Speaking of ways to kill time, a new fan-made update to Gran Turismo 2 is coming. One of the many groundbreaking aspects of Gran Turismo was its sheer volume of playable cars. That allowed developers to include not just the fastest and most desirable cars on Earth, but plenty of ordinary ones as well. However, those weren’t apparently mundane enough for these fans, who are making an entire game out of regular traffic.
Titled Gran Turismo Beige Edition, the mod is based on Gran Turismo 2, which exploded minds in 1999 when it arrived with 650 playable cars. GTBE will add terrible shitboxes like the Chrysler PT Cruiser and eighth-generation Chevy Impala.
Not only that, but many of the original cars included in the game have been revised to lower trim levels. Hoping for the twin-turbo, 320-horsepower, AWD Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4? Here’s a 222-horse, front-wheel-drive Dodge Stealth ES instead. Rather than a Honda Civic Si-R, have a fuel-sipping Civic DX.
In total, the developers hope to add over 330 cars and over 150 downgraded models from more than 50 brands. So far they’ve announced 120 cars in a video on HWTsuchiyaNathan‘s YouTube channel, all to the smooth Muzak and soothing turntable animation of Gran Turismo’s car selection menu.
Some of the cars were already in GT2, such as the Honda Accord Wagon or the Toyota Duet (as a Daihatsu Sirion). Others appeared in later GT installments but have been retroactively included in low-rez fuzziness here, like the Honda Insight or 1972 Honda StepVan. It’s perhaps not entirely fair to call all the new additions beige. An Isuzu VehiCross seems pretty interesting to us.
The developers plan more than just the addition of these cars. Beige Edition will feature redesigned menus, an altered career mode, and new soundtrack as well. There will be “universal used car dealerships” that we presume aren’t separated by marque.
We look forward to seeing the rest of the lineup, and to the eventual release. Then we’ll finally know what it’s like to race a 90s Cavalier (or its Toyota-branded equivalent) Gran Turismo style. Come to think of it, that’s how most of the real ones were driven on the streets in period. Well, at least now you won’t kill anyone.
