My Favourite Game

My Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR 98, Gran Turismo 4

What's that old Douglas Adams quote?

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.

At least Adams' were set by his publisher - mine are all my own making and I was much better at meeting them last year. I was hoping to complete a lot of draft posts this month but I dropped everything to play Gran Turismo 4 for three weeks. I know I'm an instalment behind, but it got neglected in favour of Metal Gear Solid 3 at the time.

I don't recall how I got into motorsport, aside from watching F1 in 1996 initially as an excuse not to be dragged to church on a Sunday, but there was a time when every PlayStation game I owned was a racing/driving game - prepare for extraneous detail:

• Porsche Challenge (actually my brother's, as was the PS)
• Formula 1 97 
• Gran Turismo 
• Formula 1 98 
• V-Rally
• Formula One 99 
• Gran Turismo 2 
• TOCA World Touring Cars 
• Driver 2
• Gran Turismo 3 
• F1 Championship Season 2000

There were a few non-racing games that we shared (FIFA 97, G-Police), but my run was broken by Metal Gear Solid 2. When it came to the F1 games, by 1999 I realised that it was mostly the same game repackaged each year and that any time I started a race with damage on I lost. I ended up preferring time trials and qualification because I loved tinkering with the suspension settings and gear ratios, hitting every apex square on to create the perfect lap. With the races I'd just rage quit by driving straight into whoever overtook me. Perhaps, along with the car selection and soundtrack and even the intro, the lack of damage was one of the reasons Gran Turismo was so beloved to me. I still remember my first car after completing the licence tests - a 1991 Nissan Silvia Q's 2000cc which I raced around Autumnring Mini over and over again until I had 30,000 credits to buy a new Impreza WRX Type R STi (blue of course).

Whilst I still watched F1 until about 2000 when I couldn't be bothered getting up at noon, nevermind 5am for the Japanese GP, I became interested in some of the other classes like the World Rally Championship, the British Touring Car Championship (attended the Knockhill race in 1999, I think I tried to find Matt Neil for an autograph), and the FIA GT championship and the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours (the year with the somersaulting CLRs). In fact, those loophole-exploiting GT1-LMP hybrid factory cars are some of my favourites (CLK-GTR, 911 GT1) because whilst they might be slower than the purebred Group C cars, they're a lot easier on the eye. That's why I'll use my Minolta Toyota to win endurance races like the Grand Valley 300km, but I'll drive my CLK-GTR for the joy of it.

As I unlocked the end credits at 34.1% game completion I should consider it done and get back to writing the final GA-Slag. Maybe I'll fit it in after watching this year's Le Mans.

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