I politely request admission into this tragic little club
. After playing since day one of the North American release, over several months of hard fought battles, 80 golds, over 300 cars, 99.6% completion, all missions completed (mission 34 completed... twice
), running the Nurb' in under five minutes in mad Sauber C9, 40,000+ miles driven in A-spec and close to 100 different set-ups, I had on that fateful day planned to delight in tuning my 86 MR2 and running her in an endurance only to be greeted by that most unpleasant message. You could hear my cries echoing off the walls.
The most painful part of this wasn't losing the percentages actually. I've paid my GT4 dues and can do this all again if I wanted, and I could probably do it a lot faster- and with more A-spec points no doubt. No, the most irksome part of all this is losing my tuned cars.
After playing so long and then losing it all was an odd experience. It's been a week since I've even looked at the game (yes that is a VERY long time for me) and I really don't know if I want to start over. This experience really illustrates what so many members have been saying about GT4 for the longest. The GT4 experience is more akin to reading a finely crafted editorial in your favorite auto magazine or a history special singing tribute to rolling masterpieces, or forgotten automotive gems far, far ahead of their time. The feeling is there, the love of the automobile is there: it's so overflowing sometimes I wonder how the Playstation can handle it all.
GT4 is engrossing, consuming. It's an obsession at times. GT4 is the kind of driving experience that if you are a car fanatic to begin with, playing it is only going to make your condition more incurable. It's full of the kind of feeling you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else in gaming, but with all that said to it's credit, at its worst it's not all that much fun to actually play.
I knew this already, but it never really hit home until I had to consider reinvesting my time. I've reached that stage where using "lesser" cars was the only way to really have any kind of racing experience. That never really bothered me because I enjoyed the driving so much, but now that I have to actually go through the trials of acquiring my favorite cars again, I understand now GT4's faults as a game. After about 25% completion a lot of it feels like work.
There are wonderful race series that open my eyes to cars Id have never given a second glance to that turned out to be incredible drives, but then so much more of the GT4 experience is just plain boring.
If anything GT4 has shown me there is real poetry in the world of the automobile. It does its best capturing the kind of beauty and feeling that leaves us without the need for words.
I still don't know if I ever wish to play the game again, but for making me into a terminal car nut, for that much, I am thankful.