GT5 Prologue: Epic Letdown.

After a few years of staring at the amazing stills from GT5: Prologue and experiencing feelings of lust, I found a cheap, used PS3 and bought it and the game.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but the makers of Prologue have a long way to go before GT5 will be ready.

The car list isn't bad, though it is a bit small. The cars are mostly hold overs from GT4. A few new cars appearing in the game are the C6 Corvette Z06, Audi R8, Citroen C4 Coupe, Ford Focus ST, Nissan GTR, Suzuki Swift Sport, Mitsubishi Evo X and the new Subaru Impreza STI.

The coup de grace is, finally, the inclusion of Ferrari. It's amazing how the best driving simulator has gone this long without Ferrari, Porsche(Ruf's don't count) or Lamborghini in the games.

Prologue features five Ferrari's, the F430, 599, F2007(Formula One), F40 and 512BB. I will admit the F40 and the 512BB were the reason I bought this game. The chance to , virtually, drive two of my favorite cars, two of my favorites since childhood, was too much to resist anymore.

The game is visually stunning. The cars definitely look real, especially in the replays. There is also absolutely zero pixelation in any oif the graphics. All of the circles are round, not squarely circular, and it really does look like the real thing.

The interior car view is spectacular. Finally someone put an actual interior view, instead of passing off a view without any details of the car and a speedo and tach as the "interior view." The interiors are replicated with stunning detail. The tach and speedo operate in realistic fashion and the driver shifts when you do, though he does shift after you select the next gear.

Where it all goes wrong is in the controls.

The game seems to have been designed with a steering wheel in mind. I don't have a wheel so therefore I am stuck with the controller and it is frustrating.

Button sensitivity for acceleration and braking is virtually non-existent. Barely touching the accelerator slams the pedal to the floor. This is very aggravating mid-corner when you are trying to adjust your line.

The brakes are the same way. Need to lightly touch the brakes? Nope. Too bad. I never had this problem with GT4.

While the accelerating and braking is very annoying, the steering may make you kill.

It is so unresponsive and slow, it feels like you are driving an old tractor. Quickly, name another racing game. Yes, that game has better steering. It's just so woefully bad I can't describe it without going into a long, expletive-laden rant. It ruins the whole game. It flat-out ruins it.

There is a small bar gauge in the corner of the screen that illustrates the amount of steering input you are applying and for some reason, when I max the joystick in either direction, I only use 3/4 of the gauge. Why?

Also included in the faults sections is the notorious Gran Turismo understeer and the complete lack of tire tracks left on the road surface when you actually do break traction. And the tire squealing noise is still bad and so is the "tire smoke." It's been bad since GT1.

The amount of concentration needed to overcome these vexatacious faults is taxing. It saps all fun that could be had by the game.

Again, maybe I was expecting too much. All I really was expecting was GT4, which was brilliant, with more cars and better graphics. All I got was a slow-steering, unresponsive pile that needs major work. Basically, I bought a 70's Buick with some Ferrari's in it.

Yay.

Ferrari 458 Italia.

Ferrari has leaked more pictures and videos of it's upcoming mid-engine, V8 458 Italia and I must say, I don't like it. It doesn't stop me in my tracks and leave my mouth agape like a Ferrari should. I bet if you take the Ferrari badge off, most people would agree. I would even say most people would never guess it's a Ferrari. It reminds me of the Ascari KZ1.

Truth be told, the last Ferrari's to get me excited were the F355 and the 550 Maranello. These were the last Ferrari's that looked like Ferrari's.

I like the F430, but not enough to buy one over a Porsche 911 Turbo. The 360 Modena is boring to look at, as is the 599 and the 612 Scaglietti.

In fact, I think I lost a lot of the love I had for Ferrari.

I blame it on the F1 gearbox, which debuted on the F355F1. It was at this point, I feel, that Ferrari lost their passion and immersed themselves in technology. Their cars lost their human soul and became sort of the Terminators of the car world. They look enough like a Ferrari but underneath, it's all electronics, and with no feeling or soul.

Another point was when Ferrari said the 360 was "shaped in a wind tunnel."

What?

A Ferrari should be drawn by hand, shaped by the imagination of the designer.

I find Ferrari's new highly technological direction kind of ironic as well. Supposedly, Ferrari engineers in the early sixties had a tough time selling Il Commendatore on the benefits of disc brakes and independent rear suspension.

It's truly a shame because my love for cars was deeply influenced by Ferrari during my childhood. I have die-cast F40's, F50's, Testarossa's, 288 GTO's, 365 GTB/4's and 512 BB's. I watched "Miami Vice" just for the white Testarossa with beige interior. I knew more about the F40 than most people knew about their own parents.

I could look at a 365GTB/4 Daytona all day and then all night. In fact, that particular model is my favorite Ferrari, closely followed by the 512BB.

There have been ugly Ferrari's in the past as well, such as the 400i, Mondial 8 or 365GTC, so an ugly car is not a new thing.

Ferrari's direction is what bothers me. They seem to be moving away from creating rolling art that you drove and toward creating a rolling techno-sled that you steer.