GOONL!NE

Developer: Polyphony Digital
Publisher: SCEI
Released: Friday March 28th 2008 (On the PSN and Blu-Ray. It was due on the PSN on 27/3/08)
Console Played on: Playstation 3
Also on: Playstation 3 Exclusive
Rating: PEGI 3

I learnt alot of things this weekend. Dont have too many Kinder eggs, the smell on them afterwards in your hands smell rotten. Dont drink too much skimmed milk, you’ll have a bad aftertaste. And most of all, dont believe the hype.

Sadly, all of them things happened to me with the latter been the most important. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is out and is the biggest hyped Playstation 3 exclusive to date (and will be till probably Haze is out, if not Haze, MGS4 will be). But…despite the fact its a Prologue, it somewhat lets down a little. How? Read on.

Gameplay: Its the norm for a Gran Turismo games, just pick a car and drive. But to get certain cars, you have to win races and this is where Events come in. You get 3 classes to pick from. Class C, Class B and Class A, pending on what classes your cars are at.

And where is Events you ask? It’s in a new bottom down menu, My Menu. You got all you need in this menu, the Events themselves, a new splitscreen 2P mode and more but there are 2 new main features that included in this menu, both of which you need online for (No online for me at the mo, normal service will return this week hopefully. Check back then for our review of the online service).

The first of the two is something called GT:TV aka Gran Turismo TV. Its a new downloadable service for users of the game, whatever verison you got for the game, which lets you download videos of motoring stuff including documentary’s, Japanese motoring shows and in a deal with the BBC, coming soon is…TOP GEAR! HOORAY!

The 2nd part of this is, for the first time ever in a Gran Turismo game, online play that supports 16 players. There was originally going to be 12 player online for Gran Turismo 4 for the PS2 but due to some problems, was ditched at the last second.

But now it’s back for the first time ever in GT. But so far, all we have heard is bad things. Noobs, online updates that fail halfway through and very bad lag.

But there is a serious lack of content, all despite this is a Prologue. Compared to Gran Turismo 4, there was 721 cars and just over half a dozen tracks. Now, in GT5: Prologue, take out the 2 in those car figures, you only get 71 and 5 tracks, 2 of which are new to a Gran Turismo game, the Eiger Nordwand from the free teaser demo off the PS Store, Gran Turismo HD Concept and a street course from London, which is all well and good but you could have added over 100 cars and 10 courses at least.

And rejoice people for the first time ever in a GT game, there are Ferraris!!! Including the F1 2007 Formula One car that Kimi Raikkonen used to win the F1 championship last year.

Graphics: Well, naturally they look nice, of course they do. The cars look really authentic with a in-car view for the first time in a GT game and once you see the inside of a Ferrari, you’ll be very impressed. But…there are 2 major flaws to the graphics. The first is that there is a slight bit of slowdown, nothing too bad to put you off the game and isn’t too frequent but it is annoying a little when it happens but nothing too annoying to put you off the game.

And the 2nd is that there is some graphic jiggies to this, it’s mostly noticable on a HDTV but it doesn happen on a SDTV as well (Like mine…I need a BRAVIA =( ) and while, like the slowdown, it isn’t anything to put you off the game, it does tend to be a bit annoying.

And I am going to add a 3rd major flaw.

THERE IS TILL NO CAR DAMAGE IN THE GAME!!! Kazunori Yamauchi has recently said that the car manufacturers are slowly but surely coming round to the idea of damnage to their cars. Hopefully, it’ll come soon in a patch for Prologue or is in Gran Turismo 5 itself when it is released next year.

Its a Prologue yes and it does very well at that but if this is pretty much what we are expecting in Gran Turismo 5 next year, we may just be a little let down. If you dont have online, take a point off the score for it but overall while worth £25, if it was a full priced £40 game, you’d feel slightly ripped off.

Graphics: 9.0 – They look amazing as per usual in a GT game, they almost look real. But a few issues bring it down a little.

Gameplay: 8.5 – Amazing as usual but a lack of content, despite the Prologue title, brings it down.

Longtivity: 9.3 – It cant last a good while with online when the issues are sorted. Otherwise, if you dont have Broadband in your house, take off 2 points of the score.

Overall: 9.1 – Other then the lack of content, the online issues, the graphics issues and the lack of damage, its a very good game. But may Polyphony Digital pay attention to the people who made the GT franchise a success and stuff Gran Turismo 5 with a shitload of content, get a great online service sorted (32 player Le Mans sort of race would be nice as well as Home intergration although thats been confirmed) and in-car damage sorted.