18 Essential Landmark Titles Every Gamer Must Play

5. Gran Turismo

There are plenty of racing games out there, but few are as enduring as Gran Turismo. A simulator that took a five lengthy years to develop, it set the standard for just about every racing title to follow and offered players gameplay mechanics unrivalled upon release. In particular, the AI was considered far superior to any other games, meaning that the very act of racing in Gran Turismo was far more realistic - and therefore appealing - than any other title in the genre. In a tradition that is still ongoing today, Gran Turismo was often to be found bundled inside the box of many a shiny new PlayStation console, making it the first PlayStation game played by a good deal of gamers. The experience was enhanced even further with the arrival of the DualShock 1 controller around the same time too. After seemingly endless years of steering cars with minute taps of direction arrows, the analogue sticks offered players far more control over their driving. Even nearly twenty years since its release, Gran Turismo still features one of the best lineups of vehicles in an racing game, and a whole host of unique and memorable tracks. This simply had it all.