When the PS3 was announced, Gran Turismo 5 was also announced to the surprise of no one. Gran Turismo is still seen as the premiere racing game despite getting a heavy challenge from Forza Motorsport last generation on the competing console. Sony then announced a 2008 date for the game and the PS3 was left without a flagship racer for a long time after launch, until GT HD came along anyway. Sony is hoping this is enough to keep GT fans happy for a while and while it does have its problems, the price is right as it’s free.

GT HD is supposed to be a taste test of what is to come from GT on PS3 and it successfully does this but it's not going to last you more than a few hours. On offer is one track and ten cars with only one car available initially, where as more become unlocked as you beat the various track records with each car. Generally, even without the driving aids on, you will unlock most cars within one lap of the circuit and then it just becomes a piece of software to show your PS3 off to mates.

There is no doubt that this is a reworked GT4 engine rather than the GT5 engine because driving and physics feels very much like the PS2 predecessor. Where the game becomes different is the visuals which are stunning although they aren't as detailed as we expected. Sony still has a few years to fix this so we will give them the benefit of the doubt. Some of the cars do look better than others and it is clear some had more detail placed on them.

There is one brand new feature for GT5 which is shown in GT HD and that is the drift mode. Captilising on the Japanese craze of drifting cars, HD now has a mode where you take corners while slamming the brakes to slide around rally style. Each corner is given a ranking and points and in that respect it feels a little to close to Project Gotham Racing but it is still a heck of a lot of fun to play.

If there is one area where GT HD impresses the most however, it is the replays. If you want to see photo realistic graphics, watch replays of the cars racing around the track. If Sony was to get this level of detail into the actual driving engine before release, GT5 will be the most detailed and graphically rich game around. You could sit there watching a car going around and around for hours picking out new graphical details and reflections. This bodes well for the final game.

GT HD was never meant to be a full game and in turn was never meant to offer a full game experience, but what it does do is offer a distraction for those who picked up a PS3, showcasing the potential of the duo that is the PS3 and Gran Turismo. We don't think Sony will be able to resist cashing in on HD with microtransactions so we expect this game to improve and get new features as time goes on and we build to the release of GT5. We for one can't wait.