December 06, 2004 - Okay, so it doesn't look anything like we're getting GT4 this Christmas. It's been how long since we saw the last installment of the racing series? We can't even remember. Sony says it plans to have the game ready no later than February. That's a very, very long time away for most fans. The reasons behind this decisions are unknown, but we're pretty certain it has nothing to do with implementing an Online mode.

Regardless, the game is but a few months away, again. This time, the date coincides, within a month, of the upcoming release of Forza Motorsport. Like it or not, these two games will be available within weeks of each other. Consider it a good or bad thing, we think it's a good thing.

Developed by Polphony, GT4 feels like it's been in production for a lifetime and a half. The team wants to demonstrate the "most authentic driving simulation on the marketplace." It's kinda ironic hearing that because this is the same team that tells us, [The new physics allow] cars to be handled easier." Well, nitpicking aside, most of us know that the physics model is pretty tight in the GT series. Each vehicle might not act exactly like it's real-life counterpart, but players get the basic idea of vehicle handling and physics dynamics.

The team has spent much time creating the already-announced GT Photo Mode and a newly-announced GT Director B-Spec Mode. Both of these have taken immense amounts of time to develop and we're not really certain why the team would waste so much time on mode we don't see getting much return. We'll admit that there is a need for the GT Director B-Spec Mode as it's possible that this was merely an internal tool used to develop, tweak and tune the race AI to the desired level. It probably didn't take too much work

The total number of units sold for the Gran Turismo series is somewhere around 33 million, worldwide. These numbers are according to Sony and likely don't take into consideration the sales of the GT Concept series and the most recent Prologue releases. That said the number of units sold is probably a lot closer to 35 million units. That's a lot of shiny discs spinning in PSOne and PS2's across the world.

So what's the deal with the game so far? We already know that Sony touts the game can handle real life physics for any particular vehicle. But what are the details on the best racing game for PS2 of all time? That's what we're here for.

We already know that the new physics engine adding a higher level of realism in cars and that each vehicle has more than 5,000 polygons. The game will see an all-new AI engine; race opponents possess four-gen artificial intelligence. You also know that it's compatible with the best racing wheel of all time, the Logitech Driving Force Pro. Available in black with brushed aluminum accents, the Gran Turismo branded GT Force Wheel provides a shifter for manual transmissions, 900 degrees of steering rotation and force-feedback. But there's more. Today, we're going over some of the most important parts of GT4

---