Gran Turismo 5 Prologue might only be a demo, but it's worth £25 alone to justify the £1000 you splurged on a PS3 and a 1080p HDTV. Prologue - the preview version of 2009's full-on GT5 - looks even better than the stills on these pages. It's the game you'll use to convince confused loved ones about the power of PS3.
The demo may have been available in Japan for a while, but thanks to the new Drift Mode and two-player split-screen, the UK version is the definitive package.
Thrill ride Screeching down the course carved out of a mountain in Eiger Nordwand feels great. Crowds mill around trackside taking snapshots as you speed by, creating a real sense of race day action. Taking to the narrow streets of London in a Mini Cooper S genuinely excites as you whizz past recognisable landmarks like the neon Sanyo signs of Piccadilly Circus. And, as the interiors of every car have been recreated perfectly, you get to experience driving cars that you're unlikely to ever afford in real life.
Not without a crippling bank loan, anyway. Inside your chosen motor, virtual hands clad in Sparco racing gloves grip the wheel and shift gears in incredible detail. As always, the replays are worth checking out - exhibiting the fidelity of 1080p HD like nothing else. You can even record them to your hard drive and show off your skills to your mates. But this is all cosmetic - there's plenty more on offer.
Prologue really gives you a taste of the level of intricacy GT5 will incorporate. For learner drivers, there's a host of aids to switch on - like traction control to stop wheel-spin and driving lines to show you when to brake and accelerate, so you'll never feel out of your depth. But if you're a more advanced racer, you're in for a treat. You know that button that Jeremy Clarkson flicks when he's test-driving a car on Top Gear - the one that makes his voice go all high-pitched and his rubber jowls flap in the wind?
Well that's what happens when you turn off all the aids in Prologue - minus the flapping skin at least. Certain races require you to pinch as many split-seconds as you can to achieve a first place gold trophy, and the only way to do this is by playing in the most realistic way possible and turning all the aids off. Sure, you can get a bronze trophy with pretty little effort but the true test of skill is winning as if you were driving a real car.
Not-so-massive damage However, Prologue still doesn't allow any cosmetic damage to its range of motors. Not even a wing-mirror will snap off after a side-swipe and all your metallic paint will remain intact. Come on Polyphony, if you're aiming to be the ultimate simulation - and Race Driver: GRID uses real-time damage (see page 46) then why can't GT? Sort it out. On the plus side, Prologue comes packing extra features to the Japanese version.
We get a Drift Mode, which works well but it's nothing compared to the arcade-style cornering from NFS: Pro Street and Juiced 2. There's also a set of new online race days to compete in, two-player offline split-screen races and the ability to get under the hood of your motor and tweak your vehicle's performance, rather than just relying on the Quick Tune option.
Prologue isn't perfect, but even lapsed GT fans can't deny the clarity of its 1080p visuals, or the thrill of taming its exacting physics. You might not like the idea of buzzing around in a VW Golf - chances are you know someone who has one - but it's unlikely that you'll get to thrash one around the F1 track of Fuji Speedway.
For £25, you won't regret test-driving GT Prologue - not only is it the perfect bridge between now and Gran Turismo 5 in 2009, but it's also the best-looking technical demo your TV and PS3 has ever had.
PSM3 Staff
// Overview
Verdict
The attention to detail is staggering and it handles like a dream. A true technical showcase.
They call it a simulator, and while the handling isn't as bad as many other console racers, it still lacks features we have had on PC-sims for ages.
I don't mind not having cosmetic damage. It's just graphics, and doesn't make the game any better. Infact, can we please stop caring and writing about visual candy all the time, when there's SO much more fun to be had when games focus on realism or creativity! - is that *really* all we want from our games? What's next? Trophy wives?
A game like Live For Speed on PC (developed for a tiny fraction of what GT5P must have cost so far) lets me flatspot my tires, when they're cold, they handle like crap, and so on. THAT teaches me real racing, and THATs a real racing "thing" and mastering that, makes me a more succesful driver than my opponent. Focus on *driving* - having a dent in your Nissan doesn't make your game more enjoyable - it just makes you think you have a bigger p*nis when you have your friends over!
Gaming, not graphics! And didn't that split-screen F1-game (Pit Stop 2?) on the Commodore 64 have tyrewear and fuel consumption 20 years ago? But hey, games like GT5 keep the "kiddie racers" (of no specific age) away from the servers that I sim-race on, on the PC
whilst GT5 is pretty impressive, I find it hard to look at it alongside the likes of Forza 2 and compare it favourably. It might only be a 'demo' or preview or whatever, but it just doesn't have the depth of features that Forza 2 offers for the same money (since its on the xbox classics nowadays). Where's the telemetry? where's the damage at all? Where's the vehicle customisation and tuning? Where is the bloody rival AI??? Everything just feels so stripped down... and whats with the in-game music? Seems like its just there to mask the ropey sound effects...
Im not bashing the game as such. Its good, well made, and fun enough. But it just feels like half a product...
I'm not a racing geek - in fact, 99% of racing games I can't be doing with.
My history of racing games goes:
F1 Racing (Gameboy) Mario Kart 64 Metropolis Street Racer PGR 1,2,3,4 Gran Turismo
So I can't really comment on how deep it is compared to other games etc...
...but I absolutely love the game. I think it's great. Also, I genuinely don't think I've ever played a game that looks as good.
It also helped me choose what car I'm gettin next -
I'm trying to sell my Z3 now and wasn't sure what to go for, but the graphics are so good I could look at every angle (including inside) of the Alfa Romeo 147 and decided that it will be my next car.
There's not been any other games that have given me that kind of detail!
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