Yeah, sure Game Guy said “Gran Turismo 5″ was great, stupendous, out-of-this-world visually impressive. The real reason to buy an HDTV.

Then we heard the “Prologue” version due out April 17 would set us back $40. That’s on top of whatever producer Polyphonic Digital want to charge for the full-blown “Gran Turismo 5″ next year. (Game Guy’s guessing an arm, a leg, a kidney and part of his liver.)

“GT5 Prologue,” set for release on Blu-ray disc and through downloads from Sony’s PlayStation Store, is expected to have dozens of beautiful cars, 16-player online racing, measurement of a driver’s “drift” across the race course, two-player split-screen racing, and the ability to finely tune each car’s performance.

With all this, the journal Ars Technica proclaims “GT5 Prologue” to be “more fleshed out than some other $60 racing games.” And that’s likely true.

But $40 for “GT5 Prologue,” plus probably twice that that for “GT5″ and Logitech’s $150 steering wheel made especially for “GT5″ on PlayStation 3 …

GG understands why real race car owners constantly hunt for sponsorships to help fund their hobby. It’s starting to look like gamers may have to do the same.