Thursday, April 20, 2000

Game Review: Gran Turismo 2

It's time to race on a higher level....
Polyphony Digital brings the Real Driving Simulator back for a second lap with Gran Turismo 2. With over 500 cars, more than doubling GT1's 160, 38 manufacturers tripling GT1's 11, and 6 licenses vs GT1's 3 buckle in it's gonna be a long ride.
GT1 showed you how to drive like a pro, GT2 is gonna see if you were paying attention!
Drivers education 2.0...
Lets go get our license to drive. First thing you'll notice is there are six licenses to acquire now B, A, IC, IB, IA & S. The tests are much the same as GT1, braking, cornering, S-turns, handling variances between FF/FR/4WD etc.
Lets go buy a car, GT2 Has four districts representing the four corners of the world and their respective manufacturers.
+=New Manufacturer
North City:
Aston Martin
+Audi
+BMW
+Jaguar
+Lister
+Lotus
+Mercedes Benz
+MG
+Mini
TVR
+Opel
+RUF
+Volkswagon
South City:
Acura
+Chrysler
Chevrolet
Dodge
+Ford
+Mercury
+Plymouth
+Shelby
+Vector
East City:
+Daihatsu
Honda
Mazda
Mitsubishi
Nissan
Subaru
+Suzuki
+Tommy Kaira
Toyota
West City:
+Alpha Romeo
+Citroen
+FIAT
+Lancia
+Peugeot
+Renault
+Venturi
Gran Turismo 2 adds 11 new race tracks to more than double the amount GT1 had!
+=new track
Autumn Ring
+Apricot Hill
Clubman Stage R5
Deep Forest
+Grindelwald
Grand Valley East
High Speed Ring
+Laguna Seca
+Midfield Raceway
+Red Rock Valley
+Rome Cicuit
+Rome ShortSpecial Stage R5
+Seattle Cicuit
+Seattle Short
Super Speedway
+Tahiti Road
Trial Mountain
+Test Course
GT2 offers four separate events, the GT league, Special Events, Endurance Races and Rally Events. GT2 takes the Races and Championships from GT1 and adds a plethora of new races, cups and challenges like the K-Cup, Luxury Sedan Cup, Convertible Car World, Compact Car World Muscle Car Cup, Historic Car Cup, Station Wagon Cup, Grand Touring Car Trophy
80's Car Cup, Gran Turismo All Stars, GT300 & 500 Championship.
Gran Turismo2 expands the Endurance Races from GT1 with the return of the Grand Valley 300km (60 laps), Apricot Hill 200 km, Seattle Circuit 100 miles, Laguna Seca 200 miles, Rome Circuit 2 hours, Trial Mountain 30 laps, and SS Route All Night.
Polyphony Digital added Rally Racing to GT2 and was toying with drag racing but opted not to include Drag Racing at the last minute. The Rally Events include Smokey Mountain North/South/reverse, Green Forest Roadway, Tahiti Maze, Tahiti Dirt R3/reverse, Pikes Peak Uphill/Down hill Challenge.
Grand Turismo improves on the original in every way, the graphics show improvement, the sheer number of new manufacturers and cars is astounding, the handling is vastly improved which says alot considering the first was revolutionary, the addition of Rally races expands the franchises influence but needs a bit of work on the way the cars handle off road....they handle too similarly to when they're on a track in my opinion. The inclusion of muscle cars of the 60's and 70's is a great addition and is cool pitting A Dodge Viper GTS against a 71' Dodge Charger!
GT2 is a fun ride!
9/10

Friday, April 7, 2000

Retro Review: Street Fighter Collection

Street Fighter Collection is a must own for fans of Street Fighter, the collection comes on two disks. Disk 1 has Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
Super & Super Turbo offer Arcade Mode, Versus Mode,
Disk 2 has Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold.
Alpha 2 Gold comes with Arcade, Versus, Training, Survival, and Akuma modes. Additionally SFA2 Gold includes Evil Ryu and  Killer Bee Cammy.
I actually traded in my copy of Street Fighter Alpha 2 for this....common sense! I got a better version of SFA2 and Super Street Fighter II and SSF2T.


For the price any fan of Street Fighter should get this collection!
9/10