Title Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Date 05.02.2008 Genre Racing Platform PlayStation 3 Developer Polyphony Digital Publisher SCEA

Racing enthusiast can finally rejoice!!! Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is finally here and with all the hype surrounding its release; can this “glorified demo” satisfy even the hardcore?

Before I start, I just want to start off by saying that I've been playing Gran Turismo games ever since the first one came on the PS1 back in 1999. I played this game using the Driving Force Pro racing wheel by Logitech on a 46” 1080p LCD TV.

Graphics
Gran Turismo has been known mainly for two things. The level of detail put to the different car models in the games and the precision of the driving mechanics. Visually Gran Turismo 5 Prologue runs at a silky smooth 60 FPS and 1080p HD (30 FPS for replays). There is no equivalent in my opinion to what Polyphony Digital accomplished with this game. It's a true work of art. Since this is GT 5 PROLOGUE, you won't get the 500 cars and 30 tracks you're used to get from the previous games but you still get 70+ cars and 6 tracks that have some variations to them which gives a total of around 7-8 different tracks. Everything looks really sharp from the detail on the asphalt to the swiss alps in the background.

The tracks that have a real life counterpart have been recreated to perfection as was expected. Something new that was added to the series was a view from inside the car. Every dashboard from every car featured in this game were recreated for the sole purpose of this camera view which is awesome! I've played a bit using this view mode and got used to it pretty quickly but the problem with it is that there is a lot of detail that clog the screen and very little is left to the road itself. Basically I felt like I was not using my 46” TV to it's fullest. But it's definitely a nice addition though. On the negative side, grass and tree models when you really take the time to look at them, they look terrible but at full speed you can't really see the defaults so it shouldn't bother you too much. Same thing with pop ups, objects pop up at a certain distance but it's far enough so you don't notice it in the middle of a race.

Gameplay
If you don't have a steering wheel to play this game, you should bow your head in shame! I'll be honest, I haven't tried this game with a controller and I don't really intend to. The new dual shock controller should provide a better feeling when playing but please get a steering wheel with force feedback, it's the only way to truly enjoy this game. Like I mentioned earlier, Gran Turismo is known for its stunning visuals and the level of realism put on the driving mechanics. Speaking of driving, like every other Gran Turismo game in the past, this one really gives you a great feeling. Cars react to your every movement the way an actual car would react. I won't go into much detail here but let's just say if you never liked Gran Turismo because it lacked the arcade feel of a game like Burnout, don't even bother renting this. One of the biggest criticisms brought by GT fans from around the world is the lack of car damage. Sadly this version doesn't include damage but strong rumors hint that a patch could be made available in the fall of 2008 that would add damage. I'm guessing the complete version of GT 5 will include it.

Another feature that fans wanted was to be able to take your favorite car from your garage and race online. GT4 was supposed to get the online component but it got scraped at the last minute. Finally in GT5 Prologue you can race up to 12 people online. I hope Polyphony Digital have plans to improve their online play because as it is right now I would say it sucks A LOT! First of all you have to select from pre-selected events, you can't customize your own event. Most of the events are not available to you unless you complete a certain amount of offline events. Matchmaking is completely random so forget about racing friends unless you get lucky. Your position on the starting grid also seems selected at random; it would have been fun to be able to go through a qualifying lap or something. Now the race starts and this is when things get ugly.

I felt like playing a good looking destruction derby game. It's absolute chaos! There's supposed to be a penalty system when you ram into someone or you take someone off the track, it's supposed to cut your motor off for a few seconds but I don't think it's working online. There is also a system where if someone spins uncontrollably on the track, his car becomes a ghost car. It was a good thought but the sad thing is that if you're the poor sucker that's currently through that car the moment it comes back normal you'll suffer a crash you won't even have seen coming. If I was Polyphony Digital and I had the heartbreaking decision to choose between damage and improve online experience for the final version, I would definitely go for the online experience.

On top of all this you have your standard time trial and just like GT HD Concept, your times are registered in a ranking system for all to see. There's also a Drift mode where you get style points the nicer your drifts. It's a nice extra to the series and I hope will be a bigger part of the full game. There's also GT TV which features different videos including a making of GT 5 Prologue, and other videos about the different cars in the game. Surprisingly there are no licenses to get this time around but I'm sure they're saving it for the final game.

Final Thought
If you were worried about the content you'd get for 40$, you're definitely getting your money's worth. This game only got me more excited about Gran Turismo 5. I'm still hoping for a Q4 2008 release but I don't think we'll see it before Q1-2 2009.

Pros
+ Stunning visuals
+ Tight controls (Please use a steering wheel)
+ Bigger bang for the buck than I expected

Cons
- Online experience needs serious improvement
- Still no damage
- It's still just Prologue

Game Score

B+

Reviewed By: three11_mtl (contributed)