Reviews// Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

Posted 24 Dec 2007 13:00 by
Companies:
Games: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

You have to admire Sony’s cheekiness with this one. The game we all want desperately to play is Gran Turismo 5 – as in, a proper sequel to Gran Turismo 4. But before we can have that, Sony wants us to be satisfied with a Prologue – a Prologue that contains only five tracks and doesn’t even have a split-screen two-player mode. It’s not necessarily a big swindle – but it certainly sounds like one. Let’s give Prologue the benefit of a fair trial, though, because I’ll be crucified by the bloodthirsty fanboys if I don’t…

Obvious things first: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is the best-looking ‘realistic’ console racer you can find. (Of course, it’s not fit to oil the cogs of the original Out Run, but that’s another matter.) Driving around the Fuji Speedway, with the whole thing running in 1080p at 60fps, is like seeing colour TV for the first time. The cars and track and background look stunning and move beautifully… most of the time. But sometimes Prologue tries to be a bit too clever and ends up looking daft, fatally running eight high-poly cars through a chicane at the same time and then incurring death by slowdown.

The new London circuit suffers most of all, especially when you reach A-class races – and there are some v-sync screen rips to go with the slowdown. But to be fair, these issues only crop up from time to time – nearly always Prologue looks phenomenally good.

It’s not just the in-game graphics which benefit from a proper HD seeing-to – Prologue’s front-end is like butter. There’s a roaming camera view of your current motor in the background, set in gorgeously rendered ‘world’ locations such as castle ruins, woods, and European plazas. There’s a little analogue clock to tell you the time. There’s a rolling info-bar announcing the latest weather from racetracks around the world. There’s even a motoring news stream to keep you in the loop.

The menu is set up like the PS3’s XMB – simple and classy. Before entering a race you can take a guide of the location with a hi-def video sequence showing footage from the track and its environment, along with some track history in text form. Prologue’s presentation is flawless.

So, it looks good. Fine. But is there enough content here to justify Sony’s decision to sell Prologue as a full-price PS3 game, as it’s doing in Japan? It’s a close call, but I think Sony can just about be excused.

There are two main modes of play: Arcade and Event, and there are none of the traditional Gran Turismo driving tests or licenses to work through. Diving straight into Arcade mode is a good way to get familiar with the tracks and cars.

There are five circuits: Suzuka, Fuji Speedway, Daytona Speedway, Eiger Nordwand (first seen in Gran Turismo HD Concept) and London – each of which can be played in some alternative form, either in reverse or via a different route. Arcade mode has Single Race and Time Trial options… yeah, all standard stuff, but you’d complain if it wasn’t there.
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Companies:
Games: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

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Comments

retronaut 24 Dec 2007 21:47
1/9
Is this game true "Full-HD"?

I've read about 1280x1080 anamorphic upscaling to 1920x1080 (Full-HD)...

http://ps3news.com/PlayStation3/Gran_Turismo_5_Prologue_not_truly_1080p-_upscaled_trickery_in_action-1/
vault 13 26 Dec 2007 05:26
2/9
Does it even really matter. All that matters is if it looks good on your television. Most people can't even really tell 720p from 1080p. Although it is a little more apparent with video games and their hard definitive edged polygons.
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Jim 26 Dec 2007 10:33
3/9
vault 13 wrote:
Does it even really matter. All that matters is if it looks good on your television. Most people can't even really tell 720p from 1080p. Although it is a little more apparent with video games and their hard definitive edged polygons.


Normally, I'd agree with you but when somebody specifically advertises a feature... the game at least should have the feature, right?

It's like you say "for 2 players" on the package and it's a single player game.

--

Also, I see a HUGE difference between 720p and 1080p on a 40+ inch HDTV set - how wouldn't? It's more than double pixel count!

--

But that wasn't my question to begin with: Again: The game outputs 1920x1080 graphics... OK. But does it render this at well or does it use upscaling from a lower resolution to achieve this? I wonder because I think it looks good but am put back a little by all the jaggies, which could be explained by this.
SPInGSPOnG 26 Dec 2007 11:56
4/9
Jim wrote:
Also, I see a HUGE difference between 720p and 1080p on a 40+ inch HDTV set - how wouldn't? It's more than double pixel count!

A HUGE difference. Really! Really? Really!?

A huge difference on a tiny little 40" TV?

I watch at 120" (nine times the screen area of a 40") and I cannot see a HUGE difference between 720p and 1080p. I'd challenge you, on a 40" screen, to consistently tell 1080 from 720 in a double blind test.


Gamerzus 26 Dec 2007 20:56
5/9
Ok Shut the Fck up Pixel Fanboys.
The Main Reason why true1080p Is an issues is simple enough.
RAM!!
512MB Is not gonna cut the mustard. .
But The compromise still beats The crap out of the God- awful Halo 3 or Call of duty 4's Upscalling trickery!
Try this, sit up close and play the game about 2 to 3 feet away and you'll see a big difference between How blurred and rough a game looks compared to silky sleek a game looks in Hi Def.(a matter of fact adjust your Monitor on your computer and see the difference DUH???)

I play all my games up close and I noticed this with COD4 imediately. My eyes were bothered immediatly, i was pissed that I had to sit far back to compensate for low res.( pixels look blurred rough pixely, upclose when not dense/hi res.,moving further back blends pixels,YET! ruducing the size of the picture and the immersivness of being up close..but helps so you dont notice Low res pixels as much .But say bye to picture size!!!
COD4 did have high Polys and amazing post processing effects!!!Kinda of makes up for some of the BS..

Also for the 120" idiot is this a Digital Projector or a Flat panel TV??
I bet you anyone could tell the difference ,Let Polyphony
Recode the 1080p pit scenes in 720p and compare both TV side by side. Sit up close.
In your Case a 120" would require you to sit far away reducing size and further making 120" worthless since 120" given the size and the pixel count would not truly utilize a 120" digital screen you would need something more like the future 3x HD standards.TO enjoy a Movie or Game in HD for a 120"
Bigger the screen bigger the pixels chunkier up close..

THis is just part of going digital and not analog.
Syonara
Pixel Fan boys.. Next time get a
Apple Cinema 30" and 2 SLI 8800ultras
for HD gaming until then wait about 15 to 20 years.

rambo lover 27 Dec 2007 03:47
6/9
shut up lamerz hd this hd that, xbox 360 shnub shnub ps 3 bla bla big screen 7.65 feet away times by 3 then stick it up you botbot
OptimusP 15 Jan 2008 12:09
7/9
Needs more "falcon punch in your mouth" shizzah to it
vault 13 16 Jan 2008 03:28
8/9
OptimusP wrote:
Needs more "falcon punch in your mouth" shizzah to it


Wouldn't it be a dragon punch be more appropriate?

Oh and an Apple Cinema Display?! 16ms refresh rate?! You'd be watching ghosts fly across your screen. Plus I'd take a 120" day screen over a 40" screen day. Unless like you, I'm an idiot, then I'd take an obviously not suited for motion graphic design display and use it for gaming or movies.
M83 11 Mar 2008 18:04
9/9
Should be a cool little game intill the final. Being as the Sony fames now are all looking to be huge 50gb games. GT 5P is bigger than some final versions of racers that stink that stink. Funniest thing I see on game sites also. Is fanboy 360 writers complaining that fanboys will be on their back. Seems to be the new wave of complaints by "lets be real" the 360 fan writers
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