Gran Turismo 5

02.04.2008

The idea of Gran Turismo 5 is not new: Sony already released a playable demo version with its direct predecessor, which sold like hotcakes despite bad press reviews (meagre content, far too expensive). It is a similar situation with this buyable “test version” of Part 5. The Japanese corporation has already announced in advance that they have more than one million advance orders in the books – not a bad number for a demo, sorry, test version.

Having said that, this is definitely a worthwhile purchase for fans of the series! Gran Turismo 5 Prologue pulls it off, and makes the player’s jaw hit the floor in three easy steps. Step 1: The introduction, a marvellous little film which immediately sets the mood for the coming race action. The intro is so beautiful, it is almost as if developer Polyphony Digital created a homage to all motor sport fanatics. The only thing missing are the real racing monsters such as the Le Mans prototypes or the GT class rockets. Luckily, you don’t have to acquire any licences anymore in GT 5 Prologue to take part in the speed races. Instead, you start in the C-class and fight your way to the higher classes with positions on the podium. Once you successfully complete one of the classes, each of which consists of two races, you can try your hand in the higher-ranking events. You playfully learn to control your vehicle - after all, you start with small cars such as the VW Lupo before you reach the faster cars such as a Nissan GT-R, a Ford GT 40 and – watch out! – a Ferrari F40. To make the driving easier, you can add driving aids in the form of traction control or ABS at any time. Since traction control can be continuously adjusted, the player can slowly extend his own limits. Anyone who wants to make the excellent road behaviour even more realistic can simply activate Professional mode. A steering wheel is compulsory in this mode, however.

Step 2: The graphics. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue sets new standards for console-based racing games. Vehicles and surroundings look almost photo-realistic, except for the missing anti-aliasing, or the flickering and tearing in places. All the same: In repeats some places are indistinguishable from reality. In addition to the three usual perspectives (pursuer, roll bar and engine bonnet view), a cockpit view is finally added in Part 5. Here, Polyphony Digital also splashed out and modelled the vehicles excellently. For example, anyone who has laid his hands on a BMW M3 will recognize every detail of the dashboard in the game. None of the glorious feeling of speed is lost in the cockpit view, nor does the overview suffer. It is sheer pleasure to bomb around the corners and watch the driver cranking at the wheel and reaching for the gear stick with every change of gears. Depending on the perspective, the sound level of the engine also changes. Pure realism: Anyone driving outside of the useful slipstream will hear the wind whistling around their ears. If you are in the suction of the car in front, the wind dies down. These “drafting games” are immensely important, especially on long straights or the oval of Daytona. The graphic highlight, however, is the fictional circuit in London. The HDR effects on offer are simply overwhelming. The engine has no problems with distant views either, as the races on the North Face of the Eiger prove.

Apart from the usual races, the game also offers so called driving missions. You have to complete two of these missions per class. The “One Lap Magic” mission turns out to be especially thrilling. In this event you start in last position, i.e. 16th, and have to fight your way to the front of the field in only one lap. Relatively easy tasks in the lower classes become a real challenge in the S class, which is activated after the A class. Anyone barging or trying to cut corners will be punished by the race control with a time penalty of different lengths, depending on the offence. Quick-tuning is also activated in the S class, allowing you to beef up almost all cars before the race. Since S class works with performance points and you car must not exceed a certain level of points, quick-tuning is an excellent way of experimenting. Here or there, tinkerers can that way get a tenth of a second more out of their car – a great foretaste of the game itself. Speaking of barging: in contrast to Forza Motorsport 2, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue still has no damage modelling on the Xbox 360. This is deplorable, mainly because the game’s demands in terms of realism are otherwise quite high. Let’s hope that there will be some development in this area before the arrival of the full version (release 2009). Improved, on the other hand, is the AI of the opponents. Your adversaries don’t drive as if on a string of pearls anymore, but sometimes try to overtake, and even make mistakes. Nevertheless, excursions into the greenery and gravel happen decidedly too often. Funnily, your opponents always try to overtake at the same place, or make the mistake at the same moment, no matter how often you repeat the race. Here it would be nice to have more variety in the full version, so as to make the races livelier.

Anyone who finishes all races can let his jaw hit the floor a third time. Step 3 is nothing else than the Ferrari F1 of 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen and his teammate Felipe Massa. You will need 2 million credits to make this beauty yours – constant repetition of already mastered events is therefore necessary. But the superb handling of the single-seater compensates for the effort. Unfortunately, it is not possible to win money for the Speed mode in the Arcade, Time-trial or Drift modes. It is however possible to do so in Online mode, which at first glance unfortunately does not keep its promise. The facts are too fantastic: Up to 16 players can frolic on GT5 Prologue’s seven circuits. Now the bad news: personalised lobbies, voice-chat or private sessions with friends are not (yet) possible. Although Sony and Polyphony Digital have announced a patch to improve the Online mode, it is anyone’s guess as to when this will be released. At least the races are completely free of lag and now feature a penalty system. Sunday drivers and road hogs are immediately punished by the game. Anyone who does not want to buy Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in the store can choose the slightly cheaper download version from the PlayStation Store. However, this version lacks the GT TV videos which are activated and unlocked bit-by-bit on the Blu-Ray disk. Anyone wanting to see the little films, as well as episodes of the Top Gear TV series, can download them free of charge.