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Gran Turismo 5 Prologue | 
| From: Sony Computer Entertainment
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $35.00
You Save: $4.99 (12%)
New (33) Used (8) from $25.99
Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 66
Format: Playstation
Platform: Playstation 3
Genre: car_and_truck_racing_and_flying_games
ESRB: Everyone
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Playstation 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 98158
Model: 98158
UPC: 711719815822
EAN: 0711719815822
ASIN: B000FPOJOS
Release Date: April 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | The award-winning Gran Turismo franchise returns with its 5th installment, exclusively for PS3. With its signature realism and physics, it continues to blur the line between simulation and reality. | | • | Race more than 60 meticulously detailed cars from worldwide manufacturers, including Ferrari, BMW, and Nissan in stunning 1080p at 60 frames per second. | | • | Each car features an all-new interior dash view with driver animations and gauges that track vehicle performance in real-time. | | • | In addition to racing with up to 16 players online, it features Gran Turismo TV, a new dedicated online channel that delivers motorsport and automotive content from around the globe. | | • | Get a jump on the competition. You can transfer your Gran Turismo 5 Prologue progress to Gran Turismo 5 when it releases. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The award-winning Gran Turismo franchise returns with its 5th installment, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, exclusively for PlayStation 3. With its signature realism and unrivaled physics, this highly anticipated precursor to Gran Turismo 5 continues to blur the line between simulation and reality."Prologue" is defined as an introductory or preceding event or development, and true to every letter, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue treats both long-time fans of the Gran Turismo franchise as well as those coming to it new, with a generous sampling of what they can expect to see in Gran Turismo 5 later in the year and further releases on the PS3.
The new direction of Grand Turismo |
Take your ride online for the first time.
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Race across six international tracks.
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Customize your ride in the garage.
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Developed By the Best
Polyphony Digital is the developer of the Gran Turismo franchise, led by creator Kazunori Yamauchi. Polyphony Digital is known for pushing the limits of the PlayStation hardware, and with its realistic graphics and physics, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is no different. In addition to receiving CAD data from the auto manufacturers, they have taken thousands of photos to model each car (and track). As an example of the level of detail, a car in Gran Turismo 4 has the same number of polygons as a headlight in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. Polyphony works even closer with the automotive industry to make sure that the cars look and drive just as they do in real life. In fact, Kazunori Yamauchi designed the on-board computer for the real Nissan GT-R. If you're lucky to buy one when it releases, you will notice the Polyphony Digital logo when you start your car.Take Your Cars and Tracks Online and Off
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue features over 60 stunning cars - including vehicles by Lotus, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Ferrari for you to race on seriously realistic, real-life tracks: including the Eiger Nordwand, the London City Track and Suzuka - all rendered in incredible High Definition graphics. There's also all-new driving physics for the most lifelike driving experience ever and new, improved opponent artificial intelligence for the toughest race challenge yet.But that's not all - for the first time ever in the history of Gran Turismo, players will now be able to race online. Up to 16 players will be able to go head-to-head on some of the world's best racetracks on PlayStation Network. All you need to get racing is a broadband connection and PS3. Once you're up and revving, Global Online Rankings and the My Garage homepage feature will leave the world in n o doubt as to just who is the best at Gran Turismo.And then there's the Online Dealership, providing a wealth of information on cars and manufacturers and also Gran Turismo TV - a dedicated online channel available exclusively from PSN and packed with some of the greatest content that Motorsport, car manufacturers and TV has to offer. Key Features:- Race over 60 cars from worldwide automotive manufacturers, precisely modeled both inside and out.
- All-new interior dash view, featuring full driver animation and working gauges.
- Compete on 6 tracks with 12 total layouts, including Fuji Speedway, Suzuka Circuit, and for the first time ever, Daytona International Speedway.
- Online racing with up to 16 players, complete with detailed rankings, plus downloadable ghost cars and race replays of top racers.
- New online community features including Gran Turismo TV, featuring worldwide automotive and motorsport programming.
- Tune vehicle performance, from suspension and tires to gear ratio and engine modifications.
- Rendered in stunning 1080p at 60 frames per second with crisp, realistic lighting and camera effects (replays rendered in 1080p 30fps).
Full Car List (71 cars):
- Lexus IS F '07
- Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II Nur '02
- Nissan Fairlady Z Version S '07
- Nissan Skyline Sedan 350GT Type SP '06
- Nissan Skyline Coupe Concept '07
- Nissan Skyline Coupe 370GT Type SP '07
- Nissan Skyline Coupe (V36) Tuned Car
- Nissan GT-R Proto '05
- Nissan GT-R '07
- Honda Integra TYPE R '04
- Honda NSX Type R '02
- Acura NSX '91
- Mazda Atenza Sport (2007 Tokyo Motor Show reference exhibit)
- Mazda RX-8 Type S '03
- Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A (FD)
- Mazda RX-7 (FD) Special Tuned Car
- Subaru Impreza WRX STI (18inch BBS Wheel Option) '07
- Subaru Impreza Sedan WRX STI spec C Type RA '05
- Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX GSR '05
- Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR Premium Package '07
- Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX GSR Tuned Car
- Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR Tuned Car
- Suzuki Cappuccino '95
- Suzuki Swift Sport '07
| - Suzuki Cervo SR '07
- Suzuki Cappuccino Tuned Car
- Suzuki Swift Sport Tuned Car
- Daihatsu Copen Active Top '02
- Daihatsu OFC-1 '07
- Chevrolet Corvette Z06 '06
- Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C6) Tuned Car
- Dodge Viper GTS '02
- Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe '06
- Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe Tuned Car
- Ford Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07
- Ford GT '05
- Ford Focus ST '06
- Ford GT Tuned Car
- Audi R8 4.2 FSI R tronic '07
- Audi TT Coupe 3.2 quattro '07
- BMW Z4 '03
- BMW 135i Coupe '07
- BMW M3 Coupe '07
- BMW 135tii '08
- Mini Cooper-S '06
- Mercedes-Benz SL 55 AMG '02
- Volkswagen Golf GTI '01
- Volkswagen Golf V GTI '05
| - Alfa Romeo 147 TI 2.0 TWIN SPARK '06
- Alfa Romeo Brera Sky Window 3.2 JTS Q4 '06
- Ferrari 599 '06
- Ferrari F430 '06
- Ferrari 512BB '76
- Ferrari F40 '92
- Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione '91
- Citroen C4 Coupe 2.0VTS '06
- Renault Clio Renault Sport V6 24V '00
- Clio Renault Sport V6 24V Tuned Car
- Aston Martin DB9 Coupe '06
- Jaguar XK Coupe '06
- Lotus Elise 111R '04
- Lotus Elise '96
- Lotus Elise 111R Tuned Car
- Lotus Elise Tuned Car
- TVR Tuscan Speed 6 '00
- TVR Tamora '02
- Art Morrison Corvette'60
- Amuse/Opera Performance Gran Turismo 350Z RS
- Amuse S2000 GT1 Turbo
- Mine's BNR34 Skyline GT-R N1 base '06
- Blitz Dunlop ER34 '07
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| Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...
 Different console. Same problems. May 26, 2008
Chris Longhurst (Salt Lake City, Utah United States)
58 out of 70 found this review helpful
Right up front, I'll point out the three most obvious things about GT5 Prologue.
1. It looks gorgeous
2. The AI is abominable.
3. There is still no car damage.
To use a lovely english expression : it's all mouth and no trousers. Look past the HD graphics and hype and you'll find Gran Turismo 1 lurking here.
The Gran Turismo games are known for their accurate car handling and fantastic graphics, and GT5 Prologue is no exception. The problem is that it is all absolutely ruined by the other driver AI. Previous Gran Turismo titles have never exactly shone when it comes to the AI, but in GT5 it's simply non-existent. It's not that the AI is dumb, it's just not there. The other cars all drive on rails, irrespective of where you are. For example, on the High Speed Ring circuit - there's a challenge to get from the back of the pack to the front in a single lap. In the car they give you, it is 100% impossible to come any higher than 3rd, and that's a stretch. The driving-on-rails is so accurate and predictable that you can actually predict exactly where every car will be at any given point. You'll come up behind the Ford Focus at the end of the second turn, and don't even think about passing him on the outside because he will always jink to the left for no reason as he goes across the bridge. If you're in the way, then tough. The game will just force you off the track. At the next corner, the Mazda 6 will always follow the identical line inside the corner, again irrespective of whether you're there.
The same is true in the other types of race. Within minutes of playing this game, you will find yourself making a tidy corner only to have a much faster car come right up behind you and ram you off the track because you're in the way of it's pre-programmed line. To see how truly awful it is, start a race at the back and watch the 15 cars in front of you. They'll all cut the same corner in the same way, every lap, all with the identical puff of dirt as they do it.
It is simply abominable.
The problem is that this issue was solved long ago by the likes of - well - just about every other racing franchise out there. It's compounded by the fact that there is still no car damage or dirt in GT5. You can stuff any car into a concrete armco at 175mph and it will simply bounce off without so much as a scratch. To think that Polyphony could put out a game with no car damage and ruinous AI on a next-gen console in 2008 just boggles the mind given how accomplished the competition is (think: Project Gotham Racing).
So what about the eye-candy aspect? Well - it runs at 1080p (full HD) and it looks absolutely spectacular. The textures are crisp and don't blur out at highly obtuse angles like they would on an X-Box. The car models are beautiful as are the various effects like the real-time reflections and the colour-flip paint jobs. There is some aliasing on high-contrast areas but detail popup is minimal. There are very noticable level-of-detail swaps on some of the cars where they swap from a low detail to a high detail version. It's most noticable on the Daytona circuit where you'll occasionally see the shading on the back of a car pop noticably as the model swaps to it's higher resolution version. In fact the eye-candy aspect is only marred slightly be the fact that the game clearly doesn't run at 60 frames per second. Well - it does on sparsely populated tracks but in the thick of the action on some circuits, you'll see noticable slowdown which you just shouldn't have on a console as powerful as a PS3.
What other things to know about? Well the online aspect of the game has a lot of promise but it's buggy at best. If your PS3 isn't set up pefectly on a broadband network (NAT type 1) it just won't connect to the servers. If you're lucky enough to have a good setup, then even when it does connect, the racing is a bit dodgy. It's obvious that the sample rate for your system communicating with all the others is fairly slow as you'll often see your opponents cars jump across the circuit from one side to the other, or suddenly appear to brake or accelerate at light speed as the servers catch up.
When you come to use the game for the first time, be prepared for a long wait. It seems to copy the entire blu-ray disc on to the internal hard drive which takes a good 15 minutes, then as soon as you connect, it will download a huge update which will take 5 to 10 minutes to download and another 5 minutes to install. So out-of-the-box to first race is about 30 minutes. That seems a bit odd to me - I was entirely expecting the game to run off the disc like many of the other PS3 titles.
So GT5 Prologue : it's great eye-candy, sure. But the two biggest, most long-standing problems with the GT franchise are still present. Awful AI and no car damage. The press previews and talk from Polyphony indicate that the full game will have car damage, but historically, they've never been known to change their underlying game engines between the 'Prologue' and the full versions of GT. They have always claimed that they've fixed the AI with each successive version of the game, but honestly - GT5 Prologue has taken a massive step backwards. They say it's better than ever but it's actually worse than ever. So when they say there will be car damage in the full game, I say 'cry wolf' I'm afraid.
It's an ominous omen for GT5 later this year. Sure it'll have more cars and more tracks. But chances are it will have the same problems the GT franchise has always had, and that's simply not good enough. Couple that with the questionable frame rate and online problems and that could be disastrous.
I dearly love the GT franchise - I've had every one of them and I've been hoping and praying that they would one day fix the AI problems and the lack of car damage. If they've not done it on the PS3, then it's just never going to happen, and that is a sad indictment of Polyphony's marketing strategy. I've played this game a lot, desperately wanting to like it but I always put the controller down and am left with an empty feeling. It's just not exciting.
As Good as it Get on The PS3 April 21, 2008
A. C. Ege/Acedoh (Stockton, CA USA)
21 out of 31 found this review helpful
It's amazing how critical some have been toward GT5 Prologue. In a sense it's deserved but in other ways it's very unfair. Yes Prologue is a game with less content than previous GT games but still it has as much content as many other racing games. I have always love the Gran Turismo series. From it's humble beginning on the Playstation to it's trumped up GT4 on the PS2. What has never lacked is vehicle selection. Although in this game you are getting a rather limited 60 plus vehicles. Compared to the previous GT4's 500 vehicles this seems rather minimal. Although compared to some games that offer less than 50 vehicles, Prologue seems standard.
Gran Turismo: 5 Prologue begins like any Gran Turismo game. Stunning and beautiful intro transitioning to the menu. What is a first is the ability to play online and GTTV. Both are welcome editions in my book. The racing physics have improved in this version which make it much more challenging. With previous iterations there were times when you could slam your call into a wall when coming into a curve without any consequence. This game makes you pay for arcade racing. What is an added bonus is the ability to use the all new Dual Shock 3 controller. The DS3 makes racing that much more enjoyable.
Their are nearly two dozen makes of cars. Although each dealer is only limited to two or three cars. What is missing is the ability to tune your car. That is probably the biggest drawback for me. Now you do get the ability to do this after finishing all three licenses. There are no skill tests to acquire these licenses. Just completing a license to get to the next. The first license is easy to complete but it does get more challenging after you finish the first license.
With this game you only get a paltry six tracks. Although each track has different variations which does add more to the game. This is one of the few games where I enjoy mastering the tracks. So playing on the Suzaka or London track is a lot of fun for me. The tracks are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen on any game. Playing in London looks so real I almost think I am watching the real thing. Watching the replays are so incredible that they are great ways to show off your PS3.
Lastly I want to talk about GT online. The format is rather simple. Pick a experience level based on how far you have progressed in the game. Getting into the race is simple and only takes a few seconds to get into a race with eleven others. You position in the race varies depending on nothing. What is irritating is some of the people you may play against. On more than one occasion I have been knocked off the road by others who seem to have only one intent. This makes the racing not much fun as people tend to not want to play right. I am hoping they will eventually allow for more user control on these races to help avoid these problems from becoming overwhelming.
All in all GT5 Prologue is really a fun game. If you can look at this game as a challenge that will keep you playing for hours on end this should be a must buy. If you are someone who has loved every Gran Turismo game then GT5 Prologue is for you. Now if you are someone who thinks they will get bored by six tracks and sixty plus cars don't bother with this game. For forty dollars it is well worth it to me. A great racing game for the PS3. A great game until the full GT5 is released.
 Good looking game with mud puddle depth... April 18, 2008
B. Ford
12 out of 31 found this review helpful
Installation: Installation is easy, pop in the disk, click through all the "ok" dialogs, go away for about 30-60 minutes, and the game has installed some indescribable content onto your PS3's hard drive. The box states the data copied is only about 5.5mb but the length of time GT5 takes to copy whatever data is being copied makes the data seem more like 250-350mb. I hadn't checked.
Starting the Game: After installation, the game restarts and on launch day, GT5 downloads another patch that takes about 20 minutes to install. The patch requires a manual restart obscurely indicated with the message "press the PS button to exit game." Which will stay there until the PS button is pressed.
Playing the Game: After scanning through the now Sony standard slider bar of icons the player will find the GT series standard Dealership icon to spend the initial 36000 C GT5 starts off. To avoid having to buy 2-3 cars to race in the 15 or so Stage 3 racing series, start with the cappuccino as that will allow for racing in the Sunday cups, the light weights, and the cappuccino exclusive set of races.
All the controls are just like the GT HD demo released so getting up and racing was easy. Unfortunately, getting up and racing is too easy. Just like the GT HD demo, there are not any available customization options for your vehicle until Stage 3 is completed. None, notta. You can't even change tires in the event garage. The game is GT5 and most buyers have probably played GT3 or 4 or any racing game so there is no need to baby users by locking the advanced garage features in Stage 3. No real reason anyways.
The reviewers list 71 cars, the garage list about 30 cars at 2 cars per dealer cars with only 80-90% that can be bought, and the cars that can't be bought give no indication on how to win the cars. The other 40 or so cars must be hidden until after stage 3. Forza allows users to browse all available cars and clearly states how to unlock the car.
Add the ease of winning, large payouts (GT3 was 3000 C for the Sunday Cup, GT5 gives 5000C or 2500C for finishing), and lack of feel from the race cars (body roll anyone?), and you have a game that lacks any real depth out of the box.
Pros:
- Pretty
- Easy to get into
- Races can be done in 5 minutes or less
- Unique damage model (reduces engine power as penalties for collisions)
- It is a Gran Turismo game
- Best racing game for PS3
- Simple menu
Cons
- Babies players way too much (no garage in Stage 3, credits seem to easy to get).
- Unique damage model (penalties for collisions that the player didn't cause).
- AI has no problem running into the player just like the player's position isn't calculated into the AI's drive line.
- AI drives on the line.
- No car feedback/driving feels so arcadish/cars feel like shopping carts
 A passionate labor of love to give us the drive of our life. April 24, 2008
The Matrix Fan
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
Wow. Trying to give Gran Turismo 5: Prologue a complete review is like trying to count the grains of sand on the beach in Ashikita, but I'll do my best.
Whether you are a new player of Gran Turismo or a long-time fan like myself, the only place to truly start is choosing the Gran Turismo TV option and watch the video "Beyond The Apex". I watched this video at least 4 times before I even started playing the game.
We get to meet Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo's creator. This man loved cars by age 8, and his love has developed into a lifelong dream of providing video gamers the perfect balance between car beauty, and car functionality.
But this is no easy task - for example, his development team took great pains to take 20-30,000 pictures of just ONE racetrack over a 2 month timeframe! Why? To make us feel like we're racing on the real thing.
Every curve in the road, every tire mark on the track, every dip of the car frame with acceleration and shifting is designed to give us all the sensations we would feel driving a car in the real world.
The game gets glowing reviews from Tanner Foust, a professional drifter and Rally car driver. It's one thing for a person like me who's never been on a racetrack, it's quite another when a professional driver says this is the type of game that encourages people to go out and buy a rear wheel drive car and try it for real!
Okay, so let's get on to the gameplay.
The online PS3 players can use the functions of News, Online Racing, and Online Rankings. The only thing sweeter than hosting a race with players from across the globe and winning a three lap race by a hair's breath, is seeing YOUR name at the top of the online rankings.
There are 71 cars to choose from, more than enough to whet our appetites until the full version of Gran Turismo 5 is released. This game gives us a lot of creative freedom: we can alter the AI difficulty, the active steering, the driving physics, braking, traction control, tires, and much more.
The graphics are, for lack of a better word, flawless. During the intro movie, a car is shown driving on a road with sunlight reflecting off the rear panels - the light is shown as patchwork through leaves on a passing tree. That level of detail is also in the gameplay itself.
There are 4 different viewpoints for driving the car: a player with the top-of-the-line racing wheel can choose three camera angles inside the car, while other players can choose the exterior camera to get a better overall view of the car's physics. As far as the controller options, we can choose the button setup ourselves. I was very impressed to see the controller schematic for not just one, but FIVE driving wheel simulators to choose from.
On the racetrack, we have a blue line to direct us on the best path to victory, which we can either follow or alter at our own risk. The path also shows us the optimal brake times, which is a fantastic feature for the novice and expert alike. We have rules to follow - The days of cutting across patches of sand to get ahead of our opponents are gone. There are penalties for hitting other cars, ramming cars off the track, using shortcuts and any boundary collisions.
So what are the shortcomings?
Well, the online portion does have limits. If the host player of a race has a slower internet connection, the race can end prematurely or the picture quality/gameplay is sacrified. Some players are extremely courteous, other players may resort to cheap schoolyard tactics which can ruin the overall racing experience.
The AI can be a little cruel on the racing circuit. We can't hit other cars, but if we're in the line of another car that drifts into us, we get penalized.
The emphasis on drifting is more prevalent in this iteration of Gran Turismo, and the art of drifting is not easy to master. The more casual player might find this aspect of racing very frustrating.
Younger gamers might get frustrated with the realism of the game's physics....this isn't Twisted Metal, after all. But hey, if Kazunori Yamauchi could love cars at age 8, then I guess anything is possible.
But the biggest shortcoming? This is only a prologue....the finished product will most likely not be released before 2009.
Anyone with a passionate love of cars probably has this game in their library already. The casual player can definitely give this game a rent, much as I did. Be prepared, though: Once you appreciate the fine art of drifting and racing with the precision of a heart surgeon, you won't be returning this rental on time. You'll be saving your pennies for a Dualshock Wireless Controller or a Gran Turismo Racing Wheel.
Gran Turismo has truly earned the title of "The Real Driving Simulator".
Amazing Prologue for GT5... April 16, 2008
Aziz Al-Masri
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
Beautiful Visuals?
Check
Full HD at 60FPS?
Check
16 Player Online?
Check
Damage?
Uhh get back to me this fall
New Nissan GTR?
Hell YEAH!!!
GT5 Prologue is an amazing entry into the PS3 era by Polyphony Digital and a MUST buy for any Gran Turismo fan. The cars feel right and the AI is much improved, but not perfect yet. Some cars still follow a line and will not move. The new in-car models are gorgeous and extremely detailed. With over 60 cars and 5 tracks, Prologue is a great game.
Sure many will say its a glorified demo not worth 40USD and for some that is true. It will not be worth it. But for car fans and especially GT fans you will not be disappointed. Sony has been proactive with updates for the game and it is possible that damage will be added this Fall.
So the verdict? Buy it if you enjoyed GT1-GT4 stop reading and buy. See you on the London track m8s!!
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