Gran Turismo 4 - Under The Hood, Driving The Prologue
Thanks to Motor Trend for their feature documenting the extreme attention to detail being lavished on Gran Turismo 4 for PlayStation 2, as the franchise, which "has sold more than 30 million units worldwide", gears up to a 2004 release for this latest iteration. According to the article, "between 20,000 and 30,000 digital photographs are taken" to faithfully reproduce the real-life racetracks used in the game, and there's also a behind the scenes feature on a 150-vehicle capture session in Japan, each car being "systematically studied and logged so the design team could faithfully recreate [it in-game]." Elsewhere, 1UP has a hands-on look at the Japan-only Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, a budget-priced preview which they consider "isn't worth the purchase for any except the most obsessive Gran Turismo fans." Update: 12/12 16:18 GMT by S : Another hands-on look at GT4 Prologue from Game Informer adds detail and corrects a couple of inaccuracies.
For example they say there's no playing against AI racers in the demo. Um, no. Three of the five maps have optional AI racers that can be turned on via the Options menu. Even if you don't read Japanese, it's pretty easy to just test out the different options.