Many sleepless nights while driving
The first thing you’ll notice about Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, outside of the extraordinarily gorgeous opening cinematics, is that it truly isn’t your typical Gran Turismo that we’ve all come to love. To explain this further, let me start by talking about customization.
In previous versions of the game, you have the ability to actually change/upgrade portions of the vehicle as your wealth grows. So when you wanted to upgrade the engine on that pretty purple Mini-Cooper that you fell in love with and raised like sea-monkeys, you could. You could add the noisy muffler, the kick-ass engine, the sports tires, etc. You could spec out your Mini-Cooper to go head-to-head with a Dodge Viper. You could do this. In Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, you cannot do this. Now, instead of bashing it, like I’m positive some very illogical reviewers out there decided to do, you have to really sit back and view it objectively. First, yes it takes away all that lovely changeability that the previous versions of the series brought to the table. It won’t give you an opportunity to get creative and personalize your vehicle to your exact specifications. That’s definitely a disappointment. On the flip-side to that coin, I’m okay with that. I’m not okay with losing the personalization of the vehicle, but I’m okay with leveling the playing field with other players. I’m completely okay with that. When you can create a game where everyone has a chance, it creates a different challenge. Instead of depending on parts to win you the race, you’ve now got to depend on your driving skills. That’s bringing an old-school idea back to a new-school game. For someone who has never experienced the previous versions of the game, this is a great chance to jump onboard for a fun filled time and fall in love with the series. That’s huge for Sony, that’s gaining an entirely new audience that didn’t want the complication of the series and just wanted racing. Of course, when Gran Turismo 5 (the completed version) finally reaches the world’s Playstation 3, then those newbies might want to a piece of the greater plan.
This alone makes the game brilliant in my mind. I don’t have to customize in this version, I just need to race.
Speaking of racing, you’ll love the controls for
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. Compared to previous versions, the controls certainly seem tighter and a bit more forgiving. GT 1-3 always seemed a bit loose, especially when your car started off-track or if you slightly bumped someone. That was probably one of the more frustrating aspects of the past games. At the drop of a hat you could spinout. While that may be true in some moments of racing, when you’re going around the 200 mph+ range, it’s certainly tough to do when you’re barely hitting 100 mph. In GT5: Prologue you get a tighter grip on the steering functions. You always have a shot of bringing an out-of-control car back from completely hopeless. The game gives you a fighting chance and, in my humble opinion, truly reacts the way a car would if it slightly got bumped or if it drove off the track into grass briefly. It’s one of those things that made GT challenging and frustrating in the past that finally got corrected in this recent version. On the other side of this story though, there still is a variation of driving techniques and steering wheel control that you need to have as you purchase newer/better cars. So a Integra certainly is a lot tighter to control at top-speed then if you were driving a Dodge Viper at its peak. In a word, the controls are perfect. Regretfully, to make them more perfect, I wasn’t able to get my hands on a Dual Shock 3 in time for this review. I’m positive the experience would have been heightened a bit, and I’ll certainly revise this portion of the review when that does occur. For now, this reviewer isn’t going to B.S. you, the regular controller for this game works great, but if you’ve already had a taste of Dual Shock 3, I’m sure you can’t go back.