Gran Turismo HD Concept

Let me come clean. I am a Gran Turismo fanboy. I love sitting down with a good Playstation controller and endlessly configuring a car only to sit there and meticulously make it brake and accelerate through numerous turns in order to make cash for a better car. It's like a sick disease, infesting my brain, making me hate any racing game that does not feature hundreds of different real cars in real driving simulation emulation.

And, much to my happiness, Sony decided to give PS3 owners a little ?treat? this Holiday season- a free download of the game ?Gran Turismo HD Concept?. Gran Turismo HD Concept has been a game that has been much advertised by the Sony community as a ?perfect example? of the PS3 power- yet, unfortunately, no information regarding the game (When it would come out, what it was to be, etc) was released. It was like a kind of jewel that would never be touched by human hands.


And now it's out for free for a ?limited time?. Odd. Of all the ways to give out a Gran Turismo game, they choose to do it for the select few PS3 owners in the world. Not that I'm complaining, of course- anything free to me is ?freaking awesome?, especially since it's something I've drooled over for about six months. And believe me- Gran Turismo HD Concept is the kind of little Christmas gift that every PS3 owner should get, period.

Gran Turismo HD Concept is literally a concept game in that while it contains the ?Gran Turismo? name, it does not constitute a complete Gran Turismo game. Basically, Gran Turismo HD Concept is a showcase of Playstation 3 power and the new Ferrari license that Polyphony Digital got their hands on, all mixed in with some manipulated controls just to see what gamers felt about it. The entire game is structured on the Gran Turismo 4 engine (which was perfect- we gave it five stars), which basically means that anything done to this game can only make it better. And god, it got better.

Gran Turismo HD Concept lets you tool around in ten different major racing cars- nine that have been seen in Gran Turismo games before, one of which (The Ferrari 599 '06) is completely new to gamer hands. All of these cars were picked to be diametrically different- from the always horrible Suzuki Cappuccino '95 to the ever awesome Nissan Skyline GT-R Vspec II '94. Every single car, much like in Gran Turismo 4, is different even in the minute details, and even a kilogram of weight difference can spell massive spinout failure to some gamers. That, my friends, is called awesome detail. Of course, that also will send you into a swearing spree as your pointlessly lightweight Lotus Elise 111R '04 slides around the track like it was greased with lard, but patience is key in these games.


Gran Turismo HD Concept, no doubt, was made to impress. The graphics in this game are absolutely positively the best I have ever seen in a video game, EVER. While the actual driving sequences sometimes do smack of Gran Turismo 4 quality textures (Obviously because this is built on the engine), the cars themselves are so well rendered I can literally not tell the difference between them and the real thing. On an HD TV. In 1080p. That's freaking amazing, and I dare you to say differently. The cars look so real you feel as if you could reach out and drive them- from the slight satin sheen of the rubber on the wheels to the glossy metallic sheen on the logos spelling out ?FERRARI? or ?ELISE?. Of course, none of us will ever touch most of these cars, but this is probably the close we will ever get.

The in-game graphics, as I mentioned, sometimes smack of Gran Turismo 4. One cannot blame Polyphony Digital for this, mainly because the Playstation 3 is still rather new, and re-working the entire graphic setup for the game would be a bit time consuming just for what equates to a free video game. Gran Turismo HD Concept seems to be more about ?Look at what we can do with these cars? and less about ?Let's look at the shiny mountains in the distance?. Nothing wrong with that.


Of course, there is a lot to be desired in this game, had it been something I would have paid for. There are only ten cars, one race track, and two game modes. There is no ?Gran Turismo? mode (buying/selling cars, etc), and Gran Turismo HD Concept makes no effort to do anything other than give you the opportunity to tool around and time yourself. There are not even any other racers at this point, thus sending this game more and more into the land of the ?tech demo? and less of the ?game?.

One thing I always feel obligated to mention when I review a Gran Turismo game is that these games are not for everyone. If you are used to playing Need for Speed or some other generic driving franchise, the Gran Turismo games will feel like shoving a red hot poker into your eye. This is because the Gran Turismo franchise (ESPECIALLY some of the races in HD Concept) emphasizes using your ?driving line? and brakes, which means misaligning your turn will essentially disqualify you in the game. Sorry, but ?tapping the stick left and right? doesn't cut it anymore, you will have to do a significant amount of practice before you get ?Gran Turismo good?. Note that this game does have online ranking, and you will feel ashamed as a guy in Japan beats you like an angry Bruce Lee. They're DAMN good.

But come on, can we complain? Gran Turismo HD Concept is free as in beer. At a very tiny 700 megabytes, the game downloads in only 30-45 minutes on a broadband connection, and lasts about one hour of solid game time before it becomes repetitive and old. That's better than most games that you pay for. Polyphony Digital made no effort to assume this game into your hands for a fee, and I feel it would be crude to try to critique them for the size of the game itself. It's like complaining about getting a small gift instead of a big one- you didn't deserve one in the first place.

So, let me send you off with this message: If you have a PS3, get on right now and download this game while it is still available. Even those of you with a 20 gig hard drive can suffer the disk space, because this is one of the few games and demos that will be worth your time to own on your system. Worst case scenario, you can play around with it during Christmas and ignore relatives, though they may not find that the most kind thing in the world. And the gift of avoiding talk about how you've grown is better than any one you will receive, ever. Thank you, Polyphony. Thank you.

5 star(s) out of 5

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