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 - Still setting the barI've read where people say this is too hard. Not true if you understand what it means to race and how to race. You should not be able to butcher turns, run off the track and still win (as you can in other titles). One of the best feelings in this game, this platform if you will, is winning a difficult race. Yes - you may have to run it dozens of times to win it, but that's the fun and the challenge all rolled into one. We all know the graphics are top-notch. We all know that damage is coming in the full version. We all know that the car selection is second to none (albeit, it can get a little tiresome racing, for example, Mini-Coopers). Let's not review this game as if it the final version. At $40, a tad expensive perhaps, but still the most realistic, beautiful and comprehensive racing game/simulator on the market. Rating: - TurismoExcellent graphics, precise response, and very challenging. When I first got it, I spent 5 straight hours playing. Rating:  - Great racing funGT5:Prologue does a great jog whetting the racing enthusiasts' appetite in preparation for the full game release next year (hopefully). With unparalleled graphics, a wide variety of cars, and some very challenging courses, GT5:P will keep you busy and entertained. Buckle-up though, as this racing simulation will stress precision and accuracy at every turn. The best way to play is with a quality racing wheel. A regular controller does not do this game justice. I recommend the Logitech Pro GT, which was specifically designed for GT5:P. However, it has worked on nearly every PS3 racing game I've tried it with too. Overall, GT5:P may not be a "full" game and is not without some flaws (no car damage modeling for example). But for true racing game fans as well as those interested in trying out the genre, this game makes for an excellent buy for the racing simulation experience. Rating:  - Over rated as a Game - vastly over rated as a Driving SimulatorThis game is hyped for its great graphics. That should give anyone pause because graphics alone don't make a game. The highest definition pictures only extend to the scenes when you are NOT actually playing the game. Once you are driving ---- the graphics quality drops and while you still have very good graphics they are far from photo-realistic pictures you see elsewhere. (I'm using a HDTV, connected via HDMI, at 1080p) Still, the graphics you see when actually playing the game are very good but far from stunning. As noted - graphics alone don't make a game. Another claim of this game is that it is a driving simulator. That claim is highly questionable. At the basic settings you can do crazy things like hit your brakes at their maximum and still steer with ease. I'm sure that makes the game playable but is far from realistic. If you want to even approach a simulation you will need a steering wheel with gas/brake pedals. In all fairness to Gran Turismo, that is true of any game trying to simulate car racing!!! Logitech sells one for about $120 here on Amazon. The regular Playstation controller does not give you enough finese to even approach a simulation. Still the physics seem odd in this game even with a wheel and the game set at its advanced physics settings. On-line racing (the main reason I purchased the game) is horrible. You have to select one of Gran Turismo's few pre-defined races and then you'll be grouped with a bunch of strangers (no options - no on-line lobby, no ability to create a race, no ability to race with friends). On-line play consists largely of each player trying to ram other players off the track. Even if you are not rammed off the track (which is very doubtful), you'll find you will lose the race because you have not mastered either the art of crashing into barriers at high speed or cutting across lawn areas. Done right - you can smash into a guardrail at an insane speed and you'll pass all your opponents or take a shortcut off the track to come out in front. In short: on-line racing consists of bumper cars, short cuts and learning where to crash. As far as a simulation goes - online racing is a total failure. I loved Gran Turismo 1. There are many who want to believe that Gran Turismo 3/Prologue is a natural progression and improvement over the previous versions. Many people on the forums that talk about this game are always saying wait for the next update or wait until the full game is released. They are right ------ wait. The reviews of this game are almost political. "True-believers" feel compeled to defend it and others, like myself, question it. I spent $400 to buy a Playstation, $125 for a wheel, solely to play this game. I wanted it to be great!. I wish it was! Rating: - Looks good. Plays bad.I agree with the review about the horrible AI and no car damage. To add to that, here are 3 more problems I had with this game. 1. Game progression. This game operates on a credit system where you have to win prize money in races to buy better cars. This is coupled with race events that are very particular about cars that you are allowed to use. There are races where all cars are permitted, but a good portion where you don't have any of the cars permitted. This means that you will end up racing the all-car events over and over again to get enough money to buy the cars to get into the specific-car events. Furthermore, race events are grouped into 3 classes depending on difficulty. The problem is that since you can't move into the next class without completing ALL races in the current class, you're further stuck in reracing certain events to buy the cars you need to race for EACH and EVERY event in a class before moving on. Kinda fascist if you think about it. Same thing for online racing. After playing for a night, I was still not able to compete online because I didn't own any of the cars allowed in any of the races. Frustrating to the nth degree. 2. This is more an extension of the no-damage complaint. When you drive by and hit a car, it sort of just slides around you. There are no spinouts or pileups. Feels like those old arcade racers on the Atari. They just go back on their predetermined track. That means winning a race consists of avoiding contact to maintain the highest top speed. 3. Perhaps the biggest problem: the cars just don't feel like they're going fast. Maybe it has to do with the graphics, the sound effects, or the handling. It pisses you off when your car overshoots a curve and spins out in the sand when it feels like you're not going that fast (despite what the speedometer tells you). This effort just shows me that the designers were not of the right mindset when this game was made. Graphics and realism over gameplay and fun. One of the ugliest deaths for any well-intended game.
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