Gran Turismo (2009)

Gran Turismo is a racing game released in October 1st, 2009, published by Sony Computer Entertainment and developed by Polyphony Digital.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Great graphics even by the PlayStation Portable standards.
 * 2) Gameplay is great.
 * 3) Whooping number of eight-hundred cars! Also, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Ferrari finally make their debut in this installment.
 * 4) Large number of tracks to choose (45). Also featuring the Circuit de Valencia Ricardo Tomo track exclusive from Tourist Trophy.
 * 5) Awesome soundtrack. For the first time in the series, you can finally play your own favorite custom music (unlocked after beating the Block B from Driving Challenges)!
 * 6) You can transfer your garage data in the said game into your PlayStation 3, so you can use them in Gran Turismo 5. Unfortunately, there's a certain number of cars that aren't compatible.
 * 7) Slightly improved AI and handling comparable to Gran Turismo 4.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Lack of Career mode, presumably due to hardware limitations. Fortunately, it's possible to grind money fast by repeatedly beating tracks on harder ranks or managing to complete the Driving Challenges, but otherwise, there's not a lot this game has to offer despite spending 5 years in development hell.
 * 2) The car showroom only shows up four different manufacturers twice in each two in-game days.
 * 3) Some of the graphics look weird and bugged, specially the draw distance depending which racetrack you're playing. And also, the Dodge Viper SRT10 '03's rear end texture has a black dot that appears when the player or the AI uses the handbrake.
 * 4) Several tracks such as the Tahiti Circuit from GT3: A-Spec and Hong Kong from GT4 were ultimately cut for unknown reasons (again presumably due to hardware limitations). However, they're only playable via emulators and cannot be accessed through normal means in the game.
 * 5) Lack of Aston Martin vehicles, presumably due to licensing issues.
 * 6) You can only race against up to three opponents, rather than five opponents from Gran Turismo 4.