I have a small confession to make, I'm once again addicted to a Gran Turismo game. This one being Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Even though the game still plays very similar to all the previous incarnations, the beautified graphics and intense racing action is still there and it all still makes for one heck of a fun time.

Unfortunately, this IS still Gran Turismo. You can still bump your way to first place around corners with no worries about what any of the consequences might be. Also with Prologue, you can only tweak your car (no upgrading) by adjusting gear ratio, ride height, spring rate, brake balance, etc. But the big problem here is you have to finish all of the events in the C, B, and A licenses to access this option.

Speaking of the C, B, and A licenses that is all you have in this game as far as licenses go. You also are offered a modest selection of cars and courses but compared to other Gran Turismo games the selection is minuscule. Overall it does stack up pretty decent against some other racers in the past. The real key is the fact the gameplay is still very good.

I have played around 6-8 hours of the game so far and from what I can gather the steering does feel a bit looser than previous versions and I have lost control a couple of times after colliding with the wall or being pushed in the dirt. The difficulty, even for a intermediate (which describes me) would best be described as rather easy so far though, I haven't lose a race yet in the A or early B license races.

I personally have only gotten to the Class B license races simply because I became determined on buying a Corvette last night, so I spent a lot of time just winning lower races and trying to beat some of my best times to earn credits to purchase the car.

However my first car I bought, the 06 Ford Focus, has been really fun to drive. But...when I jumped in the Corvette and took it for a few time trials, you could instantly tell the difference. Of course, what would any seasoned Gran Turismo fan expect? I'm working on getting my A license finished so I can start tweaking my cars a bit so I can pass some info along with that.

With such a limited course selection compared to other Gran Turismo games, you really fly through the offerings pretty quick. That isn't to say the game gets boring quickly though. With a few dozen car offerings and with the ability to tweak your car after winning all the races, it is going to be easy for this game to eat quite a few hours off of my time.

No online play as well, so I haven't gotten to race another human yet, but my guess is that is where the real fun in this game is going to reside.  Just a hunch.

I will have more details on the game in the coming days so be sure to check out Operation Sports for more details. In the meantime, if you have any questions, be sure to comment back on this and I'll answer them in upcoming articles.