I am eternally grateful to Polyphony Digital for making this game. Want to know why? I'll tell you why (who else could though?). It's 100% because of this game that i now love Nissan Skylines (in games and real-life). Before this game came along i don't think i'd even heard of Skylines!

But anyway, i still remember what my first car was in the game - it was a R32 Skyline (not sure which model, possibly the GTS-25, GTS-t or GTS-4). There are more than enough cars to go around if Skylines aren't your thing. Well over 500 to be exact, in a mix of American, British, Japanese, Italian, German and more, manufacturers.

It goes without saying that with cars you need a place to drive them. Around about 29 tracks are available for racing on resulting in no shortage of places to test the limits of you and your car. There are plenty of races to do too as well as manufacturer specific races and licence tests.

RACES

New to Gran Turismo at the time, rally races made a welcome entrance and the handling of the cars around these slippery surfaces was surprisingly good. Even part of the mighty Pikes Peak hillclimb was included which basicly involved you racing up, and up, and up, und up until you reached the top. Unless you chose to race down it. Then there would be no point going up would there? Apart from the view. If it's not cloudy.

There are an awful lot of races to do in GT2, enough to keep you going for quite a while. Once you have done all the endurance races, single races, rally races and completed the Gran Turismo World Championship then don't go thinking that that is it.

You still have to do all the manufacturer races (by no means is this a chore either), which can only be accessed by going into the actual manufacturer (where you buy the cars) and entering any races in there. Such as a Nissan Skyline GT-R race under Nissan or a race against five other Chevrolet Corvette's under Chevrolet, etcetera, etcetera.

If you do all that then you still have the Event Generator (it should be in every Gran Turismo, Polyphony!!!) which chooses the AI and a track which would be most suited to the car you are currently in. The closest racing in all of Gran Turismo can be found in here. It's a massive shame they didn't include this in GT3 and GT4. MASSIVE! *insert sad face here*

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CARS

You'll find about 594 cars in Gran Turismo 2. All of them driveable of course. Each of them have a different car sound and more than a few sound a lot like they do in real life. Well, at the time they did. It shows that PD really did record each car sound in real life and used it for that same car in the game. All the cars are extremely well designed and none of them look out of proportion (at the time again).

Nearly every car imaginable (at the time, yet again) was in the game. From the Nissan Skyline GTS-4, Dodge Viper RT/10, Fiat 500R, Toyota GT-One LM Race Car, TVR Chimera, Daihatsu Midget to the downright powerfull Suzuki Cultis and Escudo Pikes Peak Race Cars, to the almighty TVR Speed 12 where keeping it on the road was much more of a challenge then winning the race!

There are 30 of them below but if you want to check out the whole lot then click here.
~ Acura Integra SiR-G
~ Alfa Romeo GTV 2.0 TS 16V
~ Alfa Romeo 155 Touring Car
~ BMW 740i Sedan
~ Chevrolet Camaro Z28 30th Anniversary
~ Citroen Xantia 3.0I V6 Exclusive
~ Dodge Charger
~ Ford Mustang GT
~ Jaguar XK180
~ Lotus Europa
~ Mazda Familia S-Wagon Sport 20
~ Mazda Savanna RX-7 GT-Turbo (SA22C)
~ Mitsubishi Eclipse GT
~ Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VI GSR
~ Nissan 240Z
~ Nissan Skyline GTS-25 Type S (R32)
~ Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)
~ Opel Vectra 2.0 16V
~ Peugeot 406 3.0 V6 Coupe
~ Plymouth Road Runner Superbird
~ RUF BTR Type 2
~ RUF Turbo R
~ Subaru Legacy Touring Sedan RS
~ Toyota Aristo S300
~ Toyota Starlet 3 door Turbo S
~ Vector M12
~ Venturi Atlantique 300
~ Venturi Atlantique LM
~ Volkswagen Golf IV 2.3 V5
~ Volkswagen New Beetle GT

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TRACKS

Twenty-nine tracks live inside the GT2 CD and if you include the reverse versions for most of them then you're talking about 50 plus tracks there Mister (or Miss). They range from real locations like Grindelwald, Seattle and Rome to made up tracks called Green Forest, Midfield Raceway, Clubman Stage Route 5, Red Rock Valley Speedway, Smokey Mountain South and more.

If you're a go-cart racer in real life then you will like racing around Motorsports Land. This wee thing is basically a go-cart track but wide enough to fit at least two cars side by side. It is an extremely tight course and for some corners you nearly have to stop to get around them. Sub-30 second lap times are still possible though. GT4's Motorland isn't a worthy replacement of this track Polyphony! We need the original back!!

For more information on the tracks please click here.

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