My Diaries

A Lurid Tale of Obsession, Depravity, Wits and Attempted Wit

Friday November 12, 1999

Zeller's Show the GT2 packaging in their "magazine"

My wife brought home a copy of Zeller's "Magazine"--even more than real magazines just a place for putting ads.

She showed me the Playstation page, and they show the Gran Turismo 2 packaging--not the plain white with "Gran Turismo 2" in black letters, as is sometimes used for anticipated releases. This obviously doesn't mean much, though. They might just end up disappointed like everyone else--they're often confused. They had Gran Turismo at "Greatest Hits" pricing (without Greatest Hits packaging) for a couple of weeks before months before anyone else did, and it seems that it was a mistake on their part, as the price was somewhat quickly put back up after that. They are advertising Gran Turismo 2 to be the "regular" Canadian price of $60 from day 1.

What I noticed, though, is that "Gran Turismo 2" has an "RP" Rating, while "Gran Turismo", also shown in the same ad under "Greatest Hits", has an "E" Rating. Whatever all that means.

By the way, the new Gran Turismo 2 packaging at first glance is difficult to distinguish from the original "Gran Turismo". The "T" in the logo has been moved down so a silver "2" can be above and beside it.

Instead of the car under a silver protective wrapper, the still mostly dark background has a vague speeding car image, with a very stark tachometer and speedometer (black figures on white background), laying almost horizontal in the bottom left-hand corner. Being the age I am, I actually mistook the dials for an old-fashioned multiple stop-watch until I looked more closely. (The sort Helen Chapman would use to clock Jim Clark's lap times--you'll often see shots of them on "Legends of Motorsport", on SpeedVision).