There was a whole decade across the ‘90s and ‘00s in which console gaming in the UK, at least in terms of a machine to connect to your TV, was near-synonymous with the Sony PlayStation and its successor. The fact that, in contrast to the US or Japan, the PlayStation marked the point at which console gaming went mainstream here made the effect even stronger. From 1996 to 2006, 70% of the UK’s #1 games I covered had the PS1 or PS2 as their bestselling (or only) format. No wonder the PS3 achieved massive first week sales figures. Yet here I am a year into the life of the console, and meeting only my second PS3 game. It’s quite the fall from grace.
There are several explanations I could put forward for what happened, but let’s start with the price. £425. Four hundred and twenty-five pounds. At least Sony never had to raise it higher still, but meanwhile the Wii launched at £180 and the Xbox 360 at £280 with a lower-spec model at £210. Sony’s decision to make something so big and expensive was hubristic, and only starting to look worse as the world headed for worse financial times. Having two strong and cheaper rivals with distinct approaches proved a particular problem. The PS2 had a carefully assembled coalition of players, going right across Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor, EyeToy and Singstar. In the next generation, that got picked apart from both ends, with the Wii and Xbox 360 covering different subsets and the latter’s better online system providing particularly strong rewards for sticking around.
People considering buying a PS3 weren’t the only ones staring at big price tags. The continued drive for technological advances measured in more and more detailed graphics was having a particularly acute effect on the time and money needed to make many types of games. For a lot of publishers, that made releasing them on only one console look an increasingly dangerous prospect. Well before the PS3 came out it was already clear that Grand Theft Auto IV, for instance, would be released on the Xbox 360 on the same day rather than after a delay as with previous instalments.
That kind of move fed a reinforcing cycle: fewer exclusive games meant less reason to buy the console, meant fewer players to sell to, made exclusive releases a worse prospect for publishers. The attraction of multi-platform releases (particularly with the 360 failing to compete on the same level in Japan) did ultimately prevent the consolidation onto one platform that the previous generation had seen, and helped the PS3 find its place, but it remained very rare for any game to sell better on it than its rival.
In the meantime, Sony’s own games and other exclusives took on a renewed importance, and widespread delays to them became even more of a problem. So it was that a year on from the console’s release, a glorified demo ended up as one of its most successful and important games for a bit (the small £20 price tag may have helped too). Gran Turismo 5: Prologue was not the first short-form Gran Turismo to be released, or even the first Prologue. But it was trying to do a bigger job, to sell the potential not just of a new Gran Turismo game but of the PS3 as a whole.
Having to wait for it to install before being able to do anything is not the best first impression of a brave new world. Beyond that, it is immediately, very, Gran Turismo, albeit in a significantly smaller and more concentrated dosage. The mind-boggling attention to detail in car-handling is present. The joy of bouncing round corners off the bodywork of robotic opponents is present. The loop of buying cars and racing them to earn money to buy better cars is present, although shorn of any of the upgrading that is normally such a crucial part of it. There are no licence tests, but there are a good many hours of progression built into Prologue. Its comparison point, though, was previous entries of a series which set new standards for vast expanses of possibility.
Without that full picture, what remains is a proof of concept, that yes, this was Gran Turismo in HD. But Forza Motorsport 2 was near enough that, and was a full game which had been out for the best part of a year already. Arguably it even looked better, with some of the tracks in Prologue looking a little short of detail. The update of the High Speed Ring is a visibly big difference from the PlayStation 2 games, but hits with nothing like the same first impression of beauty as Gran Turismo 3 managed.
Not all of its tracks lack visual detail; pride of place goes to the invented London street track which was the big draw when I bought this game at the time and which reproduces Piccadilly and surrounds with obsessive detail. Even there comes an interesting comparison with the partly-overlapping track in Project Gotham Racing 4. They both give a similar opportunity to, as the delightful tourist-video track guide in Prologue puts it, “drive around the Column of Admiral Nelson”, but they feel rather different. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue’s track with its high barriers, sharp corners and meticulous recreation is much more imaginable as actually existing, but you spend most of the time in shadow and don’t get the same rush of going past so many famous sights at great speed.
It’s stuff like that which makes clear that Gran Turismo did still have something unique to offer, an unmatchable commitment to a very specific aesthetic and approach. The main menu comes with a backdrop of lifestyle magazine snaps of your currently selected car next to mountains/castles/German Christmas markets, which are equal parts beautiful and goofy. Engine noises as you struggle up hill or briefly leave the ground give feedback to tuned perfection. Elsewhere in its audio, race wins are immediately marked with mega guitar licks, fading into soft rock for resultant trophies appearing.
The vivid plumes of dust when rival racers place a wheel outside of the track as they corner make an even stronger impression for being a rare incursion of anything so messy, a break from the pristine precision of everything. As a game series, Gran Turismo had long taken speed and taught how to bring it under such precise control that it feels comfortable, plush. The idea of a mere taster for the latest version selling anyone on a £425 console still seems ludicrous, but it could still take that unique feeling a bit further.
Top of the charts for week ending 29 March 2008:
Top of the charts for week ending 5 April 2008:
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