User:Sega-Sonic/Sandbox

Gran Turismo 2 (commonly abbreviated to GT2) is a racing game for the Sony PlayStation and later playable on the Sega Dreamcast trough bleemcast!. Gran Turismo 2 was developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 1999. The games serves as a sequel to Gran Turismo, a racing game for the Playstation. It was well-received publicly and critically, selling 9.37 million copies worldwide and scoring an average of 93% in Metacritic's aggregate.

Gameplay
Gran Turismo 2 is fundamentally based on the racing game genre. The player must manoeuvre an automobile to compete against AI drivers on various race tracks. The game uses two different modes: arcade and simulation. In the arcade mode, the player can freely choose the courses and vehicles they wish to use. However, the simulation mode requires the player to earn driver's licenses, pay for vehicles, and earn trophies in order to unlock new courses. Gran Turismo 2 features nearly 650 automobiles and 27 racing tracks.

Unlike its predecessor, the player can race events separately, instead of a tournament with multiple races. The player is no longer able to "qualify" for each race entered.

Reception and criticism
Gran Turismo was well-received critically, achieving many positive reviews. GameSpot rated it 8.5 out of 10, recommending it to any gamer, car enthusiast or not.

There were a few glitches in some early copies of GT2 that could interrupt gameplay and corrupt saved games (e.g., A player's entire garage getting erased after a Machine Test). Sony later openly admitted that the game was rushed to the market to be on shelves in time for the holiday rush, and arranged to exchange some games for newer bug-free versions.

Due to the rushed release, it is only possible to complete 98.2% of the game in the earliest North American version. A reference to drag racing in the game's manual, and the fact that there are three drag racers — two which can be won from races, and the last one by race modifying a Dodge Intrepid — strongly suggest that drag racing was to be included, and, though the racing aspect was removed, the record-keeping aspect was not. The name of the removed drag strip (Palm Strip, which Polyphony Digital misspelled as 'Plam' Strip) is shown in the intro movie. (It's kind of hard to see because the tracks' names flash by so quickly.)

In the English-speaking PAL version, players can reach 100.9% completion, due to the presence of both Vauxhall AND Opel manufacturer races, absent in any other version.

A minor error can be found in the manufacturer's competition for Dodge cars; the test race contains the misprint "Viper Festibal" instead of "Viper Festival".

In only the earlier versions of the North American release, |Mark Martin's #6 Ford Taurus Valvoline NASCAR stock car is available by race modifying a Taurus SHO in simulation mode; in later versions a more generic "race modification" is substituted.

Should the player enter all of the Gran Turismo League races, up to the Pacific League events, upon entering the Midfield Raceway event the player receives a Nissan 300ZX GTS FedEx car.

GT2 is also unable to correctly identify a car's class because users found that cars can enter competitions which they should not be able to enter. For example, a Subaru Impreza can enter in the first race of the tournament for light weight cars, a 305 horsepower Ford GT40 can enter the second race of the Historic Car Cup (limited to cars under 295 horsepower), or a 640 horsepower Vector W8 can enter the last MR Cup race, which is limited to cars under 591 horsepower.

Trivia

 * Contrary to popular belief, GT did have a damage model. GT2 was the first game to include it, however it was only physical not visual damage
 * Due to copyright licensing issues, the Plymouth Road Runner is called the "Plymouth Muscle Car" in the game, and all logos of the Road Runner character on it and the Superbird have been removed.
 * Polyphony Digital was going to use Porsche sportscars in the game, but Porsches were in Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed, another racing game at the time. But RUF makes cars that resemble 911's, and Polyphony found a solution for that.