On Par
Purpose
It all started with Gran Turismo 4 with several delays Polyphony Digital decided to release the Gran Turismo 4 Online (PAPX-90523) as a collector's item. It was only released in Japan / South Korea selected from the GranTurismo.com sites that totalled 5,000 testers. It wasn't intended for a full fledge game for Gran Turismo 4 but was a testing ground for the PlayStation 3's online. Even though it's not the full game they're treating the game as if it was a beta version and will test new features with GT5P before the final version. With that said GT5P is a piece of the real game and everything you earn in this version will be ported to the final.
Campaign (Events)
The campaign will consist of three classes, Class A, Class B, and Class C. Class C is a beginners' class, using lower powered cars, Class B is for intermediate drivers looking to polish their skills, and Class A is an advanced class including higher-level racers for more experienced drivers. With each class there will be a total of ten events for each making the grand total thirty events all together. As you go through each event some will require you to start from the beginning and finish in at least the top three within one lap all being done by a starting qualify. A qualifying start is when system where drivers driver around the track to determine the order at the beginning of the race, of course you're at the back every time.
The A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) has improved significantly now that the A.I. knows your presence on the track and makes mistakes instead of driving in a synchronized fashion. There are six tracks with two different layouts that come to 12 possible ways to race in the events. With each race there will be a certain amount of prize money you can earn depending on what place you finish in. Only the top three will get prize money and only placing in the top three will let you progress further in the game. They have your usual regulations permitted car type, physics restrictions, and tire restrictions that you have to meet in order to qualify for a race. If you don't meet the criteria then you'll have to get a car that does or enter in a race that you do qualify in.
Before each race you can tweak driving options like the transmission, active steering (will automatically correct steering when the car oversteers and the rear lips out), driving physics, to traction control (prevents the drive wheels from spinning when accelerating) . A new option is having an ideal driving line on the track while playing instead of having examples showing you how to drive. This is a feature that's seen in many other simulators and is a good thing for beginners with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue spec II.
Multiplayer
Off-line
2-Player Battle
With two players versus you both select your cars from the garages and your driving options before racing. Once in a race you won't have the in-car view and will only have the normal first person views and third person views only.
Online
Events
The online mode is broken down to time trials / circuits with Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert levels. To race in any intermediate / expert races you need to finish all of the events in Class A first otherwise you're considered a beginner. Once you enter in a section you'll have the option to upload ghost replay, free run (just you), or start match making. The match making process varies from each try but for the most part it doesn't take too long. The match making races only allows you to race nothing more nothing less (no voice chat). On the bright side of things you can earn money from online races to buy cars from the dealer ship for online / off-line use. The experience online isn't bad the game never really seems to lag at all. Sometimes the collisions will take a second or two for your car to react besides that online is smooth.
Rankings
There are rankings that are categorized by track, car, driving physics, time trial, and drift trial. You're able to see what their driving options were so you can see how hard or easy they made it for themselves.
Features
The main menu is called "My Page" and will tell you a great deal of information consisting a calendar, your car's name, or even the weather. There is a news section from Polyphony Digital and GT-TV (Gran Turismo Television). The GT-TV just has videos of cars, events, peripherals, just pretty much anything to do with cars. The downloads for the most part will take a while to download so don't expect fast speeds; others not as much time.
Game Play
The game-play is pretty straight forward requiring you're to simply use the break and gas buttons for racers. The game-play can also change to how powerful your vehicle is to adapt to the type of track you're racing on. You can also tweak the Driving Options to change how your car handles and with each car comes with advantages / disadvantages. The faster the car the harder it is to keep in control especially the Ferrari F1 that will drive you crazy if you don't know how to handle it. There isn't really much to talk about game-play considering the fact that it isn't a complete game.
Graphics
The graphics in the game are amazing whether you download it from the PlayStation Network to the Blu-ray disc version. The lighting, textures, interiors, roads, or even environment will just blow you away of how real it looks. The car models have the most polygons and as you get further out there will be less detailed. Generally speaking you'll notice where they cut corners especially with some of the audiences that are watching you race and still haven't implimented damage modeling. With all that said the game never really seems to put the cars out of place from the environments. That is key to making the illusion that everything is running at the same polygon count.
Audio
The sounds in the game are great everything sounds authentic to its counterpart in real life, which is a plus. The music in the game I don't mind from went you're racing to the main menu that have piano music / elevator music.
Conclusion
In the end if you're not into simulators or not as much of a fanatic of the series / Polyphony Digital this game isn't for you. If you're the type of person that is, and wants to help make the final version of Gran Turismo 5 better by all means get this game. The main reason why this game didn't get a perfect was the fact that it wasn't complete. Overall the time spent here won't be wasted because all of your content can be ported over to the full version.