via ign

Sony's big year end gift for those who put up with long lines and a sparse lineup of launch titles to become an early adopter of the PlayStation 3 arrived to the Japanese PlayStation Store on Saturday night at midnight, right on the dot. And as a surprise bonus, the US store received the demo at the exact same time.

That's right, in case you haven't already, log on to the PlayStation Store with your PS3 and start downloading the 630 megabyte demo, because it's already live!

For those who weren't lucky enough to get their hands on a PS3 in time for Christmas (or, perhaps, you're waiting for Santa to deliver the new system in a couple of days), here's our impressions having unlocked everything in the demo.

As detailed in our story from earlier in the week (go there for a full demo car list, and some comments from GT series producer Kazunori Yamauchi), the Gran Turismo HD Concept demo includes ten cars, selectable in a variety of colors, and one track. Spend some time with the demo, though, and you'll find a whole lot more than that.

You start off with one car, the Suzuki Cappuccino, which can be raced on the Eiger Nordwand track, itself a lengthier version of the track that was included in the Tokyo Game Show build of the game. You only have access to a time attack mode initially. That means you, by yourself, racing against the clock. The game gives you a target time. Clear a single lap under this time, and you earn a new car.

There's an interesting little progressive game in this mode of play, as you unlock the cars. New vehicles are given out in order of increasing performance. Each new car requires that you clear the course in even less time than the one before it. This isn't too much to ask, since you have a faster vehicle at your disposal, but as you'll find out once you get your hands on the faster vehicles, a fast ride comes with some challenges of its own.

Once you've cleared the time attack mode with the Ferrari 599, the entire game opens up. You gain access to a reverse version of the track, as well as tuned versions of each vehicle. You also gain access to a drift attack mode, which awards points for drifting through those tough turns.

Unlocking all the content took me about a half hour. I'm not the best racer out there, so perhaps Polyphony hasn't been too tough with the time goals.

Even once you've unlocked everything, there's still plenty to do in the demo, thanks to its network features. The demo includes a network ranking mode, which lets you view separate rankings for all cars in all track and mode configurations. You can even view and save replay data from the top ten performers. A couple of our new videos have been taken from Japan's finest racers (or, at least, the best among those who actually own a PS3 and stayed up until midnight to download the demo).

With this early look at GT5, Polyphony has managed to show how things are supposed to be done on the PS3. Visually, the game is far improved over the Tokyo Game Show build. That version had framerate problems, no lighting, and blurry crowds. Those problems have been taken care of here. The framerate is solid, the environment is fully lit, with environmental reflections on your car and actual shadows when entering the tunnel midway through the course, and the crowds actually move around. The game has also been spiced up with some nice effects, like an impressive glare as you emerge from the track's tunnel, and those waving flags that PS3 developers seem to love (see MotorStorm and Heavenly Sword).

One thing we've come to appreciate with the demo is how much detail Polyphony has been able to push out. In addition to just about the finest car models out there, the track is packed with detail, from dozens (or possibly hundreds!) of animated spectators, to thick patches of trees, and even fully realized mountains in the distance. In our new videos, in addition to racing and replays, we've included a clip focused exclusively on the background scenery of the tracks, so you can see for yourself why we're so impressed. This video consists of footage that loops in the background as you wait to begin a race.

As good as it looks, the demo still shows room for improvement. The spectators are still pretty stiff overall, with some elements of the crowd standing perfectly still as others move around in fixed patterns. The game also has some imbalance in its cars and backgrounds. The cars look so perfect that the occasional blurry texture and flat surface in the background stands out. Then again, these two problems are really only notable when you drive slowly through the tracks, something you probably won't be doing during real races.

As a slight correction, we made a comment in an early version of this article about having problems with the game's image quality. This was actually a problem with a setting on the IGN Japan television. GTHD looks nice and smooth, at least running in 720p, which is how we tested it.

Considering GT5 is a ways from ...