Hands-on: Gran Turismo PSP
It's been a long time coming, but Gran Turismo PSP is finally coming out. Finally re-revealed at the Sony press conference, Gran Turismo is shaping up to be a thoroughly comprehensive experience worthy of the franchise moniker. Our first hands-on with Gran Turismo (on a PSP go) left us impressed, a good thing considering its official release is not too far away: October 1st.
Obviously, the most immediately striking aspect of the game must be its visuals. During the conference, we stated the game looked just as good as GT4 on PS2. Upon closer look on the PSP go, it's clear that the visuals are downgraded a bit. But really, just a bit. Anyone that looks at GT running on the PSP will be impressed that handheld technology has gone so far to create such detailed visuals at 60 fps.
The Gran Turismo series attempts to recreate the most realistic driving sim on the marketplace, but it's clear the PSP game won't be able to match the fidelity of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on PS3. The PSP controls hinder the experience a bit -- and no, we're not crying for a second analog stick. The lack of analog buttons make a difference in the way series vets may play the game.
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The handheld experience offers a bit more of a streamlined GT experience that should appeal to the casual racing fan. Before each race, players can quickly choose difficulty modes. On Easy, we found that the AI drivers offered some challenge, and found turns to be much easier to handle. With the on-track indicators directing us when to break and turn, it took very little time to really get back into the groove of GT. For better or for worse, the series' interpretation of crashing makes a full return. As expected, there's no damage model, and players will be able to bounce off of other cars with relative ease.
The breadth of content being offered for the PSP Gran Turismo game is overwhelming, with over 800 licensed vehicles from Ferrari, Nissan and more. There are over 30 tracks recreating some of the environments used in previous GT games which should fill the void left by Gran Turismo 5 Prologue's spartan offerings.
Gran Turismo is quite an achievement on the PSP, and we're confident series fans will appreciate the large amount of content featured in the game. It may not be the best GT game ever, but it is undoubtedly a real Gran Turismo game recreated fully on a handheld. We were unable to test one of the other new features of the handheld version: the ability to trade vehicles via Ad-Hoc wi-fi. With over 800 cars to collect, it seems players will need to work together to complete their collections. Gotta catch 'em all, right?
