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'Burnout Paradise Remastered' hits Switch on June 19th
The open-world racing game will cost $50 on Nintendo Switch.
F1 drivers will compete in a virtual grand prix series
With their season on hold because of coronavirus fears, Formula 1 drivers will surely be desperate for a competitive outlet to keep them (and their fans) occupied. So, just like soccer players and NASCAR drivers, they're diving into a virtual version of their sport.
'Forza Horizon 4' is getting a 72-car battle royale mode
Are video games legal any more if they don't have a battle royale mode? Even Civilization VI joined the fray a few months back. The latest game to hop into the battle royale arena, including the shrinking play area popularized by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite, is Forza Horizon 4.
Futuristic racing game 'Lightfield' lands on PS4 and Xbox One
If you have a hankering for a different kind of racing game, Lightfield might pique your curiosity. You maneuver around by clinging to objects in a stylized, futuristic environment, with light trails streaming behind you. At any given moment, you can leap off the surface, parkour-style to find the fastest possible line to victory. Visually, it sort of looks like Tron meets Miami Vice, with pastel blue, pink and green colors trailing behind ships.
Create 'Gran Turismo 6' race tracks on your tablet
For ages, Polyphony Digital has been promising a Gran Turismo 6 track editor that lets you build the race course of your dreams. Well, it's finally here... if not quite in the form you might have expected. Download the Track Path Editor app for Android and iOS and you can design circuits for the PlayStation 3 sim on your tablet. It's not so detailed that you'll recreate every nuance of your local raceway, but you can trace paths with your finger, choose themes and add scenery. Think of it as a way to extend the life of GT6 beyond the occasional new concept car -- you don't have to settle for driving on Autumn Ring or Brands Hatch for the hundredth time.
Formula 1 driver joins video game racing team
Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, Project Cars and other racing games offer a surprisingly realistic depiction of motorsport. It should come as no surprise then to hear that professional drivers are starting to use these virtual depictions as training tools. Max Verstappen, a Formula 1 driver that placed fourth in last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, is joining the sim racers at Team Redline to hone his skills. The squad has been running for 15 years and competes using games such as iRacing, Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2. Verstappen isn't the first professional driver to make the leap to virtual racing though -- Richie Stanaway, Nick Catsburg and Kelvin van der Linde have all been snapped up by Team Redline too. It's effectively the reverse of GT Academy, a scheme run by Nissan and PlayStation which gives players the chance to compete in real-life motorsport.
'Forza' finally gets some Porsche love
There's been a Porsche-sized hole in the Forza roster for quite awhile, but that changes tomorrow. The German automaker's coming to Forza Horizon 2's open world with 10 models, according to our sister site Autoblog. The pack's $9.99 and comes with a handful of new Bucket List challenges, Rivals events and over a dozen new achievements for the Gamerscore hungry. Rides hit a wide swath of Porsche's history, with the 1970 914/6, 1987 959 all the way up to a 2015 Macan Turbo on offer. Apparently gaming giant Electronic Arts had to sign off on the deal because of its exclusive agreement for Porsche cars to appear in the likes of the Need for Speed and Real Racing franchises. Whether or not that means we'll see any of the German sports cars in the upcoming Forza Motorsport 6 isn't exactly clear but the E3 trade show is only a week away. Update: The Turn10 press release says yes, there will be Porsches in Forza Motorsport 6, and you can check out a live stream showing off the new additions embedded after the break.
'Need for Speed' reboot rolls out this fall
When EA's quarterly report dropped earlier in May, it included a few tasty game-related tidbits, including a "holiday 2015" launch window for a new Need for Speed. EA today confirmed that Need for Speed will launch on PS4, Xbox One and PC this fall -- and it's a full-on reboot of the series. "With more than 20 years of history in its rear view mirror, we're bringing Need for Speed back with a reboot that delivers on what Need for Speed stands for -- rich customization, authentic urban car culture, a nocturnal open world, and an immersive narrative," EA Community Manager Ben Walke writes. The first teaser for the game is fairly gorgeous and EA says that all of its footage was captured in-game. Watch the video below, and keep your eyes here on June 15th for the first gameplay trailer and official announcement direct from E3 2015.
'Forza' wants to put you in 'Fast & Furious' for free
Most attempts at turning the Fast & Furious movies into video games haven't exactly set the world on fire, but here's one that might be worth playing. Microsoft, Turn 10 and Universal have teamed up for Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, a slightly awkwardly-titled Horizon 2 expansion that has you scoring cars for the Furious crew's missions. It should have the same open-world racing that you saw in the latest Forza title (generally a good thing!), but with 11-plus cars from the movie franchise, including Dom's killer '70 Dodge Charger R/T above, and Ludacris doling out racing challenges. Don't own Horizon 2? No worries -- the expansion is standalone and doesn't require the base game to play. Whether or not you're a fan of Brian, Dom and company, it won't hurt much to try this out, either. The Fast & Furious add-on will be free on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One between March 27th and April 10th, after which it'll cost you a not-too-outlandish $10.
Fanatec has a solution for using its pricey Xbox 360 racing wheels on the One
One of the biggest hassles of upgrading to a new gaming console is that by and large almost all of the accessories and peripherals you bought for the previous one are incompatible. High-end racing-wheel outfit Fanatec isn't going to leave Xbox gamers high and dry, though. The outfit's recently announced that it'll soon release a "Fanatec wheel base" that allows you to plug in its existing lines of pricey Xbox 360 racing wheels, shifters and pedal sets into it and use them with Microsoft's newest gaming system. The outfit's also apparently closed a licensing deal with Redmond to bring new racing gear to the Xbox One as well. Considering the newly released Forza Horizon 2 and the upcoming The Crew and Project Cars, this should all be good news to virtual gearheads. Here's to hoping a company steps up and does something similar for PlayStation 4 owners soon, too.
Playdate: We're livestreaming 'Forza Horizon 2' on Xbox One! (Update: it's over!)
Welcome, ladygeeks and gentlenerds, to the new era of gaming. The one where you get to watch, and comment, as other people livestream gameplay from next-gen consoles. Because games! They're fun!
Who needs feet? SteelSeries Simraceway SRW-S1 steering wheel puts pedals at your fingertips
Time to face the facts -- your tiny apartment just doesn't have room for a fancy wheel and pedal setup, but clunky gamepads aren't getting you any closer to the winners circle. What's a racing fanatic to do? SteelSeries has an idea: keep the wheel, kill the pedals. Boasting enough buttons to make an authentic F1 steering wheel blush, the SteelSeries Simraceway SRW-S1 steering wheel swaps the traditional foot petal peripheral for a quartet of finger ready paddles saddled on the controller's rear. A motion sensor gives the wheel a tinge of Mario Kart flair, and eliminates the bulky, mountable steering column. The SRW-S1 will set you back $120, and score you just enough room for that La-Z-Boy you always wanted. Check out the wheel's official press release and a demo video after the break.
Thrustmaster unveils Ferrari F458 racing wheel and TH8 RS shifter, dares you to get fast and furious
Is that regular ol' Xbox 360 controller leaving you unfulfilled after a marathon session of Forza Motorsport 4? Don't fret, Thrustmaster has announced the launch of its Ferrari 458 (F458) Italia Racing Wheel for Microsoft's gaming console. The 11-inch wheel features a rubberized grip to stay comfy, built-in metal paddle shifters, a Manettino dial for mid-lap adjustments and progressive resistance to keep you on the straight and narrow. Not wanting to leave PS3 and PC racers in its dust, the company also revealed the TH8 RS gear shifter -- which connects to the T500 RS or the outfit's other PC wheel controllers via USB. This bad boy lets you release your inner Michael Schumacher with either H-pattern or sequential configurations plus 360-degree rotation adjustment to tailor the gearbox to your liking. Both the TH8 RS and the aforementioned F458 will be hitting your garage... er, game room in October for $180 and $90, respectively. Check out the full PR for the pair after the break, and make sure you fasten your seatbelt.
Receipt Racer makes printing fun, wastes more paper than you ever thought possible (video)
Sure, you could use your printer to spit out spreadsheets, but how about hooking up a DualShock 3 to play it like a video game? That's exactly what Joshua Noble and the undef duo did during a workshop related to OFFF last week, and the result is stunning (if not hilarious). The trio coded a game in openFrameworks, titled Receipt Racer, which uses a thermal receipt printer modded with a "light beamer" to display game info and represent a car, a DS3 to control it, and a laptop to connect the devices and run the software. A random track with obstacles gets rapidly printed while a player attempts to navigate it without crashing -- sort of like Lane Splitter -- or until the paper roll runs out after 164 feet. There's a tree-loving web browser version and the full details of how it works in the source link below. We scored just over 1,400 1,752 points; let us know how you do in the comments. [Thanks, Jesse]
Thrustmaster T500 RS review
For a long time -- a long, long time -- Logitech and Gran Turismo have gone together like rubber and asphalt. Like carbon fiber and fender flares. Like drivers' privates and their Nomex underpants. The two were tight, but with GT5 came a changing of the guard. Thrustmaster, a company world-renowned for its high-end flight controls and its giggle-inducing name, stepped in and bought the license. The purpose? To release the decidedly high-end T500 RS wheel, the controller designed to abolish memories of all the plasticy racing controllers that have come before from the company. Does it succeed, and is it worth the pucker-inducing price of $599? These questions and more answered below. %Gallery-117113%
German designer brings Wipeout racing game to life, burns up cardboard tracks with an R/C car (video)
The intersection of video games and real life is a fantastic place to play, as evidenced by Roombas, Halo and the occasional six-string guitar, but all you really need to blur reality is a webcam, an R/C car and a studio filled with cardboard. That's what Malte Jehmlich and company used to create this rendition of Wipeout, which moves practically as fast as the PlayStation original due to the blinding scale speed of its 1/28 model cars. It's all controlled by an arcade racing cabinet complete with steering wheel and on-screen display wirelessly connected to an Arduino board. Originally a two-month hobby project, the designers are presently working towards an advanced version with force feedback and powerups (including boost!) using sensors built right into the track -- and hopefully a forklift to lug all that corrugated wood pulp around. See it in action after the break.
Engadget test-drives Festo AirMotion Ride, humiliates self (video)
Festo may've already stirred up plenty of attention with its mesmerizing AirPenguin blimp, but let's not forget its other weapon -- fluidic muscles (elastomer tubes that contract when filled with fluid). At The Gadget Show Live in the UK, this German company was also showing off its AirMotion Ride car-racing simulator -- essentially a driver's seat suspended from just six fluidic muscles for the six degrees of freedom, while sound and vision are handled by its 5.1 surround sound speakers and a projector. The company claims that each of these lightweight muscles can generate forces of up to 1,600N, and since there are no mechanical parts inside, they make an ideal replacement for conventional hydraulic plungers as used on Force Dynamics' and Motion-Sim's simulators. You can see Festo's machine in action after the break, but promise us that you won't judge our driving ability.%Gallery-90032%
Real Time Race promises to let you race against the pros, in real time
There's certainly no shortage of impressive augmented reality games around these days, but it doesn't look like the folks behind the so-called Real Time Race will have any trouble turning a few heads with theirs, at least if they can actually deliver as promised. Their basic idea is to make use of some Google Street View-like technology to create a virtual reproduction of an actual race track, and pair it with some real-time data as the race is happening to let anyone that wants to take part in the race from the comfort of their home. While the current state of things still seemingly leaves a bit to be desired (check the video at the link below), the folks behind the game say they could be ready to hold their first race sometime next year -- assuming they're able to line up all the necessary rights and broadcast issues, that is. In the meantime, you can take the non-real time demo version for a spin. [Thanks, Bryce D]
Gran Turismo TV goes live
The latest update to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has turned the game into a video download platform rivaling the console you play it on, with episodes of Top Gear and other auto shows, plus exclusive HD content filmed just for the game. Also packed in the update are some gameplay fixes, although we're still waiting for Sony to put real collision damage in our Real Driving Simulator. One step beyond watching HD video of others playing the game, all the content that costs is available for $.99 for the first two weeks, if you're still not sure check out the PlayStation Blog's video embedded below, or hit the read link to download 720p video of the Japanese version's video marketplace in action.
First Look: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
One game that jumped out at me while I was pawing through the virtual game racks at the App Store was Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D from Vivendi Games Mobile. A racing game featuring Playstation perennial Crash Bandicoot, Nitro Kart 3D is sure to wear out your iPhone batteries quickly. This app uses the accelerometers in the iPhone for control; turn the iPhone left or right like a steering wheel to turn, and tilt the phone up or down to accelerate or brake. The entire time you're racing against the other characters, including the nefarious Brio, you need to avoid oil slicks and weapons used by your opponents, try to pick up a little time by hitting rainbow-colored "hyperdrive spots" on the track, and hit boxes containing weapons (like surface-to-surface missiles, my personal favorite) so you can slow down the other racers.The game is localized for English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish, and you can adjust the sensitivity of the accelerometer to keep you from over-controlling your kart. With smooth 3D graphics, fun sound effects, and the enjoyment of waving your iPhone around to steer, Nitro Kart is well worth the $9.99 price in the App Store. %Gallery-27950%
