Seeking Gran Turismo Gold.(Gran Turismo 4, video game)(Product/Service Evaluation)(Column)

Byline: Richard S. Chang

I'm writing this at 2:13 a.m. It is March 2, 2005. But it could be any time, day or moment during the week since the release of Gran Turismo 4. The game is on pause, the TV off, but even the opaque glow hurts. My head feels like someone has pumped it full of helium. My stomach thinks I'm in the hold of a bobbing frigate.

Am I taking a breather from tackling an endurance run at Nurburgring or Sarthe, two of the new tracks in the latest edition of GT? Am I hoarding race earnings? Press materials boast about the game's collection of more than 700 cars, spanning the century and then some. There is even an 1886 Mercedes buried in there. Am I building up my garage, stocking it full of these vintage rarities?

No. Far too much credit.

The answer is License Test B-16. It's a simple test: Take a BMW 120s through the hairpin at Tsukuba Circuit, a task that lasts all of 24 seconds. And I'm 0.11 second away from the cutoff for the gold trophy. I'm teasingly close. And yet I have spent the better part of sundown finding the final tenth, 24 seconds at a time. It is mind-warping how quickly time can disappear in such bite-sized chunks.

I'm a mid-level Gran Turismo player, at best. Strictly a silver-trophy man. If I really work at it-and I mean really grind away at it-I could probably score the odd gold in a few of the tests. It was the same thing in Gran Turismo 3 and the one before that. It mocks me with my own limitations. And I absolutely refuse to give in. Granted, it's only a game, but I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.

It's pathetic, not to mention the effect it has had on my blood pressure. But there is no other way to explain ...