Gran, Gran turismo, GT5, Gran Turismo Prologue 5 @ Gamer411

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So you've heard all the hype, the next-gen racer of all racers!

GT5 has not come a long, when it first debuted in '98. As part of it's 10th anniversary, GT5: Prologue is probably less than half of what Polyphony plans on releasing for the full version of the game.

With that aside, I can't complain or even lie that GT5 is really beautiful game. The cars, the sounds, the animations, and the scenery are very well done to the tee. The cars look too good to be CGI and there is variable learning curve to the game as well. All this I will try to explain below.

I wasn't sure which part of the game to start off with, but there isn't much to explain for the gameplay, because it's simple driving using your analog stick; left to turn left and right to turn right. As soon as you turn on your PS3 and pop the disc in, you might have to update the game, take the next 15 minutes trying to install, then you are on your way. The wait to play this game has become as standard right now, so there is not much to be frustrated over.

But the gameplay is simple, once at the menu, you don't have a car, so the game gives you 35,000 credits to buy any car within that budget. You can buy a Mini Cooper, Ford STi '06, or any really low-powered car if you can handle it's lack of speed. So now that you purchase the car you jump straight into the events? Well you could, but there are alot of other distractions that might keep you from playing the game just yet. As you may know, there is a new mode and I believe you can only get the Blu-ray Exclusive videos with the physical disc only, the PSN download version is the bare skeleton as it only comes with the game but the features, intact.

Control

Okay, so you've know about GT TV, the Online, Arcade, 2 Player split screen, and Events. The driving is simple really, just remember that the game is designed around the car's exact specs. So there are different driving styles, techniques, and weaknesses for every car. i.e ( on the Daytona speedway, if you are not careful with a fast car, you will quickly find yourself on the wall)

This is where it gets tricky with the fast cars. I've noticed that if even you know how to brake and can maintain a good speed, the analog stick is horrible with steering. I know, a very obvious observation, however, there are game challenges that ask you to overtake other vehicles or try to come in first place when you are in 16th. It's a challenge, however, it becomes frustrating. I've figured out that I need to draft, bob and weave, and I know how to brake but I'm left wondering how I can beat the target time, or overtake every single car. It seemed no matter what I did was not working.

I've basically came to the conclusion, that not only was my driving flawed in steering, but the game is biased towards people who have the Logitech steering wheel. For alot of the events that require skill in your driving or drifting, if move your analog stick to adjust your position on the road you not only lose time, but you have simply lost the race.

Just for that 7/10

Design

As I've already explained, the game menu has a nice layout, you have a little cursor that navigates to your selection. The classical or smooth jazz music you listen to is a nice touch, although it reminds me too much of elevator music. Not that it's annoying, but I wish there was more soundtracks you could hear, rather that this overly sophistcated showroom music at a Mercedes-Benz show floor. But besides the music touch (which is still nice), the overall design is a nice layout.

It's not just about the music, but as you may have seen in very early dev walkthroughs they showed the My Page on the game menu, where it includes worldwide temperaturs of each city and track location in real-time. All very nice features, not much clutter. Also, if you leave the controls alone for about 2 minutes, the "widgets" disappear leaving you with a picture of the just the car in the background, then it fades to a music video or previews of cars you don't have, or have yet to unlock.

The design is nice overall nothing really worth complaining about so I give it a 10/10.

Online

Online is a mode that is now standard with every game, I've hardly seen any game that does not come without some online mode, be it world ranking, top tier leaderboards, etc. GT5 does it no different, their matching system gives you just a taste of what it's going to be like for the full game. Because there are missing elements in this prologue. As you are connecting to the servers, it shows what kind of connection you have, but nothing that shows how many wins/losses, DC ratios, and there might be a few others, but nothing really comes to mind. But these are things I can point out as things the devs can put in on the follow up version.

When you are playing against people, the challenge isn't just the cars they drive, but the lag and potential disconnects. So far, each game I've played, had lag on either my end or the other end. On one particular game, there was no lag but I was disconnected anyway. It may have been due to traffic flow in the servers. But once again, there is not much to complain about. I'm being nitpicky because this game is nothing short of great, and rightfully so. The matchmaking system kicks in and you are ready to join the game in really no time at all.

The last sentence gives online a near perfect score in my book, but with a few missing features that can be worked out, it still gives it a good 9/10.

Overall

So I averaged the scores I gave for each section, but it just didin't justify the actual score I'd give the game, so I round up from 8.7 and what do you get?

9/10

In all seriousness, this is one game (if you are a fan of cars and driving games) you should just go out and buy. Unless, you were wary about the game at first, I hope this convinced you to buy the game. Polyphony has promised the gamers that all games you get in Prologue will transfer over to the next game. It's now up to you to make the decision.

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