We take Sony's handheld racing opus for a test-drive

Gran Turismo on the PSP was originally announced years ago, before completely vanishing from the radar to the point where most of us considered the title vapourware. However, it turns out Polyphony were busy at work all this time and have managed to fit a comprehensive GT experience onto Sony’s handheld.

We took the game for a brief test drive on the show floor, getting behind the wheel of a Nissan GTR SpecV and tearing up the tracks. Only four cars were in the race we played, and yes there's still no car damage, but the game looked and ran beautifully at 60fps - GT PSP is certainly one of the handheld’s best looking titles.

In terms of control no compromises have been made to accommodate the series’ trademark realistic handling. This is both a blessing and a curse, as we found the PSP’s analogue stick simply wasn’t up to the task of providing the level of control needed to hug those bends as tightly as possible – the precision just isn’t there. However luckily the d-pad was there to save the day, allowing us to relive the old PSone GT days of constantly gently tapping left and right.

We took a brief look at the mission challenges, which range from basic breaking to mastery of four wheel drive handling. But unfortunately we couldn’t try out the ad-hoc four player multiplayer mode, or check out the car-swapping mechanic, which lets you trade collected cars with other players

With 800 cars and 35 tracks, GT PSP on track to deliver just what you’d expect from a portable version of the series. With the ability to swap cars we’re looking forwarded to an addictive ‘gotta catch em all’ community building up around the game. And with an October 1 release date, we won't have to wait long.