Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

I downloaded video before buying the game. I loved the graphics- they're amazing and worth getting the game for. For actual play, it's pretty sad. I started the career mode with a nice car and was doing great. However, certain races (that you need to finish to progress to the next level) require you to use specific crahppy cars such as honda. So I had to spend my prize money to buy a junk car that can't cut it in a school zone much less a race track. At that point, I stopped playing the game and haven't touched it in months.

Great product by Sony Entertaintment! The picture quality is so good on 1080P, so close to real-life view! The game itself is great fun. So far, I have advanced through 3 levels of the game and still there is more to explore. My only remark is that he game has no Porsche cars. Again, great fun!

I wanted to get into the game before I posted this review. I am a big GT fan and love playing it with friends and trying to beat the system. But they have taken so much out of the game that I could not believe it. Let me explain. I give away my PS2 and bought a PS3 just to play GT5. Keep in mind I do not live in the US, I am in the Caribbean and it cost my double what you paid so I am really looking for my money worth. I started off doing the licences which took me a week to get through thinking that the career mode would open up once it was completed. THERE IS NO CAREER MODE!!! On top of that they have taken out all the fun! To modify your car you slide a bar to increase and decrease you power and simple things like that to meet the required power to weight ratio. What is up with that?

On top of that. NO MORE DIRT! I love the dirt. When my friends and I get to gather the one stage we all agree on is a dirt stage.

Ok the online playing is nice but the players are not. It takes out what racing is like. You are playing to see who can drive the best, they are playing to see how many cars they and knock out of the race. On top of that, they hit you and you get a penalty?????????. It is a nice to be able to play with other people instead of the AI but, there are times I would like to just sit in my house and try to beat the game and not people just out to play around.

I miss the days of getting a car and racing to earn money to purchase parts and making a standard car look like it was built to race and racing it against AI and friends. The good old days.

If I have played the online five times I have played it a lot. Even though GT4 had lost a lot of the fun stuff from GT1 and 2, I have played the hell out of it and prefer it to this......

Well that only my opinion.

My husband is a huge Gran Turismo fan. I knew this version wasn't the completed version, however, I had a feeling he would still enjoy the preview version. So when I bought him a PlayStation 3 for his birthday, I bought this game to go along with it. Other than the fact the car list and some of the courses aren't complete, this operates like a full version game. My husband is LOVING it. The graphics are FANTASTIC and so realistic. The grass even moves in the wind when you drive by. The level of detail in this game is amazing, especially in the playbacks. He's having a lot of fun with this game, and I'd highly recommend it to any fan of the previous Gran Turismo versions who are itching to try the new Gran Turismo 5. The price point compensates for the fact it's not the full version game, so I think it's a good value for the money.

For anyone who's played GT4, you'll notice right off the bat that GT5 takes gran turismo driving to the next level. Pretty graphics, awesome engine and tire sounds, and the in-car view really pack a punch. GT5 is so fun. The tracks, scenery, cars, and driving feel is more realistic than ever, and the new feature of having a home page which shows your car in various real world locations such as London, Germany, and Los Angeles to name a few. Combine with terrific online play featuring car and point-specific events, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue crosses the finish line in 1st.

This goes into my top 3 of disappointing games. All hype and no substance. Yes, there are pretty graphics but they are not the prettiest I've ever seen in a racing game. But besides that, there is nothing. The car lineup is pitiful and the fun factor I don't mean to start a war about which console is better b/c they both (PS3 and Xbox 360) have their strengths and weaknesses...but one day when I was bored and at Best Buy I decided to pick up Project Gotham Racing 4. Heck, I hadn't even realized it came out b/c there was little to no fan fare. But having played it, it is SO much more fun than GT5. If you want to argue that GT5 is not meant to be fun but is a realistic simulator, I am emphatic in the fact that the two do not have to be mutually exclusive and PGR4 proves it. As a simulator, it is far, far better than GT5...each car has such a different feel and SOUND. (GT5 is really weak in the sound area...there is little variation between each engine.) And, PGR4 manages to be a fun game. Like I said, I'm not here to start a war but GT5 is so over-hyped and was a major disappointment. For a game that was featured on 60 minutes I expect more. There aren't many games that I actually would give to someone for free but this is one of them.

This a good PROLOGUE to this game, the graphics and the car simulation are improved.

I am wating to have the complete game.

This is a real driving game. to test cars speed and upgrade them with turbos and other parts to make a car faster. not to "pimp out" a car. This is for winning the races and buying the best car for the money you start with. This is no Midnight club la. but still the best racer we have seen. Ive been a fan from the 2nd one on playstation one!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Great racing/driving sim game. Visually stunning and good game play with the 1 player circuit or online. Would recommend.

For a demo this game is truly amazing. I enjoy it and feel that I've played it more than any other game I own -- all of which are full games. It is definitely worth the money -buy it now.

I used to own one of the GT for Playstation 2. And I think that while the graphics are mind-blowing, the driving experience has not changed at all.

Some reviews already point out that the game is pretty much the same as its predecessors, but with a lot more of eye candy. I agree. So don't expect car damage, and any other 'game immersion' features from other less graphical games.

Good game for starting your collection for your Playstation 3. Don't pay more than $20 for it though.

I thought that video games was something for kids and teenagers. I found out I was wrong with Playstation 3 and this game. The virtual reality is awesome and the game is very easy to use.

I've played all versions of Gran Turismo and have very much enjoyed the improvements as the new versions came out. I miss being able to upgrade and customise each rides, What I also miss are the CARS! where are all the Toyotas? cars from the 80s and the 90s???????

This won't shock anyone, but GT Prologue is gorgeous. The game looks great. No damage though, which is unforgivable given the power of the hardware. It gives the game a sterile feel compared to most every other modern racing game.

The AI is as good as previous versions of GT, in other words, it's horrendous. Want to win? Bump your way to the finish line....it's becoming the series trademark. Again, this is unforgivable.

Online options are sparse and the net code is poor. Online is buggy to the point of being broken, which is shocking, since the closest competiton to this game (Forza) has released two iterations since GT4 that each offered creative new additions to expand the online modes.

The Physics feel the same as GT3 & 4. Like the past games and Forza, this isn't the most true life simulation. The best simulation of driving I've seen is still Sega's Ferrari F355 Challenge. Still, most people don't want that...too much realism can be frustrating, and GT:P offers a decent balance here.

IMO, Prologue is another word for Beta. This is $40 demo, and just isn't worth the price. There are better options.

4 star average and a low price gold box deal usually equal a done deal for me. I bought this game the last time they had it on sale, and I feel like I was ripped off.

The name made me a bit weary with "Prologue" but who really releases demos at full game price? I bought it thinking it would be a new, fun installment in the series with all of the other unlockable content and adjustability, but it is not!

You can't switch from first person mode.
You do not have even half the cars available.
There are only a few tracks.
The medal ceremony music is atrocious, and you cannot skip it.
The load times between garage, dealership, and events are annoying.

Don't buy it unless you are a collector and need this ridiculous fraction of a game.

I bought this game with intentions of having an awesome time with it. Gran Turismo is fun mainly for the reason that you can upgrade your cars with different parts and such. This game allows you to do nothing but buy new cars. No tweaks to cars no changing cars up at all. To me this game is totally worthless. I gave it 3 stars because the graphics are outstanding but... Gran Turismo to me is swapping turbos/engines/tires/suspensions. This allows none of that. I wish i would have just waited for the full game.

I was refusing to pay for a demo but I was dying without a good racing game for my PS3 and Amazon had deal going where you got a $15 gift certificate if you bought it so I finally bent over at the effective $25 price tag. I know this is just a demo but not being able to buy upgrade parts kind of sucks. Other than the game is pretty awesome. Graphics are great as is the driving experience.

This is a really fun game. I've been playing the GT series since its inception on the psone. I especially love the cockpit view. I think that this game appeals to a lot of people because it is easy to pick up. My "casual gamer" (read: almost never plays videogames) wife would even power up the ps3 to play. I recommend this game to everyone.

Wonderful game. I love racing and the cars they picked for this game are amazing! The graphics are unbeatable. Definetly try it out if you love racing or cars. You wont be dissappionted.

I've been a fan of racing games for a long time, and actually race in various forms of SCCA racing myself. I've raced high and low powered front and rear wheel drived cars and have learned a lot through competing and the various schools and classes I've attended. I had never played a Gran Turismo game prior to Prologue, having always had XBox or other consoles previously. I had heard so much about it that I didn't even bother with demos and simply bought the game the day it was available. Now having played it for several months all I have to say is I don't think I'll even consider buying the full GT5 whenever it makes it here.

My major gripes are as follows:
1) Atrocious game play layout
2) Poor physics
3) AI and damage are absolutely laughable.

To start with the game play is ridiculous. It reminds me of the old days of games where you do routines over and over and over to gain points/experience/money to buy the next level. The success you have in the races and your carrer mean little in GT5, only if you have the right car or not. You can breeze through each of the various classes by simply buying the right car. Buy the Ford Focus for C class and you cruise through... buy the GT-R for B class and you cruise right through. Buy the Ford GT for the A class and you cruise right through. The only hitch is the little added difficulty of the car specific races. So then you have to repeat races over and over to get enough money to buy the random extra cars. Disappointing, tedious and overall abysmal game play layout.

The online gameplay is even worse... it degrades into bumper cars with idiots and no penalties of meaning, and the pairing system and time from game to game is horrible! It is a very nice touch though that you can actually earn money racing online for your offline activities. That I thought was well though out and appreciable.

On to the physics. I've spent years learning to drive the right way and how to execute proper control. There are tricks of the trade on how to guide a car through certain types of corners and how to achieve certain handling. It simply does not exist in this game. Trail braking and various power on scenarios are not met with the appropriate vehicle responses. Additionally, vehicles with wildly different characteristics will handle nearly identical in this game. It doesn't matter what aids are or not enabled, or what level of physics you choose. Throttle on response was one of the poorest aspects I though in general, but turn in effects weren't far behind! Amazingly pathetic for a game that bills itself as a "the real driving simulator". It also appalling that in some cases the fastest way to execute part of a track is to bounce yourself off a fence or wall. I started doing it out of humor and was horrified to see it actually help in certain situations.

The AI and damage are really in that same vane. They do nothing, they don't exist, and it's all just superfluous featuring. Everyone else has covered these in other reviews, so no need to rehash the well known here.

All griping aside. The graphics are beautiful. The tracks are well rendered. The overall effects and feel of the game are beautiful. But as far as a driving experience and something fun to play... it just doesn't hold any allure in any way for me. Really a true disappointment on many levels from a franchise that I had always heard to be the best out there. There are already much better other racing games out there on the PS3 that I feel have given a lot better game play experience as well and while their physics engines aren't anything great either, at least they don't try to claim "simulation" and get at least a few things down better than GT5 even does even if they are less complete packages for the physics.

I am a casual gamer who likes the stress relief of a good game. I have to say this is an excellent one. It is pretty easy to pick up so if you aren't playing for hours every day you can still sit down and race competitively. To top it off the look of the game is incredible! I would highly recommend this game to anyone who wants to race!

I've read where people say this is too hard. Not true if you understand what it means to race and how to race. You should not be able to butcher turns, run off the track and still win (as you can in other titles). One of the best feelings in this game, this platform if you will, is winning a difficult race. Yes - you may have to run it dozens of times to win it, but that's the fun and the challenge all rolled into one.

We all know the graphics are top-notch. We all know that damage is coming in the full version. We all know that the car selection is second to none (albeit, it can get a little tiresome racing, for example, Mini-Coopers). Let's not review this game as if it the final version. At $40, a tad expensive perhaps, but still the most realistic, beautiful and comprehensive racing game/simulator on the market.

Excellent graphics, precise response, and very challenging. When I first got it, I spent 5 straight hours playing.

GT5:Prologue does a great jog whetting the racing enthusiasts' appetite in preparation for the full game release next year (hopefully). With unparalleled graphics, a wide variety of cars, and some very challenging courses, GT5:P will keep you busy and entertained. Buckle-up though, as this racing simulation will stress precision and accuracy at every turn.

The best way to play is with a quality racing wheel. A regular controller does not do this game justice. I recommend the Logitech Pro GT, which was specifically designed for GT5:P. However, it has worked on nearly every PS3 racing game I've tried it with too.

Overall, GT5:P may not be a "full" game and is not without some flaws (no car damage modeling for example). But for true racing game fans as well as those interested in trying out the genre, this game makes for an excellent buy for the racing simulation experience.

This game is hyped for its great graphics. That should give anyone pause because graphics alone don't make a game. The highest definition pictures only extend to the scenes when you are NOT actually playing the game. Once you are driving ---- the graphics quality drops and while you still have very good graphics they are far from photo-realistic pictures you see elsewhere. (I'm using a HDTV, connected via HDMI, at 1080p)

The graphics you see when actually playing the game are good but far from stunning. As noted - graphics alone don't make a game anyway.

Another claim of this game is that it is a driving simulator. That claim is very questionable. At the basic settings you can do crazy things like hit your brakes at their maximum and still steer with relative ease. I'm sure that makes the game playable but not realistic.

If you even want to even approach a simulation you will need a steering wheel with gas/brake pedals. Logitech sells one for about $120 here on Amazon. The regular Playstation controller does not give you the finese to even approach a simulation. Still the physics seem odd even with a wheel and the game set at advanced physics settings.

On-line racing (the reason I purchased the game) is horrible. You can't meet up with a friends at all. Select a race and you'll be grouped with a bunch of strangers (no options - no on-line lobby). Play consists largely of each player trying to ram other players off the track. Even if you are not rammed off the track (which is very doubtful), you'll find you will lose the race because you have not mastered the art of crashing into barriers at high speed. Done right - you can smash into a guardrail at an insane speed and you'll pass all your opponents. In short: on-line racing consists of bumper cars and learning where to crash. As far as a simulation goes - online racing is a total failure.

If you are just looking for a game to play and aren't expecting much of a simulation this game may suit you. Like any game, you'll learn how to play it and I'm sure you'll then enjoy it. Playing bumper cars On-line may also suit many.

I was hoping for a game that simulated racing, paticularily on-line. In that sense Gran Turismo is an absolute failure.

I agree with the review about the horrible AI and no car damage. To add to that, here are 3 more problems I had with this game.

1. Game progression. This game operates on a credit system where you have to win prize money in races to buy better cars. This is coupled with race events that are very particular about cars that you are allowed to use. There are races where all cars are permitted, but a good portion where you don't have any of the cars permitted. This means that you will end up racing the all-car events over and over again to get enough money to buy the cars to get into the specific-car events. Furthermore, race events are grouped into 3 classes depending on difficulty. The problem is that since you can't move into the next class without completing ALL races in the current class, you're further stuck in reracing certain events to buy the cars you need to race for EACH and EVERY event in a class before moving on. Kinda fascist if you think about it. Same thing for online racing. After playing for a night, I was still not able to compete online because I didn't own any of the cars allowed in any of the races. Frustrating to the nth degree.

2. This is more an extension of the no-damage complaint. When you drive by and hit a car, it sort of just slides around you. There are no spinouts or pileups. Feels like those old arcade racers on the Atari. They just go back on their predetermined track. That means winning a race consists of avoiding contact to maintain the highest top speed.

3. Perhaps the biggest problem: the cars just don't feel like they're going fast. Maybe it has to do with the graphics, the sound effects, or the handling. It pisses you off when your car overshoots a curve and spins out in the sand when it feels like you're not going that fast (despite what the speedometer tells you).

This effort just shows me that the designers were not of the right mindset when this game was made. Graphics and realism over gameplay and fun. One of the ugliest deaths for any well-intended game.

With only a couple of tracks, this gets boring after a while but there is nothing like it.. The handling is realistic and the visuals are spectacular... HD gaming at its best.

Gran Turismo is one of the games that has defined the PlayStation platform from the very beginning. I was prepared to wait for the full fifth iteration of the series until a friend insisted that I try it out. What I found was that despite the limited number of cars and tracks, there is a lot more in GT5P than there was in GT4.

For everyone that has complained about the series' weak AI, there is online play. Want to play bumper-cars with the noobs? Try the beginner online tracks. Want to spin any time you give too much steering input and fly off the track? Try the professional events.

Car tuning has been reduced substantially. You still get plenty of options to customize your car, but it looks like the GT1/2 trick of hopping your CRX up to compete with everything but the GTRs is finally out.

Arcade mode is a lot more meaningful now that your score is ranked against everyone else that plays GT. Don't forget to try out the tracks in drift mode - almost a completely different game.

Acho que a jogabilidade poderia ser mais fácil e gostaria também que os carros ficam amassados quando batidos, como o jogo Paradise que é excelente.

I am a fan of racing games, mostly arcade racers, but i'd figure id give this a shot because of the big hype. Needless to say, I don't regret picking it up, because there will be days where I feel like I need a challenge, this game will give it to me. This game is very difficult (I am playing on the professional settings). Phyisics of the cars are great, and its fun to learn how to drive each car, because its different for each, but this game is almost too hard and requires 100% PURE perfection on every race, which sometimes the race can take up to 6 mins + which means at 5 minutes, if you screw up (which is very likely) you're going to have to do it ALL over again, because very rarely do you get another chance to redeem yourself. Now needless to say, I don't think i'm horrible at this game, I honestly think its too difficult. Lack of car damage also makes this game unrealistic, it looks like alot of the times, your just playing bumper cars with no damage.

I've played the online portion and was disapointed by the lag problems (cars pop out of no where) and the fact there is no Headseat support. If the game is online, you should incorperate headset support because the hole reason to play online is to interact with others to have an enjoyable experience (IMO).

This game is strictly for the fans of the GT series.

Ok. Lets begin by...well, let just get right to it. Ridge Racer. Thats how this game feels to me.

I played Forza2 for about 8 months before it got old on me, but the way this is going probably 2 at most for prologue.

Its not just the lack of damage (which is a huge negative in my opinion), its the total feel of the game. Driving along and bumping into another driver or hitting a wall causes no driving change. The biggest thing is running off the track, getting in the grass. This causes you to slow down and spin. Thats it, spinning in the grass. Thats it.

However, as stated by the developer, the car detail is excellent. But, when I buy a racing game, being able to see highly detailed body panels is not as great as feeling like you are racing. Again, truley beautiful game. And the music between the loads is outstanding.

The demo, yes, I said it...and they should be ashamed for charging for it...could have just released over the PSN with 3 cars, two tracks, and waited to deliver a full finished product. My feeling is that this was released to create revenue for finishing this already outdated game. Sony should at least allow a cheap DL of the finished product to all the people who financed the completion of the game.

Pros: Music, detail.
Cons: Not finished (Damage, ability to practice, qualify, stats, etc.)

Finally, I have been playing the normal controller, maybe playing this game with a wheel would make all the difference. No, probably not. It would probably still feel like a simulator trying to be an arcade game or a arcade game trying to be a simulator. Hmmmmm....that is the question.

this is a taste of what the full hugely detailed gt5 will be, many many details left out of this game, but still a huge car selection, fantastic racing and tracks among other features, GET IT!

The graphics are simply unbelievable. I fooled a few people into believing the demo was a real race. The courses, cars and gameplay is also pretty good. If this is indication of things to come with the full version, I cannot wait.

Please ignore the reviews touting this as an incomplete game. They were clearly expecting something other than what the title promised, a Prologue. If you are a serious Gran Turismo or car enthusiast like myself and own a PS3, you are doing yourself a great disservice by not purchasing this game. The graphics are astounding, there is a healthy choice of cars (70+) and online play works very well. In fall, crash damage and enhanced online gameplay will be added via online update, so Polyphony is not leaving this game alone until the full release of Gran Turismo 5.

While the game still feels like GT of old, the new in-cockpit view adds genuine realism and excitement to the gameplay. Also ignore others here as they assert that the driving dynamics are the same as all previous GT games: this is blatantly fallacious. In "professional" physics mode, handling characteristics are far more realistic than ever before. You can genuinely feel body roll, push (understeer), mid-corner rotation and squats and dives from acceleration/deceleration. Each car feels immensely different and astonishingly organic.

Again, if you are have been a fan of the GT series, do not wait until the full game arrives and pick this one up immediately. If you never liked GT, big surprise, you won't like this iteration either. Also, all of your progress (bought/won cars, money, etc.) will be carried over to the full game as well. Anyone expecting more than a "prologue" had their expectations set too high. Yes, the full game will obviously be more comprehensive, but with promised online updates and by far the best driving dynamics ever created for a racing game, Gran Turismo Prologue is easily worth $40.

The graphics are great but the interaction with games is poor, also, I've been trying to set the time and date but is impossible.

The game is the real driving simulator. The car's dash interiors are great. The overall resolution in the game is excellent. The braking is as is in the real drive. I am goint to buy the gt3 wheel to play it. Great customization. I mean just buy it. Just do not forget that the multiplayer option does not allow you to play with your friens; it does not let you to create parties or private races.

If you love cars, love videogames, love looking over all the details of your virtual car....then this is your ultimate car game! One piece of advice...make sure you get the forcefeedback steering wheel. No other driving game on the planet looks as great or has as realistic driving physics!!!

Absolutely beautiful graphics, but overall it just wasn't that fun. I didn't like the new lay out of the game. I'm a huge GT fan and thought there would be more to this game. I realize it's just a prologue, but still it should have had more features. By now you'd think they would have been able to add a little damage to the cars.

the picture quality amazing. they really leverages 5.1 dolby digital sound. when you pass cars, the sound goes through the speaks on the side you are passing. thought that was cool.

wish there were even more tracks and cars to choose from but i know this is just a preview.

great game.

Positives:
Great graphics in solo play. Good sounds.

Negatives:
Online game-play is buggy and lags. Not many tracks. Difficult challenges need to be completed to have all options available.

I liked Burnout Paradise a lot more for on-line playing.

Well, i thought gt5 no its the best game for the cars, its a to simple game, i thougth exist better car games than gt5 for example need for speed pro street, the music, cars sounds and others things are better than gt5 so depends of you like but my it doesent fine.

Right up front, I'll point out the three most obvious things about GT5 Prologue.
1. It looks gorgeous
2. The AI is abominable.
3. There is still no car damage.

To use a lovely english expression : it's all mouth and no trousers. Look past the HD graphics and hype and you'll find Gran Turismo 1 lurking here.

The Gran Turismo games are known for their accurate car handling and fantastic graphics, and GT5 Prologue is no exception. The problem is that it is all absolutely ruined by the other driver AI. Previous Gran Turismo titles have never exactly shone when it comes to the AI, but in GT5 it's simply non-existent. It's not that the AI is dumb, it's just not there. The other cars all drive on rails, irrespective of where you are. For example, on the High Speed Ring circuit - there's a challenge to get from the back of the pack to the front in a single lap. In the car they give you, it is 100% impossible to come any higher than 3rd, and that's a stretch. The driving-on-rails is so accurate and predictable that you can actually predict exactly where every car will be at any given point. You'll come up behind the Ford Focus at the end of the second turn, and don't even think about passing him on the outside because he will always jink to the left for no reason as he goes across the bridge. If you're in the way, then tough. The game will just force you off the track. At the next corner, the Mazda 6 will always follow the identical line inside the corner, again irrespective of whether you're there.
The same is true in the other types of race. Within minutes of playing this game, you will find yourself making a tidy corner only to have a much faster car come right up behind you and ram you off the track because you're in the way of it's pre-programmed line. To see how truly awful it is, start a race at the back and watch the 15 cars in front of you. They'll all cut the same corner in the same way, every lap, all with the identical puff of dirt as they do it.
It is simply abominable.

The problem is that this issue was solved long ago by the likes of - well - just about every other racing franchise out there. It's compounded by the fact that there is still no car damage or dirt in GT5. You can stuff any car into a concrete armco at 175mph and it will simply bounce off without so much as a scratch. To think that Polyphony could put out a game with no car damage and ruinous AI on a next-gen console in 2008 just boggles the mind given how accomplished the competition is (think: Project Gotham Racing).

So what about the eye-candy aspect? Well - it runs at 1080p (full HD) and it looks absolutely spectacular. The textures are crisp and don't blur out at highly obtuse angles like they would on an X-Box. The car models are beautiful as are the various effects like the real-time reflections and the colour-flip paint jobs. There is some aliasing on high-contrast areas but detail popup is minimal. There are very noticable level-of-detail swaps on some of the cars where they swap from a low detail to a high detail version. It's most noticable on the Daytona circuit where you'll occasionally see the shading on the back of a car pop noticably as the model swaps to it's higher resolution version. In fact the eye-candy aspect is only marred slightly be the fact that the game clearly doesn't run at 60 frames per second. Well - it does on sparsely populated tracks but in the thick of the action on some circuits, you'll see noticable slowdown which you just shouldn't have on a console as powerful as a PS3.

What other things to know about? Well the online aspect of the game has a lot of promise but it's buggy at best. If your PS3 isn't set up pefectly on a broadband network (NAT type 1) it just won't connect to the servers. If you're lucky enough to have a good setup, then even when it does connect, the racing is a bit dodgy. It's obvious that the sample rate for your system communicating with all the others is fairly slow as you'll often see your opponents cars jump across the circuit from one side to the other, or suddenly appear to brake or accelerate at light speed as the servers catch up.

When you come to use the game for the first time, be prepared for a long wait. It seems to copy the entire blu-ray disc on to the internal hard drive which takes a good 15 minutes, then as soon as you connect, it will download a huge update which will take 5 to 10 minutes to download and another 5 minutes to install. So out-of-the-box to first race is about 30 minutes. That seems a bit odd to me - I was entirely expecting the game to run off the disc like many of the other PS3 titles.

So GT5 Prologue : it's great eye-candy, sure. But the two biggest, most long-standing problems with the GT franchise are still present. Awful AI and no car damage. The press previews and talk from Polyphony indicate that the full game will have car damage, but historically, they've never been known to change their underlying game engines between the 'Prologue' and the full versions of GT. They have always claimed that they've fixed the AI with each successive version of the game, but honestly - GT5 Prologue has taken a massive step backwards. They say it's better than ever but it's actually worse than ever. So when they say there will be car damage in the full game, I say 'cry wolf' I'm afraid.

It's an ominous omen for GT5 later this year. Sure it'll have more cars and more tracks. But chances are it will have the same problems the GT franchise has always had, and that's simply not good enough. Couple that with the questionable frame rate and online problems and that could be disastrous.

I dearly love the GT franchise - I've had every one of them and I've been hoping and praying that they would one day fix the AI problems and the lack of car damage. If they've not done it on the PS3, then it's just never going to happen, and that is a sad indictment of Polyphony's marketing strategy. I've played this game a lot, desperately wanting to like it but I always put the controller down and am left with an empty feeling. It's just not exciting.

For those who do not have the time to earn all the cars and tracks, visit gamefaqs. com and download the game save file. There you will find the save file which has all the cars, plus the F1 2007, and tracks. Great way to drive all the cars instantly and tracks if you just don't have the time to devote.

For those who know, it is no biggie. It is the good old GT game, only with better graphics. Buy a wheel. It is a must. If you want you can wait until the full game is out.

All I can say is...After playing GT5 Prologue, I can't wait for the full game. The graphics and car physics are mind blowing. The in-cockpit view is beautiful and down right nerve-racking. And I'm sad to say...It has made my copy of GT4 obsolete.
By, GJM