The Gran Turismo series is blooming brilliant. OK, so it’s a tad obsessive and you keep wishing for a Burnout style pile up, but it’s always been a cracking drive.
With the full fifth instalment arriving next year, Sony have been happy enough to release a little stopgap. The budget priced Gran Turismo 5 Prologue might only pack six tracks and 71 cars, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a thrilling ride.
Also available via download on the Playstation Network, there’s a lot of excitement about this one. This quick tour explains all.
They say:
Eurogamer: “Prologue's definitely not just a demo, but it's not quite a game, either - it's more of a play set for petrolheads.”
We say:
Gran Turismo – as you all should know – is a real hardcore racing title. It’s all about tweaking your suspension and fiddling with your tyre pressure to eek out a few hundredths of a second extra.
Shockingly enough, the talented folks behind this popular series haven’t gone and deviated away from the tried and tested course. What kind of fools would go and change what’s proven so incredibly popular after all?
For your budget price, you don’t get quite as much as the previous games. The number of cars is way below every other version, as is the number of tracks.
And in all honesty, the tracks aren’t all that exciting. The London course is a highlight and the one we’ve all trundled around numerous times on the free Gran Turismo HD is as exciting as ever. But outside those two, it’s all bland ovals and long dull bends.
Similarly the cars seem to fall into one of two baskets, either fun time thrill packed fast or dull as murky dishwater slow. The early vehicles simply don’t offer the pace to keep you gripped and it’ll take a few hours before you unlock the really fun examples. Plus there’s an incredibly fast (but expensive) Formula 1 car just waiting to be unlocked too for real petrol heads.
Not that things out on the track are in any way dull. A big contention with previous titles in the series has been your competitors’ absolute addiction to sticking with the racing line. The buggers wouldn’t deviate unless absolutely necessary.
This time round they’ve actually got their own minds. You’ll spy them spinning off at corners with tyres smoking as they break far too late allowing you to nip through the inside to victory. The races are much more exciting than ever before.
Another staple of the series has always been stunning looks and Prologue continues the trend. Get this beast running on an HD ready television and it’s a treat for the eyes. The cars themselves are made up of an incredible amount of pixels – this makes GT4 look like a ZX81. Every PS3 developer needs to play this game and take note.
Not everything is one hundred per cent though. The action stutters from time to time and that’s simply not good enough when you’ve shelled out top dollar for a PS3.
The cars still register no damage either - a real shame. GT’s producer has gone on record saying that dents and dinks are coming “very very soon” so fingers crossed they’ll make the full version.
If all this reads a little negatively, it’s only because we all know just how thrilling a Gran Turismo game is out on the track. Petrol heads and any gamer even vaguely interested in motoring should pick up this budget beauty.
Like this? Try these:
Forza Motorsport – Xbox 360
Motorstorm – PS3
Project Gotham Racing 4 – Xbox 360
FORMAT REVIEWED
PS3
OTHER FORMATS
None
POSTED...
Sun 30 Mar at 9:17pm
