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Best Racing Franchise On PlayStation Returns In Full Form

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: April 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

So I must say that GT5:P is amazing. I have played it for about 12hours now (local Walmart put it out early on Tues for some reason even though it did not come out till 17Apr as far as I can tell) I was a huge fan of GT1 and 4 and 5 is even better than I could have ever imagined. I have no gripes about the single player game at all except that more tracks would have been nice but even then I still consider it a minor grievance at this time. If they provide download content like they say they will I am sure we will see more tracks in the future. Handling is crisp, just as we have come to expect from the GT franchise and the sound is clear and relevant as well as the visuals being stunning in 1080i (what my TV is capable of displaying).
Online play is very easy to get into. Matching is automatic and there is little to no lag from my experiences on my wireless G network. The controls are not quite as crisp as I would prefer but very easy to adjust to within a few laps. The only annoyance I have experienced is people like to use each other as a human brake going into turns and it is very frustrating because there is no penalty for them when they do so. I hope they patch in a 3-4 second speed reduction for people that do this. A minor concern really because the people that do this often usually don't get ahead in the game but it can really hurt your performance if they catch you just right and send you off your racing line and into a wall. Overall the online racing portion is highly competitive. Make sure to draft other players when racing online otherwise finishing in the top 5 is nearly impossible.
My only other recommendation is that if you are not planning on buying the steering wheel with force feedback at least pick up a dual shock 3 controller for the rumble feature. It adds an additional dimension to the race and tips you off earlier to when you risk losing control. I tried racing without the rumble to see the difference and without it you do not notice you losing control until you are already getting ready to slide. With the rumble you feel the vibration increase as you walk the line between control and losing control. Very awesome. I never realized how much I missed the vibration in games such as DiRT.
This game is a 10/10. If you like simulation racing you will be hard pressed to find a superior game on any console from any generation. If you are looking for an arcade racing experience you might want to look elsewhere. Burnout Paradise might be your best option for the PS3 or wait for Midnight Club: LA. If you like off-road/rally racing pick up DiRT instead.

GT5 Prologue - some improvements, some issues remain, great for fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Note, my opinion is based on the PS3 version while driving with Professional physics, ASM/TCS off, using a Sparco cockpit and Logitech G25 wheel.

PRICE - nearly a no-brainer buy for fans; but a little high considering it's a prologue, limited number of events and cars.

GRAPHICS - improved as expected given the possibilities of the PS3. In a way the sensation of speed has decreased, an ironic side effect of the smooth picture quality. It's easier to look further into the distance.

SOUND - really stunning, accurate, raspy, and powerful. Enormous help to the gameplay to hear unique exhaust notes for each car. Huge improvement from GT4.

CARS - there are plenty of great cars for everyone - rather than recreating hundreds of nearly identical and/or boring, useless-for-racing cars, this game sticks to the cars that are meant to go fast, and does them well. The sound and handling of each is unique and seems to be accurate. And the Ferrari F2007, once you beat the S races and earn the required 2 million credits, is just so cool to drive (even though its quick tune options are limited - you can't modify the power, weight, ride height, springs, or driving physics).

TRACKS - the Daytona trioval is a lot more interesting to drive than a super speedway like Motegi. Daytona also comes with a road course, and even though I feel driving a road course in the infield of an oval feels a bit unnatural, it's still a fun course. There's also Fuji, Suzuka, London, and High Speed Ring. Not bad.

AI - improved number and varied driving personalities, but they still defy the rules of clean racing and the laws of physics with impunity. They drive right through you as you serve your penalties (which they often cause). You'll see shortcutting, using runoff areas for acceleration, wallriding, refusing to back off even when their line is hopeless, and of course bumping and shoving you, leaving you to collect from the new array of infractions. It's getting a bit harsh, but the restart button is only a menu away.

HANDLING - if you select "standard" the cars handle pretty much like they did in GT4; if you put it on "professional" then it takes on a more realistic (i.e. unforgiving) character. Default settings are a little mushy even with cars you'd expect to be nimble, and the professional physics render the supercars (Corvette, Ford GT, Ferrari) nearly uncontrollable. After unlocking the S group and quick tune, some cars can have their downforce cranked up to get some handling back, but cars that are more about beauty than function don't have this available. Many of them remain just a tiny mistake away from an unrecoverable slide. No wonder so many inexperienced drivers crack them up (especially if they turn off the driver aids). I completed all the races (except three of the S races) on "professional" but since the AI is not subject to the same realities, you may occasionally need to set it back to "standard" in order to be competitive.

So far the game has overall been enjoyable, and much of the struggle can be overcome by selecting the correct car for each race, just as it was in GT4.

Disappointing introduction to the franchise.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

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.

Good looking game with mud puddle depth...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 31
Date: April 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Installation: Installation is easy, pop in the disk, click through all the "ok" dialogs, go away for about 30-60 minutes, and the game has installed some indescribable content onto your PS3's hard drive. The box states the data copied is only about 5.5mb but the length of time GT5 takes to copy whatever data is being copied makes the data seem more like 250-350mb. I hadn't checked.

Starting the Game: After installation, the game restarts and on launch day, GT5 downloads another patch that takes about 20 minutes to install. The patch requires a manual restart obscurely indicated with the message "press the PS button to exit game." Which will stay there until the PS button is pressed.

Playing the Game: After scanning through the now Sony standard slider bar of icons the player will find the GT series standard Dealership icon to spend the initial 36000 C GT5 starts off. To avoid having to buy 2-3 cars to race in the 15 or so Stage 3 racing series, start with the cappuccino as that will allow for racing in the Sunday cups, the light weights, and the cappuccino exclusive set of races.

All the controls are just like the GT HD demo released so getting up and racing was easy. Unfortunately, getting up and racing is too easy. Just like the GT HD demo, there are not any available customization options for your vehicle until Stage 3 is completed. None, notta. You can't even change tires in the event garage. The game is GT5 and most buyers have probably played GT3 or 4 or any racing game so there is no need to baby users by locking the advanced garage features in Stage 3. No real reason anyways.

The reviewers list 71 cars, the garage list about 30 cars at 2 cars per dealer cars with only 80-90% that can be bought, and the cars that can't be bought give no indication on how to win the cars. The other 40 or so cars must be hidden until after stage 3. Forza allows users to browse all available cars and clearly states how to unlock the car.

Add the ease of winning, large payouts (GT3 was 3000 C for the Sunday Cup, GT5 gives 5000C or 2500C for finishing), and lack of feel from the race cars (body roll anyone?), and you have a game that lacks any real depth out of the box.

Pros:
- Pretty
- Easy to get into
- Races can be done in 5 minutes or less
- Unique damage model (reduces engine power as penalties for collisions)
- It is a Gran Turismo game
- Best racing game for PS3
- Simple menu

Cons
- Babies players way too much (no garage in Stage 3, credits seem to easy to get).
- Unique damage model (penalties for collisions that the player didn't cause).
- AI has no problem running into the player just like the player's position isn't calculated into the AI's drive line.
- AI drives on the line.
- No car feedback/driving feels so arcadish/cars feel like shopping carts

Glorified Demo

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 24
Date: April 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

For those who have been thoroughly initiated with the Gran Turismo franchise, prepare for disappointment. The graphics are stunning. Sony / Polyphony have set the bar. However, I have played the game for about 4 hours total and I have cleared the C and B class races with no resistance. There is no tuning shop in the game. You race everyting stock. The tracks are limited. Granted at a cost of $40 I do not regret the purchase, but I feel like I'm playing a glorified demo. If you need to satiate your GT appetite, then buy the game. If you want to test your PS3's capabilities, rent it.

In short, take the title 'Prologue' seriously.

UPDATE: I have now owned the game for 3 days. I have completed the C, B, and A class races. The game unlocks a "S" series race where the player has the ability to "quick tune" the car and race against other tuned cars in a fairly challenging series. Still no tune shops, no new courses, no new cars, BIG DISSAPPOINTMENT.

Better than expected.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: April 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After playing GT5 Prologue at a friend's house, I had to buy my own copy. I really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to. It's definitely an improvement over past Gran Turismo games. AI does not always follow a straight line, they actually make mistakes & drive off the track sometimes, aren't too aggressive and tend to race fairly clean, which creates a positive racing experience.

I LOVE the fact that you can customize your controller buttons ANYWAY you see fit. I've never liked using the X button for accelerating (and the L2 & R2 trigger buttons suck for shifting - very uncomfortable for my hands), and after using the button lay out in Forza 2, I've found it to work a lot better. I used the following lay out and found it to work MUCH better than the default controlls: R1= accelerate, L1= brake, square= down shift, circle= up shift, X= e-brake.

The graphics are beautiful. The interior view is great and I hardly see any jaggies at all. Definitely an improvement from the competition. The only time I really noticed jaggies is when I view cars at the dealership or garage. Forza 2 has the opposite problem, - little to no jaggies when viewing your car and a ton of jaggies while racing.

My only big annoyance was when I first brought the game home. I really wanted to jump right in and play immediately, but it took about an HOUR to install all the updates and install the game on the hard drive. I had to update the ps3 to version 2.3, then I had to install the game on the hard drive, and THEN I had to install the latest update for GT5 prologue. Now the game JUST came out, why is there already an update for it?? The game takes up a whopping FIVE gigs of hard drive space... and this is just the prologue. Wow, I hope this isn't a new trend. None of my other PS3 games that are installed on the hard drive take up that much space. I think the download version of the game is only around 2 gigs... I wonder why the disc version is taking up so much space. I'm guessing the download version is compressed... and maybe the update accounts for the additional space?

Overall, if you're a fan of the series, it's a must buy.

A beautiful game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: April 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you have already played the demo, then you are already aware of the incredible physics engine and phenomenal audio/visuals (1080p60, LPCM 7.1)that GT5 Prologue has to offer. For those who have not, you are in for a real treat.

So what else has Polyphony Digital brought to the table:

-16 Player online - You have been waiting since you used Kai Xlink to bridge LAN games across the Internet on GT4 - you know you have ;) Now it is here for real!!!

-Future Content Updates - cars, games modes, GT-TV content

-Gran Tursimo TV - video on-demand content that bridges the gap into the world of motorsports

Of course the negative comments regarding the number of tracks and cars are valid to a degree, but Sony/Polyphony's lower price point and commitment to updates leading up to the release of GT5 proper should offset any apprehension that you have towards making this purchase.

If you are a Gran Turismo fan, then you already have the game, but if you are on the fence - GO GET IT!!! See you online at Suzuka!

More than a half of a game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The price really reflects what this game is. Its not a full game but more than half of a game. The base engines and interface are complete. It can definitely use more cars and tracks but the quality and work that has gone into making those cars and tracks more than makes up for the limited numbers. I could only imagine all the modeling work it takes to make each car and track model so IMO, they are putting out Prologue to show that PD is making significant progress but still has some ways to go in terms of adding other content that has been a staple in the GT franchise. I'm playing this game on a 1080p SXRD set and it looks great. I do notice occasional frame drops but they are few and far between. Trained eyes will definitely see its a video game but obviously, its a good step forward for the franchise. Mostly like, you probably won't be getting your $40 back when the final version comes out but what you are getting in return is a rather complete game in its own right compared to other non-GT games. If you want the eye candy and enough content to keep you sane until the final release, Prologue won't disappoint.

No upgrade parts.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

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.

Great Game for a Great Price

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing video games since the first playstation came out and I was never much into the Gran Turismo series...until I downloaded the GT5P demo from Japan back in October. Ive been playing that demo over and over and cant get enough. Now that I have the actual GT5P game, I realize that this is going to keep me busy till the full GT5 game comes out. Even if your not a car fanatic, you should still check this game out, its alot of fun to play.

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