The Essential 100, No. 42: Gran Turismo

As more and more games in the late '90s made the move from bitmap to polygon graphics, racing games benefitted greatly from the advent of 3D visuals. But period of this significant evolution didn't signal peacetime for arcade game publishers; on the contrary, studios practically went to war, with brutal battles for racing dominance fought through razor-sharp visuals and ever more realistic car handling models. Hard Drivin', Virtua Racing, Ridge Racer, Daytona USA, GTi Club: Each showed off impressive detail and sought to outdo the competition in order to draw the bigger crowd.

[level 360]

I know a lot of people got their first lesson in driving using GranTurismo even before actually having their parents and/or hiring a driving instructor to finally acquire their licences.

[mayberry]

GT has been a staple for me since the first!