Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

TGS '07: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Updated Hands-On

TOKYO--Last month we wrote at length about the playable builds of Polyphony Digital's upcoming Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which was being shown in a couple of different forms on the show floor at the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention. Here we are, just a few weeks later, this time in Tokyo for the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, and we're pleased to report that we played an even newer version of the game. This one shows off many of the features that series creator Kazunori Yamauchi introduced in Leipzig.

As in Germany, Prologue came in a couple of different flavors on the show floor at TGS 2007. Attendees could play the game either seated in a racing seat similar to the ones featured in Leipzig, or standing up with the Sixaxis controller. Unfortunately, Prologue isn't being shown off with the just-announced, rumble-enabled Dual Shock 3, but we're hoping we get a chance to play the game with the updated controller very soon.

Our first stop on the Prologue tour was to check out the racing-cabinet version. Once again we packed ourselves into the too-tight frame and began diving through the menu system. On the surface, everything is the same as it was back in the Leipzig version of the game. The front end of Prologue still features the revamped menu screen that we're slowly becoming accustomed to. The difference is that many of the features that were disabled in Leipzig were working this time around, including the "dealer" menu option, as well as the new "TV" feature.

Though the TGS version of Prologue features 22 cars, many of which were playable in the Leipzig build, the dealer menu option will give you a bit more information on the cars available to you. Dealerships found under this menu item include Nissan, Suzuki, Lotus, Daihatsu, TVR, Ford, BMW, Alfa Romeo, Acura, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Lancia, Dodge, Audi, and Ferrari. We went to Nissan first, and were presented with gorgeous, full-res models of a GTR-Proto 5 and a Skyline GTR V-Spec 97. The bottom row of this screen included additional items for Nissan models, including channel, test drive, news, and catalog. Selecting the channel option brings up some video choices featuring Nissan-model cars.

That video content seems to tie nicely into the main menu's TV option, which, as Yamauchi explained during his GT 5 Prologue presentation in Leipzig, will be a hub of sorts for a variety of different automobile and motorsports videos. When we brought up the option in the demo version of the game, we saw clips from the D1 Grand Prix drifting series, a Super GT highlights video, and multiple episodes of Best MOTOring, presumably a local Japanese automobile show, among many others. It isn't known yet whether this will be representative of the type of content to be featured in the full version of the game. It also isn't clear what kind of content will be available in the U.S. as compared to Japan or Europe. (Here's hoping we get episodes of Top Gear, though.) Still, it's nice to see the TV feature coming along after hearing about it for the first time just recently.

So with the extra goodies out of the way, let's talk about the track action. Another surprise awaited us in this updated version of Prologue: new tracks. In addition to Suzuka, which we'd played in Leipzig, the TGS build of the game featured another Japanese track, Fuji Speedway, as well as an American favorite, the Super Speedway at Daytona. We tried the former in one of the racing cabinets and had a ball tackling the tight corner and long, long front straight in the Ferrari F430, which quickly emerged as one of our favorite rides in the game. The rear and side mirrors, which were looking pretty rough back in Leipzig, are much better-looking this time around; you could actually make out individual cars in the reflection, which is progress. However, there's still work to be done animation-wise, because the in-car view still doesn't show the driver's hands moving when changing gears.

At the Daytona course, we moved to the version of the game using the regular controller. The actual racing on the oval was about as exciting as continuously turning left usually is, which is to say: not much. Things really got interesting only when approaching traffic in the corners, and dealing with GT's notoriously stiff artificial intelligence cars. That said, the physics of the track seem to be dead on; unlike other versions of Daytona you might have played in the past, it seemed as if the suspension of the car conveyed every bump and indentation on the road as we drove. Interestingly, for our handful of laps at Daytona, the in-car view was not available in the car we selected.

We're happy to report on a new version of GT 5 Prologue, and there's more good news ahead: We'll be visiting the offices of Polyphony Digital tomorrow to discuss Prologue and all things Gran Turismo 5 with series creator Kazunori Yamauchi. Stay tuned to this space for more on the game once we return from our visit.

Gamespot