Ladies and gentlemen start your engines! Here comes the best and most beautiful racer to ever grace our fine console. For those of us looking for a deeper racer than the Ridge Racer or Test Drive series, this is the perfect game!

Graphics...These are bar none the best graphics for a racer on the playstation. There are over 150 possible cars from all the big name dealers to choose from, each being uniquely and realistically modelled in the game. When the game starts you can chose from three standard views: In the car, behind the car close and behind the car far. The close view behind the car may block some of the track so I tend to recommend the far view for control and the in the car view for speed. Sadly the in the car view places you so that it feels like you are right on the cars fender, as there is no view of the dash board.Something to look for in the sequel? The tracks look very clean and sharp, and when races you can visibly see subtle differences in how each car handles. All of the graphical splendor you see is in the PSX's low-resolution mode. So prepare to be amazed: If you are really good there is a ay to switch the game into high res mode. There is no way I can describe that in text, it just must be seen to be believed!My only complaint is that the cars don't show damage or react to hits. Now we all know what would happen if a souped up Dodge Viper hits a wall at 230mph: A nice high res explosion that would probably take out 2 other cars. Now THAT would be the greatest incentive ever to learn the limitations of you automobile!

Sound... The sounds here are very impressive from the engine growls to tire squeals. Each car naturally has a different type of engine, and in the game each engine sounds different. The only downside to the sounds is the music which is horrible. Now I know that everyone thinks that a game need some grunge heavy meatal techno trash soundtrack, but if you are going to do it ,take a hint from Wipeout XL and make it really good. Even N20 had descent music. Or go the lines of Colony Wars and do something inventive and instrumental. But GT's music truly sucked. After hearing the same bad tune 4 times(since the whole game has maybe 6 "songs") I wised up and just turned the music off and the cd player on. An easy solution to a niggling problem.

Control.. Now you will have no problem with a regular controller, but I highly recomend buying an analog pad or a steering wheel to truly get into the game. The steering wheel is best to give the feeling of "beeing there" and will give you the control you need. But if you don't play racers much, just get a dual shock analog controller, this will help this game and many others. No matter what contoller you use you must realize that this is a simulation, and consequently each car will behave differntly. You must be careful then not to use the controller the same way on a front engine car as you would on a mid engine. You will see problems steering! The total mastery of control will take weeks but getting there is half the fun.

Gameplay... This racer has the most depth that I have ever seen in any racer on any system, period. Forget the arcade mode, true gamers will leap right into the simulation mode and prepare for the ride of their life. The premise is simple, you start out with a crappy car and the more races you win the more cash you can get to upgrade your vehicle. Sounds easier than it is. Along the way you have to employ precision racing to earn various liscenses so you can compete in harder races. Also different race only allow set vehicles, so your money must be balanced between upgrading your current car and buying a new one. The amount of variety you have in upgrading your car is almost endless. I estimate that to fully win the sim mode, it will take about 100 hours if you want to do everything right. But you will love every minute of it! So if you are willing to put in tons of hours and energy, you will not go unrewarded.

Graphics....10

Sound.......9

Control.....Regular pad 8

Analog pad 9

Steering wheel 10

Gameplay....10

Overall.....10 Too bad that none of us will ever get a chance to drive half of these cars in real life...ah well....

-Madgraduate