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Something a lot of fans have been waiting for on the PSP is a good racing game. There have been a few, but nothing comes close to the PlayStation exclusive Gran Turismo series.
As with most ports for the PlayStation Portable, the games tend to be cut down versions for the handheld market, but, we can assure you that GT PSP certainly isn't a cut down version. For those of you who remember playing the original PS1 version of Gran Turismo, you may remember there were 178 cars and 11 tracks. Well, GT PSP contains 800 cars and 35 tracks (ramped up to 60 with course variations). Our hands on with the game only included a fraction of the full menu with 100 cars available and 14 tracks to choose from, anyone would think it was the full game and with that amount of content, and I'm sure any GT fan would of have been happy with just that.
So after sifting through the content the game offers, it came down to seeing just how well this new reiteration of the popular franchise lived up to it's expectations on the PSP.
As mentioned previously there is a lot to choose from, vehicles wise, but after playing a recent bout of Burnout Paradise, the one car that stuck out from the pack was the classic DMC DeLorean (Which doesn't fly, as popular as that would of been), quite a car for any Back to the Future fan. A quick pick of Laguna Seca for the track and our chosen car of choice got us straight into the action.
The controls for GT were easy to get into even with the new PSP Go. Gran Turismo of course being a "Driving Simulator" unlike other racing games on the PSP warranted an air of caution whilst playing, after all, it's far from an arcade racing game. The new PSP Go seemed comfortable enough whether we chose to use the analogue nub or the D-pad, everything seemed to work as expected and using the analogue nub to make tiny adjustments to your angle of approach on a corner was easy enough and very accurate.
Graphics wise the game runs at a cool 60 frames per second which is far above standard for any handheld title, we didn't experience any slow down while playing but where players of the GT series come to expect a whole start grid of opponents to face, GT PSP only has 4 computer controlled opponenets to race against. This was no doubt limited to keep the silky smooth 60fps constant throughout the game.
One thing fans of the series have been crying out for since its original release is damage physics, unfortunately GT PSP is no different from any previous version of the game including it's big brother "GT5 Prologue" on the PS3. The game doesn't offer any customization options either, other than the default manufacture upgrades which is disappointing, but I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of fans would say they have come to expect such features from all GT games by now, I know I certainly have.
Something we didn't get to test was the multiplayer ad-hoc support. Multiplayer in GT PSP will allow up to four players to race it out over the various tracks though there is no game sharing so all players must own their own copy of the game. Your also able to trade your cars with other players though how is still unclear. We hear the game will also be able to interact with the new GT5 on PS3 but this hasn't be confirmed and again is unclear exactly how it will work.
With Gran Turismo PSP featuring such a large amount of cars and tracks, it seems more like a full blown console release than a handheld title, minus the graphics of course. Fans of the series shouldn't have to hesitate about picking this one up from our initial impressions, playing GT on the PSP is a great experience especially when you can play it wherever you like (who hasn't wanted to drive like a lunatic while sat on the toilet?). Whether this new title in the GT franchise garners any new fans is a good question but with good advertising and the same launch date as the new PSP Go it may well end up in some sort of bundle deal, we'll just have to wait and see.
Gran Turismo PSP is due out on October 1st to coincide with the launch of the PSP Go. The game will be released as a network download title and on UMD for people with the earlier versions of the PlayStation Portable.
