TheSixthAxis
27th March 2008
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
So, this is the key title of the PlayStation 3's life so far - it's a brand that's synonymous with PlayStation and is generally considered the finest racing simulation on a console. So, ahead of its European PSN Store debut later today, how does this 'Prologue' measure up - is it just a stop gap or is this something deserved of the 1 million+ pre-orders? Only TheSixthAxis has the answer...
So, whether you get the disk or the PSN download, you're in for a bit of a wait before getting behind the wheel: the 2GB download took us well over 4 hours and the Blu-ray Disk version weighs in with a near 6GB install which takes about 15 minutes. Once that's done though, in-game loading is super fast and apart from additional updates (one will be waiting for you on release day) you're good to go. Finally, once installed, and you've collected your pizza and the beer fridge is stocked, start the game - within seconds you get to the opening sequence, and you remember why you love Gran Turismo so much.
It's now that you finally see how impressive the real-time graphics really are. If you've only seen screenshots (of which there are millions below) of the racing action then you've only seen half the game: from the opening introduction to the My Home screen to the replays, GT 5 Prologue is easily the finest, most accurate and lifelike racing game in existence, and that's not just hyperbole - it really is breathtaking at times, and all at 1080p and 60fps (although replays are half that, with added extra effects like motion blur). From the humans in the pit lanes [screen] to the way the cars convincingly balance and bump around the tracks, this is Polyphony at their finest, and what's that at the end of the intro? An F1 car [screen]?
My Home is a cool invention that effectively removes the top-down 'World' map from previous GT games and replaces it with a linear lower menu (Arcade races, News, GT TV etc) and a calendar and other weather information at the top of the screen, with the car you're currently sat in taking up the lion's share of screen real estate, sat amongst various beautiful looking locations [screen]. It's almost like a car-based screensaver, but we can see how this would extend to displaying in-game messages, race invites etc and Sony themselves think of this as the 'life' bit of the racing simulation.The cars are obviously the stars though, and they've been modelled with such a degree of accuracy that we're sure you've seen various forum threads recently comparing in-game visuals with real life photographs. It's true that at times the cars here are indistinguishable from the genuine article [screen] and it's testament to the amazing skill of the Japanese developers that they've pushed the bar so high - we just feel sorry for Turn 10 and anyone else with a racing title that's just been outclassed by several leagues. When you get an open road with 15 other vehicles all moving at the highest resolution and frame-rate that HD can provide it's simply incredible.
The Japanese version of GT 5 Prologue suffered from a slightly limited selection of cars, but the PAL version offers a few more, including some local favourites like TVR, so although the game only costs £25, half that of a normal game, you're still getting a decent selection of cars - more than most full price games and these are so well made that you wouldn't mind anyway. The sticky factor here is that there're only 6 tracks, including reverse versions, which no matter which way you look at it is still not that many. There's no word yet on whether there'll be additional track (or indeed, car) downloads from Sony, and we've been racing round the stunning London track in an Elise quite happily for days, but we're hoping for some additional routes even if we have to pay for them.
The main single player mode is titled Events, and it's a GT-lite approach to providing piecemeal races, time trials and missions in a heirarchical fashion (think DiRT) with the basic events making way for the longer, tougher races as you move up through the classes. Some events require certain types of car (and some even require a specific car) and the later levels introduce penalties for bumps although there's no visible or mechanical damage. This is the best way to make money in the game, and completing each rank unlocks additional cars for your ever growing garage too (which can hold nearly 150 cars) which can all be raced in Single Race [screen] which also includes Time Trial modes and (new to PAL versions) Drift modes. Arcade and 2 player battles can range between 2 and 99 laps.The Dealership (again, reached via the lower menu on the My Home page) offers a cool showroom style interface (although it's not as nice as Test Drive Unlimited's) and some Dealerships even offer brand-specific races. The new tuner cars have their own showrooms as with GT 4, so you'll find Amuse and Mine's alongside BMW and Ferrari, and the pre-tuned cars set amongst the appropriate stock cars in that dealer's showrooms. You'll be staring at the finer cars for some time though - the F1 costs a cool 2 million credits and you start with 35,000.
New to the Western version are Performance Points, which is a rough calculation of the overall performance of your car and the new Quick Tune-Up screen, which lets you change the settings of your car on the fly, is unlocked as you progress through Events. The Performance Points system is similar to how Forza calculated your car class, and adjusting the levels lets you balance out races between otherwise unfairly specced vehicles.
Online hasn't changed dramatically from the Japanese version - there're still no private races and you're limited to the pre-set events listed on the Online menu, but connections seem much quicker and the races are generally lag free. We'll have more on the online once it's out of its test phase and the full 35 event list goes live tonight. It's worth mentioning that the brief tearing and slowdown present in the Japanese version has been mostly fixed for PAL gamers, although London is still the worst offender and the London track has been removed from almost all of the Event races that previously featured it.So, that's Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. We're assuming you know that it's 16 cars per track [screen] and the in-car view is astonishingly realistic [screen] and that the 'professional' setting comes with much improved physics over previous games. We're also going to go out on a limb and chance the notion that you know the sound effects have all been resampled, that certain cars (like the GT40) sound monstrous in 5.1, and that the game is best played with a steering wheel.
We're also confident that each and every one of our readers will either have this already pre-ordered or are about to grab it today, so this review is slightly moot, but this is such a brilliant, brilliant game that we just had to remind you that it's here, finally, and ready to take over your gaming life for the next month or so. At £25 this is an absolute steal, and don't listen to anyone saying this is only a demo, it's not - it's worth every penny and is only going to get bigger and better given the support the Japanese version is seeing. Buy it, enjoy it, and we'll see you on the track.
