Blogging Gran Turismo: 24 hours later

To be truthful, I haven't played the whole 24 hours and I was put at a few hour disadvantage this morning. Imagine my surprise when I turned the game on this morning and saw the "Your saved game data has corrupted". Yeee-effin-ha! Luckily I only lost the A license and a few 1st place finishes in a couple of beginner races. I have spent some time with the game a come up with these observations.

Dave Ko?s post gets into the driving dynamics so I won?t go into that here, plus I?ve never played GT 3 or 4 with the controller and really can?t think about ever trying it. My observations are more incidental stuff.

Wind noise: It?s much more noticeable. At about 130 mph, wind noise breaks into the cabin and even drown out the music. Minor, but it was pretty cool when I realized that it was happening.

Most engaging ride: I didn?t move any of my saves from GT 3; I wanted to start from scratch so as I noted yesterday, a used Miata is my ride. While working on the B license, the Lotus Elise was probably the most fun to hurl into the corner tests.

Full throttle starts: A lot of races start with a full throttle start, which makes the wheelspin take-offs less of an issue. I like the full-throttle take-off a bit better.

License tests are a lot longer: They even include a coffee break they are so long. The coffee break is a silly challenge like navigating through cones, or knocking them all over. Otherwise, it takes a bit longer to secure a license in GT 4.

Main menu is a mess: Holy crap. When I saw the main menu for the first time, I was lost. Every country is represented as well of multiple used car dealers. The separate countries make the navigating through  multiple tuners easier (I was able to go to the Japan menu and choose MazdaSpeed to tune my Miata instead of going to separate tuners from the tuner menu).

The improved driving dynamics along with the Logitec Force Feedback Pro wheel makes the game more engaging that GT 3 and will assure hours of more game play. More tomorrow.