspension system is used, and things like that. I think even tire specifications were included in the specifications.
Tuning your car is done through a trip to the auto maker's tuning shop. The eight main facilities are all there- muffler and air cleaner, brakes, engine, transmission, turbo, suspension, tires, and others. Basic drawings of performance parts were shown to you so you know what you're getting for your car. Stabilizers were purchased seperately as opposed to being part of the entire package in GT1. But the key favorite to tuning- Racing Modification! You can literally complete your own race car with this package. All but one car (and obviously purpose-built race cars) can get racing modifications. Unfortunately, too bad if you don't see a combination you like because you can choose between only two colors for each car.
License acquistion was done through a method of picking a license and finding an exercise you want to work on. Once you select whatever it is you want to do, you are given a description of what you will have to accomplish. Pick a transmission type and move on. GT1's system was the hardest as you have to basically clear each one as best as you can. The facilities of ghost cars and accessible demo videos weren't there. You had to exit GT mode just to enter the Replay Theater. Also, there were no indication of what times are for qualifying. You had to look at all the records to determine what the top times are. A day passes with each test you take.
Car Wash and Machine Test were both pretty explanatory. You have to look closely to know if you have a clean car or not. Just look at the mapping of the car to see if it's dark. If it is, you need to clean it. Not required, but needed if you want a clean-looking car. Machine Test in GT1 and GT2 had a Top Speed challenge that used the whole track. Something in the GT3 strategy guide noted that the best way to get the highest top speed is to race the course backwards to get the highest available speed of your car, then race the regular direction to make your speed official.
Go Race has a number of facilities. GT League was all four official GT races ranging from Sunday Cup to GT World Cup. Special Events had all the races catered to certain types of vehicles including all three endurances. Spot Race gets you up and racing without needing a license. Time Trial was a two-lap run around the tracks. Counting reverse layouts, there are 21 tracks to race (because Test Course is not available in reverse. Then again, why should it? You're still going one direction all the way around). You had information as to what license is required as well as what cars can be raced. There were no specificiations as to what exact cars can be used (for example, no Miatas, no Vipers, etc.). The final facility is a Memory Card Battle in which you can play GT1 against another save game of GT1 from the other memory card. The Entry Info features race data as well as prize money for pole position and the six finishing positions.
This is the most basic of GT modes. GT2 had its own variation of its key mode.
--- Gran Turismo 2's GT Mode (Simulation Disc) ---
GT2 is still the only GT featured on more than one disc. One for Arcade, and the other for Simulation. I'll only focus on the Sim disc here.
GT2's My Home featured two new facilities- License Credits (useless for your actual racing) and Completion. Completion shows off how much of the game you've completed, your winning percentage, license prize distribution, and things like that. Instead of having to be into a car to sell it, you can simply sell it for more than 10K credits. Cars were all priced by 25% of their initial value (not counting modifications). You can check the stat sheet for less-detailed specs on each car compared to GT1. A list of equipped parts is also available. You can use the icons on the top-left of the screen to access the World Map, Home, Go Race, and Completion. Missing were Load and Save. You had to exit the main mode to load and save games. You also had to exit the main mode to trade cars.
GT2 did away with a single map of things to do and instead breaks up car types to cities. GT2 debuted the Wheel Shop in which you can change the wheels of any car from their boring wheels to something more interesting. Part of the challenge and frustration of the cities were that you have to remember what city belongs to what nationality of car. Is Alfa Romeo in the South City? Can I find a Lister Storm in East City? Rally racing debuted in this game, so more rally cars will be available. This also debuted One-Make Races. These can be fun ways to get adjusted to all the cars you have to get and race. The gray area involved where you would race. You'll get to race a certain track, but not sure if a normal or reverse configuration.
Let's focus on the cities themselves. East City's map resembles Tokyo and has all the Japanese cars. It's the only city where you can purchase used cars. Shop around because you can find some interesting classic cars. For me, there's nothing like looking for either a Datsun 240Z or a Toyota 2000GT. Those are my two all-time favorite Japanese sports cars. * North City's map resembles London and features all the British and German cars. I like the theme song for North City. Better bring some money because most of those cars can be expensive. It is a great smattering of cars across various time periods. Three of my favorite cars are in this city- the Ruf CTR2 Sport, the BMW 328i, and the Opel Tigra Ice Racing Car. * West City resembles Rome and features Italian and French cars. It has my favorite musical theme of all cities. There are only a few makes in this city, but all of them are high-quality. It is the only city in which you can start with 10,000 and be able to buy a car brand new. However, good luck winning Gran Turismo All-Stars with the Fiat 500R! It also features a car of impeckable genius- the Renault Espace F1, complete with a Williams Formula 1 engine. Haul groceries and ass at the same time. * Finally, South City resembles New York City and features all American cars. This game has one of the best representations of muscle cars of any game in the series. You can get a 1970 Dodge Challenger for a pretty good price here. Same goes for various other muscle cars. You can check out the awesome Vector M12 as well as the amazing Vipers. Been to Honda and couldn't find an NSX? That's why you go to Acura.
You can go to a car company and look for any car you want. Lots of cars have info screens. Unlike GT1, GT2 offers two pages of information for each car that has info.
Licenses can be acquired in one day if you simply get a prize for one license test. You can advance to other test objectives all without having to leave to save the game. More importantly, you get an idea as to what the target times are as well as being able to see a demo video for each test. So no more having to exit out to the Replay Theater- it's all there. If that's not helpful enough, then at least you know what the target times are. GT2 debuted the Super License, letting you be able to compete in any race.
Car Wash and Machine Test are both there with no real difference from GT1. My all-time record in GT2's version of the Max Speed challenge was 260 mph in a Toyota GT-One Road Car with Stage 4 turbos in one of my rare Manual Transmission runs.
GT2's Go Race mode had four halls- Gran Turismo League, Special Events, Rally Events, and Endurance. * The GT League has a progressive trail to glory. You must clear all six nationals, all races in the Euro-Pacific League, and finally, claim victory in the Gran Turismo World League. You can also access the random event maker after you unlock it. * Special Events encompass a variety of racing challenges for a variety of cars and difficulty levels. It features only two championship races. Otherwise, enjoy the many races the game has to offer. * Rally events are simply time trials around various courses including the abbreviated Pikes Peak Hill Climb. * GT1 had three endurances. GT2 has seven. Races will probably last no longer than two hours. So be in it for the long haul!
--- Gran Turismo 3's GT Mode ---
Simulation in GT Mode was like GT1- simple with everything there. GT3 had an all-in-one Car Dealer zone and a seperate tune shop. Enhancements include the debut of changing oil as well as being able to test on a variety of tracks from home. Also, GT Auto has the wheel-changing facility. Once you bought a set of wheels, those will stay with you to equip to any car in your possession except F1 cars. No more Special Models here. No more Racing Modificaions (sadly).
Rather than memorizing cities, the Car Dealer has a world of cars available for you to buy. It debuted Belgium and Australia in cars. Pick a nationality of car, pick that make, select a car you want to buy. To learn more about the cars, you had to sit through the scrolling marquee below the line of available cars. So if you're reading and accidentally move the joystick or gamepad left or right, you'll have to highlight that car to see all the info you missed. When you pick a car, not all cars are available in white as the first color. You can find specifications on cars as well as enjoy buying a new car. There are no new cars in the game. In fact, Gran Turismo 3 is the only GT where you don't start out with 10,000 Credits. Instead, you get 18K credits, and that money is only good for three cars.
The Tune Shop was a one-size-fits-all tuner shop instead of having to remember what aftermarket group belongs to what company. The real car part images from GT2 are now replaced with a series of big diagrams. What GT3 added was a strategic edge to tire selection as you can choose between eight different kinds of racing tires ranging from slicks to super-softs. Racing Mediums were the default, but you had some choices to make as to what kinds of tires you wanted to use.
GT Auto was brand-new as it combined car wash and wheel functions. It introduced one more new element- oil changes. An oil change of any newly-bought car could give you a horsepower edge. A problem was that you could not change oil between races in a series like you could in GT4. They were also pretty expensive for first-timers- 250 credits to change oil. Watch your mileage so you'll have an idea as to when to change the oil.
License tests returned whether you liked them or not (why would you hate them? You need licenses to clear the game!). For the first time, you had a diagram as to what part of a track or what whole track you're using. This was helpful in case you wanted to have a refresher of racing a certain section of the track. You had an idea as to what part of the track to use as well as what you'll have to do. Tests don't have to be annoying now because there are now ghosts of your best lap time to help you out. Just beat your ghost to the line when you make a second run around the test facility.
Want to race? Races are divided into three levels of difficulty and include rally and endurance events. Picking a race is more managable than in the past. You can now race seperate events rather than have to be in the championship to access certain tracks in the series. A huge display of each event is now available for all series. Select the series you want to race in. You may either compete in single events or a championship series for all championship series. The Info is better defined listing all kinds of cars you can race with and what are disallowed. Best of all, you can even preview later races in championships.
GT3 offered a simplistic Simulation Mode map similar to GT1, but without the depth that GT2 provided.
--- Gran Turismo 4's GT Mode ---
Calling GT4's mode as a World Map is pretty reasonable since it is a big map. Described as "Gran Turismo Resorts" at one game show, you had a large assortment of locations to visit in GT Mode. Lots of new facilities as well as updates to classic GT mappings have been made much more in-depth in this massive game.
My Home is more expansive. You have a new diary showcasing your GT Mode career with tabs on wins, cars, and more. Most important is being able to tune cars without having to go to a track. This was a critical plus for Gran Turismo as you can tune cars at home before hitting the road. You can freely change any options with your car as you have it with you. You can change options at the house as well as save your game. The garage shows 10 cars per screen. You can sell cars you aren't using. Cars that don't have a price just give you no money in return. The game auto-saves when you change cars.
Five Gran Turismo themes fill your ears with music, most of which are re-makes of past GT themes. Series veterans may easily recognize past themes in their new form. Car companies are sorted out by nationality. So no more remembering cities. If you know the nationality of a car, you can go to that nationality and go car shopping. Equally impressive is that you can now get a Used Car from more than just Japanese companies. The majority of used cars are Japanese, but you can still land some nice American and European cars from the past. A scrolling marquee far at the bottom of the screen gives you more information about the manufacturer when you look for more info on them. Sadly, no information for ANY cars are available anymore. As a plus, you can get more detailed specs on cars as you buy them. Just not at the level of GT1's stat sheet. Purchasing a car means you get to see that car up front as GT3's theme for buying a new car is played. While Used cars have their own lot, GT4 is the first to pay respect to classic cars by offering a Classics lot. Some have a New Car lot only. Some have a Classic Car lot only. Most of them have both. The Tuning options make a return for each manufacturer. Also returning (and being more improved) is the One-Make Races.
Tuning your car is done through a trip to the auto maker's tuning shop. The eight main facilities have all returned. Some even with new options. The basics are modifications to the muffler and air cleaner, brakes, engine, transmission, turbo, suspension, tires, and others. New basic drawings of car parts are offered. New options include Nitrous (first time in series history), superchargers, standard tires, different grades of sports tires, snow tires (for those that can use them), increase rigidity, and an all-new Rigidity Refresher Plan. Some tuner groups have their own ready-made cars available for you to drive the wheels off of. A detailed scrolling marquee tells you what each part does. You get a better idea as to what each modification does as you watch horsepower numbers and weight become modified with each modification. Another letdown for most GT gamers is that there are no Racing Modifications. With the next GT being for the PS3, neither PS2 rendition features Racing Modifications. The eight grades of racing tires in GT3 are now down to five.
GT4 added a new Tuning Village where you can purchase tuner cars from the 10 groups represented. Some cars can even be tuned using parts from each Tuner group. Some even offer Original parts you can use to really get that performance boost you're looking for. Sadly, not every car could be equipped with Original parts. Also, most of the car parts are basically parts you could have gotten from the manufacturers themselves since there's no real difference between a tuning firm's parts and the original aftermarket parts. There's only one American tuner- HPA motorsports. However, HPA Motorsports is really Canadian. They won the very first Best-in-Show award at SEMA to have their awesome Volkswagen Golf R32 featured in GT4.
GT Auto is back with all of its past facilities from GT3 including a new GT wing service. Car washes were fun as you can watch GT Auto people wash your car after the halfway stage of the wash. Oil Change was interesting as you could watch a person go the front or rear of the car and change the oil. Sometimes, the guy changing the oil basically gets "swallowed up" by your car and just struggles to find out where to change the oil at. So he basically just takes a fun ride underneath your car. An interesting new feature to changing wheels is that you can opt to have new wheels to support a certain type of tires. I liked this, personally. I want to be able to tell which of my tires are for the street including for the race track. If you're low on cash, you can opt for used wheels. Funny here is that you could have Volkswagen wheels on a car other than a Volkswagen. Sadly, you can't change wheel types easily as you could in GT3. Any wheels you purchase just replaces your old wheels. GT Wings can be thought of as Racing Modification, but not really. A variety of GT wings can be used for your car rather than just having a car purely tuned for racing... look like every other car. I always look for wings that compliment the style of my car as well as how fast it can go. You can choose between black, silver, and white for wings.
License acquistion was done through a method of picking a license and finding an exercise you want to work on. New to GT games were Coffee Breaks that simply give you a rest from taking the other tests and just offer a fun diversion from the license tests. GT4 features the most license tests for one license of any GT in the series. Over sixteen tests await you. GT4 debuted a new Pace Car used at racing events. One-Lap Trials are brand new as you sit behind the Pace Car and try to lay down the fastest lap in a learn-as-you-go process. If you whack the Pace Car hard enough, you will fail automatically. The variety of tests are amazing and diverse.
Photo Mode debuted in GT4 giving you the chance to enjoy taking pictures of your cars while mixed in with environments of various locales. Adam Sessler of "X-Play" said that online mode was "replaced" with this mode. Wouldn't you love to show off whatever cars you have even if online play is absent? This is your best chance. There are a number of places you can visit as well as different ways to adjust the picture.
For the first time in series history, you can visit tracks almost any time you want when not in a championship. For a small fee, you can take your car to the track and race (except for the free Family Cup races). You can freely test your car across a variety of course. If you feel you have a great car, you can test your car against others in a Track Meet. Cars tuned to your car's level of performance will share the track with you. It will be fun to see how your car matches up against others in your performance class. For a challenge, let all the cars pass you as you come to a complete stop off the racing line. Then about five seconds later, accelerate away and try to pass all the cars you let pass. You can take a Photo Drive where you can just drive like a nut while taking a picture of your ride in action. Family Cup events are a great way to give your car some racing experience without having to compete in an official race. Think of this as a controllable version of GT1's Spot Races. Also, it's a Spot Race series that has more than five races. One more thing I forgot to mention- you can actually choose which direction you want to race as well as the level of competition who you will share the track with. Not all tracks have all four facilities available for you to use.
Go race anywhere. Choose between domestic events, official events, and endurances. Even go do some drag racing or top speed runs. Domestic events are all the events consisting of cars and races from either American, Japanese, and European venues. The official events are all the Gran Turismo official races designed to test your limits on a variety of levels. You can race the Extreme Events after winning the Gran Turismo World Championship. You need to clear about 25% of the game to race the endurances. Unlike GT2, there are stricter restrictions on types of cars in these domestic events rather than just by horsepower. Only "1000 Miles!" doesn't require a European car.
There is also a Replay Theater you can access to see demonstration videos as well as videos you have created. The Music Jukebox plays all the songs from the game as you pick whatever songs you want to hear.
GT4 is massive on many levels. Trying to traverse through GT4 can be like trying to find your way around a massive world like in the Final Fantasy series. Unfortunately, no Chocobos or airships will help you find your way in this place.
How would you map out GT5? What new facilities would you include? How about possibly culminating elements of past GT Modes in past GTs into this game? I'll offer some of my own ideas for GT5's GT Mode which will even include another thread of mine. Offer your ideas, please. I'll even have ideas for any GT5 Arcade mode ideas. I wonder what kind of responses I can draw for this specific topic...
Time to REALLY get technical. See how most of my discussions aren't the same old "will _____ be in GT5?" My stuff remains relevant rather than repetitive or unusual. This one is a unique look at how GT should look as far as Arcade and Simulation/GT modes. I'm taking the approach of "looking back, moving forward." Here is a look at how navigating GT has been like. The term "GT Mode" was applied for GT4 only. I'll use "GT Mode" to mean "Simulation Mode" for GTs 1 through 3.
--- Gran Turismo 1's GT Mode ---
Simulation Mode in GT was this fantasy city with 11 manufacturers (unless you count Honda and Acura seperately, then 12). Facilities such as the License center, car wash, machine test, and GO RACE are all there and waiting for you to visit.
GT1's My Home featured your garage, Load and Save, and Trade. I haven't traded cars, but you can use that feature to buy cars from another Memory Card. GT1's spec sheet for cars is available as well as a list of all equipped parts. You may use the icons along the left of your screen to access the World Map, Go Race, Home, and Load and Save.
You were greeted to a theme of either rock or electronica when you visited each of the auto makers. I personally loved the themes to TVR, Honda/Acura, Nissan, and Subaru. All Japanese makes have used cars as well as Special Models. The Special Models you could save your hard-earned cash on to acquire them for racing. All of them had actual groups like Mazdaspeed and NISMO among others. So you want a car? The company wants your money. Almost all cars are available in white except for cars that don't come in white. You had no idea as to what colors there are for a car unless you cycle through all the different colors for each car. Just pay the money, and the car is yours. Almost every car has a nice info page giving you more information on each car. GT1 features the most specific information on car specifications of any in the series. The information is very broad such as the type of suspension system is used, and things like that. I think even tire specifications were included in the specifications.
Tuning your car is done through a trip to the auto maker's tuning shop. The eight main facilities are all there- muffler and air cleaner, brakes, engine, transmission, turbo, suspension, tires, and others. Basic drawings of performance parts were shown to you so you know what you're getting for your car. Stabilizers were purchased seperately as opposed to being part of the entire package in GT1. But the key favorite to tuning- Racing Modification! You can literally complete your own race car with this package. All but one car (and obviously purpose-built race cars) can get racing modifications. Unfortunately, too bad if you don't see a combination you like because you can choose between only two colors for each car.
License acquistion was done through a method of picking a license and finding an exercise you want to work on. Once you select whatever it is you want to do, you are given a description of what you will have to accomplish. Pick a transmission type and move on. GT1's system was the hardest as you have to basically clear each one as best as you can. The facilities of ghost cars and accessible demo videos weren't there. You had to exit GT mode just to enter the Replay Theater. Also, there were no indication of what times are for qualifying. You had to look at all the records to determine what the top times are. A day passes with each test you take.
Car Wash and Machine Test were both pretty explanatory. You have to look closely to know if you have a clean car or not. Just look at the mapping of the car to see if it's dark. If it is, you need to clean it. Not required, but needed if you want a clean-looking car. Machine Test in GT1 and GT2 had a Top Speed challenge that used the whole track. Something in the GT3 strategy guide noted that the best way to get the highest top speed is to race the course backwards to get the highest available speed of your car, then race the regular direction to make your speed official.
Go Race has a number of facilities. GT League was all four official GT races ranging from Sunday Cup to GT World Cup. Special Events had all the races catered to certain types of vehicles including all three endurances. Spot Race gets you up and racing without needing a license. Time Trial was a two-lap run around the tracks. Counting reverse layouts, there are 21 tracks to race (because Test Course is not available in reverse. Then again, why should it? You're still going one direction all the way around). You had information as to what license is required as well as what cars can be raced. There were no specificiations as to what exact cars can be used (for example, no Miatas, no Vipers, etc.). The final facility is a Memory Card Battle in which you can play GT1 against another save game of GT1 from the other memory card. The Entry Info features race data as well as prize money for pole position and the six finishing positions.
This is the most basic of GT modes. GT2 had its own variation of its key mode.
--- Gran Turismo 2's GT Mode (Simulation Disc) ---
GT2 is still the only GT featured on more than one disc. One for Arcade, and the other for Simulation. I'll only focus on the Sim disc here.
GT2's My Home featured two new facilities- License Credits (useless for your actual racing) and Completion. Completion shows off how much of the game you've completed, your winning percentage, license prize distribution, and things like that. Instead of having to be into a car to sell it, you can simply sell it for more than 10K credits. Cars were all priced by 25% of their initial value (not counting modifications). You can check the stat sheet for less-detailed specs on each car compared to GT1. A list of equipped parts is also available. You can use the icons on the top-left of the screen to access the World Map, Home, Go Race, and Completion. Missing were Load and Save. You had to exit the main mode to load and save games. You also had to exit the main mode to trade cars.
GT2 did away with a single map of things to do and instead breaks up car types to cities. GT2 debuted the Wheel Shop in which you can change the wheels of any car from their boring wheels to something more interesting. Part of the challenge and frustration of the cities were that you have to remember what city belongs to what nationality of car. Is Alfa Romeo in the South City? Can I find a Lister Storm in East City? Rally racing debuted in this game, so more rally cars will be available. This also debuted One-Make Races. These can be fun ways to get adjusted to all the cars you have to get and race. The gray area involved where you would race. You'll get to race a certain track, but not sure if a normal or reverse configuration.
Let's focus on the cities themselves. East City's map resembles Tokyo and has all the Japanese cars. It's the only city where you can purchase used cars. Shop around because you can find some interesting classic cars. For me, there's nothing like looking for either a Datsun 240Z or a Toyota 2000GT. Those are my two all-time favorite Japanese sports cars. * North City's map resembles London and features all the British and German cars. I like the theme song for North City. Better bring some money because most of those cars can be expensive. It is a great smattering of cars across various time periods. Three of my favorite cars are in this city- the Ruf CTR2 Sport, the BMW 328i, and the Opel Tigra Ice Racing Car. * West City resembles Rome and features Italian and French cars. It has my favorite musical theme of all cities. There are only a few makes in this city, but all of them are high-quality. It is the only city in which you can start with 10,000 and be able to buy a car brand new. However, good luck winning Gran Turismo All-Stars with the Fiat 500R! It also features a car of impeckable genius- the Renault Espace F1, complete with a Williams Formula 1 engine. Haul groceries and ass at the same time. * Finally, South City resembles New York City and features all American cars. This game has one of the best representations of muscle cars of any game in the series. You can get a 1970 Dodge Challenger for a pretty good price here. Same goes for various other muscle cars. You can check out the awesome Vector M12 as well as the amazing Vipers. Been to Honda and couldn't find an NSX? That's why you go to Acura.
You can go to a car company and look for any car you want. Lots of cars have info screens. Unlike GT1, GT2 offers two pages of information for each car that has info.
Licenses can be acquired in one day if you simply get a prize for one license test. You can advance to other test objectives all without having to leave to save the game. More importantly, you get an idea as to what the target times are as well as being able to see a demo video for each test. So no more having to exit out to the Replay Theater- it's all there. If that's not helpful enough, then at least you know what the target times are. GT2 debuted the Super License, letting you be able to compete in any race.
Car Wash and Machine Test are both there with no real difference from GT1. My all-time record in GT2's version of the Max Speed challenge was 260 mph in a Toyota GT-One Road Car with Stage 4 turbos in one of my rare Manual Transmission runs.
GT2's Go Race mode had four halls- Gran Turismo League, Special Events, Rally Events, and Endurance. * The GT League has a progressive trail to glory. You must clear all six nationals, all races in the Euro-Pacific League, and finally, claim victory in the Gran Turismo World League. You can also access the random event maker after you unlock it. * Special Events encompass a variety of racing challenges for a variety of cars and difficulty levels. It features only two championship races. Otherwise, enjoy the many races the game has to offer. * Rally events are simply time trials around various courses including the abbreviated Pikes Peak Hill Climb. * GT1 had three endurances. GT2 has seven. Races will probably last no longer than two hours. So be in it for the long haul!
--- Gran Turismo 3's GT Mode ---
Simulation in GT Mode was like GT1- simple with everything there. GT3 had an all-in-one Car Dealer zone and a seperate tune shop. Enhancements include the debut of changing oil as well as being able to test on a variety of tracks from home. Also, GT Auto has the wheel-changing facility. Once you bought a set of wheels, those will stay with you to equip to any car in your possession except F1 cars. No more Special Models here. No more Racing Modificaions (sadly).
Rather than memorizing cities, the Car Dealer has a world of cars available for you to buy. It debuted Belgium and Australia in cars. Pick a nationality of car, pick that make, select a car you want to buy. To learn more about the cars, you had to sit through the scrolling marquee below the line of available cars. So if you're reading and accidentally move the joystick or gamepad left or right, you'll have to highlight that car to see all the info you missed. When you pick a car, not all cars are available in white as the first color. You can find specifications on cars as well as enjoy buying a new car. There are no new cars in the game. In fact, Gran Turismo 3 is the only GT where you don't start out with 10,000 Credits. Instead, you get 18K credits, and that money is only good for three cars.
The Tune Shop was a one-size-fits-all tuner shop instead of having to remember what aftermarket group belongs to what company. The real car part images from GT2 are now replaced with a series of big diagrams. What GT3 added was a strategic edge to tire selection as you can choose between eight different kinds of racing tires ranging from slicks to super-softs. Racing Mediums were the default, but you had some choices to make as to what kinds of tires you wanted to use.
GT Auto was brand-new as it combined car wash and wheel functions. It introduced one more new element- oil changes. An oil change of any newly-bought car could give you a horsepower edge. A problem was that you could not change oil between races in a series like you could in GT4. They were also pretty expensive for first-timers- 250 credits to change oil. Watch your mileage so you'll have an idea as to when to change the oil.
License tests returned whether you liked them or not (why would you hate them? You need licenses to clear the game!). For the first time, you had a diagram as to what part of a track or what whole track you're using. This was helpful in case you wanted to have a refresher of racing a certain section of the track. You had an idea as to what part of the track to use as well as what you'll have to do. Tests don't have to be annoying now because there are now ghosts of your best lap time to help you out. Just beat your ghost to the line when you make a second run around the test facility.
Want to race? Races are divided into three levels of difficulty and include rally and endurance events. Picking a race is more managable than in the past. You can now race seperate events rather than have to be in the championship to access certain tracks in the series. A huge display of each event is now available for all series. Select the series you want to race in. You may either compete in single events or a championship series for all championship series. The Info is better defined listing all kinds of cars you can race with and what are disallowed. Best of all, you can even preview later races in championships.
GT3 offered a simplistic Simulation Mode map similar to GT1, but without the depth that GT2 provided.
--- Gran Turismo 4's GT Mode ---
Calling GT4's mode as a World Map is pretty reasonable since it is a big map. Described as "Gran Turismo Resorts" at one game show, you had a large assortment of locations to visit in GT Mode. Lots of new facilities as well as updates to classic GT mappings have been made much more in-depth in this massive game.
My Home is more expansive. You have a new diary showcasing your GT Mode career with tabs on wins, cars, and more. Most important is being able to tune cars without having to go to a track. This was a critical plus for Gran Turismo as you can tune cars at home before hitting the road. You can freely change any options with your car as you have it with you. You can change options at the house as well as save your game. The garage shows 10 cars per screen. You can sell cars you aren't using. Cars that don't have a price just give you no money in return. The game auto-saves when you change cars.
Five Gran Turismo themes fill your ears with music, most of which are re-makes of past GT themes. Series veterans may easily recognize past themes in their new form. Car companies are sorted out by nationality. So no more remembering cities. If you know the nationality of a car, you can go to that nationality and go car shopping. Equally impressive is that you can now get a Used Car from more than just Japanese companies. The majority of used cars are Japanese, but you can still land some nice American and European cars from the past. A scrolling marquee far at the bottom of the screen gives you more information about the manufacturer when you look for more info on them. Sadly, no information for ANY cars are available anymore. As a plus, you can get more detailed specs on cars as you buy them. Just not at the level of GT1's stat sheet. Purchasing a car means you get to see that car up front as GT3's theme for buying a new car is played. While Used cars have their own lot, GT4 is the first to pay respect to classic cars by offering a Classics lot. Some have a New Car lot only. Some have a Classic Car lot only. Most of them have both. The Tuning options make a return for each manufacturer. Also returning (and being more improved) is the One-Make Races.
Tuning your car is done through a trip to the auto maker's tuning shop. The eight main facilities have all returned. Some even with new options. The basics are modifications to the muffler and air cleaner, brakes, engine, transmission, turbo, suspension, tires, and others. New basic drawings of car parts are offered. New options include Nitrous (first time in series history), superchargers, standard tires, different grades of sports tires, snow tires (for those that can use them), increase rigidity, and an all-new Rigidity Refresher Plan. Some tuner groups have their own ready-made cars available for you to drive the wheels off of. A detailed scrolling marquee tells you what each part does. You get a better idea as to what each modification does as you watch horsepower numbers and weight become modified with each modification. Another letdown for most GT gamers is that there are no Racing Modifications. With the next GT being for the PS3, neither PS2 rendition features Racing Modifications. The eight grades of racing tires in GT3 are now down to five.
GT4 added a new Tuning Village where you can purchase tuner cars from the 10 groups represented. Some cars can even be tuned using parts from each Tuner group. Some even offer Original parts you can use to really get that performance boost you're looking for. Sadly, not every car could be equipped with Original parts. Also, most of the car parts are basically parts you could have gotten from the manufacturers themselves since there's no real difference between a tuning firm's parts and the original aftermarket parts. There's only one American tuner- HPA motorsports. However, HPA Motorsports is really Canadian. They won the very first Best-in-Show award at SEMA to have their awesome Volkswagen Golf R32 featured in GT4.
GT Auto is back with all of its past facilities from GT3 including a new GT wing service. Car washes were fun as you can watch GT Auto people wash your car after the halfway stage of the wash. Oil Change was interesting as you could watch a person go the front or rear of the car and change the oil. Sometimes, the guy changing the oil basically gets "swallowed up" by your car and just struggles to find out where to change the oil at. So he basically just takes a fun ride underneath your car. An interesting new feature to changing wheels is that you can opt to have new wheels to support a certain type of tires. I liked this, personally. I want to be able to tell which of my tires are for the street including for the race track. If you're low on cash, you can opt for used wheels. Funny here is that you could have Volkswagen wheels on a car other than a Volkswagen. Sadly, you can't change wheel types easily as you could in GT3. Any wheels you purchase just replaces your old wheels. GT Wings can be thought of as Racing Modification, but not really. A variety of GT wings can be used for your car rather than just having a car purely tuned for racing... look like every other car. I always look for wings that compliment the style of my car as well as how fast it can go. You can choose between black, silver, and white for wings.
License acquistion was done through a method of picking a license and finding an exercise you want to work on. New to GT games were Coffee Breaks that simply give you a rest from taking the other tests and just offer a fun diversion from the license tests. GT4 features the most license tests for one license of any GT in the series. Over sixteen tests await you. GT4 debuted a new Pace Car used at racing events. One-Lap Trials are brand new as you sit behind the Pace Car and try to lay down the fastest lap in a learn-as-you-go process. If you whack the Pace Car hard enough, you will fail automatically. The variety of tests are amazing and diverse.
Photo Mode debuted in GT4 giving you the chance to enjoy taking pictures of your cars while mixed in with environments of various locales. Adam Sessler of "X-Play" said that online mode was "replaced" with this mode. Wouldn't you love to show off whatever cars you have even if online play is absent? This is your best chance. There are a number of places you can visit as well as different ways to adjust the picture.
For the first time in series history, you can visit tracks almost any time you want when not in a championship. For a small fee, you can take your car to the track and race (except for the free Family Cup races). You can freely test your car across a variety of course. If you feel you have a great car, you can test your car against others in a Track Meet. Cars tuned to your car's level of performance will share the track with you. It will be fun to see how your car matches up against others in your performance class. For a challenge, let all the cars pass you as you come to a complete stop off the racing line. Then about five seconds later, accelerate away and try to pass all the cars you let pass. You can take a Photo Drive where you can just drive like a nut while taking a picture of your ride in action. Family Cup events are a great way to give your car some racing experience without having to compete in an official race. Think of this as a controllable version of GT1's Spot Races. Also, it's a Spot Race series that has more than five races. One more thing I forgot to mention- you can actually choose which direction you want to race as well as the level of competition who you will share the track with. Not all tracks have all four facilities available for you to use.
Go race anywhere. Choose between domestic events, official events, and endurances. Even go do some drag racing or top speed runs. Domestic events are all the events consisting of cars and races from either American, Japanese, and European venues. The official events are all the Gran Turismo official races designed to test your limits on a variety of levels. You can race the Extreme Events after winning the Gran Turismo World Championship. You need to clear about 25% of the game to race the endurances. Unlike GT2, there are stricter restrictions on types of cars in these domestic events rather than just by horsepower. Only "1000 Miles!" doesn't require a European car.
There is also a Replay Theater you can access to see demonstration videos as well as videos you have created. The Music Jukebox plays all the songs from the game as you pick whatever songs you want to hear.
GT4 is massive on many levels. Trying to traverse through GT4 can be like trying to find your way around a massive world like in the Final Fantasy series. Unfortunately, no Chocobos or airships will help you find your way in this place.
How would you map out GT5? What new facilities would you include? How about possibly culminating elements of past GT Modes in past GTs into this game? I'll offer some of my own ideas for GT5's GT Mode which will even include another thread of mine. Offer your ideas, please. I'll even have ideas for any GT5 Arcade mode ideas. I wonder what kind of responses I can draw for this specific topic...
). The ability to supercharged/turbo'd a non supercharge/turbo car will be nice too, but I want to be able too adjust the pressure of it so I can meet race PP, I want to fine tune my car myself 
