---the obligatory GT4 thread

[Thruster2097]

As you all know, I am a racing freak. A sucker for anything with tyres. A Motorsport Mentalist.
I got the promo DVD of GT4 yesterday, and to show my utter appreciation for it, I have ordered a "winter racing pack" asian NTSC white PS2, a GT4 mem card, GT4 prologue, R: racing evolution, and pre-ordered GT4.

As my friends know, I like to do things without realising the consequences first. But thats what gives me the vague feeling of being alive. Or just being plain old-fashioned stupid.

In short, the attention to detail in GT4 blew my mind. The tight twisty italian street track (I think it translates as "city in the sky" is awesome!) I have no idea about how they expect the programmers to code the 50+ tracks and 500+ cars in this much detail, but I am drooling to find out!!

[infoxicated]

That's insane, Thrusty! :o

I remember your take on it from the PlayStation Experience, where you said the AI was still gash. I'll definately be buying it for the online play, however, if it's going to be full price at launch and the AI is poor, then I'm quite content to wait until it turns up cheaper after a month or so.

I've paid for the same game and same AI three times now with Gran Tourismo, there's no way I'm shelling out again for what may be nothing but a track and car patch for GT3.

If it was all about the graphics then we'd all have traded our PS2's for XBoxes long ago.

Still, time will tell - maybe they're still working on the AI.

[Thruster2097]

From that dvd I was watching, it actually showed PACK RACING!!!!!!! which is unheard of for a GT game. All 6 cars, together, battling for positions. It also showed the AI slipstreaming the player car. From what I have seen, the AI has been vastly overhauled, even from the version which was at the PSExperience. I think GT4, when released, will be the perfect racing sim. Of course I will let you know how it plays when I get the system - which should be monday.

I dunno why but I just dont feel that PS2`s should be online. I have broadband and a nice uber-spec PC, but I have absolutley no inclination to put them together with my PS2. I suppose network gaming is just like raspberry pudding with gravy. Gorgeous entities in their own right, but when combined, causes all sorts of horrible, gooey complications.

I remember the over-enthused column writer saying that at certain points the prologue game really slows down, especially when you have more than four cars on the screen, which is a bit worrying, but we have been told that it will be all sorted in the full release of GT4. I suppose the reason that I decided to get an asian system is because they get all sorts of titles that us euro peeps just dont have the opportunity to see! Its not as if there isnt an audience for a racing game in the UK, i know for a fact there is, and a huge one at that, but we are still denied GT2000 and GT4 Prologue, as well as tons of other weird titles, especially the whole world of bemani. I mean, its not as if we dont pay for the privilege here in the UK, just take that PS2 I ordered. Thats one limited edition console, two games, one limited edition memory card, a step-down power converter and express delivery for £200, and £50 of that was just for the delivery! Superior quality for stupid prices.

[Piranha Advancements]

Whoa.You actually got the white PS2?

My friend told me to get it but of course it doesnt come fully modded so I got the SCPH-50 006+ model instead.But on the topic at hand,hey,they have the GT4 Prologue over here but I just want the real version when it comes out.I was tired of the GT series by the time they had the Tokyo updates so I hope and I do hope,that the final product blows me away..as did the pics on most reviews and mags did.

[Wamdue]

Im looking forward to GT4 but considering all the other great titles that come out this year I dont think I'll buy it on release.


Speaking of asian games
Been playing a lot on the dreamcast lately, where you can easily find good japanese titles and it has inspired me to mod my ps2 to be able to import games from asia. I just have to play Mojib Ribbon! The style in that game is awesome and it looks like a lot of fun writing japanese and having it pronounced at the same time.. the voices of the teddybears,robots etc that write the words are so cool :D

[science]

I want a modded gamecube so i can play this:
http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_donkeykonga_jp.html

[Thruster2097]

It would have been a lot easier for me to just get a modchip for my PS2 to play imports, but I want this system to play the game 100% right every time. I still havent got my system yet because my bank in the UK refuse to send funds to hong kong, for some reason only known to themselves.

[Thruster2097]

Got an asian system so I can use the UK power supply with no probs.
GT4 Prologue is excellent, but small! Only 5 circuits and 55 cars. Tho that choice of cars is very diverse, you start with a datsun 240Z, move up to the powerful japanrse muscle cars like Mitsubishi EvoViii MR, past the mclaren gtr, and stop just after something called a Toyota Motor Triathlon Race Car, which is as crazy as it sounds. Its is an electric open-wheeled rally car.

Attention to detail is, as always, superb.
AI is improved, because the cars will fight. Only thing is, no matter what car you choose, you will always leave them standing, so the AI will quite happily battle itself for 2nd place. This needs to be addressed for GT4!
Sound and engine noise much improved from gt3.
Overall, not worth spending £150 on. But hey, GT4 will only cost me £26, and I can now play all other imports months before they are released here.

[infoxicated]

It's the same old same old with the AI then, I guess.

I hate the fact that it isn't a challenge - we get given such crap in racing games for the most part, either cheating elastic band AI like in NFS Underground, or AI that races slightly below your level, as in Burnout 2.

Actually, Burnout 2 is so close to being decent, but it looks like they're ruining it for Burnout 3 and putting in tons of cheese stuff to cater for online play. Shame, as that's when my interest in the series will die, as it already has done for NFS.

[Shem]

...... :o .......

I WANT DONKEY KONGA TOO!!!!!!

Japanese TV ads are MENTAL!!! I LOVE IT!!! I don't know what this guy is screaming about, but I don't care as long as it's WICKED!!!! Science, thanks for that link, I laughed my arse off while I was watching it over and over again :D
JAPAN FOREVER!!!!!
Peace out!

[science]

:lol: most welcome.

[jmoid]

I think Freeloader works on US GameCubes: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=81&products_id=1964&

[Thruster2097]

Just to let you nice people know I have now had GT4 for over a week (got it dec31, what a new year's party that was!)

Anybody who can translate chinese would be greatly appreciated! :P

Posting review shortly along with car lists/tracks/music lists if anyone's interested.

[DuraFlex]

I'm a big GT fan myself and I will buy it none the less, but I thought the multiplayer was cancelled. I read it in a game magazine, but I'm sill hoping it was a false rumour.

[infoxicated]

Wouldn't mind a summary of what I can expect from the AI this time around, Thrusty. :)

Hard to believe we were expecting GT4 around a year ago... and we thought Wipeout Fusion was delayed! ;)

[Thruster2097]

The on-line multiplayer option has been set aside for the GT4PSP's WiFi stuff. There is no online mode. However, there is still the slug-fest mayhem of the 2 player split-screen, and there is a nice little menu on the front page just saying "LAN". I can only assume this is the local area network option allowing upto six PS2 to be linked. But with a game so involving as GT4, there's no need (or time) for friends!
...perhaps that's just me, then! :lol:

It's hard for me to bang on about the AI without harping on about the new game modes, but I'll try to keep it as breif (sp?) as possible.

The main game mode (gran turismo world mode) is dominated by a new points system. Anyone who's played Metropolis Street Racer for the dreamcast will already know how this works. Basically the computer picks five quite equally matched cars to race against. If you enter in a race with a car equal to the other five (same power, size, age...) then you will earn 100pts. If you enter in a car which is underpowered, and win, you could earn upto 200pts. If you use the big powerful racecars in the Sunday Cup, you earn 1pt per race. So the AI strength is really whatever you choose it to be.
When you're equal, the AI now knows how to fight. And fight dirty! It will close the door on you at any given opportunity, also come up behind you and give a friendly shunt into the nearest barrier. Perhaps its been learning too much from me, or maybe it really is just mean.
I have just entered the GT World Cup, my first taste of any ultra-fast competition, and I got thrashed! It seems though the seemingly invincible computer tyres have made it onto this GT too, some of the competition pitted, but the Audi R8 and the Pescarolo LM just stayed out the entire race setting blistering time with no tyre wear. I had to pit, and I made a point of opting for Hard slicks as opposed to the medium or soft variety.
Also the AI has a newtons-laws-defying ability to catch you up on the second to last lap so it can spend the entire final lap on your bumper trying to nudge you.

In short, the AI model has not changed in the slightest. There is more emphasis now on the player wanting to complete the same race over and over in progressivley less-powered cars. Big dissapointment, I thought it would have been fixed. :(

[infoxicated]

Ah well, that crosses it off of my list then. Blatantly cheating AI has always ruined games for me (NFSU and Burnout 3 I'm looking in your direction!).

Fortunately F105 is looking cracking this year (courtesy of Mr Burcombe), so I'll just hold off for that for my motor racing game of choice - I can do without blowing another £40 on shoddy AI and car pokemon.

[Thruster2097]

I'm not saying that the game is rubbish. Quite the opposite, the game itself is a very good one. But not as good as it could have, and wants, to be. If this was GT3 it wouldnt be such a great hit. The hype is making people want GT4 more than the game. Let me try and explain....
When GT1 came out, it was the best of its class. A genre defining game. WipEoutesque if you will.
GT2 was released (late) under GT1's immense hype, promising more tracks, more cars, more of everything that everyone wanted. Very good, but the nice touches and gimmicks were at the expense of playability and graphic quality. GT4 tells the same story. Trying to live up to the immense reputation of the GT brand is never going to be easy, but I (and I'm pretty sure many others would agree) could do without such niceities as the Citroen 2CV and the deluge of nissan skylines (surely isn't 1 enough?) in exchange for some proper AI and detailled graphics.

If youre looking for Carkemon (and that's a very apt phrase there, foxxy) , this is your spiritual home. If you want to race, get hold of a used copy of F355 challenge.

Still a good game though, bloody nurburgring..... licence S16 is the career ender.
Check this out.
'89 Sauber Mercedes C9 LM. (schuey's LM car)
Nurburgring Nordschleife.
1 lap from standing start.
Regular licence rules apply.
Sound easy for a sunday drive? The track width is two cars maximum. At race pace (350km/h +) it's like trying to thread the channel tunnel through the eye of a regular needle!
I can lap the 'ring (no puns please...) comfortably in 7:40. Bronze licence time is 6:45.

Even if I eat that poxy game, I will bronze my S licence!!!!!! :x

(oh and if you want a car list then look here...
http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=93318
its accurate except from the jay leno car... the '03 is 2003, not 1903 but I understand the mistake!)

[infoxicated]

What I wanted from this game was to finally have decent AI.

It wouldn't really have mattered if the online side of it had been enabled, but with that gone you're stuck against the AI, rather than any multiplayer experience. Since they haven't really done much to improve the AI, it's just GT2 (car count) with updated GT3 graphics.

I've spent a lot of money on this game - GT was my first PlayStation game that I bought alongside my PS1. That was £39.99 at the time... add to that GT2 and GT3, both at £39.99, and you have £120 for pretty much the same gameplay experience (other than some extra tracks here and there, and more convoluted driving tests).

So if this time around, all they've done to the AI is to make it cheat, they can stick it!

[hoipexn]

GT4 looks nice, but is so slow!
Get NFSU2 of CMRR2005 or WOF for a real adrenaline rush!

[piranha wiper]

so as infox said gt4 was meant to come out a year ago, i remember that it was going to be released in march, i think, but when is it actually release in the good old england

[DuraFlex]

It's planned for march this year :D

[Thruster2097]

Well, the euro version finally got released today.
It has been totally and comprehensively reworked for the european market. I am only 1% through and i'm stuck for races to enter!
So its been made much tougher at the start of the game, I cant speak for the end of the game because I dont know yet. The in-game graphics have been polished up two-fold from the jap version, and theres no crazy flickering anymore. Everything is crisper and cleaner, especially the night courses which have always been a problem for polyphony.
My flash memory-stick-dongle-thingie still wont work though. :wink:

A few new cars and the inclusion of vauxhall as a manufacturer. Finally the japanese have learnt that it's a caLibra instead of the possible engrish translation of caRibra we have been taunted with from GT2.... and I see the VX astra touring car is still wearing the yellow and white Opel colours. For goodness sake, why wont kaz include the VXR BTCC car for the VX astra? Obviously a record-breaking four consecutive victories in the BTCC just isn't enough to get recognition anymore. :o
I can feel the anger rising up in me, but there arent many creative ways left for me to express it. Other than flying out to japan for a kill bill style showdown between me and kaz.

[mid]

Thruster, do you have an iPod? I've been told that once you've enabled them for files, the PS2 will let you use them for photo mode.

I've not got this myself yet, simply because I've got far too many games on the go at the moment (not least WO3SE), but it's looking good.

Anyone who hasn't done so yet, though, GO AND BUY AN FF WHEEL! It needn't be the £100 Driving Force Pro, either - the old version is pretty cheap. GT on a wheel, steering assists turned down or off, is a completely different and far superior game to GT on a pad.

[infoxicated]

Slightly off topic, I know, but does anyone know of a USB PS2 wheel where the force feedback can be disabled?

I've played IndyCar Series with the wheel, and it's so much more accurate, but the frickin' noise from the wheel was driving people around me insane. Granted I was at my desk at work, but I think the same could be said at home, with the constant "zzzz... zzzz... judder judder...zzz... zzzzzz!" coming from the thing.

I have an old PS1 wheel that doesn't have it, but that's not compatible with anything any more. :|

[piranha wiper]

can you put graphics on your cars like in gt2 or can you only get racing colours on the cars that are as standard like that

[mid]

Infox - I'm not aware of any wheels like that, but I thought it was an option somewhere in the menus. Otherwise you're just going to need to buy a cheap non-ff wheel instead.

[Thruster2097]

I got the logitech 90degree lock wheel. (the one that was sold with GT3). Only problem is trying to secure it to something other than my knees. I'm sure the wheels are really accurate, and in GT they will reduce the tyre wear.
Does anyone know how I can run my PS2 through a computer TFT screen? That would help..

I havent got an ipod, and dont intend to be getting one ever. So I dont know if it works for photo mode or not. Sony reccomends the Micro Vault flash drive, but I have read and heard that other types of memory stick work just fine. Everything I have tried has totally failed, which is: Creative MuVo MP3 player, PocketPC, Laptop PC, 7-in-1 card readers (with most types of memoy cards), Datel Max PS2 dongle, Datel Max Xbox memory card and olympus digital camera. :(

And no you cannot add racing liveries to cars, it is the same as GT3 where the cars come already painted with colours. On most standard cars, you can add new wheels and a rear wing. Spiffy, but the wing does let you adjust the downforce.

[jospicy]

ill see whaty i can find ya thrusty i'm lookin for the same thing so ill post info when i get it plus any one kno if you can convert the old amiga moniter to a VGA\TFT output?

[mid]

any one kno if you can convert the old amiga moniter to a VGA\TFT output?

No, sorry. The old official Commodore monitor only had a horizontal refresh of 15 kHz, not the 31 kHz you need for VGA resolutions.

My GT3 wheel setup is to bolt it to the dining room table, and connect my PS2 to my LCD TV/monitor combo thing.

[mid]

Well, I picked it up after all (taking advantage of GAME's offer of the game for 99p when you trade in 4 PS2, XBox or GC titles), and it's simply wonderful. I've only got a GT3 wheel, but the handling is noticeably better than that game.

[Roger]

I'm not a very big fan of GT (although I do enjoy an occasional session of Concept 2002). However, the THING I saw at work today really caught my attention:

It's a numbered (4000 copies), limited edition "launch pack". Another copy of it is on sale on Ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11323&item=8177499608&rd=1), 50 pound starting bid. The package is simply superb, what really blew my mind was the "coffee table book" Driving the game 8O.

I really envy the lucky bastard who gets the pack - it's going to be a prize in some sort of call in-competition (I work in radio broadcasting). Question: what would be good GT-related questions?

[mid]

I really envy the lucky bastard who gets the pack - it's going to be a prize in some sort of call in-competition (I work in radio broadcasting). Question: what would be good GT-related questions?

"What is your WipeoutZone login?"

Correct answer - "mid" :)

[FoxZero]

well, i like gt4.

but maybe thats because i didnt get gt3..

as roger pointed out the handling has improved so now a lot more realistic in this game, you also get penalized more for slamming on the brakes and doing other irresponsible things which i think is a good change. a lot of the tracks have had upgrades where turns that were never much hassle before are much harder now, which resulted in a lot of lawnmowing for me at first.

something thats been pissing me off a lot though is the 5 second delay in rally mode, which locks you at 31 mph for 5 seconds if you crash into a wall or the opponent. first of all i think its a hackneyed solution to prevent you from riding the walls all track long and had they put in car damage or penalized your speed more for hitting walls then none of it would be a problem. secondly the ai has it like thruster said where the car will slam into you occasionally, which of course sets off the timer for you but not the ai car. this is the kind of territory infox describes as the ai 'cheating' hehe.

as usual for gt the music sucks and the menus are annoying. load times are quick and auto save/load is well implemented. i also think they shouldve had online play in the ps2 version, i was looking forward to that experience. anyway im only 23% through the game thus far, so thats all i have to say. mostly though i agree with infox, carkemon with spiffier graphics.

with that said,<u>i love the nissan lm concept gt-r!!!!!!</u>

[mid]

If anyone else is really drooling over that book, you can buy the paperback from Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904705553) for a smidgeon under £14.

[infoxicated]

I got hold of a copy of GT4 the other day, so I've been playing it a bit over the weekend. Not wanting to take the obvious CRX (yawn) route that everyone suggests, I started up with a Honda Beat, before graduating to a Toyota Sera (fell in love with the little gull winged classic at a car show I went to a few years back).

Then I ended up kind of stuck. Although my Beat and my Sera were good enough to get me through the more basic events, it ended up that I was just throwing good money after bad on small improvements that weren't really helping for the more advanced championships. I blew 40k on my Beat to try and make it competative in the begginers MR Cup, and from the start of the first race when it said I'd score close to 200 A-Spec points for winning it... well, I knew I was in deep **** and I'd just wasted forty grand! :lol:

After re-tracing my steps to buil up some cash I bit the bullet and bought a brand new Ford Mustang for that rear wheel goodness. And this is where I'm confused. I'm using the GT Driving Force Pro wheel, but even when I just bury the throttle on my 300bhp motor, it never steps out of line. I've looked through all the menus to see if there's stability control or traction control enabled, but I just cant find any setting except for in arcade mode.

I can see a little triangle with an exclamation mark blinking away when I do force the issue with the throttle, but the car remains perfectly controlable. Thrusty, anyone, suggestions?

[Thruster2097]

Before you start the race in GT mode, there is a screen with a list of icons at the bottom... you get to choose between "start race in Aspec" and "start race in Bspec"..... The button in the middle (has an icon of a red mechanics toolbox) is machine settings.
Turn all the "driver aids" down to 0 from here. This will help!

P.S.
Easy way to earn money?
Get over to the "special condition hall" and try some of the road-rally events like costa di almalfi, citta di aria, george v and tsukuba (wet).
Great for earning quick money and you get a bonus car for only 4 laps work on the easy levels!

Should add that I started out with the 1.4 Lupo you get awarded for completing the B license. Fitted a few choice parts to it (and a 50lb bottle of nos!) to get enough money for my first car bought with credits, a subaru impreza sedan wrx.

[infoxicated]

Cool - thanks for the pointers. :)

I wonder why I hadn't spotted that in the settings bit - I run my cars with full custom gearbox, so I'm in there before every event setting the ratios. :?

[Thruster2097]

eh, its easily overlooked.
Imagine the fun I had trying to tune a mercedes clk-gtr in japanese! :dizzy

[infoxicated]

Heh! I can imagine. :)

Although the AI is absolutely appalling for a game made this side of the millennium, it's a fine driving experience with a wheel, I have to concede. Glad I didn't blow the full whack on it, though... or import it! :wink: :lol:

[Thruster2097]

(nothing to be said apart from :shame )

[Lance]

.
[ignorant american asks Thrusty:] what's a Lupo?
.

[Chill]

OFF TOPIC:
I swear, every time you say Thrusty, I take a couple examinations at it thinking (What? Thursty?!!! What the heck does he mean?!!!) Then I see it and remember, no duh!!!!! Just something to share. :wink:

[Lance]

.
what is it, exactly, that you are sharing?
.

[Thruster2097]

:lance
VolksWagen Lupo.
"Oh thats right, you dont have small cars in the us of a, do you?"

Smaller than a cardboard box and probably less fun to drive. But it's the first free car you get so it had to do.
Try and google it for pictures.

[Lance]

.
in the past, VW has tended to change model names, for example, the Golf became the Rabbit, so we sometimes had the same cars with different names. that's changed a bit; a Passat is called a Passat.

i've looked; it seems to be like the old Golf, possibly with a bit smaller engine as standard. over here, we no longer have the Golf hatchback, just the three-box version called the Jetta
.

[infoxicated]

Heh! Reminds me of the Ben Elton novel Gridlock, where the european arm of an American motoring manufacturer tries to come up with a car name that will suit the whole of Europe. They eventually launch it as the Crapee! :lol:

When the US head honcho finds out he goes ballistic, saying "They named my car 'the ****'!?"

Europe - eternally divided because we're just plain different. ;)

[Lance]

.
i think i would rather be the crap-er than the crap-ee. :D
.

[mid]

The old Golf is more like the current Punto in terms of size; the Lupo is the one even smaller than that. I picked up a second-hand Honda Integra Type R, which with a bit of polish made the beginner Sunday Cup and FF events a bit of a walkover (which was handy, as it allowed me to settle into the new handling model easily enough).

Right now, my car of choice for the MR and Euro events is this little beauty (http://home.clara.net/iainl/elise111r.jpg). A relative snip at around 60k including tuning, as well.

The handling is just leagues above that of GT3 with a wheel.

[Thruster2097]

Okay, :mid.
Be honest.

How did you transfer that picture to the computer? I have tried everything and failed.

[mid]

It's actually very easy if you have the right hardware. You need a USB thumbdrive of some kind, but the PS2 seems remarkably fussy about which it will work with. Some have had success with their iPods after enabling disk use mode, but I didn't. My Sony camera wouldn't act as a suitable USB device, either. In the end, I bought a Verbatim "Store 'n' Go" from Asda, which did the job perfectly.

Go into either Photo Shoot or (as I did for that picture) Photo Drive (choose a course, select the Photo Drive option - it cost me a mere 3cr. to do a day's shoot at the Nurburgring), and when you've got your pic set up just right, take the photo then save it to the USB device. You get nice high-quality jpgs at 1280x960; I downconverted to a lower quality one at 1024x768 just to get the file size down from ~250k.

[Thruster2097]

Hmmm... verbatim store and go, eh?
Thanks, mid!

(running off to asda......)

[infoxicated]

// follows Thrusty.

// skids to a halt, realising there's one closer to my house.

// runs off to own asda

[mid]

umm, sorry if you failed, guys, I should have been more specific. The stick was from "The Computer Store" or whatever it is that they call Time these days, which is one of the boutique shops in our big Asda in Watford; I'm always forgetting to make a distinction. Asda themselves have Lexmark sticks instead, though I'd be highly surprised if those don't work just as well. I bought the 256mb one for £25, as I figured that size would be useful for all sorts of other things as well, but if it is just purely for GT4, the Lexmark 32mb one was only £7.99 in the electrical section of Asda - you pick them up at the desk where they have the DVDs and games.

[rejj]

nice pic.

I did the MR challenges with a Honda NSX. I've noticed that Polyphony seem to love Nissan, and in particular the 350Z. I've won countless variants of it already from various championships..

[infoxicated]

pah! Honda NSX - I take it they were a piece of piss, then? ;)

I'm going for an unconventional approach to this one, since the AI is so wafer thin a challenge I'm trying to get through each event on the meekest car possible. Granted, I have gone back and done a couple of the beginner tournaments with my Mustang, where I won by a country mile, but that was only after I'd done them in my Honda Beat the first time around.

Meekest... ****, that was a good word. :)

[Lance]

.
yes, it was. :)
.

[Thruster2097]

I done the MR challenges in the cadillac cien.
You only get one point per race, but you deserve more points for trying to keep the poxy thing in a straight line!

GT4 loves nissan, this is a fact.
They even made their own car for the game, in the game and for the road.
Nissan fairlady Z (350Z) GT4 edition.
http://www.japmobiles.com/news/gfx/350z-gt4.jpg

Same as a regular 350Z, but yellow. And comes with a free PS2.
Just try not to (virtually) drive and (actually) drive at the same time though, that could get messy. And expensive.

[rejj]

Speaking of points... what exactly do the A-Spec Points do for you? I can't find any mention of them in the manual, and although total points are listed in the home status screen, I can't see anything to actually do with them.

I think the series I've had most trouble with so far has been the "supercar" series (or some name very similar to that, anyway) - 495BHP or higher, "unmodified" cars... which means you either need to spend $400,000 to buy some exotic car, or end up driving some American brick on wheels.

[mid]

A-Spec points can't be spent on anything, but there is a "highest A-Spec points earned" scoreboard listed against every GT-mode race, so it allows you to judge how well you're doing when you beat the AI. It might affect how good your B-Spec driver is as well, but I'm not sure on this.

[FoxZero]

rejj if you win the cien in another championship you should be able to win with that

[RJ O'Connell]

Here's my progress:

Currently, I've completed 5.7%, won 6 series (Sunday Cup, FF, MR, Lightweight K Car, Sport Truck, and the Suzuki K Car) and I'm about to win my Super License. I'm also currently screwed beyond reason because I don't know whether to run the FR, 4WD or Spider/Roadster Challenge and none of the cars I own are any good for it. I need advice, folks.

[mid]

As I've mentioned before, I (heart) the Lotus Elise 111R. Which is eminently suitable for walking all over the competition in the Spider/Roadster class, and I'm hoping will take on most of the competition in the UK challenge as well.

[infoxicated]

Against my better judgement, and with one eye on trying to play the game differently from everyone else in the world, I chose an ASL Garaiya over the Lotus Elise I have gone for in every other version of the game.

So far it's going good in the MR championship, but there's a bit of a cap on how much you can squeeze out of it, so I'm worried that it wont be as versatile in the long run as an Elise would be.

Sooner or later I'll be walking with the tall dogs in the big money championships, though, so I can always get one later if I fancy. I'm at the stage in the game where autosave is a curse, though - you never know whether you've made the right decision until after you've blown your most recent 50K - if only it told you power to weight ratio on the purchase screen. :|

[rejj]

Well... it tells you power, and it tells you weight..
heh :)

Has anyone here been brave enough to attempt the endurance races yet? In particular, the 24 hour?

... 24 hours around nurburgring. The mind boggles.
Surely you need to get a group together and play it in shifts, doing driver changes every hour or two.

[infoxicated]

I really want to do them - I love the endurance races, but since you cant do it until you've done 25% it'll be some time before I can do them.

The endurance races were the reason I took GT3 back for a trade in after three weeks of owning it. I managed to win a 50 lap race of Seattle with a barely upgraded Lotus Elise against Dodge Vipers and all sorts of other superior cars because they were stopping for tyres every four or five laps. Duh!

[mid]

... 24 hours around nurburgring. The mind boggles.
Surely you need to get a group together and play it in shifts, doing driver changes every hour or two.

Well, for a start the car you get for winning is rather good, apparently (I won't spoil it for you). But the PAL release allows you to change driver at the pits, so you can drive for a while and then hand over to your B-Spec driver at the next pitstop, which is going to be very handy...

[infoxicated]

I'd be doing that, I think - drive for a few hours, then hand it over to the Bob Spec ;)

I'm not convinced of the ability of the B Spec driver, to be honest - I've entered a race in a car that should have beated the field by a lap, but the B Spec guy struggled to snatch third on the line. :|

[rejj]

Sure... but I'd rather play the game, not just watch it play itself ;)
I've used B-Spec exactly once, and that was just to see what it was like. The 24 hour race(s) is/are going to be quite a challenge. I think I'm definately going to team up with some friends and do it in turns... either that, or leave the PS2 on for a few days, and have lengthy pauses.
I don't think I'm up to pulling a 24 hour stint in one go. Maybe a few years ago, but not anymore. :)

[UncleZeiv]

... either that, or leave the PS2 on for a few days, and have lengthy pauses.
I don't think I'm up to pulling a 24 hour stint in one go

You mean you can't save in the middle of the race anymore?

[Thruster2097]

nope, you cant save in the middle of a race. And the most annoying thing is that my b-spec driver doesnt know what tyres to choose when he pits, so I cant just leave the PS2 runnning for a day to do the nurburgring or la sarthe 24h because after 10 laps he'll just be waiting for tyres. Duh :x

As for the MR challenge... I chose the cadillac cien.
mmmmm, 1 points.

[xEik]

Mark, I'm affraid you'll soon be parting with your well earned money again... :)

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=63012

[infoxicated]

Don't be silly... he's not going to fall for that again.

No way does he buy the same game for the sixth time, but with online play.

Or does he?

[xEik]

Or does he?
Of course he does. :D :p
Or, at least, I bet he does. :)
We all know Mark is GT's bitch. ;)

[Roger]

Page now says: "The information that previously appeared here has been removed under the threat of legal action from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe."

[Lance]

sorta like the cash has been removed from our wallets.

[Thruster2097]

Okay, so I'm going to say "what's going on".
But I know you cant tell me because the linky has been shut down, therefore further discussion about said site and/or news contained therein would cause ...errr... problems.

So, seeing as though the PS3 is nowhere near ready yet, I'm going to take a proverbial stab in the dark and say that SCE/Polyphony are rereleasing GT4 with an added online mode.
Yes, I am GT's bitch.
Sorry xeik but No, I'm not flushing my hard earned cash down the drain. Again. Especially after my online exploits on PGR3 and Ridge Racer 6. Winning the race has nothing to do with skill, it's just a matter of how many noobs you can pass on the 1st turn.
I appreciated GT4 more for not having an online mode, I believe I have already said this before but it's true.
But I'm more than happy to see a whole bunch of other people go and be dissapointed again.

...and now the real reasons why i'm not getting it...
A) My PS2 is about 200m away from any cabled internet router.
B) waiting for PS3
C) need every last penny to spend on an actual car, not the pathetic joke I have at the moment
D) I am now a MSA trackside marshall with the big orange suit and everything.. so when the race season starts I'm not going to have much time left to play on GT or anything else.


So how much did you lose on the bet, xeik? :)

BTW (kinda off topic but not really)
Have you managed to get your USB flash drive to work on photo mode yet? If youre still having problems, plug the drive into your windows PC and FORMAT the damn thing. Works like a charm after that.

[xEik]

So how much did you lose on the bet, xeik? :)
Gasp! My soul!
What am I going to offer now to the devil? ;)

And yes it supposedly was an online version of GT4.

[Mano]

Now with a PS2 (just when PS3 is coming :D, no wonder they call me cheap at home) i can finally bask in the joy of GT4 when time allows; sadly it drifted me away from the time i was reserving for playing XL....

some comments:

Its wonderful, at the start i went the anime route and having recently watched some Initial D "acts", i bought the Trueno; the car is very low powered, (not that you need power in the early stages) but is very nicely balanced, its even better when the Shuichi Shigeno version becomes available.

Lately i have been using the Motul Pitwork Z as the main racing horse, even tho i have more powerful/agile cars in the garage; i keep selling the AMG mercedes CLK, because it sells for a nice dough (gamefaqs tip).

Now i can see the driving missions are not too commented in this thread, but i find them to be a great way to *really learn the tracks. The 3 laps at laguna seca on the Ford GT version II is the latest mission i have passed

Endurance races could really use a save during the race, i dont want to melt my PS2, there have been heating issues in the past with much less than the time required to play some of this races... maybe with no saves theres more inmersion and tension, but im sure you get REALLY tense when you see you PS2 starting to make smoke signals :D

The game is HUGE, i mean i know i have little time to play, but im only at 25.8% of the game! most rpgs i know are way shorter in playtime, obviously the endurance races add a lot here, not to mention that almost every manufacturer has one make races

now the only thing i can say is that i have that logitech driving force pro in a full target lock.

[infoxicated]

For some reason I've gone back to this lately - I'm playing a lot of GTR (http://www.10tacle.com/gtr-game/), and a quick blast of GT is a lightweight alternative.

I haven't opened the endurance races yet - I'm at 22.7%, I think, and you need 25% to unlock them. I'm willing to bet the farm on there being license restrictions once I do open them and, for the life of me, I just cannot be arsed to do a full lap of the Nurburgring in a car I have no experience of in order to reach the IA license test.

Early on I used my Toyota Sera for everything, then I ran a Ford Mustang for an age before buying an ASL Garaiya. The Garaiya is excellent on anything tight and twisty - the turn in is precise and the pick up on corner exit is just superb. :)

Sadly it's a bit underpowered for the bigger tracks against competition with serious horsepower - but I have my Ford GT and my Zonda for that. ;)

One thing that still ruins the game for me is the AI - it's simply ****, there's no way of candy coating it. I took my Zonda and entered it in the New York Supercar race in B-Spec mode because I don't have the IA license to compete. There was my Zonda along with another one, a Saleen, and three other awesome cars. At the 90 degree right hander up from the bottom hairpin every single car ploughed into the wall and rebounded into the middle of the road, before sorting themselves out and going on their way. This happened on every single lap for six laps. WTF?! Even when I told my driver to take it easy on approach the AI still smashed into the wall.

It's bad enough when you're driving, as the AI has no idea you are on track at all - it'll smash into the back of you, it'll run you off the road if you try and run side by side. I thought they would have fudged it for B-Spec mode, though, so it's just an absolute joke that they haven't sorted it.:brickwall

This is why I'm trying to open the endurance races, because in them you're rarely racing another car, you're racing the clock. I'm in a bit of a bottleneck at the minute due to that IA license, though - a lot of the events I need to do to open the endurance races are barred to me.

[Asayyeah]

i ve played GT4 last year with a friend : he hasn't finished it yet due to endurance races but we experimented the 24 hours on Nürburgring with 2 other mates , we started on saturday 3pm to finish on sunday 5pm ( yeah 26 hours in real but only if i can say that 24 hours racing with a great skyline ). Shame we haven't taken pics from our sleepy faces right after that insane marathon , but that was great & we enjoyed much ( pit stop every 3 laps ... burn tires baby , burn :dizzy , change from pilots every 1 hour racing )

I am very curious to see how can run GT4 mobile on psp...

[infoxicated]

I think I'll be teaming up with my B-Spec driver for the 24 hour events! ;)

I finally got the IA license at lunch there - an hour well spent. Turned out that it wasn't so hard to do the flying lap of the Nurburgring - I just had to have the patience to take it easy and not push too hard. I did slam into the back of the pace car at one point because it seemed to brake way too early, but fortunately I kept control and all was well.

The final IA license test was a lot of fun, actually - less than two minutes with a clear objective, the way they should be, not ten minutes of torture in an arbitrary car. :)

[Thruster2097]

I dont know if Ive mentioned it before but wait until you get to the final S license test. Nordschleife, one standing lap, no pace car, mercedes 190E? touring car.
I still havent beaten it.
The japanese version is even harder.... same test but with a sauber c9 and all of its breakneck speed and 800something bhp.

Once I have done the final five races on ridge racer 6 and earned my "xploration complete" badge, I think im going back to gt4. the idea of flying round la sarthe in my corsa sounds entertaining.

As a treat, i have posted a pic of me driving arount the twin ring at motegi :p
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/user_files.php?user_id=31

[Mano]

With B-spec i have read that you can go through a 24 hour course in around 8 hours, changing settings.

I dont b spec much, only to make GT credits while im drawing cad plans and such, and i really dont enjoy much watching the A.I. run (fell asleep once, the A.I. runs too conservative and cautious for my taste, even when i dictate the pace).

Also i have made the first endurance race already, but the prize car, although very nice is not very useful compared to the others in my garage (if anyone knows of something good to do with it let me know)

[Lion]

the A.I. runs too conservative and cautious for my taste, even when i dictate the pace
I keep finding the opposite.. especially if it's used more.
the more your BSpec driver gets to drive one car, the harder they push.
there's a skyline in my flatmates garage that the BSpec driver can no longer drive at all (ran a series over and over for cash)

[Mano]

ahem.... for MY taste ;)

however i think my b-spec driver is not good since i dont use it often.