You can say a lot about Polyphony Digital but they sure take their time to release quality games. With over 60 cars and 6 tracks GT5 prologue must keep us amused till 2009 when the long awaited sequel of GT4 comes out. Question is: will is succeed?

Gameplay

Let’s just get right to the point, it drives amazing. With my G25 I have to use the H shifter, 900 degree turning and the FFB is great, but then again Logitech is sponsoring GT meaning it might be limited to Logitech steering wheels. You begin with just 35.000 credits and no car, not in arcade, split screen battle or time trail. With the dealer option you can buy your way through about 80 cars including all time greats like the Ferrari F40, Audi R8, BMW M3 and the Ferrari F2007. Wait, they’ve included Ferrari’s and even their F1 car? Yes they have, is it next gen enough already?

To get back to the system, you’ll need to buy all cars if you want to use them, no free give aways at the beginning (maybe at the end of a race class, not their yet)
This system will keep you playing for many hours because of the constant pull of wanting to have all cars to use them in arcade or against your buddies. If you play against your buddies and you both want the same car then get ready to buy two of them, yes it’s that limited but yet realistic.

At the startup the game will ask you to install itself on the HDD, which takes long. But worse is that it’s not optional meaning 40gb cheap PS3 owners can get in serious trouble as the data is some GB’s big (not sure how much)
One last appeal is the Grand Turismo TV and online but I’ll have to disappoint you, I wasn’t able to play online yet and have just 1 video in my collection, I’ll keep you updated!

Presentation

Some games lack gameplay (motorstorm) and others lack graphics (Nascar 08) but GT5 finds the perfect balance. During my first races I just forgot to change gears because I was too busy looking at the amazing graphics, the thrill of driving out the tunnel in the light has next gen writing all over it.
In addition to the perfect car and track graphics this game also features some great little details like when slip streaming your car will shake and slow down when coming out of it, and when looking back you can actually see the back sheets or the engine when driving a super car.
Driving one with you speaker set tuned up will blow you away. The tire sounds are toned down from the demo in favor of some heavy engine sounds, be sure to turn off the back ground music though.
But like always not all is perfect in this full priced demo, for one the menu look amazing but feel very slow. It often has a short –not too annoying- load time and the dealer option is very limited. Meaning you can’t search a car by list or BHP/weight information, but only trough brand, leaving some time to find them all.

Overall GT5P does nothing wrong. It simply offers the best car racing game on the market.