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Well, now it seems that GT4 has been "announced" - it's slated for a December 2003 launch in time for the ever-popular Christmas gaming launch.
GT4 has been show-cased at the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in LA, and an interview with Kazanori Yamauchi - along with a GT4 photoshoot of the office Caterham Fireblade - was published in UK's Evo magazine (pictures subsequently stolen without reference by IGN).
Pictured below are a whole bunch of screenshots from the E3 meeting in LA. To see full size images, please visit http://e3.playstation.com/games_details.asp?id=6XAF4DZ03L40GKZ - but I think they look better at this size...
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My opinion? Well... I WILL be buying it (or in fact pre-ordering it) despite my impending unemployment and lack of money.
However, graphically it doesn't seem to represent much of an improvement over GT3, and even less so GTConcept. Again, the limitations of the PS2 - most noticably in the "anti-aliasing" department (making curves curvy, and not line-y - check the wheelarches to see what I mean) - are showing through. Yamauchi-san and his team reportedly pushed the PS2 to 100% of it's capabilities with GT3, so GT4 has a lot of work to do. But we must remember that these are PREVIEW shots only, and with a whole 7 months to lapse before Christmas arrives these mustn't be taken as being representative of the final, finished product.
Sure, there's a reported 1000 cars in the final game (more than in the other three games put together), and a whole bunch of lovely new tracks - we've seen Tsukuba, New York and the Grand Canyon rally track - but remember GT2? That had 3x the cars of GT1 and twice the number of tracks, AND was rushed out in time for Christmas.
The possibility of using the Network Adapter for full online GT4 is admittedly a mouth-watering prospect, and frankly even IF the graphics are only as good as (only... Pffft) GT3, that is more or less what we've been after since October 2001. With the car numbers to satisfy the GT3 nay-sayers, the car variety everyone lusts for (pony cars are sorely missed in the GT3 incarnation) and some more tracks to ply your trade on, GT4 looks like becoming a MUST buy for anyone who owns a PS2.
Go back to the GT3 index.
