Grand Turismo HD Concept 2.0 PlayStation 3 video game review ★★★★★ ★★★☆☆

★★★★★ ★★★☆☆
A generous freebie letting PlayStation 3 owners see what they bought their console for. While it's not exactly worth £425 (the price of a new console at launch), it is comfortably the most satisfying and impressive free download ever offered on any console.



Technically it's lovely with a rock-solid frame-rate, highly convincing graphics (replays are the closest we've ever come to photo-realistic) and sound.

The Gran Turismo handling is present and correct with the first-person view a delight to use thanks to the amount of visual feedback that is delivered. Remarkably, you don't miss rumble at all. Though Gran Turismo was a pioneer of rumble feedback,

don't miss rumble

it's always been the the dipping and leaning of the first-person view that provided all the feedback that makes this series so much better to drive that just about all other driving games. As has been the case with every entry so far, just driving in this game is better than racing, blowing stuff up, using the Force and saving the world in almost all other games.

Gameplay-wise it offers something not found in any Gran Turismo game to date - a dedicated Drift Trial mode - but it would have been nice if target times had been supplied for all the variations in the game (only ten of the sixty time trials have a target time: Time Trial / Normal Cars / Forward direction).

pointlessly easy

Also the ten target times supplied are pointlessly easy. If sixty representative times had been supplied, then there would be absolutely no cause for complaint and the demo would have been much much better. A Gold / Silver / Bronze system would have been the icing on the cake.

That said, it seems rather pernickety to moan about free content. Instead of being challenged by Polyphony Digital you have to content yourself with challenging online times. Generally, these are hilarious but I've set myself the standard of giving myself a Gold with a top 100 provisional ranking. Managed it once so far (best 56th) and, frankly, rather pleased with that.

With it being a downloaded game, it is always on your PlayStation 3 ready for five minutes here (which always turns into half-an-hour) without needing to find the game disc.



Please note: the bestest free download ever is "Trackmania Nations ESWC Edition" which was an unlimited, uncrippled full free game and, currently, the greatest online racer ever. It was supplied as part of the Electronic Sports World Cup in 2006.

Mister Slimm versus Jeremy Clarkson

Just watched a rerun of the Top Gear Christmas 2005 episode with the film where Jeremy Clarkson takes an NSX around Laguna Seca in Polyphony Digital's brilliant PlayStation 2 driving game Gran Turismo 4 and then takes a real NSX around the real Laguna Seca in Monterrey, California, USA.

I know when I watched it first time, I thought, I'll have a bash at Jeremy's lap time. I never got around to it, though, and it didn't help that I hadn't made a note of his lap time, anyhoo. This time with finger hovering on the pause key I made a note of his lap time and tried to determine which car settings he had used.

The circuit was selected from the World Circuits menu in Gran Turismo mode but the car was selected from Arcade mode. I imagine the reason for this is that the circuit selection is more visually interesting in the Gran Turismo mode than Arcade, so I decided that Jeremy had performed the lap as an Arcade Mode Timed Run. This left only the tyres as the setup question and I suspect that he chose the default Sports Medium tyres. The other arcade setup options are more related to drivability with a gamepad than actual car performance.

His car (in the game) was a NSX '01 though it is reported that he had to use a more modern Acura-badged NSX in the real-life attempt. According to the video, the real-life attempt also used the car's standard tyres (at least, they were treaded).

I drove my runs according to strict rules of sportsmanship so any lap where all four wheels left the track (demarked by the white lines, this includes Turn 1 - the start-finish curve) I made sure I slowed down and let the ghost driver pass and finish the lap ahead of me. Jeremy also appeared to drive a clean lap without cutting Turn 4 or The Corkscrew.

His time in the game was 1'41.148, a time I figured would be a bit ho-hum because of an entirely unjustified prejudice concerning his age and curly hair.

I was wrong. It is an entirely respectable lap and it took me nearly half-an-hour to beat it. I hadn't played the game for several months but even when I was re-acclimatised to the game (I had previously been playing Ridge Racer V, very different) I was still not nailing the lap satisfactorily.

Eventually, I got the following lap times and, it should be noted, an increased respect for Jeremy Clarkson's Gran Turismo 4 ability. I also thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. It was a pleasure to revisit this superb driving game.

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Gran Turismo 4 mode

Arcade Mode
World Circuits: Laguna Seca
Honda: NSX '01

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Lap times

GT4 Jeremy Clarkson (unknown tyres): 1'41.148
Laguna Seca Jeremy Clarkson: 1'57
GT4 Mister Slimm (Road tyres): 1'44.615
GT4 Mister Slimm (Sports Medium tyres): 1'40.580
GT4 Mister Slimm (Sports Soft tyres): 1'39.963

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Photos and links

• Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
• YouTube: Jeremy Clarkson PS2 GT4 Honda NSX Laguna Seca film