Features
As soon at the Gran Turismo 5 demo was available on the Playstation Store I downloaded it and found it interesting. When the full version of GT5 Prologue showed up at my door I was very excited to get my hands on it he game. GT5 Prologue is a beautiful game and hands down has the most realistic driving experience of any racing game I have played. I would say that the most comparable title on the market right now would be Need For Speed: Pro Street.

Pro Street has more tracks for sure with GT5 Prologue offering up in the area of ten unique tracks not counting the reverse routes that can be played. One of my favorite parts of Gran Turismo 4 was the hefty and deep customization menu that allowed you to soup up your ride and change the way it looks. Sadly this aspect of the game is not included in GT5 Prologue, but it will reportedly be in the full game when it launches.

While the game lacks in the fun customization department, there are a number of cars to be had, and not no name fakes like you find in Burn Out Paradise. The game offers some of the hottest cars on the planet from Ferrari F430’s and F1 cars to Corvettes, Vipers and much more there are all sorts of cars to drive.

The catch with all these rides is that it takes a lot of in game loot to get them. Some of the cars are required to be able to race in certain events. The races themselves are broken up into classes starting with C and moving to B, A, and S. To unlock the successive categories doesn’t require winning a license like previous versions (thankfully). All you need to do is win all the races in a category in 1, 2, or 3rd place. The catch is that you may find yourself driving some of the same races over and over to get enough money to buy the cars required to finish each race. This isn’t that bad because each of the cars you buy feel so different and drives so realistically using a new car on a same track is almost like a different race. Let me say this as well, if you really want to get eth GT5 Prologue experience you absolutely need a steering wheel with force feedback. In fact Logitech has a new wheel designed right alongside the game that offers controls to let you adjust things like brake bias and traction control while drive.

Gameplay
Driving the cars is a dream and is so much more fun and rewarding than Pro Street is. Each car has its own distinct feel and is modeled accurately on the real car. Hop in a front drive car and it handles just like a front wheel drive is supposed to. Get in a rear wheel drive car and it reacts just as it should.

In my testing I used the Logitech Driving Force wheel designed specifically for the game. The force feedback features in the game are surreal. Each car has a different steering feel and handles differently. Go into a corner and you feel when the wheel leaves the road if you get into the grass, slide and you can feel it. Jump off the throttle too fast going into a curve and you can feel the car fighting to spin on you. It’s great.

The AI has been reworked in the game to allow for them to make mistakes like a real driver would. AI cars go into corners too hot and slide off the track and will try and dodge you if you make a mistake and spin.

However, the AI is not perfect. One of the first races puts you on the track in a woefully underpowered Suzuki Cappuccino along with multiple other cars spaced at intervals around the track. Many of the other cars are much faster than the Cappuccino and I found almost every time if I was driving on what the game listed as the ideal line around the track the AI cars would rear end me. On more than one occasion the force of the impact sent me spinning off the track. A human driver would typically try and go around you but the AI cars often just rammed me out of the way.

Aside from the occasional road rage incident perpetrated by AI cars, GT5 Prologue is one of the best driving games ever. You can tune your cars to some extent after you win the A series races, but that’s nothing compared to the depth of the customization you normally see on Gran Turismo titles.