The Gran Turismo series has always been about realism.  Cars are modeled to be accurate down to the lugnuts, and the driving physics are always perfectly in tune with the real world.  This has always made it all the more glaring that slamming into walls at 160 mph leaves your car completely unharmed.  When Gran Turismo 5: Prologue launches later this month, we may see some changes to this blasphemy of physics.  The following is an exchange during a VideoGames.com interview with Gran Turismo 5 director and series creator, Kazunori Yamauchi:

VideoGamer.Com: People are already asking for things that they want to be included in Gran Turismo 5, with damage modelling being top of many people's lists. Are we finally going to see damage in the final release?

KY: Actually we're planning to add damage to the game within Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.

VideoGamer.Com: Is this going to be a trial for the damage we'll see in the final Gran Turismo 5 or the full thing?

KY: We're not really planning for a trial or test version, we're going at it full speed. We'll see what happens.


Sounds to me like this is a done deal, and we WILL see flying bumpers and hubcaps when we “accidentally” smash our high-performance vehicles into guardrails and buildings. 

For years, car manufacturers have fought against allowing their makes and models to deteriorate during the course of races, but it seems like they must have finally relented and allowed us to get the automotive carnage we’ve all wanted for so long now.  While Yamauchi doesn’t explicitly say that car damage will be in the full version of GT 5, due out next year, his statement seems to indicate that Sony will be carrying the feature over. 

Later in the interview, Yamauchi also states that GT 5: Prologue will be the first game in the series to feature weather effects, and that they will definitely be coming to the full version.  I’m going to guess that the latter feature is going to result in a lot of the former.

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