Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is exactly what it says on the tin: a prologue to one of the most anticipated PS3 titles. Too big to be a demo but to small to be a full-priced game, Prologue sits somewhere in the middle, teasing us with hints of what the full release will offer and torturing us with its limited options and an online mode that’s definitely a work-in-progress.

But first, a word for the A/V enthusiasts: holy hi-res graphics, Batman! (okay, that’s five words – but you get the gist). This is a truly gorgeous-looking game. Watching it in full flight, running in 1080p with a good surround sound system taking care of the sonics, will be a near-religious experience for some. The car models are made of around 200,000 polygons (up from Gran Turismo 4’s now paltry-seeming 4000) and especially in replay mode, it can be hard to tell the game from the real thing.

(And the in-cockpit view is awesome, with real-time shadows and light effects crawling across the dashboard… swoon…)

The interface has also been tidied up, and you’ll spend a lot of time looking at the game’s front-end, called ‘My Page’, which allows you to access cars, events, dealerships etc. It’s a big change from previous iterations but it still needs some tweaking and streamlining. Once all the features are fully activated – like the racing news feed and GT TV, where you’ll be able to download episodes of Top Gear – it promises to be quite a haven for gear heads.

When it comes to the racing, Prologue offers four classes (C, B, A and S), with 10 events in each. There are no licenses this time around – you just jump in a class C car and start racing. The A.I is more aggressive, more mistake-prone and overall more natural-seeming this time; clearly, the lads at Polyphony Digital have listened to complaints that the racing can seem too clinical, and have adjusted their game accordingly. The driving is as precise and demanding as always; crash-and-barge merchants need not apply.

Once you’ve completed the A class events, the Quick Tune screens open up, and it’s at this point that the car nerds will really perk up. The options are extensive and if you’ve a mind, you could easily while away many hours searching for the perfect set-up. It doesn’t really compensate for the lack of any car customisation options (beyond paint colour) up to that point, but once unlocked it’s a bunch of fun.

For those of us who are a little less obsessive, there’s always Arcade mode, with Race, Time Trial and Drift events, which provide a quick hit of racing action for the less patient among us.

It’s all quite accessible too, with a variety of driving aids for both Event and Arcade modes (racing line, active steering, physics model, traction control, active stability management etc) that can be tweaked, to ease newcomers in and help them gradually become members of the race-hardened hardcore.

So far, so good. But the realisation that Prologue isn’t a full game is never far away. About six tracks and 70 cars away, in fact. It’s a good mix of cars and tracks (Suzuka Speedway, Eiger Nordwand, Fuji Speedway, London City, Daytona International Speedway and the High Speed Ring) but there are just too few of them. Consider: GT 4 had 51 tracks and 721 cars, which means Prologue is 45 tracks and 650 cars short of the mark. You’ll spend a lot of time going around and around and around those six tracks; by the time the full game is released, you’ll most likely be heartily sick of them.

This is exacerbated by the fact that some events require specific car models, so you’ll most likely find yourself racing events again just to raise the cash you need to buy the right car for a race. It’d also be nice if you could go straight to the dealership from the event selection screen, but instead you have to back out to My Page and enter the dealer area from there.

The multiplayer in particular will make you realise there’s work to be done. Lots of work. Two-player horizontal split-screen racing is a great inclusion, but it’s the online mode that really leaves you wanting more. Damage has been turned off (as it has for the single-player game) and cars become ghosts if they’re about to crash or ram into each other.

This is apparently to help prevent foul play, but it makes the racing a somewhat bizarre affair, with cars blinking in and out of ghost mode (especially in corners) and predictably, some punters have figured out ways to glitch the system. Predictable, really, but far more annoying is the lack of control you’re given over the racing itself. All you can do is pick a server and hope for the best.

It also makes the PlayStation Network’s deficiencies painfully clear, with no in-game XMB, friends lists or (as noted above) matchmaking options. No custom soundtracks either. The fact that some rival games handle all these tasks (or their equivalents) with ease means Polyphony Digital has its work cut out for it; let’s hope it all comes together.

(A side note: playing this game reminds us once again that we need rumble in our controllers. Or one of those fancy new steering wheels Logitech is cooking up. And there are no motion-sensitive controls, which is a crazy omission for a game that demands the utmost precision from its players.)

So what do we have? Much of what Gran Turismo 5: Prologue has to show us is astonishing. Everything we might have wanted from a PS3 Gran Turismo game. But it’s so constrained and in places so unfinished that there’s a healthy dose of frustration alongside the gasps of delight, and you’re left with no illusions that the less-than-full-game price has bought you something far less than a full game. A worthwhile investment? For dabblers and GT newbies, probably not. For the fans? Most definitely.

Graphics:	Videogame car porn – in 1080p...
Sound:	See above (but scratch ‘1080p’ and substitute ‘5.1)
Control:	Tight and accurate. Everything we’ve come to expect
Gameplay:	Options, car and track numbers are limited
Verdict:	It isn’t yet the game it will become, but it’s damn fine
Rating:	4/5