Review: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue first impressions

Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 25 March 2008 03:26

Opinion and Analysis

The latest franchise to make the jump to the next generation is Gran Turismo.  What has changed?  Here are the iTWire Gran Turismo 5 Prologue first spin impressions.

For me Gran Turismo is somewhat of an enigma in video game racing.  In so many ways it is behind the times with no damage model,  no online presence (til now), a sedate feel to the actual racing, and an AI that sticks to the perfect racing line with a Terminator like determination.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
	Developer	Polyphony Digital
	Publisher	Sony
	Rating	G
PS3

Yet, Gran Turismo is GT! and the fan base that has been garnered over its years on previous console generations love GT for what it is.

With the imminent release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for PS3, that fan-base will already be standing in a pool of their own saliva in anticipation; in fact pre-orders for the game already show that it will be yet another blockbuster.

I used the PlayStation Network download option for my preview copy, all 1.9 GB worth of stuttering download that eventually got me up and racing – damm you Australian broadband model.

Much of what is to follow should be tempered with the thought that the online servers for GT are not functional at this time, and if there is a major difference between this and GT’s of old, it is in the online experience.  So let’s get those details out of the way to begin with.

With the servers online, GT fans will be able to go head to head with 15 others, jump onto a News service or Gran Turismo TV to download motoring programs from around the world.

Up to date local weather conditions will be utilised and the Gran Tursimo community can chat, personalise their own GT homepage and check out game records all online.

The online functionality is what this game will be remembered for.