Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (Platinum) reviews

First of all, there is no damage only in prologue. GT5 final will have damage and not just scrapes and bumps. full on chassis damage. the physics are amazing. i can tell this because i spend my day driving real cars and i kick arse in this game as a result. the graphics are amazing. especially with an HDTV. i bought a whole new tv just for this game. and VERY much worth it. everything about this game is amazing. the realism is outstanding. i was reading that the GT people put in so much work into this. they digitalise every bit of body work. they made the manufacturer ship them even the headlights and all the bits. each car has 6 months of work put into it. if you are serious about driving and love this game buy it!

Regarding Neil's comments, I largely agree… although I can't comment on the physics too much as I don't use a driving wheel, and generally turn the driving aids off.. and there is a lot of debate on forums over the physics.

However, there are definately flaws with the online mode. Hopefully as this is only the “Prologue”, the final released version of GT5 will fix some of those issues, although I don't expect we will ever see damage in a Gran Turismo game… so it will probably always be disadvantaged to Forza in that regard. Wall riding, dodgem cars and using other cars to assist your line, braking and direction will sadly always be present unless at the very least a better penalty system is implemented.

As for tyres and fuel, bear in mind this is not the final game, it is just an overblown demo. The final game will feature tyre wear, possibly fuel… and if past games are anything to go by, parts modification and tuning, endurance events, time trials, skills events, license tests, rally events will all hopefully be there.

I had high hopes with previous reviews talking about the realism of the handling and how it's quite difficult to control the car with all the driver aids off.

So I disabled all the aids, chose sim mode and went racing.

GT5 looks gorgeous (but they REALLY screwed up on the AA or AF – there's flickering lines everywhere!) and sounds ok, but for anyone looking for a realistic driving sim, you have to look elsewhere for the following reasons.

• There's no car damage – this means that on several circuits, the fastest line is to bounce off the walls and other cars. This is unacceptable.
• Wall sliding barely slows the car
• It's hard to spin most of the cars without trying
• Tyres don't appear to wear, fuel doesn't seem to get used
• The cars you drive aren't matched evenly to the AI. If I come around a corner and step out of line slightly, there's no way I should be able to catch and pass an identical car on the next straight, but invariably I can.

Online functionality is also currently a joke – I tried to race properly, but if you're in front of more than a couple of people and brake for a corner at the right place, you _WILL_ get hit by the horde of people behind you not bothering to brake and heading for the armco to slide around.

So GT5 is a pretty game, but for a proper sim experience, go get GTR2 or rFactor or even Live for Speed. There's still no realistic Sim for the PS3…

I know why Sony have done this – the game will appeal to more people than a sim, but it's frustrating that they haven't included a genuinely realistic handling mode when all the hard work had already been done.

Cheers – N

Umm for the guy below… almost everying he said was wrong…

There is no damage because some of the car companys would'nt let them add it to the game. (Polyphony Digital are making progress with damage tho, convincing the comapnys to allow them to add it.)

Hitting the walls slows you down just as it would on a real race track.

Spinning the cars… If you had all the driving aids off then its not hard to spin the car.

They didnt make it so you could wear your tyres or use fuel.

If they made the AI handle the corners perfectly then you would'nt be able to win.

Online is'nt to bad. They could improve on it tho as you said.

The handling is pretty life like but could be a TINY bit better but it still feels like driving a real car.

GT5P is the number 1 sim game out for racing. Almost everything in it is life-like.

I cant wait for Gran Turismo 5, counting down the days!.

I thought this game would be pretty awesome but boy was I wrong. First of all online is crap as they turned it off on the 30 of september so I missed out as I only just got online in April so I was doing all my other games first. It would have been just a scam from the company so that people go and buy the real game.Secondly the gameplay in S class isn't very good because people can spin you and not get penalised but you do and also if you hit the wall you get penalised.I really hope the real version isn't this bad as that is the worst game I've ever played.

A difference between Gran Turismo 4 and earlier while using cars as walls for instance, to Gran Turismo 5, is the fact that bouncing off of objects to use as walls greatly fails now. I can\'t tell you how many times trying this does not work nearly as well anymore. Not only do the cars you\'re racing mostly drive still pretty unhindered, you lose a lot of speed unlike before, where as you benefit greatly from not doing it and working the hard way.

Remember, the Current GT is prologue, a demo. GT4 had tire wear, it even gave you slight problems when your car got dirty or the oil was getting old. By the icons on the right when in a race, GT5 WILL have all of the same if not more.

\“- The cars you drive aren\'t matched evenly to the AI. If I come around a corner and step out of line slightly, there\'s no way I should be able to catch and pass an identical car on the next straight, but invariably I can.\”

For one this has nothing to do with AI, it\'s the car itself and the game programming of the mechanics of each car. Though some weaker AI cars might not use a car to its full potential which makes sense, tougher racers with great cars will NOT be caught in this, this way. Besides, this can happen in real life.

\“you _WILL_ get hit by the horde of people behind you not bothering to brake and heading for the armco to slide around. \”

Racing other players is brutal. This barely has anything to do with the game at all.

I play a Fighting game, they\'ll be using cheap tactics such as repetitive jump kicking, etc. I play an MMO, people WILL hack.

well, what can i say. Played pretty much all the Gran turismo series games, and finally got the best one out of em. So far i haven't much completed on single player. But i have being playing online which is pretty awesome. Got plenty of servers to play in.

Graphics is awesome. But the gameplay is a fuzz to me coz you need to get liscence before you drive to certain race track, unlike NFS… & no car upgrades or set-up… =(

Awesome awesome awesome. I have the new driving game shift. But this one is way better. I cant wait for the full game next year to come. But them both, they are great fun. Now all i need is a driving wheel :)

One can only imagine what GT 5 is going to look like. This game just destroys the competition or in fact any game graphically. In driving/racing realism, again this game is just superb.

There are only 7–8 tracks and 80 cars but even so, its very much worth the money as you won't finish the game any time soon.

Pick this game up if you see it or you can wait for GT 5, either way, you'll be stunned, this series is not to be missed.

9/10.

“- There's no car damage – this means that on several circuits, the fastest line is to bounce off the walls and other cars. This is unacceptable.”

Firstly this is a racing sim, you are not suppose to bounce off the walls and other cars to start with; secondly an update, Spec IV, is on its way and it will include damage.

“- Wall sliding barely slows the car”

In S class events and online battle, shortcuts, wall sliding, ramming will all cause a penalty, you will slow down, this is a very good feature.

“- It's hard to spin most of the cars without trying”

Firstly your goal is to finish the course at the fastest lap time, not spinning, secondly the game allows you to change between 9 sets of tyres, try N1 on a MR car

“- Tyres don't appear to wear, fuel doesn't seem to get used”

There is no long races in prologue. Races in Prologue serve as “license” of the previous GT4 Prologue, your goal is to beat the time.

But in fact the tyres do wear subtly, try one of the longer races, such as S10 or S7, with Driving Lane turned on, you will see Optimal Corning Speed (calculated by CPU) reduces after first one or two laps.

• The cars you drive aren't matched evenly to the AI. If I come around a corner and step out of line slightly, there's no way Ishould be able to catch and pass an identical car on the next straight, but invariably I can.

You can and some times you are passed by the AI car, this is because A, one of you have came out of the corner with a higher speed than the opponent, so even though the opponent came out of the corner first, but since he did it in a lower speed, the other car will overtake it after a short while. B, GT5 has aerodynamic taken into account, if you follow a car closely, you will have less air resistance and thus able to obtain higher speed and acceleration.

" Online functionality is also currently a joke – I tried to race properly, but if you're in front of more than a couple of people and brake for a corner at the right place, you _WILL_ get hit by the horde of people behind you not bothering to brake and heading for the armco to slide around. "

You would have this problem with any racing game, GT5's resolution is adding in penalty, which is already more than most others. Hopeful the penalty system gets perfected over time and in next patch it will work even better.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is a great taste of things to come, moving the Gran Turismo series into the next-gen world for the first time, polyphony digital have crafted an inevitable masterpiece here.

The level of detail and work that has gone into this game is simply incredible, and being only a “demo” of the full GT5 experience thats yet to come makes it even more incredible. The new in-car drivers view is especially stunning, showing off the power of the PS3 to great effect, its borderline photo-realistic. The cars themselves are stunningly detailed, and the gameplay is classic Gran Turismo, but made even more realistic this time round with improved physics, it actually feels like you are driving a real car. This is a great game, and any fan of racing should pick it up. It really makes you crave for the full game even more. Im saving the 5 stars for GT5! Highly recommended.

3 words: “the best again”

I started collecting GT series since PS, POLYPHONY always the best, they take a lot of effort developing a professional, unbeatable racing simulator.

I spent several hours on Gold and got 2 events left, can't wait to get GT5…XD

Recommend using Logitech Driving Force™ Pro or G25 to get best lap time.