I'm quite impressed with Gran Turismo. I think it's the best car racing simulation video game I have ever seen, but there might be better ones for niches. I've played for a couple weeks off and on. The game is structured in the simulation mode where the player starts with an amount of game credits to purchase virtual cars which are actually models of the real world cars. I started with the Toyota Sprinter Trueno. The game is rather educational in that various upgrades to the cars can be purchased with game credits and they affect the handling and performance of the vehicles, and they do show quite well how the effects would be enhanced in the very-well rendered game world with the wonderful graphics and accurate game models. It takes a while to get past the early races as the prizes are slim and it takes some practice to win the races, although supercars are allowed in races with stock machines. Another feature of the game is the auto license system where the player passes the license tests to be able to take part in the races with the superior competitors and the higher prizes. I read a strategy guide and its suggestion of getting a car put together that runs a 40 second Speedway lap in the hundred lap endurance races allowing a gold in the Speedway endurance race for a nice sum of virtual credits and a bonus car is good. I used the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport and won a Corvette C5R, which is a fantastic vehicle. My first upgrade car was the Toyota Celica SS-II, the Mazda Miata and RX-7 Infini III are also great drives. So far I have the IA license and have left to get the Super license, I'm running four seconds out, it's a lot of fun to tear around the tracks, including nice simulations of well-known real-world racetracks. The driving simulation modeling is pretty good, but there is not much damage or wear modeling besides tire wear and some level of lubricant wear. I think it would be a better game, albeit more difficult, with more realistic damage modeling, the game does allow the use of "simulation" tires for more near to real-world handling.
Max Payne is a first-person shooter or FPS, also for frames-per-second, game. Actually it's a third-person shooter. It has a linear storyline and uses graphic novel style cutscenes for an overall pleasant noir game set in a real-world styled game universe. It is mostly a combat game, the shooting mechanics are stylized and almost completely firearm based, again reality takes a backseat to gameplay. The protagonist can take a lot of damage, and heals quickly, and it only takes a few shots to permanently remove most of the goons and ruffians that inhabit the game. Over the course of the game, which runs hours from start to finish, the character discovers plots and ruins them. One of the game's features is a timebase altering mode or "bullet time" where the character and game run in slow motion except with the ability to maneuver the character and fire in player time. The game is noteable for having a few interludes of the character thinking he was in a video game or graphic novel, and a few other semi-humorous quotes from the antagonists.
Virtua Fighter 4 is a well-made extension of the Virtua Fighter series, which burst onto the arcade scene a decade ago as the first fighter game to break well the two-dimensional barrier. VF4 includes the fighters from the previous games except the Sumo wrestler who was in VF3 which I have not played. There are basically punch, kick, and block buttons, and various throws and reversals are actuated by combinations of the three buttons, in this stylized and cinematic unarmed third person fighter. The characters have predefined styles that reflect a variety of the mostly Eastern unarmed combat fighting techniques, with some of the characters able to leap superhumanly through the air. Some of the characters have similar move combinations, thus that knowledge of one player's style carries over well to other characters, while a few of the characters, particularly Akira, have specialized move combinations that are more unique to themselves. The player characters' data can be stored from round to round, and as well there is a very cool A.I. system thus that a player can generate and train A.I. characters. There is a ranking system so that as skill and wins progress that the player or A.I. is matched against challenging opponents, from tenth to first Kyu and first to ninth or tenth Dan and then Hero, Conqueror, and Stormlord, etcetera. It's pretty easy to get a character or A.I. to fifth or sixth Dan in a hundred or less matches. It's possible to let an A.I. play a couple hundred matches and reach tenth Dan, that's about how long I've had the game with having five or six of the players in the fourth to sixth Dan and three or four A.I.'s at seventh to ninth Dan with a couple hundred more matches. I enjoy using Lei-Fei the most, probably, Shun is fun, those are new characters compared to Virtua Fighter, Wolf was my choice in Virtua Fighter, I could pass the arcade game in five or six minutes, but his shoulder block is much reduced in VF4, I try to play each of the characters. I would really like to pick and choose the style elements, and throw a virtual copy of myself in the ring. My Lei-Fei wears a hat, sixth Dan. That was the first character I started, the first A.I. was a Kagemaru, thus far the most successful A.I.s were better trained to start and include Jacky and Wolf, although any of them are fun to play. Lei-Fei is noted as an easier character to play, he has a good punch system where just tapping the punch button will win against some opponents, also he has a really good punch-reverse stance that doesn't require a reversal move although it does require there not being a kick or throw, it's trouble for Akira, Akira has a good low kick. Wolf's best move I use is probably the simple clothesline, a charging fist. Kagemaru has a good fast double-back kick and also a good stationary jumping kick, similar to Lau's jumping punch, very quick. I think Jacky might be the best, it's difficult to say and he is worse off against some. Another good attack is Jeffrey or Wolf's back and punch quick snaps combined with drops. Overall VF4 is plenty of fun.
6/20/03
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