Excellent photo - realistic 1080p 60fps graphics, lots of good racing fun, great physics, decent price
Disadvantages:
Limited car and track selection, online play still needs work, car damage still not included
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I pre-oredered my copy of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue a few weeks back and got it in the post about 5 days before writing this review. So I have had about 5 days of experience with this game.
First off, the game, like some other PlayStation 3 games, requires an install process, at about 10 minutes long it is kinda annoying, but the one thing you'll notice is that the game is pretty snappy between loading screens, so I guess it's an advantage.
Once you finally install it and boot it up, you have to get yourself a car with a budget (I think it's around 35,000 Cr.). Once you have your car you can enter some of the C-Class races, these are the lowest speed and difficulty ones.
The minute the track and cars load up, the graphics are the first thing to hit you; they are truly outstanding- reflections, textures and lighting are all near-immaculate and if you have an HDTV you will truly appreciate the detail that the game has to offer.
The physics engine has had a revamp as well; braking, cornering and handling have all been tightened up and feel as realistic as ever. There is a new 'in-car' view where you can see the whole dashboard, steering wheel and interior of the car, in meticulous detail and very faithful true-to-life rendering.
Once you get through the first slower races, which are easy for most people, you get to some of the faster cars like the Nissan GT-R '07. These are much more fun to drive and when you take them to tracks like the Suzuka circuit or the London City Track the whole game is both exceedingly fun, and very demanding, a lot of concentration is required for you to stick to a good racing line.
The European version of the game actually has over 70 cars and exactly 6 tracks, with a few variations and of course they are all raceable in reverse. Although it seems like a small limited package, there is a lot of play time to be had out of this game, and when you finally complete the A, B, and C classes, you get to race in the 'S Class', where you can tune your cars to racing perfection, thus greatly increasing the game's lifespan.
Once you have had enough of racing the computer, you can try out some of the online races; a lot of work still needs to be spent on improving the online feature, but the 16 player, 1080p, 60fps races work well enough for now. Unfortunately there is no way of playing just your friends either, unless you invite them round your house for a 2 player split-screen battle (which works very well, by the way).
Other smaller features include a GT News menu, where the latest news and announcements are put for GT users to read about, and a GT-TV menu, where European users are promised such video content as BBC Top Gear episodes. If you are also lucky enough to own a Dual Shock 3 controller, you can expect full rumble support from this game as well.
The one major thing the game does still lack is full car damage, BUT, GT's developers have promised us a free online update that will bring this car deformation to all Prologue users.
Overall, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is a great taste of what's to come, races run smoothly in 1080p, and the UI is slick and easy to use, it lacks in the depth of Gran Turismo 4, but this is reflected in the reduced price. It is available for £17.99 from Play.com, and this really is a bargain for the fun you will get out of it.
More details
Addictiveness
Compulsive
Value for money
Good value
Longevity/Expected Longevity
ongoing
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