Is it a demo, is it a game of its own? Whatever it is Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is certainly causing a lot of debate, and it has to be said selling a lot of copies, in fact it has been reported that almost 1 million pre-orders of the game have been made, which is pretty impressive.>>

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The Gran Turismo series is the best selling series on Playstation so when a new game comes along everyone who owns the console takes notice, thankfully then the people who have shelled out for the game are not going to be disappointed. 

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There are plenty of racing games around at the moment, but most of them seem to be on the Xbox 360, leaving the Playstation crying out for a realistic racer like Gran Turismo Prologue, though it seems the wait has been worth it because this could be the most realistic of them all.>>

Gran Turismo Prologue is presented in glorious 1080p, meaning that it is without doubt the best looking racer around, there are some fantastic moments in the game graphically as you are blinded by the realistic glare of the sun when coming out of a tunnel or when you driving through the shadow laden streets of London, both these moments really make you appreciate the effort gone into this game. There have been some complaints already however in respect of the graphics so it’s best not to ignore these. Occasionally there will be dips in the frame rate , there is also no collision damage, meaning cars remain unscratched even in the most violent of crashes, there is also no marks left on the road even when you skid around corners at full speed, so yes it isn’t perfect but it still looks fantastic.

The game includes six tracks (twelve if you count the fact that you can drive the mirrored versions too) they are all very detailed and include the Eiger Nordwand, the Daytona International Speedway, the London City Track, the Fuji Speedway, Suzuka and the High Speed Ring, the London City track especially sticks out for me as all of the landmarks you would expect are present, along with the tight corners and tall buildings which practically block out every ray of sun.>>

As well as the tracks Gran Turismo Prologue also includes an impressive 71 cars, obviously they all vary greatly, when you start off you are given around £36,000 to spend, using this I purchased a Ford Focus which seems to be a good all rounder and although this purchase never left me with much money I was able to enter enough events with the car in order to earn money to buy another. Of course all of the cars in the game look fantastic, from the Dodge VIPER GTS to the Ferrari F40 all of them are detailed with jaw dropping precision.>>

The events are split into three classes, A, B and C, you start off racing in class C, and within this class there are quite a few events to take part in, although some of these are restricted to certain manufacturers/car types so you will need to be careful which car you buy at the beginning of the game.  >>

Handling the cars while driving has never felt so good or more realistic, you can feel the speed in this game more than any other racer especially so when you are in one of the more powerful cars, it’s fair to say that approaching a corner at high speed or trying to get past that elusive opponent really does make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. >>

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The main flaws to the game come in the fact that you need to work your way through the events in order to unlock the games main cars, competing in class A will eventually gain you access to these power houses, however this will take a good few hours of gaming, similarly you are unable to tune your vehicle until you reach class A, which is a bit of a let down.>>

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Back to the good points though and these come in the guise of the multiplayer options, offline you have the ability to play split screen against another player, which is a great addition, sure it doesn’t look as good as single player but it sure is fun. The main addition to the game though has to be the online mode, Sony must really be pinning their hope at this working and in most cases it does, there are plenty of different options to allow a bit of variety with scheduled events and time trails the order of the day, obviously you can also create your own races and take part in others also. The only issues at the moment involve the usual lag and slowdown problems associated with online gaming, however I am sure that Sony will soon tackle this.

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Also promised in the future are more additions to the new Gran Turismo tv, a feature which allows you to watch trailers/programs via the game. At the time of writing all that is on there is a trailer for the game, however we are promised some episodes of the popular Top Gear at some point, which is sure to keep the car enthusiasts happy.>>

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Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is certainly not without its flaws, however you will not find a more realistic looking and handling racer around at the moment, well until the full version pop’s it head up anyway.