Racing has always been a strong passion of every guy out there, it even appeals to girls. The need for speed is something all car lovers have, the exhilarating emotion of racing against several competitors to the rhythm of your favorite tune can sure take things to a whole new level.
Racing games have undergone quite a few changes in the past decade, the early versions of "Need for Speed" were quite popular because this game introduced quality racing to computer systems and stand alone consoles. Later on more racing games emerged which had a few innovations but failed in several aspects, "Gran Turismo" is one of the games which needs to be mentioned because it was created to be the best car racing simulator ever.
Changes in technology have taken this game from earlier versions to what it is today, Gran Turismo 5. GT5 is a high definition game which is shipped in Blu-Ray format for PS3 consoles, the detail level is amazing, this is really as close as a player can get to the real thing, but besides the visual effects the technology and physics involved in the game is so remarkable it needs to be mentioned, the physics engine allows you to handle your car just like you would in real life, the response and performance of each of the vehicles used in this game is also incredible, however there is little DLC or no car damage. Developers of the game responded to several questions regarding this matter but they said that since the game is still being developed the Prologue version won't have car damage, because designers are very picky when it comes to this game they want to make sure that when "damage" is introduced they will do it as realistic as possible, just like they did with the physics engine which powers the game.
As far as the amount of cars featured in the game there is quite a few discussions being held because it is said that the game will ship with 60 vehicles and 14 tracks, others claim that GT5 will have around 340 vehicles at launch out of the 10,000 projected vehicles, yes! you read that right and it has been said that the game can even be expanded with several other vehicle models which can be bought by individual clients from Polyphony Digital. The projected lists of car models found in GT5 is amazing, you can literally find anything you want in there and with the expansion capabilities the sky is the limit.
When it comes to system requirements, Gran Turismo 5 (Store version) requires around 2.2GB of disc space but the Blu-Ray version might bring this number down. The demo of this game was launched in Japan during October, 2007 and it only featured the Suzuka race track along with 7 cars. If you are wondering what the "Prologue" in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue means, it is there as a self- reference to GT4 Prologue which was launched before GT4 for PS2, of course things have changed for the better since previous versions.
The multiplayer online interface is awesome, players will be able to compete against 15 other racers which certainly takes things up a few notches from the previous Gran Turismo HD. Along with GT5 players have access to "Gran Turismo TV" channel through PSN to keep racers updated with motor sport news, talk about added value. If you like the videos you have seen then hold on to your seats because Sony announced that this is just the beginning since the full version of Gran Turismo 5 launches in 2009.
