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By Contributing Writer Jimmy Payne Rating: Good When a game like Gran Turismo comes oh-so-close to reaching the Awesome rating, but it still "only" gets a Good rating, it's reasonable to expect that the sequel might put it over the top and be a must-have game. Unfortunately for Gran Turismo 2, this just isn't the case. Before I started playing GT2, I was pretty cynical about the massive amount of cars to choose from. I figured that most of the cars would feel like they were thrown into the game quickly, and I wouldn't care about most of them. I realized I was wrong when I started playing the game and found that all of the cars are worth a look, and most of them are worth buying. The license tests are easier than they were in the original, but the old complaint still remains that some of them are pointless. The test in which you have to break within a certain area is particularly worthless, and the test in which you have to drive in a tiny circle only adds to the sickness. One of the biggest disappointments of GT2 is its graphics. I didn't expect the graphics to be drastically improved since we're talking about a five-year-old video game system here, but at times the graphics actually look worse than they did in the original. The biggest problem is that everything looks embarrassingly grainy, especially the tracks. Even the cars often have the grainy look of the cars in Final Fantasy 8. The replays aren't as impressive as they were in GT1 due to a multitude of bugs. There are polygon rips all over the roads, and even on the cars themselves sometimes. The backgrounds also become terribly pixelated at times, to the point that it looks like the sky is just a bunch of blue and white squares. There was even a time when a group of cars came driving over a hill and actually drove on the air for a while. And they weren't just jumping, because no car stays in the air for seven seconds after going over a tiny hill. Some cars can't be upgraded as much as others, and you can't find out how much a particular car can be upgraded until you've actually purchased it. There's nothing to tell you whether or not the car can use turbo, intake filters, or use other components that are necessary if you want to do well. It can be very frustrating to spend a long time saving up money to buy a car, only to find that it can hardly be upgraded at all. The Artificial Intelligence is primitive in Gran Turismo 2, just as it was in the original. The computer-controlled cars stay huddled in packs and only break up when it's time for them to make one of their flawless turns. They act like they are on a set path with a set speed limit, which makes most races seem like a glorified time trial. I tried ramming into cars to see if they would respond or mess up, and the biggest response I got from another car was just a few seconds of swerving in the grass and then it got right back on track and caught up with the others. I can't see myself having a lot of fun with this game until the computer cars act like real vehicles and try to win, not act like robots and keep the status quo. Typos and bugs run rampant in Gran Turismo 2. The horsepower readings of many cars differ from their actual in-game horsepower. There are lots of other small typos in the game as well, such as car washes appearing to cost $5,000 but actually costing $50. Also, the same few music tracks seem to play during most of the races, and sometimes the sound just stops for some reason, making the game completely silent. Computer-controlled cars sometimes run into walls and stay there for the rest of the race (especially on the Tahiti Maze stage). The biggest bug of all is that selecting the machine test option causes your entire garage to be wiped out. It doesn't feel very good to spend weeks playing a game and then have to start over because Sony was too concerned with getting the game out before Christmas to properly test it. A lot of the bugs in Gran Turismo 2 will be fixed in future production runs of the game, but that doesn't make them any more excusable. Bugs or no bugs, Gran Turismo 2 is plagued by most of the same flaws that plagued Gran Turismo 1, plus a few new ones. I realize that I'm opening myself up to a lot of criticism from die-hard Gran Turismo fans, but in my opinion, Gran Turismo 2 isn't worth buying, especially if you own the original. Send your thoughts on this review to jimmy@mastergamer.com
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