Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - Forget about episodic content, here is episodic demo
by moose
Look closely at the screenshot below, then click on it and look at its larger version, then at its fullsize 1080p version.
Now, forget about it because the actual game looks so much better that screenshots are rendered pointless.
I an talking about Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which has hit retail today (in Europe, it has been out in Japan for quite a while).
Simply put, hook a force-feedback racing wheel to your PS3, turn on the home cinema and the 32″ LCD TV and vroooooom. This game is amazing: at each generation of the Gran Turismo franchise, they keep pushing the limits of realism (OK, they still don’t have a damage model, but this has more to do with manufacturers not wanting to have their lovingly rendered cars destroyed than with developers being lazy). Actually, it’s as if each new installment in the series has in-game graphics that look like the replays of the previous generation.
It’s THAT good.
There’s two interesting things with the 5th Gran Turismo, it’s the concept of “endless development”. The game has been in development for, like, ages, and they released a GT5 demo about a year ago, which was amazing but included only one single track (but what a track: the Eiger, pictured above) and a dozen cars, but allowed you to drive a Ferrari for the first time in GT history. And now, even when Sony says that the “full” GT5 is still a good year away (!), they release “GT5 Prologue”, which is a sort of Demo 2.0, with 6 tracks and 60 cars, complete with online racing features (a first in the series too), live weather details for the main racing spots of the world (?!) and GT TV, a sort of special channel that allows you to watch videos and TV shows like Top Gears (our UK readers will enjoy).
The second interesting thing is that the game is available today in retail as a Bluray Disc, and will be downloadable on the PlayStation Network in a few days. Sony already did this with their online game WarHawk, and I think it’s an interesting model, having this dual sale channel.
OK, maybe it’s just a way to milk the cow and bring some fresh cash in while the mad guys at Polyphony Digital take 5 years to digitally recreate cars from the ridiculous Daewoo Matiz to the insane Ferrari F1 at a level of detail that was unthinkable a couple years ago (GT4 had 4,000 polygon cars, GT5’s models are 200,000 - two hundred thousands!), but hey! it’s also good because now we have something to spend some time on while we wait for the final GT5.
