Gran Turismo 5 Prologue -- A sim racers perspective

Scotracer · 31-03-2008, 10:50 AM

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue

Is this a legitimate release, or a cash cow purely to get some income for a studio that has a long-running record of perfectionism and delays? That’s one of the questions that surround the somehow controversial release of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. The AAA franchise has, for many years released prologues and small tasters of things to come with nothing but praise but for whatever reason this initial PS3 release has been attacked from many sides as a rip-off. Well, is it?

Presentation

Clean, elegant and very contempary; these words are what are normally used to describe GT’s interfaces and overall presentation. With GT5:P, those words ring true once more. With the original music that I can only really call Gran-Turismo-Jazz playing in the background you’re instantly taken back to those years of your adolescence trying to get that Escudo Pikes Peak to actually turn.

Clean interface, even with heavy aliasing around car

When you start up the game you are taken to your “My Page”. This is the main menu of the game with many new options for the EU release – namely 2P Battle and many more hidden within other sub-menus. In the background of My Page there is your current career car situated within a scene from around the world (currently, as I write this I have my Mitsubishi Evo IX sitting on a side-street in the German city of Bonn). It looks very realistic and is a much more grown-up interface than that of Forza 2. From My Page, you can enter events, go online, go to the dealerships to buy a new set of wheels or just browse the cars you own via the Garage. Another new feature for the Gran Turismo series is the GT-TV mode. Currently this is restricted to the starting FMV but will be filled with many videos such as Developer Diaries and even episodes of the biggest car TV show in the world, Top Gear. But, right now I will move past that.

The arcade "lobby" should be used more for career - very pretty

Gameplay

This is where I have slated Gran Turismo in the past. I found the handling and AI to be flat, uninspiring and even to the point of me stopping my career on GT4 out of pure frustration at the lack of feel. Well, you’ll be glad to hear that this is no longer the case. From the early taster that GT:HD was, I knew we were going to see drastic changes in the handling engine as the cars acted more dynamically and actually seemed to have the mass that the stats claimed they have.

As is the case with Racing Simulations, you are targeting a niche market but Polyphony Digital is trying to encompass the entire Automotive industry so they want to target those sim freaks like myself, all the way up to the street-racing and drift thugs. So, to try and make all parties happy, they have created two physics engines; Standard and Professional. In Standard mode, the cars handle very solidly and allow the less accustomed racing game fan (i.e. fans of PGR and NFS) to get the most out of the game, especially if they are restricted to a controller and not a wheel. The cars are more forgiving and do not have any snap over-steer or much weight transfer that’d catch out the average NFS player. Being a very seasoned sim racer, as soon as I could use my wheel I went straight into Professional mode with all assists off. I am almost shocked by the change. I have to remind myself sometimes that I’m actually playing Gran Turismo and not some high-end PC simulation such as rFactor and GTR2. It is that good. On Forza Motorsport 2 the lower end cars felt very slow, sluggish and were in no way fun to drive. On GT5:P however, even the least powerful car in the game (Suzuki Cappuccino with 63BHP) is great fun to drive on regular road tyres around High-Speed ring or the London City track. With other sims I find myself going straight for the high-end balls-out race cars to get my thrills but in this game I am more than happy to stick to something a little more sedate, such as an Integra Type-R (by now you probably know how much I adore that car) and just throw it around the tracks.

Rivals

Comparing simulations is always very hard because it’s usually down to how a game feels and not actually how well it simulates real world situations. That being said, I am very impressed with GT5:P and would say it has a more accurate dynamics model than that of Forza 2 I feel embellishes things to make it seem realistic (and from the lap times possible in the R1 cars it is certainly not realistic). But, up until now it was the best thing on console so any flaws it had could be forgiven. When comparing PC sims to console sims you usually hit the interface barrier, since many concoles lack sufficient peripherals to fully make any comparison valid. Well, with the PS3 Sony has allowed the use of all 3rd party wheels so I can use my beloved G25, even with full clutch support. In terms of actual feedback and feel, GT5P is close to GTR2 in this regard but without any real data to look at, this is all conjecture. Both games replicate the feel of cars very well and the feedback through the wheel makes it a very comfortable and familiar environment, meaning you can race with more confidence.

Features

With this game being an extended demo of what is to come from Gran Turismo 5 I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that it was sparse and a hollow experience. Well, that isn’t the case. There are 40 race events, 72 cars and 6 locations (12 circuit variations), 16 player online career racing and GT-TV. Even some full releases have less content and for the price I paid (£17.99) it is waaaaaay more than justified. The online mode is where you can break a sim racer and Polyphony has taken a funny route with it. Some of the most basic features are missing, such as Private lobbies and even voice chat but they have replaced this with a matchmaking system that keeps players and cars close so the racing is enjoyable, if a little two dimensional without voice chat for trash talking, or even just talking shop with friends. Polyphony has confirmed that both these features are in the works so I can only hope/imagine that they will be in here by the time the game hits US shores (mid-April). Even so, Gran Turismo has always been about the single-player career and it’s business as usual with the buying and selling of cars using the credits system.

Game modes depending on driver skill - S class locked until later on

When you complete the A-class races you unlock S-class (a much harder game mode) which also allows the use of the Quick Tune feature. The Quick Tune feature isn’t just a small add-on to keep the pedantic, anal-retentive racers such as myself happy, it actually makes the racing experience more diverse as you are aiming to make your car reach certain Performance Points numbers. This is a similar system to Forza 2 but in this game you can actually reduce power from stock as well as add weight to the car. It may not be as realistic as Forza’s system but it works well in making the experience more challenging. You can have up to 3 saves for each car and you can adjust the usual Suspension, Tyres and Gear ratios you’d come to expect from a sim racer and a GT game.

As well as unlocking Quick Tune with S-class, you also unlock the penalty system. This causes you to think about the game in a different manner. Before now, GT games were renowned as a game you could win if you just used the barriers as rails to get you around the corner. Well, with the improvement in physics and the inclusion of penalties this is no longer possible. If you intentionally hit another car under braking (i.e. using their mass to slow you down) you incur a 4 or 5 second penalty, where you have no control over the throttle of your car and collision-detection is turned off. This means you have to actually learn lines and learn real over-taking techniques to accomplish the race wins that give you those much-needed credits.

Cars

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Full Vehicle List:

Lexus IS F '07
Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II Nur '02
Nissan Fairlady Z Version S '07
Nissan Skyline Sedan 350GT Type SP '06
Nissan Skyline Coupe Concept '07
Nissan Skyline Coupe 370GT Type SP '07
Nissan Skyline Coupe (V36) Tuned Car
Nissan GT-R Proto '05
Nissan GT-R '07
Honda Integra TYPE R '04
Honda NSX Type R '02
Acura NSX '91
Mazda Atenza Sport (2007 Tokyo Motor Show reference exhibit)
Mazda RX-8 Type S '03
Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A (FD)
Mazda RX-7 (FD) Special Tuned Car
Subaru Impreza WRX STI (18inch BBS Wheel Option) '07
Subaru Impreza Sedan WRX STI spec C Type RA '05
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX GSR '05
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR Premium Package '07
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX GSR Tuned Car
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR Tuned Car
Suzuki Cappuccino '95
Suzuki Swift Sport '07
Suzuki Cervo SR '07
Suzuki Cappuccino Tuned Car
Suzuki Swift Sport Tuned Car
Daihatsu Copen Active Top '02
Daihatsu OFC-1 '07
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 '06
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C6) Tuned Car
Dodge Viper GTS '02
Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe '06
Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe Tuned Car
Ford Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07
Ford GT '05
Ford Focus ST '06
Ford GT Tuned Car
Audi R8 4.2 FSI R tronic '07
Audi TT Coupe 3.2 quattro '07
BMW Z4 '03
BMW 135i Coupe '07
BMW M3 Coupe '07
BMW 135tii '08
Mini Cooper-S '06
Mercedes-Benz SL 55 AMG '02
Volkswagen Golf GTI '01
Volkswagen Golf V GTI '05
Alfa Romeo 147 TI 2.0 TWIN SPARK '06
Alfa Romeo Brera Sky Window 3.2 JTS Q4 '06
Ferrari 599 '06
Ferrari F430 '06
Ferrari 512BB '76
Ferrari F40 '92
Ferrari F2007 ‘07
Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione '91
Citroen C4 Coupe 2.0VTS '06
Renault Clio Renault Sport V6 24V '00
Clio Renault Sport V6 24V Tuned Car
Aston Martin DB9 Coupe '06
Jaguar XK Coupe '06
Lotus Elise 111R '04
Lotus Elise '96
Lotus Elise 111R Tuned Car
Lotus Elise Tuned Car
TVR Tuscan Speed 6 '00
TVR Tamora '02
Art Morrison Corvette'60
Amuse/Opera Performance Gran Turismo 350Z RS
Amuse S2000 GT1 Turbo
Mine's BNR34 Skyline GT-R N1 base '06
Blitz Dunlop ER34 '07

So, with over 70 cars at your disposal you’re surely going to find something that you can have fun with. Personally I love the Integra Type-R and the Ferrari F430 but I am yet to try the F2007

Tracks

Gran Turismo has always been the series which had a ridiculous number of tracks, to go with the insane number of cars. For GT5:P there may only be 6 locations but they are diverse and offer a lot of gameplay variations. Early on in the career (Class-C) you are mainly restricted to High-Speed Ring (any GT fan will know this track better than they know their own reflection) and Eiger Norwand from the GT:HD Concept demo of a few years ago. Both tracks are beautifully modelled and whilst they have received criticism for being quite baron…well, that’s the way racing circuits are. For those that prefer the PGR-style city racing, there is a London track. It may be fairly short (around a minute per lap in a solid car) it is very fast and requires a lot of bravery to handle a powerful car over the bumpy tarmac. There is also Suzuka F1 circuit and Fuji Speedway (both F1 and GT layouts). These tracks are very fast and very challenging but can only really be enjoyed in the faster cars as they have ridiculous straights and are very wide (they were designed for F1 cars, and it shows). For the US audience (and this is their first Prologue officially released on their shores) they have added Daytona Speedway and Daytona Roadcourse. By now many people know my opinion of oval racing but it is actually good fun in the cars, especially online where you are always drafting each other. A welcome surprise.

Graphics

Gran Turismo was always known as the eye candy of gaming. It is no different this time around with native 1080p output at 60fps. The lighting model is the best I’ve ever seen and the car models are almost perfect (over 200,000 polygons are used per car). There is a problem however of the game being 1080p-native…ie, I don’t have a 1080p TV. What this means is that the image has to be scaled down to 720p to be displayed on my TV and it causes a lot of aliasing which I had to do a rudimentary work around on my TV, which whilst being less than perfect allows me to look at the game how it was intended to look. So, anyone who is on the fence with a new TV purchase I’d definitely recommend going 1080p as we’re going to see more and more games using it and dammit, I need to see this one in 1080p! So I will not degrade my opinion of this game purely because I don’t have the funds to play it in all it’s glory. There is some V-sync issues but they are sporadic, as is the frame-rate dips which become apparent when 16 cars are on track and you are braking heavily for a corner (especially on Eiger Norwand).

Controls

The SIXAXIS controller is a proven GT controller and does the job of allowing fairly accurate control of the cars. The Dualshock 3 would be a much better choice but I am to try one out so I’ll hold my judgement. When I first played the game at my friend’s I was restricted to the SIXAXIS and thoroughly enjoyed myself but when I got home and used my Logitech G25, I suddenly realised how good a simulation this game actually is. The weight transfer is perfectly replicated through the steering wheel movement and you can feel any change in surface and the on-set of understeer. Also, full H-Gate and clutch support is there. It is epic. There is no other word for it.

Sound

Whilst the GT-Jazz is to be expected and fairly welcomed, what I had hoped to see go was the generic and uninspiring engine and tyre sounds from GTs of old. I am glad to say there has been a great improvement over the previous games and the cars now actually sound individual and how they should. The Ferrari F430 howls, the Integra Type-R screams and the Ford GT thunders down the straights of Daytona. The tyre squeal which seemed to have been present since the Beta stages of Gran Turismo on PSX is now gone, and is replaced with a much more accurate reproduction of tyres (the racing tyres squeal and the road tyres grate when you slide). Where I feel Polyphony needs to re-work it’s methods is when it comes to audio creation. The Forza 2 developers, Turn10, used dyno’s to get the full range of car audio therefore making sure they got every nuance of sound from the engine. However, Polyphony Digital only samples the audio at engine idle then digital maps the entire rev-range. This does work on the whole but it misses some of the character of the engines and makes the cars seem staler. All in all, a much welcome improvement for me, the audiophile.

Conclusions

This is a demo. It cannot be got around but that, as you have read is not a bad thing. For the price, I feel it is a more than justified experience and if you feel you want a new game to try out or you are a GT-fanatic like myself you must pick this game up as it is worth the small outlay of cash. With a 2009 release, GT cannot come soon enough but I feel this will keep me busy for months to come. Props have to go out to Sir Charles for getting his review out, I just thought I’d add my own opinions on it, as the site’s resident sim whore.

Presentation: 10/10 – this game has always been a shining star when it comes to making the experience seem special, it does so again. Well done, PD.
Graphics: 9.1/10 – Almost perfect, just the lack of AA on the 720p version of the game lets down the superb models and lighting. The occasional slow-down is nothing more than an annoyance but at 1080p I can forgive PD for it.
Gameplay: 9.2/10 – This would have been 10/10 if it weren’t for the online modes which need a make-over and brought up to speed
Sound: 8.4/10 – Much better than older games in the series but when up against GTR2, rFactor and even Forza 2, it really shows where PD’s priorities lie.
Longevity: 6.0/10 – With only 1/10th the content of GT5, of course it wasn’t going to be a long game but with an online mode and the promise of updates in the coming months there is hope for this game to keep many racer fans attention until GT next year.

Overall: 8.9/10 - Awesome