Section II: Detailed Explanations
1. Number of Cars:
There are 706 cars in GT4. This is 200+ more then was originally believed. This is an extraordinary amount and GT4 is the only game with that amount of cars. Althought a large part of this number are Japanese, the majority of vehicules are from international manufacturers.
2. Car Manufacturers:
Many people have asked "is
(insert your favorite car) in GT4?", this question is answered in
JohnBM01's Thread. What John is saying is that if you want to find out if a manufacturer or car is in GT4 you have to do a
search. If you can't find it, then you can
create a topic stating the vehicle or it's company. But don't be surprised if you're answered roughly, some members have been here for a long time and probably have seen the same question asked by other members repeatedly.
3. Courses and Locations:
Since the Asian versions of the game have been released, we now know that there are 50 tracks in GT4. An additional 16 Locations are added for the Photo Mode section of the game (see below for explanation). These courses vary from the coast of Costa di Amalfi to the streets of New York City's Time Square. GTLXR has created a great thread about these locations
here. chaser_fan has put together a list with all the tracks available in GT4
here. Several videos of these locations have been posted on
Alpha's Video Links Thread.
4. Opponents:
The new opponents system will feature the same number of cars on a race track (6), but with a better AI engine. This was a must-improve feature in GT4. Many GT3 players found the AI engine to be unproffesionnal and even "stupid" (
). Most of the AI ended up crashing into you when entering a corner. These manuvers were strongly frowned upon and PD had to do something about it.
5. Online Mode:
The Online Mode of GT4 was supposed to be "On-line", but due to lag problems, PD decided to release GT4 with only a online LAN mode. This means that only GT4 players connected to a router can play at the same time. Although it's still up to 6 players, this is a dissapointment for the GT community. There have been reports that PD will release a Online version of the game later this year. Here are some features that should be included:
-6 Players can race simultaneously on-line
-Spectators will be able to watch races (not known how many per event)
-Broadband-Only connections
-On-line Community including : Chat Rooms (maybe mic support) and Events created by Sony/Polyphony Digital (Production Company).
Many of GT4 owners figured out a way to play GT4 online. With a program called
Xlink (a program that connects your ps2 to your internet connection) you can join other GT4 owners via internet. For more information please check out
this very informative content.
For more information on Online Mode, check out these threads:
1,
2,
3 and
4.
6. Photo Mode:
This mode let's you place a car on any course, anywhere on that course, from any angle, distance or height. PM also let's you modify many aspect of your Photos. Your focus, lenses, camera filters, motion blur, color tones are all freely adjustable. A great aspect of PM is that the photographs taken carry a small size (anywhere from 100-350kb, depending on quality). This is for transporting your photos onto memory cards, USB devices or even print them out using
Epson printers. For a much more in-depth look at Photo Mode visit
MasterGT's Photo Mode explanation. To find discussions on the Photo Mode,
click here.
7. Prologue:
Prologue is an over-priced demo worth every penny. This demo (basically a game of it's own...) was first released by Polyphony Digital in Asia (NTSC-J) the 4th of December 2003. It was then released in Europe (PAL) the 18th of May 2004. This demo contains 63 (64 in the PAL version; the BMW M5 Concept) cars, 5 tracks (Fuji Speedway, Tsukuba Circuit, Grand Canyon, New York, Citta di Aria) and a brand new Driving School. For much more information on Prologue visit
GTPlanet's Prologue Forum and/or
Mustang-man's Prologue page.
8. Release Date:
The release date is set from February to March '05 (North America and Europe). This topic is probably in every new GT4 fan's head. The first official release date was released during E3 2004 on Sony's website. Many of us will trust PD's release date when we are actually playing the game in our homes
9. New Effects:
As some of us know, GT3 only used 25% of the PS2's capabilities. PD decided to push this mark much higher with GT4. One of the new effects being fuel consumption. Fuel was highly rumored and now confirmed (from all of the videos and pictures)(for a great thread about fuel
click here.) The crowds cheering on the tracks will now be interactive with 3-D bodies, and crowds retracting from rally track corners after snapping a picture.
(example of 3-D models)
10. The Gran Turismo Mode:
The famous picture seen
here showed us the many new modes that would be in GT4. You can see the final product
here. These modes have been covered several times but mostly well documented
here. You can also hold up to 1000 cars in your garage. And
there is no drifting mode.
11. Miscellaneous:
The Hard Drive is not compatible with GT4. Two demos have been released for the promotion of GT4. The first demo released was the Gran Turismo Special Edition 2004 Toyota Demo (released at the 2004 New York auto show, and was available from the U.S. Toyota website). The second demo released was the GT4 BMW Series 1 Virtual Drive available in Europe. This demo features the newly annonced BMW 1 series. It made it's first apearance in Croatia, where amar212 managed to analyse and review the demo with great skill. To read the review and more information on this subject, please check out
this thread. And
here is a great article on the newly released BMW 1 Series GT4 demo. There is also a new mode. Annonced at the '04 TGS, it's called B-Spec. B-Spec gives you the oppertunity to control an AI driver to a win. With these different setups (
1 and
2) you control everything from car settings, to when to pit in, to how hard to push the driver.
12. Frequently Asked Questions:
First off, I must remind you to check out
John's Message to New Member's for any questions you may have. Then you can read these Q&As. Thanks to Eagle for getting most (99%) of theses 👍 !
Q:
Is my favourite car going to be in GT4??
A: If it's not on
The359's Master Car List then we don't have any idea, so don't ask, we won't be able to help unfortunately, and some of us will respond less than positively.
Q:
I heard this rumour about GT4, is it true??
A: If you can't find a link in this thread to something that substantiates whatever you heard then odds are it was simply that - a rumour. But new facts are always emerging so check back regularly and make sure you
search just in case.
Q:
Who's KY/PD?
A: KY is an acronym for Kazunori Yamauchi, the producer and director of the Gran Turismo franchise. We just refer to him as KY for short. PD is another acronym, this time for his company, and the company behind Gran Turismo, Polyphony Digital (PD). So we're not talking about jelly and Nintendo64 games
Q:
Will there be damage?
A: A hot topic around the forums from time to time but damage will
not be appearing in Gran Turismo 4. Damage is simply too complex to implement efficiently, so don't expect to see your cars getting beat up until GT5, whenever that may be! Instead, a 'penalty' system will be a feature, much like in Gran Turismo 4 Prologue that punishes bad driving with a period where your car slows to a certain speed limit, generally 50km/h. There is also a blur that appears when you crash into a wall.
Q:
I found some cool new info, what do I do??
A: First, stop right now and ask yourself a few questions. Where did the info come from? Is that source reliable? Has anyone else published the same information? If you're still feeling confident of your new information, do a quick search to make sure someone hasn't posted the same thing before - it doesn't matter how new the information is, this is important, because we have some pretty dedicated people here too. If after all that you can't find the information, go ahead and post it up, preferrably with links to the source or just somewhere we can go to find out more. Congratulations, you've just made a contribution to the wonder that is GTPlanet.
Q:
Everyone keeps telling me to search when I ask a question, why are they so mean?
A: Well, it depends, there are nice people like JohnBM01 who'll help you out and downright assholes like that Eagle kid who'll flame you ceaselessly. But, they're doing it to try and teach not only you but other new members. Searching is a skill, it's something you have to learn to do efficiently, and in all honesty, it's something that's only going to get more important, not just in these forums but in life in general. You remember in school when the Librarian showed you how to use the search system to find a book? Well it's the same principle here. If you don't find what you're searching for right away, stop and have a think about it. What else could it be called? Often, people use different words to describe the thing you're after, and a computer doesn't know how to distinguish. Knowing how to get the most out of any search system is an important and invaluable skill. So, try to be reasonably specific with your search, and if it doesn't find anything, try dropping some of the less important words. Never search for an entire phrase, just search for the key (important) words. If you're after "Artificial Intelligence and it's Impact on the Gran Turismo 4 Video Gaming Microcosm", searching for that isn't going to find you much, but if you just search the Gran Turismo 4 forum itself for "Artificial Intelligence", you should find more of what you're after. Don't be afraid to check over some of the results you receive, what you're after might not be in the first post or two but may come later down the page as the discussion evolves. 5 minutes spent searching can save you and everyone else a lot of unneeded hassle.
Q:
Can we download content to expand the game?
A: Sony has confirmed the HDD will be supported by GT4, leaving the possibility of downloading cars, tracks and even game modes open, however at this time we don't know for sure just what the HDD will be used for.
13. Links:
There has to be thousands of great links related to GT4 all over the Web. What I'll do is try to find the most information-packed sites out there. If you have any sites you'd like me to add to this list, PM or e-mail me so I can add them.
First off, please check out
sUn's Gran Turismo 4 Website before looking at any of these links. You will most liklely find whatever you're looking for there. If not, then check these links.
Here's what I've got so far: (these links are in random order.)
Gran Turismo 4:
-
Alpha's Video Links
-
The359's Master Car List
-
GTPlanet's GT4 Screenshots
-
Official GT4 website (Japanese)
-
Official GT4 website (English)
-
IGN's GT4 section
-
SCEE's GT4 website
Gran Turismo 4 Prologue:
-
Mustang-man's GT4P section
-
CooperS's detailed GT4P Liscence test FAQ
-
Official GT4P website (Japanese)
-
IGN's GT4P section
-
Racing Point's GT4P Arcade Cars Database
-
Racing Point's GT4P Liscence Database
Other:
-
JohnBM01's Answers to Questions
-
Beta Test Question's detailed course List
14. Credits:
Thanks to every one who is contributing to this thread. Tons of kudos to you guys! (if anyone has a problem with this please contact me so that we can discuss it
I rushed this project so I didn't go around asking everyone for their golden information
)
Thank you to:
Polyphony Digital (
), Jordan, Eagle, Alpha, JohnBM01, MasterGT, IGN, Mustang-man, The359, Racing Point, butch and his french comrade who made their site, Beta Test Question's Staff, Buggy Boy, yeti, GTLXR, CopperS, Sage, sUn, phantasm, Small_Fryz and anyone that I forgot please tell me as soon as possible to add you to this list.
15. Updates:
-1/07/05: Updated a lot of stuff... I'll be working on the little details later, but for now it makes more sense.
-11/30/04: Changed the Release Date.
-09/25/04: Added some info from the TGS.
-07/26/04: Added some info on the demos released for the pormotional use of GT4.
-07/17/04: Added that Prologue isn't multiplayer...
-07/15/04: Added phantasm's thread on the GT Universe/World. Great job
👍
-07/13/04: Added sUn's GT4 link page, and added a another FAQ on the HDD thanks to Eagle 👍
-07/03/04: Added the Misc. section due to the realisation that I didn't mention the HDD in this thread. Hopefully more will be added to this section.
-07/02/04: Added CopperS's thread on GT4P Liscences, and the GT4P Database from Racing Point, thanks to yeti for pointing these out 👍
-07/01/04: Added GTLXR's tracks and locations thread, added a fuel thread, added a opponent's thread, and the online threads all thanks to Eagle 👍
-06/29/04: Added Eagle's FAQs and fixed Mustang-man's name. Also created the Opponents and AI section.
-06/28/04: Added Citta di Apria to the Prologue track list, thanks to yeti and Buggy Boy 👍 . Also fixed some grammar/spelling mistakes.
-06/27/04: First version complete. Missing a lot of Q&A, AI, GT Universe, Prologue and no spelling and grammar check
.
and you mentioned the tracks...
