(Played it on a PS 2 emulator)
Many people assume that a racing game's quality is determined by how new it is. It is a logical conclusion. After all, why play a two-decade old game when a modern counterpart exists? It is because of where the line between simulator and game is drawn. Gran Turismo 4s success doesn’t come from it being a realistic simulator, but rather due to its well-paced career mode. The large car roster and high polish typically seen in the Gran Turismo series are just the cherry on top. While playing, I always had something to do, and I was never required to grind to unlock more of the game.
This is why I believe that even after 20 years and with many newer releases, Gran Turismo 4 is still a worthy classic for anyone that is a fan of the simcade genre.

Story
There isn’t one. For once, that is a good thing. A meaningful storyline would be next to impossible to implement, and anything else would detract from the experience.

Mechanics and gameplay
When you first begin career mode in GT 4 you have to pick a started car, that inevitably will qualify for a racing series. After the completion of that series, you are rewarded with money and a prize car, that qualifies for a different race series. That is the main gameplay loop that keeps GT 4 engaging. There is always a new race yet to be attempted or other events like licence tests that require only skill to complete. I found it incredibly fun to simply not grind for anything and get by with what I was given.
The 700+ cars and 50 tracks certainly help keeping things fresh.
I can’t tell you how realistic the handling is, due to never having driven an actual car. What I can say is that driving feels satisfying and gives enough of a challenge to where being exceptionally good requires a lot of skill and effort.


Graphics/Artstyle
It is a PS 2 game, so amazing graphics shouldn’t be expected. With the magic of emulators, one can make de-age GT 4 by 5 to 10 years and make it look pretty good. Unfortunately, nothing can fix the car sounds. They are honestly the biggest flaw here.
I don’t see much praise given for how aesthetically pleasing GT 4 is. Almost every part of the game has a very “clean”, professional look, treading a fine line between overly minimalistic and excessively artistic. It gives it a look that is rarely seen in any other game, probably due to the attention to detail required to pull it off.

Atmosphere/Immersion
Weirdly immersive. I feel like an aspirating racecar driver, and the UI is their way of visualizing where/what to do next.

Soundtrack
The OST has a similar aesthetic that I mentioned earlier. It fits very well with the rest of the game and is very memorable. I played GT 4 a few months ago, and somehow the race menu music already evokes nostalgia.
During races there is a radio that plays a plethora of songs from many different artists, they are alright, but can get somewhat boring at times. My personal favourite is “Soul Surfer” by Daiki Kasho.

Final Thoughts
I spent an embarrassingly long time (like 6 hours) trying to get gold on B-5. It was harder than any boss in any video game I’ve played.

Gran Turismo 4 harkens back to an age where you got everything you wanted in games from the get-go, no downloads, no DLCs and no fixing things as they go, you paid for one game and got about three games worth of content, great balance between quality and quantity that you'll ever see in a racing game and that's hard to beat

The progression is almost RPG-like, and the enormous numbers of cars, tracks and events creates near infinite replay possibilities

It's not perfect with the mountains of content disorganized in a great sprawl that you can refer to as a "mess", it shows it's age like any other PS2 era game in terms of technical aspects, but the quality and quantity of the races and single-player content is unmatched by modern iterations of Gran Turismo