My general ranking of the various GT games
Just to give people an idea.
So anyway, I thought I'd just post this up here. This is a thread describing my thoughts on each of the 5 Gran Turismo games thus far, in reverse rank order, and why I believe them to be as such. Here we go.
CONTROVERSY TIME OMG
Yeah, GT3, which is the best selling game in the series, and generally considered one of the two candidates for overall community best, is my least favourite. Here's why.
There is a slight problem to this though. That problem is, not playing the game while it was in its prime. The game, I can imagine, will have looked a lot better back then, but I was, like, 4 when this came out. So...uh...yeah. Might not be the truest opinion I could ever give.
But yeah, GT3 certainly isn't a bad game, don't get me wrong. Just not as good as the others.
The problems I have with it are quite big. Firstly, lack of cars. It was their first time on the PS2, yes, and of course there weren't any dupes, but the number makes one feel a little bit empty. The problem is, the career mode was too big for the number of cars. It all seemed to complex for the individual cars to handle.
There are plenty of positives to it though. This was the last game to stick by the traditional Arcade Mode system from the previous 2 games before GT4 moved onto a full cars affair. Also, the tuning levels were absolutely insane. For example, you could get 3000GTs to 1000hp+ in this game, something not even GT1 ever managed...
Another problem I rather have with this game is the way it just got rid of so many of the LMs from the last games. The FTO, Altezza and RX-7 all stayed, and the S2000 was introduced (before it was cut down insanely), but stuff like the 3000GTs, CR-X del sol, Cerbera...all gone. It just kinda feels a bit sad if you look at it.
So GT3 is certainly not a bad game by any means. Just it doesn't do it quite as much as the others. So let's move on now.
This is the only game I have gone and bought on launch day, ever. I have received presents on their launch days, but I went and got the Signature Edition for myself, all £100+ of it. Yet this is only #4. In some ways though, this is probably the most soulful of the lot, yet easily the most faulty - kind of like an Alfa Romeo among the series, I guess.
To be fair, you can find faults among a majority of the features in the game. Let me give you a short list of such problems: very mixed main game, bad online connection, bad online racing, slightly odd way of storing items, limited Premium selection, the limits of Standards, the overly high numbers of certain cars, no proper support for series, inconsistent DLC rates, inconsistent track editor, loophole filled PP system. Indeed, very short.
Yet, with all the hype of this previously, this seemed to become the most soulful of the games. Because there are certainly plenty of positives to the game as well. The environments certainly look very good, and the selection of cars is certainly still very wide, if not as noteworthy as Forza 4's selection. About that...
Forza 4 is better at doing the overall job of 'being a game' - and I say this, despite having played it at a friend's house and nowhere else. Even if you don't take into account DLC, the selection of cars you can get in Forza 4 is even wider. I'm not so sure about how many cars actually get added in per installment from the previous game though, since I checked the DLC list for Forza 3 and everything there was in Forza 4. Forza also looks a little blunter, but does have great support for tracks and a somewhat noteworthy Level system and Autovista.
I still find the games equal though. While Forza does the whole thing better, GT has the history behind it and behind its faults there's still plenty to keep you there. I'm perfectly neutral, and it's why I have these 3 opinions: 1) Forza-GT battles are just nasty 2) I hate people that will constantly point out faults of GT5 and 3) People who constantly defend GT5 to the death for reasons that don't exist are just being annoying. There you go, that's my thoughts on the whole Forza-GT thing, job done. Never have to speak about this again.
But yeah, GT5 is overall certainly a game that does live up to modern standards, despite faults that aren't quite being fixed by PD yet. Also, GT6 has NOT been announced. Stop asking about it, forum.
Now we get onto the truly good GT games. This is, I find, the other candidate for most loved GT game in the community, and with good reason.
GT2 was truly a very highly rated game, with many, many positives to it. First and foremost was the 600+ strong carlist, which was remarkable for PS1. Some of them did tend to be dupes of others, yes, and Mugen got a stupid amount of their tuned cars in the game. But whatever, it's still a good number.
The physics engine was a lot more realistic than GT1, if slower-paced. But then that signals a better physics engine...people say the graphics were much better than GT1 but I don't really see it. Time of first playing the games comes into the equation again unfortunately.
The career mode was also very long, and the game was even put onto 2 separate discs for Arcade and Simulation Mode...though there have been games with 4 discs before, I believe.
However, despite the career mode's length, the main problem of the game lies within it. And that is how it actually works.
The main limiter for any car in this game is an hp limit. Apart from the NA/Turbo and drivetrain cups, there are no other limits. So while the championships were very varied, you could put something that goes against the laws of said championship in it. Licenses also varied for the different races. That was the main flaw of GT2 that prevented it being completely good. Yes you could just play normally, but the loopholes are still there for all to see.
The licenses were also dreadfully hard to gold and they hid some GT1 legends in the gold prize slot for said licenses. The CR-X del sol, FTO and 3000GT all suffered from this bug. Plus, with the new engine, they didn't quite feel the same as before.
Apart from that though, GT2 was largely a pretty good game. It still isn't the best though, and there's 2 more games to come.
So we now come to this. My first full GT game. It should be noted I sucked pretty hard at this originally, trying stunts such as attempting to beat the Pan Euro Championship in a Panda and beating the JGTC in a Nissan Bluebird. I also worked out the best grinding method was beating the Family Cup on Clubman Stage Route 5 Reverse in the 1979 Civic...which is one of only 2 cars you can buy not used from the start. It should be noted, I had no idea the UCD was even around at the start.
Eventually with the help of a corrupt memory card and copying data to another, I got way into it and that's how I came to being a GT fan.
GT4 features 730 cars in total, with the individual cars being put in a very similar style to GT2s, only with less tuners and Mugens and way more R34s (GT2 came out in the same year as the R34). However, the career mode, compared to even the last game, was HUGE.
Several divisions, many many tracks and 730 cars made for a great combo and great different combinations of events. Indeed, seems like a very good racing game.
The driving experience was also good too, with enough cars to keep you company. The physics engine also seems to be more 'hard-tuned' than GT5s nowadays, even though the engine there is certainly not a bad one either.
At this rate, you're gonna think this is a pretty flawless game. And it kinda is. But why is it not top? Well...there's just something that stops it.
Compared to the other games, GT4's general pace feels a bit too...slow.
Even the fastest cars don't feel as effective on speed as they should do, sans fitting RSS to them. The harder physics engine also creates understeer on many of these cars, and general tuning limits were taken down from GT3 as well. It just doesn't feel quite so...fun as it should. Bit unfortunate there.
So of course, that leaves just the one game we haven't mentioned till now, my personal favourite of the lot...even after being introduced before the rest of these and laying the ground for them. Amazing, innit?
Let me give you a quick phrase as to why this game is still the best of the GTs. Feel free to put it in your signatures, everyone.
"It's not about having the most qualities...it's about having the least flaws."
That is why GT1 is my top game. Because that's what is. The least flawed. Or, dare I say it, completely flawless.
This started the whole trend, but it does some of the trends best. Yes, it doesn't even have 200 cars, yes, most of them are Japanese with just a handful of Americans and Brits and yes, there are just 11 different track variations. But those are just numbers. They don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. What matters is how the game is really like, and that's where GT1 takes it all.
It is probably the least realistic of the 5, but it was still good for a first try and it was only 1997. And yes, the graphics look old now but come on, look a little further back in time again. What this game is...is
fun. A lot of it.
It made legends out of cars, and without it, none of the stuff you know today, you would know today. The Skylines, TVRs, Hondas, Subies and Mitsus...all of them would have been mere mistclouds without this.
And of course, PD even gave making their own cars out of others a shot. The near perfect FTO LM, the genuinely insane Concept Car, the similarly insane CR-X del sol LM, the super swift Cerbera, the big GTO LM...and they even went and added in other racers from real life too. The lethal Impreza Rally Edition is probably the most noteworthy of these.
The career mode was very simple. Just 3 licenses here, and less championships than the other games for certain. But you could make one of these just as long as the others. This is still the most difficult of the 5 by a long way - because one mistake, which was easy to make in tons of this game's cars, could lose you an entire championship. Even if you didn't mess up, the AI could still put up a challenge in equal cars.
That is pretty much all there is to say about GT1. To be honest, it'd be better if you just played it yourself, but Amazon is all you'll be able to find it on now really. By the way, I've seen copies of GT3 on there for 1p before, placed as Like New. Just a note there...
Thank you for reading, and hope you now have a gist of what my general thoughts on all the GT games are now. Certainly, you'll be able to get an impression when I mention the other games in my reviews. Thank you, good night!
Pictures and writing by C-ZETA
What else have you been up to then? 
and even then...it isn't a very good track. Yes we could use Wembley like for the Race of Champions but that's being used for the football and um...
) but everything else just seems to be easier to me. Well, certainly to me anyway.
but in GTHD where it did look sorta different to what it does now it must be said.
