Before you get too far into this article and your eyes glaze over, your brain reading the words but not actually comprehending them in any way, I want to make something abundantly clear; this is why you bought a PlayStation 3. Sure, some people will insist your purchase was due to a once badass-turned-geriatric super-soldier known as Solid Snake, or Final Fantasy CLXVII something or other which, if history serves as any clue, will feature at least one character suffering from a wicked case of amnesia. But they would be wrong. You really bought a PS3 to play Gran Turismo 5.

Simply put, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is the embodiment of a truly groundbreaking next-gen title, even if it is little more than a tech demo for the final game. The graphics will knock you on your ass, the engine noise pumping from your speakers will lead to your eviction and the physics will leave you understeering into the wall if you aren't careful. It's more than just a driving game – it's an experience.

Sony owes a lot to the GT franchise. Back in 2001, the PS2 was languishing with only a few worthwhile titles before GT3 hit early in the summer, after which there was no excuse not to own a PS2. Aside from having one of the best racing game intros ever, GT3 made an incredibly successful (then) next-gen jump and provided astonishing depth, new courses, improved physics and new modes, proving it wasn't just a graphical update to GT2. The game has sold nearly 15 million copies to date, more than any individual Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy title managed on the PS2. GT4 continued the tradition, selling 9.5 million copies.

However, I'm not here to go on about the success of the franchise, or tell you how the new game's progression system works. I can do that in a sentence: The games have always been good, and in the new one you win races, get money and buy more cars. Done.

What I'm here to tell you about is how the whole experience stacks up against the real thing – being in an actual race car.

My history in race cars spans back almost seven years. I started in Formula Fords back in 2001, and "single-seaters," as we call them, have dominated my racing experience. I have spent most of my time in Formula Mazdas, which are mid-engine rotary-powered open wheel race cars capable of 150 mph and 2.5 Gs of lateral grip. With roughly the same power-to-weight ratio as a Ferrari F430, they are purpose-built for total speed, and can be a real handful at the limit.


Brian on track in a Formula Mazda in Sonoma, CA
Before I can talk about how GT5: Prologue handles though (don't worry, it handles very well), I'm going to have to give everyone a quick crash course in car balance.

It's important to remember that a car's handling depends on how the weight of the engine shifts between the front and rear of the vehicle. A mid-engine car has a very neutral balance when not accelerating or braking, a state known as "even throttle." Therefore, when you step on the throttle in a mid-engine car, you force the majority of the car's weight onto the rear tires, generating grip. Conversely, if you lift off the throttle, you force the weight of the car onto the front tires, losing traction in the rear. For this reason, you almost always have to be on-throttle before you even enter a turn (especially in fast corners) for the car to maintain maximum grip and control. In a turn, "lifting-off" will cause the car to spin; simple as that. Add to this the fact that on slick racing tires grip doesn't break very progressively, and you realize how easy it is to do something stupid in a formula race car.

Light, mid-engine cars are the ultimate test for a simulation game then. They change direction quickly, and balancing them properly is a detailed affair. There are several cars that mimic this performance in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, but none do it better than the '96 Lotus Elise. Its power may seem modest at 120bhp, but weighing in at just 720 kg (1587 lbs), the car is still quick and incredibly nimble; and because it has no bulky weight at the corners to betray its mid-engine design, it's a real freakin' handful.

You see, this is where I am most impressed with Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. No other racing game has this level of physics detail. Playing on "professional" mode (real-world physics) with no electronic aids, if you lift off the throttle mid-turn, the rear of the Elise quickly breaks loose. If you snap back onto the throttle, the rear end squats down on its rubber and the car straightens itself out, just like it would out on a real racetrack. It's amazingly impressive, because most racing games, even previous GT titles, just don't have the same accuracy that GT5: Prologue does. The level of precision you can achieve is surprisingly accurate, meaning you can generate big, controllable slip angles. The limits feel both progressive and exploitable, but take it too far and you will pay the price, just as you would in a real car.

It doesn't stop there, though; GT5 has managed to believably simulate all drive train systems. For example, all-wheel drive cars certainly have their own particular driving style. When you get on the throttle through a turn in an all-wheel drive car, the power is transferred to the outside wheels (which have the most grip) and the car has a tendency to pull itself out towards the edge of the track. As usual, Polyphony Digital is on top of it, and the all-wheel drive cars in GT5 handle accurately, as do the front and rear-wheel drive vehicles. Each car seems to have its own particular personality, just as it should be.

Major overhauls aside then, there are a lot of small details that impress as the game goes on. The cars actually move on top of their suspension systems, making them react to body roll, bumps and camber changes much more accurately than before. For example, every bump at Daytona has been painstakingly recreated, and your car will bounce on its suspension system as you slam over them. Players will also struggle to find grip on the back half of Fuji Speedway, where the corners turn off camber and fall away from the apex, forcing the car wide for all but the most focused of drivers.

Spectators actually react to your actions, too. Imagine my surprise when, while racing on the London course, a spectator jumped up from behind the Armco barrier and feverishly pointed me back towards the track after I arced wide through a turn.

As the screenshots and videos thus far will attest, each car has been painstakingly modeled both inside and out The new interior view adds some perspective and scale to the screen, which has resulted in the added surprise of Gran Turismo finally having a truer sense of speed.


Gran Turismo 5: Prologue's graphics are second to none
So far, it's been all praise. You might be asking yourself, "Is there anything this game doesn't do well?" The answer to that is actually quite obvious, and it's something that will be very hard for racing games to recreate, ever.

No matter how realistic a game is, it's still just a game. The one thing Gran Turismo doesn't accurately simulate is the terror of being in a race car. Gran Turismo will never make you push your personal limits as a driver because when things go wrong in GT5, whatever; you can just restart the race. When things go wrong in an actual race car, the end result is often catastrophic, and racers often find themselves pushing their personal limits of comfort, not the limits of the machinery they drive.

Gran Turismo will never be able to recreate the panic of going into a corner too hot, the hard clap of a bug splattering on your visor at 130 mph and blinding you, the sound of an engine screaming its way towards 10,000 rpm just inches behind your head, the anxiety of keeping your foot planted on the throttle through a turn you have never attempted flat-out, the whistling of wind through your helmet above 100 mph, the chatter of a locked-up tire under braking, the thrill of knocking out a smashingly fast qualifying lap, the agony of defeat or the frustration of putting a car into the wall. While online racing promises more passionate competition, these experiences are still reserved exclusively for the real thing.

That said, GT5: Prologue pretty much nails the experience everywhere else. The game's physics are the most impressive seen to date, the sound has been vastly improved and the graphics… well just look at the graphics. They are the most intricately detailed of any console game.

Polyphony's slogan for the last several iterations of the Gran Turismo franchise has been "The drive of your life" and, unless you have plans getting out onto an actual racetrack sometime soon, this really will be the drive of your life. Prologue doesn't even feature purpose-build race cars yet either, just road cars. I can't wait to get my hands on the final version in all its Le Mans-racer glory.

Of course, motorcycles would make the game infinitely more complex. So, Polyphony, when the hell are you guys going to announce Tourist Trophy 2?