Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Preview
- Posted December 10th, 2007 at 12:03 EDT by PSU Staff
- 44 Comments
Gran Turismo. These two words are enough to light the gaming community on fire. The popular racing series has been a staple for both hardcore and casual racing fans alike for over ten years. While the series has always managed to impress gamers in all areas such as graphics, realism, and computer AI, the series has been long overdue for a next generation sequel to match the pace of modern racing titles. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait for much longer.
Most appropriately titled Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, Polyphony's latest game may appear at first to have a deceiving title. However, further playtime quickly proved to solidify the game's release as more than a trivial tech demonstration.
The game is a mix of next generation and time-tested features that have made the series so popular. Some of the newer changes include the title screen. Gone are the days where you were given the option of arcade and simulation mode of previous titles, or even the newer single-player, multi-player and option dialogues to grace modern racers.
Instead, gamers will find themselves graced with a 3D representation of their car in front of a vividly animated backdrop of a city of their choice from a list of locations. A clock and temperature read-out shows the current time and temperature reading of the location you set. A calendar also displays upcoming racing events.
Below all of these visuals are seven distinct icons, including icons titled drive, garage, TV, photo, and profile. While many of these are self explanatory, some require a small explanation. TV will offer various video clips that may include tips for improving times and personally submitted videos. Photo will function in the same way, except in picture format of course. Finally, the profile icon will offer a social networking-esque interface that will allow racers to share information with one another.
By now you must be wondering about the actual game-play rather than all of these nice extras. The great news is that the game-play has evolved as much if not even more than that of the extras Polyphony has added to GT5 Prologue. Driving in the game feels natural and maintains the series philosophy on realism, so don't expect your car to make a tight u-turn at 80 mph. Likewise, if you drive on the grass, expect a huge delay getting back onto the track. Just like its predecessors and in reality, your tires are going to lose a lot of traction while in that sand pit.
You'll also be able to tell if you have any mods installed in your car by simply listening. That super charger you just installed sounds just like its real life counterpart. Still, many fans will be disappointed to learn that damage modelling has yet to be implemented, and it is currently unknown whether or not the final build will contain this element.
Moving on, the control scheme is just the same as ever for any Gran Turismo title. Triangle will reverse your car out of a wall. Square and circle are your emergency and normal brakes, and finally, X is used to accelerate. Master the last three, and it is easy to leave the computer-controlled cars eating your dust.
The game will run in full 1080p at 60 fps, an impressive feat considering how few titles can make this claim. The amount of cars to race has also been increased to an impressive 16, including the human player of course. In addition to the standard camera modes, a first-person view has been included. The amount of details inside the each car was deeply emphasized in this mode. The time spent recreating each nuance of every car is both appreciated and a welcome addition.
The old physics based system that served the previous four games well has been removed and replaced with a much more detailed and accurate system. The entire graphics system has also received a much-needed overhaul. Yamauchi, one of the creators of the series, has claimed that the new engine is so powerful, a professional drifter was able to perform manoeuvres inside the game similar to the one's he performed during races.
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Comments
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Staticneuron
- 7:37am EST - December 10th, 2007
- 3
When talking about the graphic you mention "pixels" . Don't you mean "polygons"?
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BuzzLightyear
- 7:37am EST - December 10th, 2007
- 4
Wow, 200,000 pixels. I presume they've finally moved away from 3D and gone 2D?
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LiQuiFiedArt
- 7:39am EST - December 10th, 2007
- 5
I'd like to see pictures of some of the car damage. But yea i'm completely enthrwalled by this entire thing. GT5:P demo rocks my socks
@Buzzlightyear
200,000 - POLYGONS not pixels LOL.
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FatherOfOne
- 7:57am EST - December 10th, 2007
- 7
GT5 is one of the reasons I bought a PS3, and if these guys can pull off a great game at 1080P/60FPS then that will be awesome! It will then be believeable that other developers could make games at that same resolution and frame rate.
I can't wait to BUY the demo, but I just hope that it isn't priced near a full game.
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Righteous
- 8:19am EST - December 10th, 2007
- 8
wow, just wow, they really poured a lot of effort in this game...and their effort has to be appreciated come release day. i'm glad they included damage, these are great changes to the GT franchise, defo a 1st day purchase. the greatest has actualy become greater
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forzaclaudio
- 9:21am EST - December 10th, 2007
- 10
What about sixaxis support? I read somewhere that it's not gonna be used during the actual driving. I don't care too much about rumble. For me it would be more immersive to play this game using the sixaxis instead of the analog.
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funItalian
- 9:38am EST - December 10th, 2007
- 14
Gran Turismo 5 & Metal Gear are THE only reasons why I bought a PS3. I hope they won't disappoint everyone.
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negativecool
- 10:35am EST - December 10th, 2007
- 16
Paul Coroneos-
I cannot believe that you would misinform everyone by stating GT5 Prologue has car damage. Do you have any idea how stupid you are? That information is HUGE and will bring a lot of peoples' hopes up, when it has been stated repeatedly bey every blogging site, and the devs themselves, that it will NOT have car damage.
Not only that, but you don't know the difference between a "pixel" and a "polygon" nor did you know that the opponent AI has and always has been a weak point in the GT series.
Have you even played a GT game you dumbass?
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Eric
- 3:46pm EST - December 10th, 2007
- 26
For the lazy...
"
Also at the behest of fans is a working damage model, one of unspecified depth. We didn't see Kaz run into anything during our session, so it was hard to tell if the game features the system in place yet. When asked about the new built-from-the-ground-up AI code and the option for car damage, Yamauchi indicated that CPU controlled drivers are aware of the new penalties for playing "bumper cars." With up to sixteen cars on the track, they need to be aware of each and the danger of spinning out when one comes in contact with another.
Yamauchi says these changes will lead to fewer cars lining up as they had in previous Gran Turismo games."
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 6:56pm EST - December 10th, 2007
- 33
I think someone needs to edit the article(polygons not pixels).BTW what's the proof of car damage,i know GT5 will have it,but Yamuichi(don't know if i spelt it right) said that they won't be shipping with car damage,and rather they would release a patch when it is ready.
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CONFLICT__01
- 4:51am EST - December 11th, 2007
- 37
I have just registered with this site purely to ask you why you insist on printing these lies about gt5 havin damage,when it is common knowledge that every one involved with the game has stated for a fact that damage will not be a part of the game ?!?!?!?! so, "w h y ! ? ! ? ! ?"
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Staude
- 9:53am EST - December 11th, 2007
- 38
LOL i read the article ealier .. now i go through it again and i cant help but notice that youve changed the part with "car damaged is in the game" till "car damage has yet to be implanted" n1 :p .. you might wanna add to the end of the article that its been edited.
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BD_BLACKAZZ
- 1:16am EST - January 8th, 2008
- 42
i have the demo and the game is amazing ..... everything from the cars to the road looks very realistic ..... and now its been announced that the game is only 40 bucks.... a great buy for the PS3 .... can't wait !! BD 4 LIFE
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