Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

"HD has come and past, now Prolouge has come at last! *Japanese version review*"

Hello everybody, are you well, because it's time for another one of William Roebuck's reviews!

Approxmatley one year ago, Polyphony released Gran Turismo HD to the public for free exclusively on the Playstation Network on all three stores. We loved this game as critics everywhere gave it good marks (including myself). This game showed beautiful graphics as well as superior driving mechanics. However the rub was that it hade only one track forward and reverse, and it didn't pit you up against other drivers, as it was a time trial only game with an unlockable drift trial. What made it unique was its online scoreboards that are posted when you break a record. Records are being broken daily by milliseconds!

Although, this is not enough to please Gran turismo fans as they wanted other drivers to pit against. They got their wish the next year, well, the fans with a Japanese Playstation Account at least. We got what HD plus some more. The pitting against driversa, the online racing EVERYTHING!

Well, not everything as this game is still, as it said, a PROLOUGE, which is Polyphony's way of saying an "exxtended demo."

The graphics in this game are phenominal, like its predessor, it is in full HD, 1080i. The screen is super slick and the track just looks like heaven on a stick. The crowds look real and are a real turn on as they cheer when you do good and they throw stuff at you when you stink. I mean the production value for this game is high, I mean it, really high. The Art designers did a really good job with the textures as they really went outside the box on this one.

Not only the crowds look good, but the scenery is just something to admire as your driving by the various tracks in the game. The mountains, the skyline, hell, even the citiesw are good looking. They just didnt't know when to stop!

Finally, to wrap up graphics, is the cars, yes, the cars. The cars look exactly like they do in reality. You can see inside the cars and see the drivers actually turn the steering wheel and you see them bobbing their heads for some reason. The graphics are what you come to expect from a PS3 game. Clean an Crisp.

Now we get down to actual gameplay, which contains only one flaw, since we are playing the Japanese version, it is in Japanese, so you'll have to guyess when selecting car mechanics and going through trial and error unless you actually know Japanese. Other than that the gameplay is similar to 4, which was excellant and it stays excellant.


NOW multiplayer, finally, GT5 goes online, GTO, I call it. Up to 16 players online racing. These things can get nuts, really nuts. You better be a good driver or you will not prevail. What sucks is that it does NOT have offline multiplayer, so if you want to play with a friend, he better have access to a PS3 and have access to the internet.

And thats GT5 Prolouge for ya, the American review will be here when it comes, so long!


Overall Score: 9/10

PSN: solidraiden

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/07

Game Release: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (JP, 12/13/07)