Gran Turismo 4: First Ever Screens

Due to the wonders of shifting magazine print dates, the world has seen GT4 screens and renders well in advance of E3. Release date? Christmas 2003! Look now!

It would be no exaggeration to say that Gran Turismo 4 has been one of the most publicity-controlled games ever. Over the last few months, SCE has been continually (and globally) harassed by journalists for what the industry likes to call "assets" of this year's most anticipated PlayStation 2 game. Well, the cat is finally out of the bag, about ten days early.

It was supposed to make its world-wide debut at Sony's Pre-E3 conference on May 13th, with a strong E3 presence following suit - and with several magazine deadlines and print schedules having been carefully organised around the unveiling date, so that they'd hit shelves at about the same time as E3.

But it would seem that one particular magazine - the June issue of UK car magazine Evo - has come out a week early (these things happen all the time, you know). And no doubt this will cause some rumblings at Sony. The mag has several pages dedicated to GT mastermind Kazunori Yamauchi, and the first set of screens from GT4 - which is nice for them, isn't it?

Still, what the hell - it's all good - just look at these screens. Without exhausting our newly-loaded supply of superlatives we're saving for E3 showpieces, GT4 is looking absolutely exceptional. And although several (not all) of these images are obviously renders, they are likely to reflect the final visual quality in the game.

Oh, and one particularly appetite-whetting comment that Kazunori made in the interview was that "GT4 is due out by Xmas 2003" - specifically implying a UK release. While this may actually be a global release, it may also mean we'll see the Japanese or North American release even sooner.

We will of course bring you full details and impressions from the showfloor at E3. In the meantime, let these screens do the talking...

Adam Doree