Gran Turismo 5 Prologue if anything is a indicator of modest potential for an overinflated title.
To be honest, I've hate arcade(y) racers after the release of Gran Turismo 2...that in turn led me to purchase Gran Turismo (ONE) and then from there everything is history. To get things off the bat, I will MAKE many references to other racing games I've played/ come across...and the main contender here is going to be from competing polar console: Xbox360's 'Forza Motorsports 2' amongst many other titles.
Right off the bat: the game is stupendously gorgeous. I was completely floored and taken aback by the finer details in the game: nevermind the interior details it was the treads on the tires, honestly...the attention to detail is ridiculous. The cars that is...everything else- not so much.
Now call me a stickler but everything NOT a car is mediocre in comparison to the level of attention given to the cars. For example: everything NOT in the track is extremely flat and linear. The best description I can give you is imagine a four-story rectangular block with a realistic photograph pasted onto it; nothing more and nothing less. You'll occasional see a door ornament but those are far and few in-between and lets NOT forget to mention the bystanders in the game. You can't review a Gran Turismo game without picking on the bystanders!...and so I am...and what can I say? "BOO!" But then again I guess it is my fault for not vicariously speeding down London's streets and stopping (er...slowing down enough) to pay attention to the details. Then again...maybe I'm not supposed to...but hey, its been something that's bugged me since GT3 and I can't help and pick on it. It is something worth considering since its something that's obviously been reoccurring...to my attention at least.
Then again...the game is known for it redundancy and with that everything just seems to blend into the background and you race (as you're supposed to) each track. This brings me to another problem: the game for the most part is extremely easy to cheat on, the best example is Suzuka's last S-curve where you can simply cut across the middle and slam the other opponent into the gravel, easily and effectively cutting them off from every returning to the pole position. Granted there ARE SOME races that will penalize your "Shortcutting" but once again those are far and few in-between to really matter. There's also the matter of counter-penalties which are gained with your collision into someone else who had collided before you...who had collided with the person before them...and so for and so forth; basically: you're penalized for SOMEBODY else's BAD driving and this is NOTORIOUS to the 10th online.
It sort of defeats the purpose of being able to correctly navigate an S-curve or a sharp chicane with practiced braking and moderated acceleration EVEN WITH THE SUGGESTED LINE OF TRAVEL TURN ON when racing online and I've mentioned before the counter-penalties. If the online feature is representative of what Polyphony hopes to showcase as their attempt at online racing then I'm going to be sorely disappointed. My first gripe about the online racing is the position or lineup you start off in right off the bat. Of course it makes sense to put the fastest or super-powered cars in the back but it quickly turns into a frustrating experience when every racer (...idiot) in front CAN NOT understand the concept of TURNING LEFT on the Daytona Race Track. But I cannot blame them for their lack of understanding of directions it brings into question how the game chooses to treat these bad drivers.
What the game employs is that any "moderate" collisions (and I emphasize 'moderate' because for the most part its quite ridiculous) will cause the vehicle to PHASE in which any vehicle behind them can pass freely through them. Sounds like good idea I thought until the vehicle in front of me UN-PHASED and I was 3/4 of a way through them. What occurred was I was in second place contending for first when the car in front of me came into the turn to fast, skidding slightly into the wall but still had the lead on me however I was the key position of drafting behind him. The car phased to where I could safely pass from the side and into the front however this is where things turned bad. As I took the inside line he had un-phased behind me WHILE being stuck INSIDE my vehicle which caused my vehicle to LITERALLY LIFT off the ground (where I'm staring down the hood of my vehicle at nothing but the tarmac and all its glorious cracks and gravel, no horizon and not course markers) and dropped back and spun into the outside wall. OKAY...at least the physics of the game worked but to my loss... I careened into the wall on my right, flat spun at least five times, and then finally came to a rest after slamming into the innermost left wall in the grass.
...and then there are times when other people just don't know how to take a left turn and expect to be sling-shot out of the turn which in turn causes EVERYONE ELSE behind them to crash. ONE TOO MANY times have I been PENALIZE for hitting somebody else's out of control flat-spinning vehicle and it throughly frustrates me.
Forza Motorsports EFFECTIVE gets rid of this nuisance with its ability to either race with damage effects turned off or on and FORCES other races to behave/ race correctly...and not only that the reprimands of other racers are enough to keep you on your toes, nobody likes a bad driver in a race and the ability to give them a boot is always a welcomed feature in ANY ONLINE MULTIPLAYER. This also brings up the issue of collision and damaging models.
In the age of high-definition gaming visual fidelity ISN'T ALWAYS going to win you the race. I'm ENTIRELY disappointed that a feature such as damage modeling is NOT replicated/ implemented in a racing simulator so grand as this! Even the FIRST FORZA MOTORSPORTS included this! Lets not forget games such as Burnout Paradise....where the instance of crashing was actually...beneficial AND FUN! (Not that crashing for crashing's sake isn't fun either!) And this is actually on a growing list of grievances as the title begins to grow...and hopefully mature. The damage modeling is a panacea to BAD DRIVING! Who would have thought!?! Down shift when you're not supposed to- *buzz! You brake the clutch/ transmission. Come off a corner slope to fast- *buzz! You smash your front lip. Suspension too low on a specific track- *buzz! The game will let you know when you bottom out and brake your rear-axle.
The simplest solution of all racing simulators is to let you KNOW how bad you're driving so you can fix it! For all its glory Gran Turismo is only letting you drive bad but not really letting you learn from it, you'll continue to drive bad and continually drive bad with racing modifications you would've never needed! (But it never hurts...)
Granted GT5 Prologue is ONLY a portion of what we're to expect but one thing I'd really hope they'd show off would be something along the lines of a WEATHER SYSTEM. GT3 sort of had something like that...sort of and GT4 all but downplayed it, tucking them into a corner of the game. Games such as PGR4 has had a promising implementation of it and previous Burnout titles have featured a simple weather system.
For the most part the game is entirely TOO CLEAN! To be honest...I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. With FM2 collisions, tire tracks, pieces from vehicles were there! Fishtailed in the previous lap? Your tire skids indicate where you faltered, brake off your front lip/ bumper? Your remnant piece is nicely thrown into the corner from the cars behind you, and lastly which I definitely have to give GREAT BIG KUDOS to Studio Turn 10: YOUR CAR GETS DIRTY WHILE YOU RACE!!! What a concept!
Now it seems that I've been almost entirely negative about the game.
well...for the most part I've seen it done better in other games what GT5 Prologue has to offer. Its NO LONGER about HOW MANY CARS YOU HAVE or HOW MANY MANUFACTURERS you can present its about the QUALITY OF THE RACING. Honestly, when you get good enough in the game there is ONLY REALLY 7-12 cars you'll EVER use...once you dump that beginning POS. Even in GT5 Prologue am I REALLY ONLY USING 4 cars out of the...who knows how many they're touting...*looks on back of cover, 60 cars! It was ONLY when I HAD to use a specific car did I spend the money other then that it was change in the bank.
Now I do have to complement them on their painstakingly attention to detail in the INTERIORS of the car...but honestly...I think its cool but the novelty WORE OFF after lap 2. Sounds of the game? Check. Sounds the same to me honestly. No different from FM2's sound scheme. Physics of the game? Check. No different from FM2's physics. Race tracks? Check. More or less an addition of a new track but DITTO. Car Manufacturers? Check...well, the EXCLUSION of TOYOTA had me scratching my head, but more or less (at the moment) DITTO.
The real feature I was looking forward to was the tuning system but its all but no-show in Prologue so that'll be a speculative "No-no" until I see how it really goes. One thing I did however find refreshing is the neat little treasure I discovered and that is the 'Course Guide' which is a nice tidbit of information regarding the tracks you're going to race on in the 'Arcade Mode.' I also found Gran Turismo TV pretty interesting too and I'm anticipating the next video to download regarding the development of the GTR. GT TV has a lot of potential and I'd love to see where that goes.
All in all the DEMO is great for awhile and if you've played the other iterations of Gran Turismo you know what to expect when coming into this. Just take away all the great things about it, such as tuning, car selection, after market modifications, etc etc and well...you're left wondering who will the full game be pulled off. For the most part I'm not satisfied with the small package and with other great racing games out there GT5 looks to be likes its only going to be all beauty on the outside (and interior). I do, however, remain hopeful and perhaps when the game DOES get released A LOT of things that others are ALREADY DOING AND DOING GREAT get addressed.