--- title: "20 Years Later, Gran Turismo 4 Is Still the King" date: "2024-12-25" modified: "2024-12-25" authors: - name: "Adam Ismail" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/adam-ismail" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/20-years-later-gran-turismo-4-is-still-the-king" categories: - "Culture" - "News" - "Video Games" --- # 20 Years Later, Gran Turismo 4 Is Still the King ![A race between Le Mans prototypes in Gran Turismo 4.]() *\Sony Interactive Entertainment\* These days, there are certain things we racing game fans take for granted. The inclusion of the [Nürburgring Nordschleife](), for example. A healthy selection of production and racing cars that doesn't exclusively focus on one region or time in history, but runs the gamut. How about [Photo Mode]()? These weren't commonplace in racing games for a long time, but that changed on December 28, 2004, when Polyphony Digital released *Gran Turismo 4* in Japan for the PlayStation 2. *GT4* is the GOAT, plain and simple. Sure, *Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec* sold more copies, and the original *Gran Turismo* on PlayStation allowed sim racing to explode beyond its niche. And yes, PC diehards—*GT4* wasn't the most punishing nor realistic racing game even then, not by a long shot. Its technical deficiencies naturally become more glaring with age, but there are reasons why *GT4* is still lauded, while so many of its contemporaries have been forgotten. It's still the ghost everyone's chasing, even Polyphony itself. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If I had to sum up why in a word, it would be "soul." For enthusiasts, *GT4* was special because it cast the widest net over this thing we call car culture. Whether you were most excited by '70s American muscle, Group C endurance racers, or the golden era of JDM, the game had *something* for you, and that breadth was rare back then. What's more, it paid those scenes and eras respect with a thoughtful, attractive interface that oozed style and instilled a sense of exploration, particularly for us younger players who were learning about many of these cars for the first time. You didn't just go into the "Buy Car" menu and hold right on the D-pad through an alphabetical list of makes and models; you sought out the British showroom, or the Used Car Dealership on that big map and you *browsed* to a soundtrack of [A-tier lounge and jazz](). ![]() *This is actually a screenshot of the Spec II mod for *GT4* which, among many other things, makes the UI scale properly in 16:9 widescreen. [Check it out!]() *Sony Interactive Entertainment** There was a sense of occasion to the mere act of acquiring a car in *GT4*. And if you won one that you didn't know was in the game—because Polyphony Digital cleverly kept some cars hidden from the dealer screen—it was a surprise of the highest magnitude. That brings us to another very special thing about *GT4*: For all its pedantry, and the adult way in which it carried itself relative to other titles, it was still a *game*, and it knew that. ![]() ![]() ![]() You still had to grind for cars you wanted, albeit not as tirelessly as in *[Gran Turismo 7]()* before all its updates raised event payouts. You still had to unlock cars and tracks before you had the convenience of being able to drive them whenever you liked. Sometimes, those unlock conditions were absurd, like winning one of the game's three (count 'em!) 24-hour endurance races. But then you could split driving duties with the B-Spec race manager to lighten the load, and didn't we all make gratuitous use of that feature? ![]() ![]() ![]() There were just so many events, too. Today, the single-player component of a game like *GT7* or the new *[Forza Motorsport]()* feels like thoughtless fodder for a shrinking subset of the fanbase that refuses to play online. You're expected to drive against other humans all the time and like it. *Gran Turismo's* computer-controlled pilots have rarely been engaging wheel-to-wheel, but if you play these games to tinker, explore, and drive—if you play them specifically because they give you a path to digital automotive nirvana that doesn't come solely through sweaty, white-knuckled competition—then *GT4* was paradise. With more than 600 individual races in its career mode, and a roster of 730 meticulously recreated cars and 50 tracks, you could play for years and still never complete the damn thing. This was important, because Polyphony wouldn't finish *Gran Turismo 5* until 2010. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It felt like right after *GT4*, so many things changed. High-definition TVs went from a luxury to the norm. Online multiplayer, too. If a game shipped with a bug, it could just be fixed later over the internet, which led to many, many more games shipping unfinished. And today we also know that updates don't always improve things. If *GT4* was released today, Polyphony would probably patch out that one Costa di Amalfi event that awards you with the Toyota concept rally car that can be sold for 230K-odd credits, and that would make the game worse. ![]() *How many times did you drive this track to flip rally cars? Also, what a view. *Sony Interactive Entertainment** It's not that *GT4* couldn't be made now; it's that it wouldn't. The business of this medium has changed too drastically. So this week, you can be sure I'll be firing up my copy or [perhaps the extensive Spec II mod](), reminiscing on that winter evening 11-year-old me waited for my dad to get home from work, because he'd picked up the game earlier that day. *GT4* didn't come out here in the States until February 22, and I remember having an extracurricular thing that night, which took me away from playing for a few hours. It probably won't surprise you to know that I was very annoyed about that. The release of a new *Gran Turismo* was pretty much the most exciting thing that could happen in my life as a kid, and it's because of experiences like *GT4* that it's little wonder why. *Got tips? Send ’em to tips@thedrive.com* ## Author Adam is a Senior Editor at The Drive, concentrating on curating and developing the site's slate of daily journalism, from initial pitch to final copy edit. When he's not at his desk researching leads and working with writers, he's testing vehicles or reviewing racing games, new and old. He joined The Drive in 2023, following seven years of covering consumer technology and cars. A car lover and gamer since his earliest memories, Adam came to know the automotive world through video games. First it was Daytona USA, Sega Rally, and Ridge Racer; then came Need For Speed, which inspired an encyclopedic knowledge of '90s supercars, and, of course, Gran Turismo. If not for them, he'd assuredly be doing something else right now. Adam is based in the suburbs outside Philly, where there are ample roads for his hot hatch to stretch its legs. In his car, he's probably listening to indie rock, drum and bass, or Yankees baseball. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()