Gran Turismo is video game's premiere iconic racing game series. Like Lara Croft, it has improved graphically. Take a look, at how good-looking it's become, game by game, for over a decade.
Gran Turismo (1998, PlayStation)
The game doesn't look bad until the 1:50 mark or so, when the cars start bouncing off each other and the backgrounds start looking like a cascade of mud.
Gran Turismo 2 (2000, PlayStation)
The sequel had an excellent intro movie. The cars looked smoother, the roads rougher, as they should be.
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (2001, PlayStation 2)
Yes, the PlayStation 2 made a difference. The U.S. intro movie from GT3 A-Spec showed grand visual improvements.
Gran Turismo 4 (2005, PlayStation 2)
The gameplay footage from GT4's intro doesn't kick in until around 2:40 but when it does you can see that the backgrounds in this series are so much better in this game than they'd ever been.
Gran Turismo 5 (2010, PlayStation 3)
And this is how Gran Turismo looks in 2010. This is the intro to the brand-new GT5. Gameplay kicks in around the 3:40 mark, though to be honest — and to praise this game — it doesn't look much like a video game, now does it?