Racing is a very deep and complex sport that is usually mistaken for being entirely about which car has the biggest engine. Most racing fans know this is not at all true, and that the driver's skill and the handling of the car can have a much larger effect on the car's final position. The makers of GT Legends know this well, and it shows, as do many other details that come from true wisdom of the road.

In any racing game, one of the largest and most important elements is the library of cars. GT Legends excels above the competition in this area, bringing some of the most amazing cars from the world together for your driving pleasure. And the best feature of all? All of the cars are from the glory days of muscle cars and sheik style sports cars: the 1960's and 1970's. The monster cars are here, as well as many smaller, curvier vehicles. Each car can stand on its own in terms of racing, as each has a strong point and a weakness. Personal driving style will make your choice of car, not a particular brand name.

Realism is prodigious; the cars are realistic, the tracks are realistic, the physics are superbly realistic, and the controls respond well, closely imitating what one might imagine driving the real things would be like. Each of these vehicles is as though SimBin shrunk one and put it inside your monitor for your senses to enjoy. The road is real, and the cars traveling on it are bound (or in some cases with the right engine, only marginally bound) by the real laws of gravity.

Visually, this is a heaping feast for your eyes. Everything is gloriously rendered and shadowed and reflected. The raceways are all very detailed, down to the detail of roadkill on a few, and they have some very realistic asphalt and gorgeous environments. The cars themselves are rendered so perfectly that players be caught bragging about their ride in a car that only exists inside their computer. The cars look extremely authentic, and are animated extremely well. Even scuff marks, tire marks, and broken headlights are all on-target and looks good. Sadly, to see all of this perfect vision will cost you a hell of a lot of resources. Without far better than recommended specs, shadows must be turned way down, reflections dropped, and resolution may have to come down. The game still looks very good with lower settings, and you can tweak it very well to your machine in the extensive graphical options, it would just be a shame not to be able to see how perfect your race looks.

The game is split into three modes of play: career mode, simulation mode, and online play. Career mode is a bit more interesting than in most games, because you do not have to only race for money, but also to unlock other cars and tracks. Plus the races aren't all the same. There are strange but welcome variants like racing one muscle car against a bunch of smaller, cheap cars. Seems easy? Wait until the dragon tails to decide that. Sadly the career mode doesn't let you have every car, or even buy every car. Many can only be owned by winning a particular race or tournament. Simulation mode you can play at any time with any car on any track, provided you have unlocked them by playing career mode. You can set options like how many racers, how many laps, etc. Finally, in online racing mode, you go head-to-head with players from around the world. Officially the game supports 16 players, though sometimes more racers can hop in.

This is a very, very fun game. It's not a game from those who don't like cars or racing, however. It's probably not one to start with, either. The starting collection of cars is not very good, and it takes patience and hard work to unlock the good stuff. It's also not a flawless game. The game is still very buggy, having occasional crashes and frequent slowdowns. However, if you have the machine and the interest, GT Legends is a fantastic game that looks and sounds like a dream. Simply a must for classic racing fans.

Our Final ScoreGood

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