Gran Turismo 4 Demo Quietly Released In U.S.

An anonymous reader writes "Sony has seen fit to release Gran Turismo 4: Prologue in both Europe and Japan, but the U.S. arm of the company chose not to ship it in the States. The result? Only importers and select members of the media have been able to play the game. Thankfully a limited U.S. demo has turned up from a very non-gaming source, according to GamePro.com, who explain how to navigate through the Toyota web site and request a Toyota Prius-specific two track demo of Gran Turismo 4, completely free of charge. The demo is playable on a standard U.S. PlayStation 2 console. I wonder if Toyota made enough copies of the demo to satisfy every PS2 owner in America?" We previously reported on the Japanese version of this disc, released last September.

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Looks like you get the Gran Tourismo demo with the Matrix, too. Unfortunately, they appear too clever to send me two copies.

I find it humourous that they have more copies of the game than of certain parts of the literature brochure (which i'm actually interested in ... however, it shouldn't surprise me as the local toyota dealership told me that there's at least a 4 month waiting list for the prius in this area)

Re:How long to get it?

[icannotpickone]

Since I've been considering purchasing a Prius, I ordered it (the demo, not the car)about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and it arrived today. People really aren't missing much by not having this demo. There are 2 cars (one of which is the Prius, the other is the "Motor Triathlon Race Car") and 2 tracks. The second track can only be played with the Race Car. The worst part? The demo is limited to 2 minutes of drive time, then the race ends.

Not missing too much

[Anonymous Coward]

I got this on Friday, when it came out in the UK. I can understand why US gamers are upset at the lack of a release, although I'm not too sympathetic, as it's more normal for us Euros to get shafted.

However, you're not missing too much with this. GT4 Prologue has 5 tracks (plus two short-version tracks and an oval test-track) and about 60 cars. There is no car customisation, and the cars are overwhelmingly Japanese and not really the most inspiring bunch. You can only race against AI opponents on 3 of those tracks. Most damningly of all, there is no multiplayer mode, which sets this appart from the other less value-ful versions of Gran Turismo, such as Tokyo-Geneva. The bulk of the demo is composed of about 25 "lessons", which are basically the same as the license tests from the other GT games, albeit with more of an emphasis on teaching and less demanding time-limits.

The engine feels great and looks even better. It's still not quite photo-realism, but by god it's close. However, with no multiplayer, the lifespan of this game isn't going to be more than a couple of hours. Just wait for the full game. From what I've seen, it's going to rock.