If you’ve been holding off on GT5 Prologue because you don’t want to pay for a “demo”, you are quickly running out of excuses - especially if you’re in the United States. As has been reported around the web, Target has dropped their in-store price on the game to $9.98. That’s an incredible $30 less than the old MSRP for the game (and what’s still listed on their website), and $20 less than it’s new Greatest Hits price.
Although the most likely explanation for the price cut is to clear out old inventory and make room for the Greatest Hits packagaing, a GTPlanet user has already reported getting a Greatest Hits game for the low price, and someone at SlickDeals.net claims there are no mentions of sales or clearance tags. As good and unusual as this is, we don’t know how long it will last - so head down to your local store and pick up a copy right now.
“We’ve actually reached a point where we can probably release it any time, except that you can also keep working on it as long as you want to, as well, so it’s just a matter of timing. What really is the most important is that we keep working on it until we’re satisfied with the final product. [...] You’re waiting for something that’s worth waiting for.”
The rest of the interview is also very good, as he discusses more details about Gran Turismo PSP.
In what first appears to be a dry interview, closer inspection reveals an interesting tidbit from Yamauchi about the multiplayer functionality in Gran Turismo PSP. As we already know, up to four players can compete wirelessly via the PSP’s ad-hoc wireless mode. That’s cool, but there’s more to it than that - GT PSP will be one of the first games outside of Japan to take advantage of the little-known Ad-Hoc Party application.
First released in Japan late last year, Ad-Hoc Party is a free application downloaded to your PlayStation 3. Once running, your PSP connects wirelessly to your PS3, through which you can play games with your friends over the Internet. It’s an interesting, decentralized method of bringing online play to PSP titles without requiring game developers to implement the additional functionality or maintain server infrastructure. The implications of online play for GT PSP are huge, adding lots of depth and fun to a title that some hard-core players had dismissed.
Sony representatives have already confirmed that Ad-Hoc Party is coming to the United States, so keep an eye out for more information about the software in the coming weeks and months. For now, check out the Japanese video above for a visual explanation of how the Ad-Hoc Party application works.
Not long after the dust settled at E3, people started to ask when we could expect the next batch of news from Yamauchi and his team at Polyphony Digital. It didn’t take much time to find out: the PlayStation Official Magazine is expected to previewGran Turismo 5 in next month’s issue. Of course, there are no guarantees as to what this “preview” will contain - indeed, it may simply be a re-hashing of what we already learned at E3. With that said, it makes sense for Sony to drive “official” magazine sales by using its own media property to announce new information. Keep a close eye on those newsstands!
Some people were quick to lament that no “hard facts” regarding Gran Turismo 5 were released at last week’s E3 show, but now that we’ve had some time to carefully pick through the HD trailer, you can see we’ve actually learned quite a bit. Much like we did with Gran Turismo PSP: What You Need to Know, let’s put the pieces of the puzzle together and find out exactly what Kazunori Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital told us…
Since the big announcement at Sony’s E3 press conference, two things have happened: lots of journalists got their hands on the demo at the show, and Kazunori Yamauchi has released more tidbits of information in a flurry of interviews. It’s difficult to keep up with everything, and all the excitement around the Gran Turismo 5 trailer hasn’t helped, but we should be able to clear up a lot of the confusion by aggregating the pieces of the puzzle right here. Keep reading to find out what we know, what we don’t know, and what everyone else actually thinks about this long-anticipated title…
Thanks to an excellent new interview with Kazunori Yamauchi, we’ve just learned a lot about the progress of Gran Turismo 5 - and it sounds like it is further along than anyone may have imagined. When asked about “how development’s going”, Yamauchi-san responded:
“I want to release it as fast as I can, but GT5 for us, when you talk about its status, it’s at a point we can release it any time we want, but we can always keep working on it. It’s very important for us to make sure everything is done perfectly and everything is done in detail.”
After just one brief paragraph, GT5 suddenly seems closer than ever before, implying that the major features have already been implemented. If it’s true that his team at Polyphony Digital are just polishing things up and working out the bugs, it tilts the scales in favor of a 2009 release.
Yamauchi also addressed questions about GT PSP’s extended development time, and how the game has affected Gran Turismo 5:
“We first made the announcement in E3 of 2004, so [laughs] it’s been five years. Since then we’ve released GT4, Tourist Trophy, GTHD and GT5 Prologue. Of course we were always working on the PSP version a little bit at a time, but every time we have one of those releases it’s affected by that new title. So this is a software that was born in between GT5 Prologue and GT5, and it’s affected by both of those titles.”
“I don’t think there was a direct effect [on Gran Turismo 5], but I do believe that the development team really gained experience in streamlining displaying graphics on a very small space and also how to manage memory when the amount of memory available is very small. That sort of experience is something that was gained by the team. And you know, this is the first time we’ve developed a portable game, and I think there is an effect on how we see games, and how we understand videogames.”
Since GT PSP was announced yesterday, we haven’t really gotten a good look at what this big, little game actually plays like. Sure, the first screenshots are impressive - but to see it running at a full 60fps is a completely different story… Although the driving skills (as usual) leave something to be desired, you’ve not seen Trial Mountain look this good since Gran Turismo 4.
Have you got some insider GT news we haven't covered yet? Let us know! Submit news here and we'll tell the world (and give you full credit, of course!).
If you’ve been holding off on GT5 Prologue because you don’t want to pay for a “demo”, you are quickly running out of excuses - especially if you’re in the United States. As has been reported around the web, Target has dropped their in-store price on the game to $9.98. That’s an incredible $30 less than the old MSRP for the game (and what’s still listed on their website), and $20 less than it’s new Greatest Hits price.
Not long after the dust settled at E3, 
