11

4 /5

Spec II is a mod which expands upon the core Gran Turismo 4 experience, bringing a variety of fixes and improvements to the game. As the name may suggest, Spec II primarily aims to improve on the game in ways that I feel Polyphony Digital themselves would, while also adding a few modernised features and challenge run-friendly options.

FEATURES:

• Gameplay:

- Toggleable prize car randomizer with seed based on username
- Added Event Synthesizer with adjustable difficulty
- Added new Driving Missions 35-40
- Added 15+ new events to various event halls
- Tightened restrictions on some events to encourage using different cars and strategies
- Road cars start with Road tires instead of Sport Medium
- Added Circuit Valencia from Tourist Trophy to Arcade Mode and Event Synthesizer
- Cars can now be repainted at GT Auto
- Manufacturer and associated tuner wheels can now be bought for most cars at GT Auto
- Changes to various weeks' used car dealership stock
- Added dealership discounts for certain weeks
- Shortened "1,000 miles!" significantly and renamed to Grand Tour
- Reduced number of races and/or laps in certain extra-repetitive events (e.g. 2CV Championship and Special Condition Hall)
- Changed the tracks of some existing events to provide a fresh experience
- Made all cars and tracks available in arcade mode by default, including Citta di Aria in race modes
- Changed Extreme Events' unlock criteria from GT World Championship completion to International B completion
- Lowered Endurance Events' unlock criteria from 25% completion to 20%.
- Rebalanced some driving missions and licences to compensate for GT4 Online physics changes
- Changed prize cars for most events (hand-picked, present when randomizer is disabled)
- Added ability to bind shift up/down to R3 up/down
- Rigidity Refresher Plan is now scaled as 25% of the car's value up to a maximum of 35,000 Cr
- Added Full Restoration, restoring condition and mileage to brand new, scaled as 50% of the car's value up to a maximum of 250,000 Cr
- Rally cars now have Dirt and Snow tires unlocked by default

• General Improvements/Additions:

- Enhanced engine sounds for 400+ cars with 130+ new recordings
- Enhanced race transmission and tire skid sound effects
- Added new colour options to various cars
- Restored original Esso variants of Exxon cars
- Added the Mini Cooper 1.3i '98
- Added the Mazda MX-5 '05 from the MX-5 demo build
- Added Korea-exclusive Hyundais: Click Type-R '04, Tiburon Turbulence '99, and Tuscani CCS '03
- Added Korea-exclusive Lexus IS200 GT-1 Race Car '04
- Restored regional equivalents of cars such as Vauxhalls and Toyota Altezzas
- Added no-stripe FPV GT '04
- Made no-stripe Ford GT '05 available for purchase in the Ford dealership
- Corrected physics data for many cars such as the Lister Storm, Gillet Vertigo, VW Golf GTi '05 and various kei cars
- Added engine names to most cars' spec sheets
- Removed extra bumper cam leaning and blurry crash effects
- HDTV (aka 480p) options are now saved rather than needing to be set every time

• Added Options:

- Global car assist overrides (no more setting ASM and TCS per-car)
- Enable/disable Gran Turismo 3-style chase camera
- Enable/disable roof, bonnet, and interior camera
- Enable/disable analog or digital gauge HUD on all camera views
- Expanded Race Options menu to allow toggling of individual HUD elements
- Restored multi language selection from retail PAL Gran Turismo 4
- Highlight owned cars in dealerships

• UI Improvements:

- Overhauled car dealership layout with larger period-accurate brochure images for all dealers
- Added Quick Menu to SELECT for easy access to common functions
- Improved 16:9 scaling in various menus
- Increased username length limit to 30 and enhanced username keyboard to allow for numbers, spaces, special characters
- Added R3 camera zoom to dealerships and garage
- Added dealership descriptions to most cars
- Fixed inconsistent spacing/characters in car and track names
- Current UCD cycle week is now shown on the status menu next to the current day
- Added count and percentage of distinct owned cars to the status menu
- L1/R1 can be used to jump 10 items forward/back in car select and GT Auto wheel menus
- Added Length, Displacement, and Engine Type display/sorting to garage
- Added Typical Opponents button to race select screen
- Added GT Mode shortcut to jump to GT Auto when L2 is pressed
- Added GT Mode shortcut to jump to Tuner Village when R2 is pressed (if a tuner exists for the current car)
- Added quick access to garage when viewing event restrictions
- Secret and Monitor settings in Options have been enabled without requiring button combo
- Manufacturers are now sorted alphabetically in the garage menu
- Added extra game status-based details to Home menu