A Review - By A Racing Game Fan

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morpheus9394

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Before I start I wanted to tell you about my gaming history, mainly that I am not biased towards a particular game or console.
I am 35yrs old and my gaming life started when I was 7/8yrs old when my Dad gave me a Pong conole. For my ninth birthday I am a Atari 2600 and since then I am have been a hardcore gamer.
I have owned Atari 2600, Vic20, Amstrad CPC464, Amiga A500, SNES, PS1, N64, Dreamcast, PS2, XBOX, 360 and PS3, plus Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS Lite and PSP, plus a PC built for gaming. My favorite gaming genre has always been racing games. The first racing game that really wowed me was Outrun in the Arcades and the first good racing for home was Lotus Challenge on Amiga A500.
I am equally at home with arcade racing games like Burnout or Need for Speed as I am with outright sims like Gran Turismo or the great Grand Prix series by Geoff Crammond
I have been a fan of the Gran Turismo series since it arrival on PS1 and have played them all to completion, except for GT4 which I am still struggling to find the time to complete.

With that intro out of the way here are my thoughts of GT5 Prologue:

The presentation is the incredibly slick and classy. Very much like the PS3 frontend but better. Simple, easy to use, looks great on HD Screens far better than the presenation on Forza 2.
Loading is very quick but I would expect that as the game is running from the hard drive not the slow Bluray disk.
Graphics are without doubt the best Next Gen graphics I have ever seen and a real testament to what the PS3 can do in the right hands. The cars look so lifelike with the most amazingly natural lighting effects and shadow and detailing. The framerate is silky smooth on butter on ice smooth. 60 frames in 1080p with 16 cars - WOW!!
Definately the best looking and smoothest running racing game.
On the downside, there are some jaggies but nothing too bad and there some aliasing especially on the enviroments. Though the heat haze and field of depth effects do a great job of hiding the jaggies and aliasing.

When I first played the game I thought the A.I. was as bad as ever. But after further play I have noticed some improvement but not much. The CPU drivers will stick to the racing line like flies to fly paper, but at least now they make minor mistakes. They will SOMETIMES slow down to avoid you but other times they will just ram into the back of you like you are not even there.
The most disappointing thing about the CPU racers is that they don actually race. You never seem they miss they braking point or crash into each other. It is like they are using the same AI code on GT1 on the PS1, just improved slightly. You don't see them push the cars hard to keep up with you. Because of that the races seem rather boring.
I just hope PD have some new Next Gen, HAL9000 AI code ready for the final GT5 next year. Everyone keep all their bits crossed.

Phsyics are good but not great. Something just didn't feel right. It felt too sedate, too easy. I never felt thrilled or in danger. Never felt the raw power of the car. The physics in Forza2 are just incredible. You feel in touch with the car, can feel the power of the car, feel like you are actually driving a car.
I loved the way that every change to the car, from tuning, changing part or turning driving aids off/on really affected how the car handled. I had some many "OH MY GOD, this car is a monster" experiences with Forza 2 but so far I have not had that feeling in GT5P.
It also seems like the driving aids have very little affect on the handling of the cars in GT5P. Turning them on or off made little or no difference to the way the cars handled and that when playing in Proffesional mode. In Forza 2 turning the aids off meant a completely difference way of driving , much more carefully use of the throttle and brake and made for a much more difficult but thrilling experience.

The worst part of the game is the audio. Again they are still using old code from PS1 version. When will they hear that the screeching tires do NOT sound like that. When will they record the engine sounds of the cars you are driving not use lawnmover engine sounds. And what's up with the tire screeching sound effect. It has to be the worst effect in modern racing game history. It sounds like a pack of Hyenas.
Overall, GT5 Prologue will not convert any new fans. The visuals are amazing but the gameplan is the same as ever and it is getting rather boring now. Games like Forza 2 have shown that racing games can very fun and realistic at the same time. Hardcore GT fans, like me, will still love the thrill of racing, winning money, upgrading car, buying new cars and racing those cars. The core gameplay has not changed but it is still very enjoyable.
Maybe PD should spend less time modelling every car known man and spend some time adding new innovative features, improving the AI and sound and making sure the online game is smooth and lag free. Oh yeah, please, can we finally have car damage. The old "Car makers don't want to see their cars all beaten up" excuse is getting very old now, especially when the same cars get smashed to pieces in Forza 2 or Gotham or Need for Speed.....
I sorry that the review sounds overly negative. It is not really fair to compare a demo with a full game like Forza 2 but Forza 2 is only next gen title of the same type as GT5 and it has shown the way forward in some areas. Even before Forza 2 came, GT4 lost alot of the appeal the GT3 once had. We have had too many great racing games since the GT series first landed and they have shown the way forward.
I am really hoping that Prologue is really an early demo of a game that still has several months of development left, that all of the faults or seeming lack of innovation will be fixed in the finally game.
Saying that, even if the GT5 is just GT4 with even more cars and tracks, I will still be the first in line to buy it. The slick presentation and the AMAZING graphics plus the thrill of playing cars that I am only dream of owning in real life means GT5 is a must buy for any hardcore racing fan.
 
Excellent review, and welcome to GTP. 👍

You do raise some rather worrying issues that most GT addicts will certainly be able to identify with. It is rather frustrating that the same key sticking points with the series in general have still not been fully addressed (yet), despite the quantum leap in the capabilities of the console itself.

If GT4 told us anything, it is not to expect Prologue to play that differently to the full version. Ironically, the best sounding car in the whole series (in my opinion) was in GT4:Prologue (The JGTC Woodone Supra) but they changed it for the full version, into something that sounds more like a lawnmower than the growling beast from hell it really is! That's not to say that GT4 is inferior to GT4:Prologue of course, but in terms of physics, there was really no difference at all. I'd wager that GT5 won't be significantly different to GT5:P either.
 
I know what you mean and that is worrying.
I could like with all the other faults but I really hope they improve the AI because racing against a hard, aggressive AI, who makes mistakes and pushes you into making mistakes is a big deal to me.
At the moment it just feels like you are driving in traffic at times.
I am not hopefully that we will see any major changes in GT5 when it arrives but where there is time there is hope.
 
Disappointing news, especially regarding the engine and tyre noise.
 
And the AI.

I'd rather have 6 smart AI than have 16 of the same old same old. *sighs*

I will say that I drove the GT5P demo at Best Buy for the first time recently, and I was impressed by the handling physics improvement. I drove an Elise around the Eiger, and for once it handled like I think an Elise should, even using a beatup DS2 controller.
 
sorry to say but i disagree on much of your review. i'm not going to bother writing up an essay on it as i'm just jumping on the pc for a few minutes between races on gt5p.

in bullet point
  • physics - vastly improved. arcade mode doesn't feel realistic at all especially with driving the f430 (the car i'm driving at this moment in the game) but in simulation mode with the aids off the car is definitely lively. the nsx i drove earlier in the game was very lively aswell and needed careful throttle control to keep straight.
  • ai - vastly improved as well. countless times the ai tries to block you or when they know they are beaten you are given room but by no means do they make it a charity. there are at times the cars feel like they are just following a line but thats because if they were in those situations it would make them majorly overzealous. also the times the cars do plow into you it is when they are at a point they cant brake any harder to avoid the accident. watch the reply you will notice they are hard on the brakes. ive taken a video infact that demonstrates the ai will go to a complete stop to avoid you if they can. also with the ai making mistakes.. have you played the game much? because i have seen a fair few times the ai veer off the road and make mistakes
  • sounds.. are you playing this game with headphones? i've got my game connected to a 5.1 channel surround and in compariosn to gt4 this game #$^% on it sound wise
  • graphics: people have seen the screenshots. the game looks amazing and yes it does have some jaggies occasionally but its leaps and bounds an improvement even over the demo. all i wish the game did have though was tyre marks
 
J-PaP
sorry to say but i disagree on much of your review. i'm not going to bother writing up an essay on it as i'm just jumping on the pc for a few minutes between races on gt5p.

<snip bullet points>
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Thank you !...

👍
 
J-PaP
sorry to say but i disagree on much of your review. i'm not going to bother writing up an essay on it as i'm just jumping on the pc for a few minutes between races on gt5p.

in bullet point
  • physics - vastly improved. arcade mode doesn't feel realistic at all especially with driving the f430 (the car i'm driving at this moment in the game) but in simulation mode with the aids off the car is definitely lively. the nsx i drove earlier in the game was very lively aswell and needed careful throttle control to keep straight.
  • ai - vastly improved as well. countless times the ai tries to block you or when they know they are beaten you are given room but by no means do they make it a charity. there are at times the cars feel like they are just following a line but thats because if they were in those situations it would make them majorly overzealous. also the times the cars do plow into you it is when they are at a point they cant brake any harder to avoid the accident. watch the reply you will notice they are hard on the brakes. ive taken a video infact that demonstrates the ai will go to a complete stop to avoid you if they can. also with the ai making mistakes.. have you played the game much? because i have seen a fair few times the ai veer off the road and make mistakes
  • sounds.. are you playing this game with headphones? i've got my game connected to a 5.1 channel surround and in compariosn to gt4 this game #$^% on it sound wise
  • graphics: people have seen the screenshots. the game looks amazing and yes it does have some jaggies occasionally but its leaps and bounds an improvement even over the demo. all i wish the game did have though was tyre marks
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Don't be sorry mate. I don't expect everyone to blindly agree with my review.
It just goes to show that humans are individuals not mindless slaves. The fact that we both played the same game but have different opinions of it proves that.
I have played it a fair about, just about to start the A class series and my opinion of the game is improving the more I play. I am noticing little touches of good AI but so far nothing has really has stood out for me yet.
I am playing the game via my 5.1 system and personally I think the sounds effects, ESPECIALLY the tire screech, are very poor. If you watch programs like Top Gear and listen to the sound the tires make when they slide around corners then you will see why I am not too impressived.
But I think one area where we all can agree on, unlike you are as blind as a bat, is the graphics. AMAZING. Puts other racers to shame.
 
i think i know now why our opinions are different regarding physics especially. i'm about halfway through s class. see how u feel after doing the nsx race in class a and some of the s class races. i find thats where you start seing more so the improvements in gt5.

think also with the ai it depends on our driving styles very much as to how the cars do react.
 
Dont worry fellas. When an artist brings in there single for the album it sounds like crap, but you and feel where its going and then you draw up a crazy plan. Next you know the song is mixed down by the best engineer possible. I think we were expecting a groound breaking demo and (Keep in mind when was the last time where they said they will be UPDATING a game demo). Trust me being that there is actually competition now with not just software titles but CONSOLE franchises they have to step it up.

Point being said is dont worry, if you could pay $2.99 for a car upgrade in need for speed im pretty sure kaz will not let tire screeching and AI wreck the gaming legacy he is building. What we need to worry about is the technical stuff in the upgrading section because they really need to revamp that area.
 
It is so refreshing to have an intelligent discussion about the game without fanboys moaning that I am biased or that PS3 is better than 360 or vica versa.
I can tell you guys are as passionate about racing games I am.
One of members here saw my post on gamefaqs and saw that the PS3 fanboys were more concerned with putting me down that actually discussing the game. Anyway he told to come here and post my review and I am glad I did.
Thanks for all the comments, keep it up.
 
i also feel that the car tuning section could use a full revamp, more intricate car parts, being able to tune your car up from valve springs to new engines themselves would be fantastic,

also cash is easy to come by, all i ever did was run the rally raid car race in gt4 to buy an tune a new car for myself, more races and options to re-use your car would be nice as well, i hated using a car for 7 tracks just to ditch the poor thing was horrible, i ended up with loads of cars i just got to love, had named and then had to put down

and the sound of engines and tire squeel is absolutly nessecary
 
engine is 10 times better then FORZA 2.. how can you say forza 2 has better physics? drifting, and the whole aspect of racing in forza 2
whenever i drive in the game, cars tend to drift on turn by themselves.. and its easy to drift.. it does not happen in real life... ( unless you know what to do)
 
Finally,a down-to-earth review:tup:. I share the same opinion,and my gamer history is rather similar.:) Also, I've just watched some gameplay movies over at gametrailers.com and I must say I'm slightly dissapointed, allthough I know this is only a "demo"...but seriously,AI and especially sound engine are in need of complete overhaul,NOW!:grumpy: Having just played nfs prostreet(on a pc with a wheel it's not bad at all(assists off)),soundwise, these games are separated by dimensions! In nfs,you can hear the engine straining and sounding lifelike ,also it's really good all through the revs,unlike GT in which some cars had good sound on idle or for 1000-2000 revs somewhere in the rev range...sad:nervous:
Anyway,as all of you I supose,I'm hoping for a great game with sorted physics, sound,AI,damage,weather/day/night change,online racing etc.when it finally comes out!
 
i see ur a forza 2 fanboy. this is not a review, this is a comparison. besides GT5P has improved audio by alot. i guess you dont know how a real car sounds like. and tire noise. its pretty darn real sometimes, and sometimes is off, remember street tires make those noises.
 
morpheus9394
It is so refreshing to have an intelligent discussion about the game without fanboys moaning that I am biased or that PS3 is better than 360 or vica versa.
I can tell you guys are as passionate about racing games I am.
One of members here saw my post on gamefaqs and saw that the PS3 fanboys were more concerned with putting me down that actually discussing the game. Anyway he told to come here and post my review and I am glad I did.
Thanks for all the comments, keep it up.
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Morpheus, welcome to the site, and thanks for sharing your review with us! I'm going to move your thread over to our dedicated GT5 Prologue forum so more people looking at Prologue specifically will be able to see it. :)
 
Jaguar C-Type
engine is 10 times better then FORZA 2.. how can you say forza 2 has better physics? drifting, and the whole aspect of racing in forza 2
whenever i drive in the game, cars tend to drift on turn by themselves.. and its easy to drift.. it does not happen in real life... ( unless you know what to do)
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I can't say have tried to drift in real life so I can't really compare which one is more realistic, Forza 2 or GT5P. Unfortunately my wife would probably cut my family jewels off it I tried to drift my lovely Ford Escort around.
But the main reason why I rate the physics better in Forza is because you actually feel like you are driving a monster of a car and feed back from the controller or wheel really gives that sense of "oh my god, I have 600bhp under the hood, I need to be careful"
GT5P just seems more sedate and relaxed and dare I say......boring in comparison.
My old man has a 625bhp Nissan 300ZX (Fairlady for our American cousins) and the rare times he lets me drive it I get that same sense of "OH BEEP - This car is crazy"
The fastest car I have driven in GT5P so far was a 280BHP EVO 9 and with all the driving aids off and in the professional mode the car just felt too easy to drive. Maybe the lack of rumble in the pad makes a difference or maybe its because the EVO 9 is a fairly easy car to drive anyway.
I don't know which game has the most realistic physics but I do know I personally felt Forza 2 gave me a better driving experience, a more enjoyable experience, a sense of danger. I could feel when a car had a load of torque and would be a bit more gentle with the throttle. There was a huge difference in the way the cars handled with the driving aids off or on but in GT5P, so far, the cars feel exactly the same with the aids off or on which certainly is not realistic.
 
morpheus9394
I can't say have tried to drift in real life so I can't really compare which one is more realistic, Forza 2 or GT5P. Unfortunately my wife would probably cut my family jewels off it I tried to drift my lovely Ford Escort around.
But the main reason why I rate the physics better in Forza is because you actually feel like you are driving a monster of a car and feed back from the controller or wheel really gives that sense of "oh my god, I have 600bhp under the hood, I need to be careful"
GT5P just seems more sedate and relaxed and dare I say......boring in comparison.
My old man has a 625bhp Nissan 300ZX (Fairlady for our American cousins) and the rare times he lets me drive it I get that same sense of "OH BEEP - This car is crazy"
The fastest car I have driven in GT5P so far was a 280BHP EVO 9 and with all the driving aids off and in the professional mode the car just felt too easy to drive. Maybe the lack of rumble in the pad makes a difference or maybe its because the EVO 9 is a fairly easy car to drive anyway.
I don't know which game has the most realistic physics but I do know I personally felt Forza 2 gave me a better driving experience, a more enjoyable experience, a sense of danger. I could feel when a car had a load of torque and would be a bit more gentle with the throttle. There was a huge difference in the way the cars handled with the driving aids off or on but in GT5P, so far, the cars feel exactly the same with the aids off or on which certainly is not realistic.
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... i know what you mean, but i still say what i must :)

but i see you never got really into GT series and other PC racing games.. and just go to youtube, and see GT5P drifts, there are 2 great drifts with 350z s :) and then look at forza 2 drifts and tell me which ones look better :P
 
Jaguar C-Type
... i know what you mean, but i still say what i must :)

but i see you never got really into GT series and other PC racing games.. and just go to youtube, and see GT5P drifts, there are 2 great drifts with 350z s :) and then look at forza 2 drifts and tell me which ones look better :P
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I did play GT1-3 very highly and I am part way through GT4 but unfortunately for GT4 Forza 2 came along soon after I got GT4 (I was late getting it as I sold my dusty old PS2 and I had to get an import japanese version on play on my import PS3). So maybe never having played either GT4 or GT5P with at least rumble has affected my view of the game.
I will you what, I will do a test tonight when I get home from work. I will find a car in Forza 2 that is also in GT5P, drive it on factory spec with rumble disabled and compare the same car in GT4 and GT5P and post back tonight or tomorrow with my thoughts. Can't say fair than that eh :)
I will look at the videos but I know GT5P videos will smoke Forza's because Forza's replays are pants :) But I will look anyway, just to see if I can see what you are referring to in the drifts.
 
Compared to Forza 2 the GT5P demo impressed me, I like it more with regards to the physics than Forza 2, but GT5:P is still not the most realistic driving game I've used. The tuning aspect of GT5 really needs to move on from where it has essentially been for the last 10 years.

Hopefully my copy of GT5:P will be with me this week and I'll be able to expand more and see if I agree of dissagree with you for the most part. But imo the physics have improved, perhaps only subtley but in all the right areas.
 
Mark T
Disappointing news, especially regarding the engine and tyre noise.
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Unless he's playing the demo, those comments are unfounded.
The sound in GT5:P shipping version are completley different from those in the demo, the ones in the demo are the same sounds you'd hear in GT4. the ones in GT5 are completley different, including both engine/tyre sounds.
 
Nice review morpheus9394 if a little dis heartening, I've also played the GT series since 1 and I loved every minute of them and again my gaming history is somewhat close to your all be it I'm a little younger, but I really hope that my opinion differs from your I really do or GT5P will be a bit of a disappointment, it all boils dont to a few things for me.

Im not a graphics fanboy so all the AA and lighting and motion blur falls short of impressing me, and only when graphics hinder the actual gameplay do I get up and shout about graphics, and as said its gameplay that makes or breaks a game for me, so AI and Physics are what makes the games for me, I didn't like forza too much (yes I own a 360 with Forza MS 2) yes its fun to have a bash but the controls are poor and really let the game down, not with GT series I play with a wheel most of the time and a pad the rest, so I really hope the improvements are not just in graphics but have seen fit to wrangle their way into the AI and Physics too.

As for sound I hope the sound has improved too as nothing sounds better than a straight six thundering in the morning air.

PS welcome to the boards.

If you want to make that GT experience a little cooler check out Alba's GT5 theme for the PS3 its very good.
 
morpheus9394
I found this videos on youtube
Forza 2 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=OD5dV5ccOi4
GT5P Demo - http://youtube.com/watch?v=BpaoHg0-JFY
Real Life Drift - http://youtube.com/watch?v=HYdqnlqpRWs
I think the drifting in both games looks very similar to the real life videos.
Obviously it is a proper test as different cars are being used but you get the idea.
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hey thank you for doing the research :)

but the GT5 demo ... its a demo :P
see this video instead :)

this is full GT5P not a demo so everytihg is improved :)


this is a real 350z drift



this is forza 2 350z drift

sorry thats its a demo, only stock 350z i found. but demo and full release was within same month or less, so same mechanics are used... But then again BOth games are demos, GT5P and forza 2 demo lol


so you can creally see the winer here :) *real life haha*
but seriously the GT5P is a lot more realistic. it uses more realistic techniques, like turn the other way then back again so you can spin out the car a lil, in Forza 2 you just turn and the cars seems to drift.. ugh.. wow so realistic.
 
The videos look good but one thing you've forgotten. The Forza 2 demo only had arcade mode physics not Sim physics so it is not a fair comparison.
The only way we are really going to settle this is next Xmas when the full GT5 comes out LOL.
Can you bothered to keep this thread alive for another year :-D
Anyway, dinner and Eastenders are calling and after that time for some racing.
 
I am disapointed so far, GT5 is an improvement but it's still the same old stuff to me. But due to the huge library of cars and tracks I still play GT4, there is nothing like trying to shave .01 of a second off your times lap after lap.
 

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