And for good reason too.

When Gran Turismo hit Japanese shelves on December 23rd, 1997 little did the world know that it would go on to become one of the most successful and recognizable racing franchises.

Starting development in 1992, Kazunori Yamauchi, the games designer is famously quoted for saying "It took five years. In those five years, we could not see the end. I would wake up at work, go to sleep at work. It was getting cold, so I knew it must be winter. I estimate I was home only four days a year." highlighting the small team of 7 to 15 employees commitment to the product, a commitment rarely seen in the industry today.

Despite it's groundbreaking graphics and physics model which put other racing games of the time to shame, Kazunori himself believes it only utilised a paultry 75% of the PlayStation's maximum performance.

Japanese and English-language versions of the game differred in their sound tracks with the Japanese release retaining mostly classical and developed specifically for the title tracks which would later make a reappearance in various arrange and remixed versions in newer titles, the opening music for the Japanese version used "Moon Over the Castle" composed by Masahiro Andoh.

The english language version featured licensed tracks from Chemical Brothers, Ash, Garbage, Cubanate, Feeder and used Manic Street Preachers "Everything must go" for the opening.

From the groundbreaking number of tracks and cars to the extensive customizability, Gran Turismo set the bar of quality for all other racing sims, indeed Turn10, the developers of the Forza motorsport franchise have at various points openly admitted that were inspired by Gran Turismo, with plenty of other racing titles large and small from the release of Gran Turismo taking small ideas away here and there, from tuning setups to customization, used car markets and menu systems.

To this very day, Not a single title on any other platform has dethroned the original Gran Turismo for game critics and reviewers worldwide, instilling a lasting testiment to the hard work and vision of the Gran Turismo team, that set the groundwork for a lasting legacy that may well never be beaten.

Here's to Gran Turismo, the greatest racing game of all time.

And, just for fun. 

Wow, now that's dedication. Kaz has made some mistakes, but you can't deny he has incredible passion for his franchise. 

I actually agree with this. I haven't played a better racing game.

GT3-A spec imo is the holy grail of racers.
Was to young to play 1.
Granted I love the series and the newly released GT6 is absolutely amazing.

The first time I played GT was in a night club in Amsterdam. They had playstations with tvs sitting along the walls. Being drunk at the time, we completely sucked at the game.
Since then we always ended up playing GT against eachother after getting back from a night out. Great times, trying not to be in front going into the last corner.

for me GT3 A-Spec is my all time favorite GT game though the last time i played it was last week,

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WRBc0G7Lb0A?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WRBc0G7Lb0A

Well deserved

Gran Turismo made a huge impact when it was launched.

I remember playing it for the first time, it was just.... wow !

is this a thread to debate metacritic?
or is it a reaction th the forza 7th gen winner on meta?

for both questions see : http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=173833

Its a thread reflecting on the highest rated racing game in history, clearly.
If youre not going to talk about gt1 or the gt series and instead be a sourpuss, then you're not welcome, you know where the door is.

To be clear, since you seem to have missed the very basic point.

This is a thread for discussing Gran Turismo

I bought this game in 1998. I was dating a girl that worked at a toy store and she said it was the big game everybody was buying. I couldn't even get my license in the game without using a Gameshark cheating device.

I can't deny the quality but the game was HARD.