I feel I need to speak for the GT series here.
Before GT, I had never really been into racing games before (ok, I played \'San Fransico Rush\' about 2-3 times on the N64). Before GT, pretty much all the cars handled the same (crappy) and the only real skill usually involved finding short cuts and/or power-ups. I heard from friend about GT. I asked him what was so special about it. "It\'s just so (freakin\') awesome. Every car handles differently. There are tons of different tune-ups, in different areas. Plus, you can watch the replays of the race from different views and they look GOOD." I thought about for a week, then I went ahead and bought my copy.
I went right into the simulation portion of the game. I noticed that one of the first things that they made you do was take a series of tests. At first, I wondered why. It was after I failed the first test a couple of times that I realised this game was TOTALLY different from anything before. For one thing, it HANDLED like a real car. If you try to make a turn at high speed, the car tilts and the tires squeal. If your going fast enough, you won\'t make the turn. Also, if you lock up the wheels with the brake, you\'ll skid and possibly spin out. Again, just like a real car. The test were there to teach how to handle the cars.
Soon enough I got my license and went to purchase a car. You only have enough money for one of about 3-4 cars. But the list of cars availible for future purchase was truly inspiring. I finally picked my car and went to the beginner\'s track. I thought, "this shouldn\'t be to hard.". And about 2 1/2 minutes later I came in. Last place. I tried again. 5th place. Again. 3rd place. I kept wondering how these cars were beating me even though they seemed to be in crappier cars than mine. It took a while before I realised that the secret to racing in GT is driving and handling your car better than the AI cars. This was a radical departure from just about every other driving game around. And I was hooked.
I soon earned enough money and started upgrading my car. Little things, like a muffler-filter uprade, a new suspension, different tires, a new ROM chip for the engine. Each of these yielded a noticable performance change. My car became faster, and handle better. Soon I had no trouble beatting those cars. And so I went on to earn new licenses and buy new cars and upgrades. Every car was a new learning experience. They had different weights, suspensions, different drives (front, rear, 4WD, etc.) and therefore different handling charachteristics. Plus, I could watch the incredible replays and notice things that i couldn\'t see while I was driving.
Needless to say I enjoyed it immensly. And when GT2 came out I bought it as soon as it arrived. While it wasn\'t quite the revolution that the first one had been, it did have more tracks, more cars, and a lot more races. It also introduced rally (off-road) racing. All in all, it was a fitting sequel to the first one.
GT3 promises though to re-revolutionise the series. With stunning graphic upgrades, even more detailed physics, and more tracks, it promises to take the GT series, and the PS2, to new heights.
