Gran Turismo 5 has been a long time coming for Western fans of the series. While Japan has been enjoying a taste of the title for a while now thanks to the release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, we must continue to sit and wait. Many have come to question just what is taking Polyphony Digital so long, and a recent interview Polyphony's Kazunori Yamauchi divulges some key details about the process of making the game, as well as a few new tidbits of information about the game itself.
There's no question that the level of quality and attention to detail in the painstaking recreations of real cars that Gran Turismo is known for must take a lot of work, but Yamauchi was quick to explain just how much work is really necessary. "In GT and GT2, both for PS1, a designer spent a day to model a car. In GT3 and GT4, for PS2, the same worker spent a month modeling the same car due to the increased amount of polygons. In GT5 for PS3, they require six months to do the same job," Yamauchi explained.
With regards to car damage, Yamauchi noted that the original promise of realistic and full car damage has been slightly compromised. Some cars will suffer from damage, and some won't, as allowed by the respective manufacturers. He also noted that should you suffer from the "ultrarealistic simulation" of a high-speed crash, you would "lose your car," perhaps hinting that totaling a car would remove it from your garage.
However, the team does see a light at the end of the tunnel. Yamauchi confirmed that the team was shooting for a release in December 2008. He also noted that Prologue should be viewed as not only a hearty sample of the full game, but also a beta test of sorts meant to allow feedback on the engine.
You can check out the fully-translated interview in warcrow's post on our forums. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be hitting the Western world early next year, exclusively for the PlayStation 3.
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