Graphics:
Looking at GT1-GT4, I can say without doubt, that in their eras, there were no other games on the planet that could compare with the graphical fidelity of the series. GT was always known for its amazing degree of photo-realism, pushing their respective consoles to unbelievable heights. I remember the firs time driving GT3 and thought, “how the hell can it look this good?” Now, however, things are just not as they were before.
The cars, premium or standard, just don’t look all that good. The premium ones look ok, but nothing mindblowing. Some of them look very beautiful, but some just ‘meh’. The standard ones look like last generation models, which is what they probably are. In a word, most of them are just quite simply ‘ugly’. I expected much more realism. Instead I see jagged edges and low resolution textures.
The worst part of the cars is that they come in two models. Graphical disparity? Since when does a GT game have such nonsense? Isn’t this series known for perfection and photo-realism? It feels ‘dirty’ to drive a standard model car because I just hate having in-car view in just 20% of the cars. I can just decide to ignore all the standard cars, but unfortunately I can’t because the races are set up such that I must race the GT4 imports no matter what I choose.
The environments are also ‘meh’. 2D generic trees and people are annoying to see, and when the screen tears every time you turn, it just makes you scratch your head in wonder. Just like in the cars, there are jagged edges and low resolution textures everywhere. Reflections on the cars are a mess and they sometimes just pop in without anything to base them on. It doesn’t look much better than GT4.
Damage implementation is also annoying. There are only so few cars where you can truly appreciate the extent of the damage modeling, which is actually pretty damn good. Unfortunately, it takes time to get the damage out and it’s frustrating to know that there is damage in the game, yet you have to play more than a week before you can see it, and when you do, only 200 cars are affected relatively realistically; damage on standard cars looks like crap.
On the plus side, however, there are some moments wherein the game’s graphics truly shine. In-car view, when it’s available, is a joy to see, especially when it’s raining or snowing. It’s quite amazing to see how well weather was rendered. Racing at different times of the day is also amazing to behold, especially when it dynamically changes.
There are cars that look just absolutely amazing, like the yellow Lamborghini Gallardo I bought. There are moments on track, such as when you exit the tunnel in Eiger Nordwand and the sun hits your windshield at high speed, that just take your breath away. Some of the track environments, such as the ones in Rome circuit, are very good looking.
Unfortunately, these good moments are just too few.
However, when you compare this game to other games in the market right now, you start to really appreciate the beauty of the graphics. Even the standard cars look good next to cars from say, Need for Speed. There isn’t any racing game in the market right now that has better graphics than this. In fact, it rivals games in other genres as well. The problems that this game has are also present in other games and in most cases, they are seen less.
The only reason GT fans are disappointed by the graphics is that we just expected it to destroy the competition, not just rival it. We have come to expect ‘perfection’ in GT, and sadly, it only delivered ‘good enough’.
Gran Turismo graphics score: 7.0
Just a Game graphics score: 9.5
