There are people, reading this right now, who bought a $600 PlayStation 3 at launch for one game: Gran Turismo 5. Why? Because despite the recent advancement of other racing franchises, Polyphony Digital's near religious devotion to automobiles has offered hardcore racing/racing game fans an unparalleled driving simulation for a decade.

But until Gran Turismo 5 actually comes out, we can only get a taste of things to come through Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. So is that taste making reviewers hungry for more? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview to find out—a buncha reviews with the crust cut off because we know you like it that way.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Ready For Download Tonight

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.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue May Get Downloadable Damage As Early As Fall

The gang at Polyphony Digital has been talking up—and failing to deliver—car damage in Gran Turismo for what seems like forever. We know it's coming someday, it's just that Kazunori Yamauchi told us it was coming with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue when we talked to him at Games Convention. Didn't happen, though.

According to an interview with IGN, it may still be en route, via a software update. And it may be coming as soon as this fall. We will, of course, believe it when we see it.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue gets Smashed [IGN]

Sony has apparently overcome yesterday's technical difficulties in Europe, and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is now available for purchase. The company apologized for any inconvenience to all of the friendly Europeans who were unable to drive shiny cars around yesterday.

"We would like to apologise for the lack of a PS Store refresh yesterday," Sony said. "As previously mentioned, we unfortunately experienced some last minute technical difficulties and were unable to publish the new content as planned."

Unfortunately due to some last minute technical difficulties, we were unable to publish the new content to the PS Store yesterday. We are working to resolve these issues and will let you know as soon as new content is posted.

GT5 Driving Along With Weezer

The launch of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is coming up fast and Sony is announcing an action packed soundtrack to go along with. Leading the pack is an exclusive in-game remix of Weezer's "Automatic" and a special remix of Mars Volta's "Goliath." Also along for the ride exclusively in North America are Justice, SebastiAn, DJ Shadow, The Earaches and Pride Tiger.

You can check out the entire list of artists and their tracks after the jump.

Subaru created its own sit-down controller for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for this year's New York Auto Show. The pod lets you race their new STI on a rally track and bounces around when you hit bumps. Now this is something they should set up at malls across America.

The ultimate game controller [Cnet]

GT5 Prologue To Be Updated After Launch

Like I said, Europe loves Gran Turismo. In return, Gran Turismo loves Europe. So much so that series creators Polyphony Digital have broken with tradition and included an F1 car in Gran Turismo 5. For the bargain-basement price of 2 million in-game credits, you'll be able to pick up the Ferrari F2007 and take it for a spin. Poignantly, this is being called "God Mode".

GT5 Prologue Goes Platinum In Europe

GT5 Prologue & Bundle Priced, Dated For Europe