The award-winning Gran Turismo franchise returns with its 5th installment, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, exclusively for PlayStation 3. With its signature realism and unrivaled physics, this highly anticipated precursor to Gran Turismo 5 continues to blur the line between simulation and reality.
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Developed By the Best
Polyphony Digital is the developer of the Gran Turismo franchise, led by creator Kazunori Yamauchi. Polyphony Digital is known for pushing the limits of the PlayStation hardware, and with its realistic graphics and physics, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is no different. In addition to receiving CAD data from the auto manufacturers, they have taken thousands of photos to model each car (and track). As an example of the level of detail, a car in Gran Turismo 4 has the same number of polygons as a headlight in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.
Polyphony works even closer with the automotive industry to make sure that the cars look and drive just as they do in real life. In fact, Kazunori Yamauchi designed the on-board computer for the real Nissan GT-R. If you’re lucky to buy one when it releases, you will notice the Polyphony Digital logo when you start your car.
Take Your Cars and Tracks Online and OffGran Turismo 5: Prologue features over 60 stunning cars – including vehicles by Lotus, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Ferrari for you to race on seriously realistic, real-life tracks: including the Eiger Nordwand, the London City Track and Suzuka – all rendered in incredible High Definition graphics. There’s also all-new driving physics for the most lifelike driving experience ever and new, improved opponent artificial intelligence for the toughest race challenge yet. But that’s not all – for the first time ever in the history of Gran Turismo, players will now be able to race online. Up to 16 players will be able to go head-to-head on some of the world’s best racetracks on PlayStation Network. All you need to get racing is a broadband connection and PS3. Once you’re up and revving, Global Online Rankings and the My Garage homepage feature will leave the world in n o doubt as to just who is the best at Gran Turismo. And then there’s the Online Dealership, providing a wealth of information on cars and manufacturers and also Gran Turismo TV – a dedicated online channel available exclusively from PSN and packed with some of the greatest content that Motorsport, car manufacturers and TV has to offer. Key Features:
- Race over 60 cars from worldwide automotive manufacturers, precisely modeled both inside and out.
- All-new interior dash view, featuring full driver animation and working gauges.
- Compete on 6 tracks with 12 total layouts, including Fuji Speedway, Suzuka Circuit, and for the first time ever, Daytona International Speedway.
- Online racing with up to 16 players, complete with detailed rankings, plus downloadable ghost cars and race replays of top racers.
- New online community features including Gran Turismo TV, featuring worldwide automotive and motorsport programming.
- Tune vehicle performance, from suspension and tires to gear ratio and engine modifications.
- Rendered in stunning 1080p at 60 frames per second with crisp, realistic lighting and camera effects (replays rendered in 1080p 30fps).
Full Car List (71 cars):
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User Reviews
2 Stars It’s all true
Everything the others say about this game is accurate. It is a driving simulator, your car never gets scratched, the AI in the game is lacking, etc. So, if you want a driving simulator, buy this game because it is fun to compare the cars on the race tracks. There is at least one race that seems impossible, and this impossible requirement brings the fun level down. i don’t mind trying 20 times to win a race which requires me to really examine every turn, but forcing me to drive that Suzuki Cappuccino in a race against better cars starting from the 16th position – gimme a break. Challenging I don’t mind. Next to Impossible is just too disappointing to be fun.
2 Stars Disappointing
For those who have played the earlier Gran Turismo games on the Playstation and Playstation 2, GT5 Prologue has pluses and minuses.
Pluses include online play, a well done version of the high speed and road courses at Daytona, the introduction of Ferrari (finally), and sharp graphics overall.
Minuses include very few cars compared to earlier GT games, simplistic car setup options that are significantly dumbed down from earlier versions of the game, and very few tracks (five courses, not including variations that depend on the venue). Most disappointing are the rolling starts that make the single player games much more arcadey than previous incarnations of Gran Turismo. Also gone are license tests, which may be a plus to some but a definite minus to others.
Overall, Prologue is obviously not a complete Gran Turismo release. Still, its dumbed-down feel makes the single player action very disappointing. The ability to compare lap times and race others online is a big step, but hardly unique as competing titles are offering similar function. Polyphony needs to get the full game done, and bring back the tweak-ability that made Gran Turismo a favorite for Playstation racers, or they’ll simply fade into memory as Burnout totally dominates the arcade racing end of the spectrum and simulation racers will flock to the 360 to play Forza.
5 Stars Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is worth the money!
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue just keeps getting better! Great Sound and Picture, 3 levels and the first one isn’t borning, lots of tracts
and cars to choose from, fast loading and I recommend this game, can’t
beat it for the money!
5 Stars Know what you’re getting into
The Gran Turismo series is the best video game racing series there is, and this is the best Gran Turismo yet. In many ways, that is.
The game is a prologue (as noted in the title) to the full version of Gran Turismo 5, and sometimes it feels like it. For instance, there are not nearly as many cars or courses as in any of the other GT games. If you are migrating from another racing game series, this is not likely to be a problem for you, as it likely still contains more cars and about the same number of tracks as what you have been playing. If you are a GT enthusiast, though, you may be somewhat disappointed by the limitations. There are only four classes of races, each of them containing 10 major races, so there are forty races overall in the general class racing events. There are, as always, make specific races accessed by going to the dealership for your car, and a decent arcade mode and two player setup, so there ends up being a reasonable amount to do in the game. But if you are looking for something you can play for months before nearing 100% completion, this is not it. Unless you are a terrible game driver, in which case it may take you months to master it.
The difficult races are actually difficult, and there are performance point restrictions that keep you from bringing a vastly superior car to a race and dominating it. Some of this was altered with the downloadable update that made this “spec III”, but it is still mostly the same breakdown at the higher levels of racing. You must work your way from the back of a 16 car pack to win a race consisting of cars of similar performance to your own. This can be a bit tricky.
So, the game is obviously abridged, but the graphics are nearly perfect, and the physics are spot on. It feels like driving a car in real life. I am a long time fan of the series, and if you are too, this one is absolutely worth owning.
2 Stars The Not-So-Real Driving Simulator
GT5 Prologue is far from being a good driving simulator. Graphics are fine, I’ll give them that, but the Artificial Intelligence engine built into the game should be renamed to more adequately reflect its idiocy. And there’s no car damage whatsoever.
When running against other cars in single player mode, AI (Artificial Idiocy) will place your opponents up on rails thus forcing them to follow exactly the same line on the race circuit lap after lap. And don’t try to smartly overtake them by stepping on the brakes a fraction of a second later and tackling the curve from the inside: they’ll bump into you as if you were not there, and you’ll be penalized with a few seconds of ‘gas-pedalessness.’ Ram into guard-rails and keep on driving as if nothing had happened. Ram into your opponents and be penalized by not being able to accelerate for a few seconds, to then go back to driving a shiny, perfect-looking car.
I cannot believe the game makers did not realize how annoying this would be for us driving simulator fans. And how suspicious we’ll be of the awaited launch of the so-called complete version of the game. I hope they don’t think they’ll get away with it just by adding a few more cars and race circuits.
