Kotaku
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is a demo. A big one, yes, but a demo it remains, one that gives us but a taste of what we can expect from the full, final Gran Turismo 5 when it ships on the PS3 sometime next year. Serious fans of the series will no doubt already know what they're getting themselves into with this whole "Prologue" business, then, and won't give a monkey's brass balls what I say from here on in.
But if you're still on the fence over whether it's worth shelling out 60% of the full game's asking price for what's probably less than 10% of its content, read on, dear readers, read on.
Loved
• Graphics - Still a little sterile as far as the tracks are concerned (London excepted), but gorgeous nonetheless. Between the cars, in-car view and HDR lighting tricks this is the game you'll want to use if you're the type who has friends over just to show off how important your PS3 is to you and your home entertainment setup.
• Difficulty Curve - GT5P's got a new, improved assist mode for beginners, and it's the best I've seen in a racing game. Not only do you get an indicator for where the racing line is and when you need to brake, it actually tells you how fast you need to be going when you hit the braking-point. Very handy.
• Car Handling - No surprises here, it's the series' strength. Cars feel reasonably real, there's a marked difference between cars, blah blah blah. It's GT, you know the score, and even feels a little more forgiving than GT4, especially in some of the shittier cars. Oh, unless you turn off the assists. Then it's brutal as hell.
Hated
• Collision Modelling - The prettier and more realistic this game gets, the more its poor collision modelling stands out. I don't need to see scratches and broken glass on my car. What I do need - and what I expect of a series that's striving so hard for realism - is that when I hit a wall or another car, I feel like I've hit a wall or car. Not a stack of fluffy pillows stuffed with marshmallows.
• Six Tracks? - There's only six tracks, and even then, you spend most of the singleplayer events on only three of them (you race on the beautiful London track once). Those are slim pickings.
• The GRIND - The game's short on singleplayer content (I finished every event in just over a day), so it resorts to grinding to pad things out. Example: many races force you to buy a specific vehicle. So you have to repeatedly complete earlier races to get the cash for it, then usually only use the thing once. Next time you run into a car-specific race, you'll need to grind out the cash all over again. In a full GT game, this is fine, as there's a wealth of races to enter to spread things out and give you a little variety. With only a handful of tracks here, though, the grind is noticeable, and it's boring as hell.
• Online Play - I entered 30 online races, and not a single one was without serious issues. Cars blinked in and out of existence, and poor net code resulted in opponents that zoomed off into the distance at lightspeed, only to then reappear right in front of you. Makes racing, especially on packed circuits, really, really hard.
Look, as a demo, it's a good one. What's already on offer looks great, and feels great, so GT fans should have little doubt that when the full game's released - with hundreds of cars and dozens of tracks - Gran Turismo 5 will be everything they want it to be. But now, as a retail product? With a limited singleplayer experience and unstable online play, I just don't think it's worth $40. Not until they add more content or fix the online multiplayer, anyways.
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was developed by Polyphony Digital, published by Sony Computer Entertainment and is due to be released on April 17. Retails for $39.99. Available on PlayStation 3. Played singleplayer events to completion, completed 30 online races.
Comments
"Difficulty Curve - GT5P's got a new, improved assist mode for beginners, and it's the best I've seen in a racing game. Not only do you get an indicator for where the racing line is and when you need to brake, it actually tells you how fast you need to be going when you hit the braking-point. Very handy."
How different is this from Forza? Forza has had this for 1 & 2. Just curious.
Thanks.
Awesome review. I heart you for this Luke. I FUCKING HEART YOU!
Didn't know there was so many online issues
Another excellent review from Kotaku, who I hope is influencing others on the way they do their reviews. Don't just review the game, review it within the context of what the game is supposed to be -- much appreciated -- and no, I won't be dropping 40 bucks on this.
Marshmallow sim racing ???
Great review. I imported a copy and agree with everything you said. I was hoping the update I received would fix the online issues, but it didn't, it was only to add the content found in the US/EU versions.
Ouch...still getting it. Need something other than Hot Shots Golf to tide me over until GTA IV.
GT5 Prologue online was incredibly disappointing. Me and a few friends all bout this at release, rushed home and found that there was no way we could race against each-other.
I don't care about racing a bunch of people I don't know, have never met and will likely never meet. there is no difference between that and racing the computer controlled cars. If all I can do is race random unknowns in a glitchy fashion, there are a million and one better things I can be doing with my bandwidth.
This just reinforces my tongue in cheek belief that the PS3 is for people without any friends.
It should be mandatory for any racing game developer doing network multi-player to play Burnout Paradise to learn how to do it right.
I think this one is a must buy only for the GT fans. I liked the GTHD demo, but never considered myself a GT fan. I'm pretty sure I'll pick up the real game (GT5) when it ships.
You have got to be kidding me. They're charging $40 for what is essentially a demo? $20 I could see, as it's a bit beefier than most demos ... but $40?! That's low. Really low.
I'll just contiune to play the shit out of GT4.
Until very recently, I thought Sony selling a DEMO for $40 was a joke, it was just too stupid for me to believe. Then, when I finally had enough evidence in front of me that I had to believe it, I convinced myself that there would be like, 25 tracks: too few for a full release, but decent for a hilariously expensive demo. Now... to hear that there are 6 tracks, with one good one? Wow, just, wow.
So as a vidya game seller, I should do what I had planned?
Tell the customers that they may purchase it, but it is far from a complete game. Thanks.
I disagree Luke. It's easily worth $40. You say it took a day to finish the single player then that equates to a few dollars per hour. Mix in the multi player when it's fixed and it becomes good value in my book.
It really seems like if you buy this game you deserve a discount when the full game is released. Me, I'm waiting on the finished product.
Rental
I always wanted to like GT but could never get into it.
I feel like people don't understand what they're going to get if Gran Turismo adds realistic car damage. Forza's car damage is purely shit. You go into a wall at 120MPH and you get some minor looking dents. You do that for real and your car is totaled. You might not even be able to drive it anymore.
Does the majority of people want that much realism? So much so that it stops them from finishing races because of the damage? Would that not frustrate more people than satisfy?
Say for instance that they add unrealistic damage like what Forza has. Would people not bitch about that too, saying that for a game that brags about being a car simulator it's damage is unrealistic? That's why I feel Polyphony is damned if they do, damned if they don't
looks like i'll be waiting a little longer.
I cant believe that in this day and age of extremely advanced games, and with the enormous power of the ps3 to work with, they failed to:
a. Have decent online play
and
b. get rid of the bumper-cars gameplay.
beautiful graphics, beautiful realism, not enough fun, in my opinion.
Good review Luke. This game(Prologue) is definitely not for everybody. It's funny how everybody is already comparing it full games like Forza2 or PGR4. This game is made for people like me who is a total GT fanatic going all the way back from PS1. But I totally understand why people wouldn't like this game. I'm just not one of them. $40 to me is a bargain compare to what I paid for Motorstorm and Burnout Paradise. There are a lot of racing games out there but there's only one GT.
Looks like I'm going to have to wait until the full product comes out. Doesn't look like it matters to the Europeans though. ;)
@1981suede: Do you honestly believe yourself?
These games we play, a majority aren't even WORTH 60 bucks(shit should be 49.99 tops). GT 5 Prolouge is and will always be a demo. A demo that SHOULD have been free(gthd till they renamed it and upped the content and visuals)
Also you say "when the multiplayer is fixed" and it's worth 40 bucks for you. that's a big WHEN, considering....
@Queasy: forza doesn't tell you what speed you need to enter a corner. That's pretty much the only difference that somehow makes it 'better' than forza. But look, if the final games has weather and damage, forget Forza, this will be the game to get.
I dont remember all of this resistance towards GT4 Prolouge...$40? Its more than that in Europe but people dont seem to care here. :D
Damage modeling man! GT5 had better have FULL DAMAGE MODELING!!! I KNOW that the PS3 is more than powerful enough to handle any level of physics needed for GT5. Stupid bastards. :(
@sascha23: Yeah. I heard it hit around a million preorders over there. They must love some Turismo.
Good review.
@1981suede: It's people like you who happily shell out $50-$60 every year for the Madden Expansion Pack.
I don't know if this is because I'm playing on the Japanese one, but i have never experienced that car flickering before and I have a pretty crappy connection. Are USA (and EU) using a different server?
I do agree that the ONLINE PLAY of GT5P is pretty bad though...
@Arnold Rimmer's Garden Strimmer:
It's because it's being sold worldwide now and has a much larger audience. If Prologue was never sold in America, and was just sold in Japan and Europe it wouldn't be getting such a backlash. People act like this whole "Prologue" thing is new.
Though "Collision Modelling" is a valid review complaint, this is more of a design choice for the game then a problem. GT is and will always be about looking pretty/realistic and the pursue of the perfect lap/race. I.E. The object of the game is to race perfectly and have total control and familiarity of your car to obtain the best lap time possible. Because of this, hitting walls and other cars will never be give the detail of importance, because it's simply not. Because that's not the object of GT. Now, Burn Out Paradise on the other hand - it's entirely the point of the game and thats why it's "Collision Modelling" is spectacular.
The Ridge Racer series suffers from the same formula, it's just more Arcade style in it's gameplay format.
-Niric
@djricekcn:
Luke resides in Australia
I finished Uncharted in a day...does that make it less than full value?
@LittleBigPlaneteer: Ah thanks, I did wonder to be honest. :D
So basically what they're doing is selling a half assed unfinished version of the game for $40? I can get the full version of Mario Kart Wii for the same price at Sam's Club.
@LittleBigPlaneteer: and I live in USA.
Wait a minute here. Sony is expecting us to pay $40 for a demo with six tracks and broken online functionality? Then we have defenders of this game saying that I am full of shit because we have been pointing out the obvious money grab of this situation. Why are they releasing a demo anyway? Why not wait until there is a finished product? The beautiful thing about Sony games is that they are done until they are really done and really don't care about time frames or deadlines.
But whatever the fanboys will continue to eat anything Sony even though Sony appears to be sacrificing quality in order to rid themselves of their "there are no games" label.
Have had this game since the 26th but didn't try the online until today.
And I'm disapointed, not only with errors (the same as those Luke wrote about) but also competitors who "cheats". Pressing me on the grass, trying to spin the car around by bumping the rear side of my car.. I guess I'll be playing online only with friends and people I know from forums.
On the rest, I kind of agree with Luke, but I love the GT series and this game is worth the 350NOK ($68,39) i paid for it.
@superHOOKIE:
That's what I was thinking. Plus, it's a racing game. You're more likely to play tracks multiple times, so I don't buy the whole "finished in a day" crap. I could finish a Tony Hawk game in a day, but that doesn't mean i don't go back and replay levels, even just to skate around. Weird example I know, but it's the first that came to me.
@LittleBigPlaneteer:
Perhaps so, but I'd rather they add it. Playing without some form of damage modeling is archaic and hokey. Why not set an option where you can turn off damage modeling.. I believe Forza already does this.
I want GT5...the full one.
@ManjiKengo: A demo in my opinion contains a single track and a few cars. This has 6 tracks each with two configurations which makes driving them very different. All the cars can be tweaked and the game looks DAMN fine.
I appreciate your point in relation to the broken multiplayer and it is annoying, but in my experience these issues are often fixed. I'm not defending the fact that there are issues, especially considering the online play is a considerable part of the game/value.
@BobbyMills: Well, Forza has the arrows that change from red to yellow to green to tell you if you are going too fast, a little too fast, or just right.
Sounds like pretty much the same thing...just one has a numerical value while the other gives you a visual clue on your speed.
@Spoony Bard: No, but I do buy Pro Evolution Soccer every year :)
Look, I'll get more hours out of GT5P than say Heavenly Sword and it's cheaper. Dismiss my opinion all you want but there are obviously plenty of people out there who agree with me.
@BobbyMills: No clue on how GT5 handles the racing line assist, but Forza sort of did tell you how fast you needed to be going. Not an explicit MPH value, but the racing line color was dynamic. Green, you can speed up. Yellow/red, slow down.
@LittleBigPlaneteer: i see what you mean.. i have been playing DiRT on Pro difficulty, and getting a terminal damage 90% into the race is annoying.. but Luke has a point, the GT series need some sort of a Collision Modelling - which may be coming this fall
$40 for 10% content = $400 for full retail version.
@Islandkiwi:
I think the answer is simple: Polyphony are perfectionists. They already stated that they won't add damage modeling until it's perfected. I imagine it takes a hell of a long time to truly make each car damage as they would physically in real life. They could just make damaging the same for all cars, but that's not th