It's fair to say that there's a heavy level of anticipation surrounding Gran Turismo 4, and it's something that Sony must be revelling in. While there's no shortage of great racing titles across multiple consoles, the Turismo series has a fine heritage of great games, although to some tastes Gran Turismo 3 veered away from the quality just a little bit. To feed the hungry fans while we wait for Gran Turismo 4, Sony's released the very demo-ish Gran Turismo 4: Prologue Edition, which originally saw light of day in Japan late last year. For once, we've got something the American market hasn't (insert your applause here), but we're still left wondering if it's really worth the AU$50-$60 asking price. That's pretty expensive for what is still only part of a game, although it is richer and more feature packed than any other demo we've ever seen.
Gran Turismo 4: Prologue Edition only offers two modes; School and Arcade, although the full game -- whenever it arrives -- should offer a great deal more. School's essentially akin to the older game's licence modes, as it takes you through the basics of controlling a vehicle with realistic physics, step by step. Some gamers may find this a little tortuous, and if you're already up to speed with the Turismo way of doing things, you'll quickly blaze through most of the early lessons on offer, unlocking extra vehicles to use in the limited arcade mode. Previous experience won't hold you through the entire School mode, and, if you're keen, you can always try to best your own times on each school session.
Arcade mode gives you a choice of five tracks -- Tsukuba, New York, Grand Canyon, Fuji Speedway and Cita d' Aria to race in simple time trial style driving. Some courses afford CPU controlled opponents, and others just pit you against your own skill. The Tsukuba and Fuji courses are real-life courses with the usual array of tight turns and speedy straights that will hone driving skills quickly, while the New York and Cita d'Aria are both urban street races with plenty of tight turns and slender roadways to navigate. That leaves the Grand Canyon course to give you an idea of how Gran Turismo: Prologue Edition's rally-style racing will end up. Your choice of cars across all five tracks is limited at first, but successful completion of the School mode's lessons will greatly increase the number of tracks you can pick from.
As you'd expect from a Gran Turismo title, the visuals on offer are very impressive, although the game itself is still some time away and there's still time to put even more polish onto each and every car and track. There are a few ropy animations -- you'll quickly become sick of the two-dimensional photographers who leap out onto the track in the Grand Canyon, for example -- and we'd hope that even with the released Prologue tracks that Polyphony puts a little more effort into improving things. It's an excellent indication of what's to come, however.
Gran Turismo 4: Prologue Edition is just a teaser for Gran Turismo 4 itself, and while the School mode will no doubt hone the driving skills of those feverishly awaiting the release of the full title, we're still sceptical about the value proposition inherent in charging half the price of a full whack title (or a single budget title) for it. It's a decent package, and if you're into getting every last gold trophy and endlessly besting your time trial times, then there's value to be had here. At the same time, however, we won't score this as we would any other game review -- at the end of the day, it is just a demo of a game that's yet to be released.
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