The Just Win Clan

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Reviewed

By Bill Tomer

I love racing games.  I look forward to all of them.  I’ve owned and loved so many, but very few titles come close to my love for the Gran Turismo series.  The original Gran Turismo is still one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, if not the greatest.  I remember sitting through late nights running races just to earn enough money to buy the next turbo kit, or to earn enough money to turn my Camaro into a race car.  Nothing was more fun.  I was in awe of what my Playstation could do.  The original Gran Turismo was what we call a “system seller”.  In my own little world, I actually knew people that bought a Playstation just to play the game.  There aren’t many games that can claim that.

Working off a solid foundation, Gran Turismo 2 didn’t disappoint.  I don’t think anyone can argue that the second installment of the series was better than the first.  There were over 600 cars and the amount of tracks more than doubled from the first game.  There was so much content in GT2 that you felt like you could play the game forever.  Hours flew by and it was dark outside before you knew it.  It was great!

Unfortunately, something happened when the game moved to the Playstation 2.  When Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec was released, it looked amazing compared to the first two games.  However, the game offered so many fewer cars than Gran Turismo 2, it just felt like something was missing.  The graphics were better than the first two versions of the game being that it was released on the new Playstation 2, but there just wasn’t as much gameplay available.  There were many good things about GT3, it just wasn’t as awe inspiring, or as fun as the first two installments.

Gran Turismo 4 did a lot to put our faith back in to Polyphony Digital.  It had better controls than GT3, better graphics and offered over 50 tracks and more than 700 cars.  There were still some flaws in field size (6 cars) and total realism, however.  The developers received much criticism for pulling the online feature off the game late in the development, but for the most part we were feeling good about the Gran Turismo series again.

Now, Polyphony Digital has brought Gran Turismo to the PS3 with the release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.  It’s not a full game, however.  I guess we could look at GT5P as a big beta test.  Polyphony included 70 cars, 6 tracks and new online play.  Anything that is learned from the world playing GT5P can be adjusted before the release of Gran Turismo 5, which reportedly will sport a series high 900 plus cars.  It’s an interesting concept and for $40 bucks, I’m willing to help out.

Graphics – 9.0

Full HD.  1080p.  Wow.  I still can’t get over how good the graphics are that are pumped out of these systems.  Gran Turismo harnesses the graphical power of the PS3, with little to complain about.  The cars look amazing, the tracks look better than they ever have before and they’ve given us a full in car view complete with steering wheel and your driver’s hands!  The shading effects look great and I’m impressed that they took the time to accurately create each car’s dashboard.  However, I have a couple of issues.  During races cars drive off the track, kicking up dust.  Also, cars sometimes spin, causing tire smoke effects.  I don’t know if you have ever seen dust kicked up from a car in real life, or watched a NASCAR race and seen the smoke from a spinning car, but once the dust and smoke are in the air, they don’t go away very quickly.  Unfortunately in GTP5, they do.  They’re gone almost as quickly as they came.  I know it’s being picky, but I think that with the power of the PS3, those effects should stick around longer.  In both cases, I would like to see dust and smoke impair your vision to the point that you can’t see where you’re going.  Since I’ve personally been racing on a race track where dust getting kicked up looks like a scene from Days of Thunder, I’d like to see that same realism in this game.

The other issue I’ve seen with GT5P’s graphics is during replays.  It seems that the background in some replays blurs pretty badly.  It’s not a big issue and in fact, I really don’t care that it happens, it’s just that with Polyphony’s attention to detail, this flaw, combined with my smoke and dust effect issues, GT5P can’t attain a perfect score for graphics.  But really, it does look beautiful.

There’s also the old gripe that Gran Turismo doesn’t have a damage model built into this game.  In my opinion, if the developers need to scrap the damage model, or not create one at all, to have the time to make the other parts of this game so realistic, so be it!  However, word is that Polyphony is working on a damage model that might be downloadable content in the future.  It’s not that big of a deal to me though.

Sound – 10.0

Perfect.  You can’t argue with a developer that literally records cars at all RPM’s to make sure they get the authentic sounds of the car.  Changing camera angles also changes the pitch of each car, which just shows the attention to detail.  Tire screeches, rumble strips and dirt all have a very realistic sound and also add to the realism feel of the game.  I love the sound in this game.

Playability – 8.5

I’m having a problem scoring this section of my review.  If I had reviewed this game three days ago, I probably would have given it a 9.5 or a 10.  But, since our policy here at GTDS is to play the game for a while, get through the meat of the game and then review it, I feel like I have uncovered what I consider to be a pretty big flaw.  The flaw has even caused me not to be able to pass one certain race after trying for almost two hours.  The flaw is in the game’s “contact penalty” system.

I’ll explain.  We all know GT doesn’t have a damage system.  Most games use the damage system as a deterrent for people not to just drive through every car on their way to victory.  GT has always had the issue that if you chose to drive in such a way, there was essentially no penalty for knocking all of your opponents out of your way.  To combat this issue, Polyphony has come up with a system that basically shuts your car off for up to 4 seconds when contact is made with opponents or objects on the track.  You also receive a similar penalty for cutting corners.  These penalties seem to be only in effect in “Pro” races.  The problem appears when an A.I. controlled car runs into your vehicle.  You may have been holding your line perfectly when an opposing car hit you.  Unfortunately, you will be given a penalty, albeit completely unfair.  I’ve even been rammed by an A.I. car while trying to slow for a corner and I have been given a “ramming penalty”.  I’m also not perfect.  Sometimes I miss my braking points and overrun the corner sliding into the grass outside the corner.  Now with the new penalty system, not only have I missed a corner and lost a bunch of time, but the game has decided to give me a penalty, so I coast (the penalties are essentially blocks of time with no power) back onto the track and wait for my penalty time to expire as I watch opponent cars drive by.  So, not only am I frustrated at myself for missing the corner, but now I’m frustrated at the game for telling me I took a shortcut.  All of this is VERY frustrating and should have been taken care of in testing.  I can see that the idea is good, but the application appears to be horrible.  Like I said before, I’ve had problems passing races because of this.  Getting through 15 opponents without a little bit of contact is almost impossible.  It’s all in all, very frustrating.

The controls in this game are great.  One thing that has always bothered me about racing games (TOCA 3 and F1: Championship Edition specifically), is that while playing online, opponents driving with a wheel always have an advantage against drivers playing with just a controller.  The drivers with wheels always seem to be able to “out turn” drivers with the controllers.  This is completely evident in F1:CE when you see certain cars actually smoking their tires going into corners, which is impossible to do with the analog stick.  So, in those games, the key to better lap times is spending $150 on a wheel.  I don’t necessarily want to have to do that.  It appears that GT doesn’t have that problem.  I don’t see how someone with a wheel will gain any advantage over someone with an analog stick because of the control system.  I’m very happy about that.

Fun Factor – 8.5

This rating should be a 10.  I want to give this game a 10.  If it weren’t for that pesky penalty system, I’d give this game a 10+.  When you’re driving around by yourself, this game is great.  It sports unbelievable graphics, great controls, the new in-car view that actually makes you feel like you’re driving the car, and the tracks are fun to drive.  Unfortunately, I just can’t get around the fact that when you’re on the track with opponents in Pro mode, you get penalties constantly through no fault of your own.  I know you’re sitting there saying, “But Bill, just don’t run Pro mode.”  Well, when you’re whole reason for owning this game is to buy new cars and see what it’s like to drive them, Pro mode becomes the only realistic option.  The other modes in the game pay so much less money they feel like a waste of time to play.  Thus, Pro mode really becomes the meat of the game, and that’s the mode with the problem.  I don’t mean to harp on this issue, but without it, this game could almost attain 10’s across the board, except for what I’m about to talk about in the next section.

Replay Value – 7.5

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has the mode we’ve been waiting for, online racing.  Polyphony took a lot of heat when it dropped the online mode from Gran Turismo 4.  Finally, in GT5P Polyphony has given us their online offering.  Unfortunately, it needs a lot of work.  I don’t know about you, but I get online to play with my friends.  Sure, playing against an online opponent is fun because their racing lines are going to be more varied than most A.I., but when you really don’t know those online opponents, they become just like A.I. with names.  This is where the online of GT5P fails.  I don’t know if this was just supposed to be a small online rollout intended to show that they’re capable of an online mode.  I also don’t know what whiny kid yelling “stop hitting me” is ruining Polyphony’s playtesting department.  But, this online is a disappointment.  You’ve got the same penalty issues as the one player mode, but other than that there is good news and bad news.  For the most part, actually playing the game isn’t too bad.  Lag isn’t horrible, which is the thing that completely dooms most online games.  Unfortunately, the online mode has absolutely no buddy list, no way to find a specific room and no way to chat with the players you’re playing against.  So, to actually play with a friend, you would have to basically try randomly landing in the same game.  I haven’t tried this, but it seems like a hassle to me.  To even try it would mean having to communicate in some other form other than on the game or the PS3 to let each other know what car to choose, what race to choose and when you were starting your search for a game.  Sad.  If this is what the online mode in the actual full version of Gran Turismo 5 is going to be like, I’d say it’s mainly going to be a one player game.  Not that that would be bad, but I want a robust online mode in GT5, or I’m going to be very disappointed.

The one player mode in GT5P isn’t bad.  However, there’s not a lot of replay value built in.  There are only 4 sets of series races in the series C, B, A, and S.  S is unlocked when you beat the previous three.  There are also individual manufacturer’s events, which add quite a few races to the single player experience.  There are over 70 cars available so it would probably take you some time to own and drive all 70, but once you do that, with such a shoddy online mode, you’re done.

Bottom Line (average) – 8.7

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is obviously just a sign of what is to come.  We know that it’s a small game intended to show you what Polyphony has in store for the full version of Gran Turismo 5.  But, with a $40 price tag, which is more than half of what most games cost for the PS3, I expected more game in this box.  At minimum, I expected the online mode to carry this title.  Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed.  I’d say this game is still worth a look, especially if you’re into racing games.  However, I wouldn’t expect too much.  Unfortunately, I did.