I played a little bit of Gran Turismo. Maybe I shouldn't start another game now... but I only have about an hour a day for playing games now, anyway. Considering that, I don't think it makes much difference what I play. (I might even star Gran Turismo 2 and try playing bits of them simultaneously)

Anyway, it seems like it could be a difficult game. It's simply difficult to stay on the track, at times. For sake of comparison: In Super Mario Kart, it takes a bit of experience to be able to stay on the track, but it seems a simplier situation. If, say, you're making a right turn, but are going too fast, centrifugal force will pull you left. One solution is to simply slow down (which is probably all that's necessary in 50 cc mode; on the higher modes, you have to be better at taking turns at higher speeds). In Gran Turismo, that trick alone definitely isn't enough. For a lot of turns in this game, I slide off the track if I'm going too fast; but if I slow down or break, I start spinning and generally do at least a 180 turn, lose control of the car, and often slide off the track (in the other direction) anyway. If this happens in a race, I'm bound to lose about 10~20 seconds just reorienting myself and getting back on the track; there's no way to recover from a mistake like this.

One thing I was experimenting with on the shortest track was driving with manual transmission, and staying in 2nd gear for almost the entirity of the race. The intention of this is to keep my speed down enough so that I can maintain control in the turns. While I doubt this is a viable option at higher levels of competition, that did let beat my previous lap time by 4 seconds.


I reread gamespot's review of the game, to find this segment:

Quote:
The license tests can be very, very difficult, so much so, in fact, that some players might quit the game in frustration. And needlessly so, because skilled racers will succeed in the later events even if they lack the ability to pass the licensing tests.


At this point, I've only earned the class B license. And this has definitely not given me the skill to succeed in the races at this point. But maybe by "later events" he doesn't simply mean the races that follow the license tests, but races towards the end of the game (maybe around the time of the international license tests).

So far, I'm grateful for the license tests, because they give me the chance to practice an individual skill, and only need to commit perhaps 40 seconds per attempt or so to it. That's much better than wasting 3 or so minutes on a full race only to screw up and just slide all over the track for the whole thing.

On the other hand, I think another possible way to try to improve in this game would be to enter races and, rather than try to win them, just try to follow behind the lead cars as well as possible, and try to imitate what they do.

Another trick I've discovered that works occasionally (but is probably not something to rely on) is that if you can get inside another car on a turn, when you start sliding outward, bumping into the car next to you will keep you on track. This is maybe one case where the game is not realistic as a simulation game. (ie, this does not result in crashes)

My best performance in a race at this point was to come in second place, which was pretty miraculous. I think the reason I did so (relatively) well was because portions of that track were used for the license tests, so I had some experience with them. I actually was in the lead for most of that race, but was overtaken on one of the final turns, and didn't have the horsepower to beat that car in the final straight stretch. It was a pretty exciting race, because I had to perform as well as my current skill would allow.


I don't like games that are fun.