For starters, any fan of this particular racing franchise will be horrified to find there's no real career mode. That being said, there are lots of sim racing objectives, tests, and LOTS of cars to unlock. I'll get all the negative stuff out of the way first. A) no career mode (surprising, but doesn't ruin the game), 2) 800 cars is really more like 500 due to repeats (some cars are identical with the exception of being sold under a different name in different countries), C) the graphics aren't as smooth as I expected (lots of white lines connecting track sections, mainly noticeable on tarmac venues).
Now on to the good and great stuff. First the good stuff. The track selection is good and the number of cars is also very good. While 800 cars is a bit of a fib, each one is rendered beautifully and they all sound very authentic. (I'll have to go outside and check my Nissan Skyline, just to be sure :-P) I like that the track count is 35, and you can run either forward or backward, which really makes the count 70 (impressive for a hand held). This game rapidly becomes a car collecting extravaganza once you power through all the license tests and objectives. While attaining gold will keep you (and me) coming back for LONG stretches, there is a short life span to the objective driven portion of this game.
To me, the saving grace of this game is also one of the things most players complain about in online forums. Car manufacturers aren't just available any time for you to go shopping. While this does result in frustration when Ferrari shows up once every 70 "days" (no joke) it also forces the player to think and plan which cars they want to buy, and forces you to save your money. While I'd love to have the freedom to buy any car at any time, for a hand held this does a great job of keeping me playing, to reach that next day when I can buy the car I desire.
Now for the great parts of this game. I LOVE some of the car choices Polyphony Digital has included. They've brought back cars from GT1, 2 and 3. It's a lot of fun trying to earn money towards that one car I LOVED that was only in GT2 (R32 Calsonic Skyline). The audio is also spectacular for this game. I can't get enough of playing with my head phones and being lost in the engine sounds and squealing tires. My last major selling point of this game is the effective way in which you earn credits. The difficulty is correctly set for each track, and you unlock progressively harder competition the more races you win. And accordingly, the better your competition, the more money you earn per race. My absolute favorite mode is drift mode, set to open track. Here you can slide all over any course and earn drift points. 1 drift point equals $2 in the game. This means you can earn HUGE sums of money is a reasonable time frame (minutes, not hours). This is great because some cars are VERY expensive (over 5 million credits/dollars).
All in all GT PSP is exactly what it should be. A good game for fans of the franchise, and an easy to pick up hand held game for fans of racing in general. If you're a need for speed person this game is probably too simulation for you, but you can always use drift mode, or put super grippy racing tires on your car to help you deal with handling issues. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes racing, and it's a must have for hardcore racers like me.
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