PS3 - Gran Tourismo Prologue

Gran Turismo Prologue By Sony

Save style: Checkpoint
Game Style: Racing

At first, I thought this game was to be the release of Gran Tourismo. Unfortunately, it isn't. This release is an interim release until Gran Tourismo 5 is released. Okay, I want to start by saying that this is weird. I mean, yes, it's great that the developers want to give people a taste of things to come. On the other hand, I'd rather have the complete full-featured release. As such, I find this release hard to review simply because we know that it's incomplete.

That said, onward.

Gameplay

I find the driving aspect on Gran Tourismo Prologue to be reasonable. The driving works well enough, but in some ways seems a bit sluggish. That may depend, also, on the car. The real issue, however, is not that much with the driving aspect. The problem I have with this game is that they start you off with so little money. So, you have to buy some cheap garbage car to begin. Progressing through the levels is tedious and time consuming. Mostly because you have to keep racing the same track over and over just to get enough money to buy the next decent car. Don't expect to get a fancy racing sports car without many many days of play (or unless you cheat).

Also, I really don't relish the thought of starting completely over each and every time with a new release of Gran Turismo. Granted, I'm not sure how they could go about pulling in Gran Tourismo 4 (GT4) game saves, but it would be cool if they could somehow do it. I'd like to be able to at least keep some of what I accomplished in GT4 (i.e., the money).

The next main downside to this game is that it suffers from the same flaws in GT4. That means that you still have to do the same types of tasks in GTP that you had to do in GT4. Thus, you still have to earn your license by competing in races. You also need to compete in races to get money to buy new cars. But, as I said, they give so little money at the start of the game, you end up having to buy a car, then sell it, then buy another and keep doing this until you can win all of the races that need specific cars.

Graphics

The graphics on GTP are fluid and awesome. The game looks superb. But, even as great as it looks, it still suffers from the same gameplay flaws as previous GT releases.

Audio

This is probably the weakest part of the game. It really needs some better music and the whine of the vehicles really gets old fast. But, that's how it goes with racing games.

Overall

This game is reasonably fun to play for a few hours. The flaws are basically the same flaws that exist in previous release of GT. I'm really wanting to see them do the game up in a better way that's more than the previous games. Overall, I'm more interested in the final GT5 to be released than this half-baked interim release. It's fun to see, but the cost is a bit too high to justify an unfinished game. At least the price was $40 rather than $60 which is at least some consolation, but not much.

Score

• Graphics: 10/10 (Amazing)
• Sound: 8/10
• Gameplay: 8/10 (too much like previous GT games)
  
• Bang-To-Buck: 3/10
• Replay: 2/10
• Overall: 7.5/10 (I want the full game)