Gran Turismo
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Thrustmaster T500RS, the official Gran Turismo 5 wheel, unboxed and tested (video)
Wondering how Thrustmaster's upcoming$599 T500RS wheel stacks up to the competition from Logitech and Fanatec? Haven't had your daily dose of heavy metal backing music? You'd better click play on the video embedded below. InsideSimRacing has managed to get one of the first wheels in the country and, while we're mildly jealous, we won't stop from passing on their impressions -- which aren't universally positive. The trick flip pedals that go from "F1" to "rally" style? Gimmicky. Rubber instead of leather? C'mon. Price? Astronomical. The rest of the impressions? You'll just have to start streaming to find out. [Thanks, Chris]
Gran Turismo 5 gets three free premium cars for Christmas ... in Japan
Sony Japan is putting a special Christmas gift in the stockings of Gran Turismo 5 owners in that territory. From December 24 to January 31, Japanese GT5 drivers will be able to download a Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640, a BMW M3 Coupe and a Jaguar XJ13 completely free for use in the game. The Lambo and the Beemer were originally included in the game's collector's edition, and the Jag was a promotional extra from Facebook. The promotion is currently for Japan only, so you US and European players will have to live with the usual coal in your stocking. Maybe next year, try not being so naughty?
Thrustmaster teases T500RS steering wheel, the new official peripheral for Gran Turismo
GT5 is finally, finally out, but amazingly it seems to have beaten its official steering wheel to market. For a long time Logitech has maintained the honor of building the wheel that carried Gran Turismo branding, and indeed its Driving Force GT is still the first wheel in the GT5 options. But, Thrustmaster seems to have secured the license for the franchise now and is building a wheel called the T500RS which, if you go Thrustmaster.com, you can get a quick peek of -- or you can just look at the screengrab above. The wheel promises unrivaled accuracy and what looks to be the same sort of magnetic sensor technology used in the company's overwhelmingly beefy HOTAS Warthog controller. Rumors say it'll carry a similar price, too, a whopping $500 MSRP without the optional H-pattern shifter and, though our attempts to confirm anything were shooed away like so many fruitflies, we've been promised more info to come at CES.
Yamauchi talks future Gran Turismo 5 updates, cut features
You didn't really think that work was finished on Gran Turismo 5, did you? Car-obsessed creator Kazunori Yamauchi has been fielding questions from fans on his Twitter feed (translated at GTPlanet), revealing that a variety of fixes are in the works -- but also shedding light on some features we'll probably never see. Yamauchi confirms that his team at Polyphony Digital is working to implement mechanical -- not just cosmetic -- damage in GT5 sometime in early December. Less time-consuming fixes include nixing the game's odd-looking "blocky" shadows, adding more online functionality (the lounge is mentioned) and possibly offering the option to disable the HUD overlay. Work to support Logitech's G25 and G27 racing wheels in still underway, he adds. As for what we won't be seeing, it sounds like face-tracking in GT mode and YouTube uploading of replays are out due to memory constraints. We'll also never get a chance to experience the cut "free roam" mode, in which players would have been able to drive around the gameworld, obeying traffic laws and stopping to get out of their cars to explore on foot. We imagine this was referred to internally as the "We Need Another Year of Development Time" mode.
Gran Turismo 5 review: Driven by perfection
Gran Turismo 5 opens with a lengthy, ostentatious video that chronicles the construction of a car, from the mining of the metals that comprise it to the moment it rolls out of the factory, race-ready. These precisely edited visuals lead into a user interface that's so pristine and so polished that it left no doubt in my mind: the reason GT5 has been in development for so long, so delayed, is that it was never going to be perfect enough for series boss Kazunori Yamauchi. He's clearly a perfectionist, and as a result has made a good game, albeit one that's been driven down a very narrow path to end up something only a subset of gamers will truly enjoy.%Gallery-71410%
Titanium Blue PS3 hits Japan on November 25th, long-awaited racing game in tow
November 3rd came and went without a Gran Turismo 5 game to play, so as you'd imagine this gorgeous Titanium Blue PS3 launch bundle also failed to see the light of day. However, now that we've got a totally plausible and twice-confirmed November 24th release date for the little uber-realistic racer that could, it's probably fair to take Sony Japan at its word that we'll see the commemorating console appear without further delay. Tell your Japanese importer to line up on November 25th if you want one with your name on it, and be sure to hand him at least ¥35,980 (about $436) of your rainy day fund.
PS3 holds breath waiting for Gran Turismo 5 release, turns blue at TGS
We knew it was coming, and now here it is: Sony's special edition PS3. To commemorate the impending release of GT5 the console is turning blue, and while the rather vibrant version we saw in the official press photos from August didn't do much for us, seeing the thing in the flesh (admittedly behind glass) gave us quite a different impression. It has the same matte finish as the current PS3 slim, but the rich blue gives it almost a metallic effect. It's really quite a looker, and while we wouldn't normally splurge for such "special" editions, how often does a new Gran Turismo come around? Once a decade at most. This Gran Turismo 5 Racing Pack hits Japan on November 3 for 35,980 yen. That's about $420 of those dollars you've been saving for oh so long. %Gallery-102523%
PS3 gets Titanium Blue makeover for Gran Turismo 5 launch bundle; landing in Japan on November 3
Shock of all horrors, Gran Turismo 5 will actually, finally launch in Japan and Europe on November 3. Of course, being more concerned with hardware as we are, our excitement is focused on the rich blue hue that will adorn PS3 consoles bundled with the grandiosely delayed racing game over in Nippon this fall. The ¥35,980 ($421) Gran Turismo 5 Racing Pack will be composed of a Limited Edition copy of the game plus a repainted skinny PlayStation 3 with a 160GB hard drive. Time to give your old importer buddy a call, eh?%Gallery-99696%
Gran Turismo 5 flips over two new trailers
Firmly adhering to the "better late than never" philosophy, Gran Turismo 5 is more than glad to show off its new crash physics system in one of two new videos released by SCEA. At last, the "real driving simulator" can finally simulate really bad driving!
Gran Turismo 5 includes track editor, weather and go-karts
Sony may have dropped a few details about Gran Turismo 5 (like a release date) at its E3 presentation, but it was saving the real news for an even bigger event: Cue random interview on the UK PlayStation site with Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida. In this interview, Yoshida casually confirms the existence of unannounced elements in the racing sim, including a track editor and go-karts. For every individual driver, Yoshida says there is " a driving experience to suit, whether that is taking on the Top Gear test track, chucking cars around stunt arenas, go-karting, creating and sharing your own track or intense head-to-head races." Elsewhere in the interview (and just as nonchalantly), Yoshida references some " new game-enhancing graphical effects, such as damage, night racing and weather." Damage has already been confirmed and weather rumored. Of course, we aren't totally sure Gran Turismo 5 is a real game yet, and if it is as imaginary as it seems to be, you can say pretty much anything is in it, like: "Gran Turismo 5 will feature Crocodile Mile racing." See? There's as much proof for that feature that we just made up as there is for anything else, and that will be the case until the game is released. [Thanks, P]
Eutechnyx announces plan to drive forward with Auto Club Revolution
There are some games that seem like they just beg to be made into an MMO. The concept of the Gran Turismo series, for instance -- a game where you could purchase and drive almost any car, from a high-performance race machine to a tiny Japanese cargo truck. While there are no indications that the venerable franchise is going to head into the crowded world of full-scale MMOs, developer Eutechnyx, maker of the recent Ferrari Challenge and Supercar Challenge among others, has recently announced that they intend to work on a driving MMO allowing you to take out all manner of licensed cars. Titled Auto Club Revolution, the game is slated to be free-to-play by North American operations director Todd Eckert. The intention is to allow a variety of licensed cars to be driven by players, although which cars will be available will depend on which manufacturers allow it. The company seems to be primed to use the same general development tools from their earlier offerings, meaning that the actual racing engine will be thoroughly tested. Only time will tell how far down the road the game will get, although we can only hope for a game wherein a Yugo and a first-generation Saga can race to the finish.
Finding a new dimension for gaming at the 3D Gaming Summit
A small crowd of movie and game producers met this week at Universal City in Los Angeles for the first-ever 3D Gaming Summit, to sit down and discuss the trend of 3D imaging in gaming and film. Much of the talk at the summit was speculative -- with almost no actual consumer devices on the market and nearly none within price range of the average consumer anyway, gaming in 3D isn't much more than an idea at this point. Most of the technology companies in attendance are still working to get content producers to use their systems to create games and films rather than selling hardware directly to consumers. Still, the panels and discussions at the summit offered an interesting look at what many believe to be the eventual future of the industry. From a lunchtime interview with Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson to a Playstation Move demo (and a panel moderated by a Joystiq editor), the 3D Gaming Summit showed off a lot of guesswork, a few interesting demos, and a few big holes that will need to be filled if 3D gaming is going to ever take off.
Gran Turismo 5 'Nights' trailer is appropriately unlit, pretty
It's been a while since we last saw images from Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5 -- at least ones that were capable of moving whilst being accompanied by high-octane trance music. Such moving pictures were released earlier today, likely in an attempt to remind us just how pretty the game really is. (Here's a refresher course: It's super pretty.) You can check out the trailer posted after the jump, but we suggest having some ninjas around when you watch it, because the music will totally make you want to fight some ninjas. More than usual.
NASCAR director calls Gran Turismo 5 the best NASCAR game to date
It's been nearly two years since EA Sports called it quits on the NASCAR franchise (a little less if you count NASCAR Kart Racing). NASCAR gamers are growing impatient and, for better or for worse, will have to wait for the perpetually-delayed Gran Turismo 5 to get their NASCAR fix. At the very least, fans can take comfort in knowing that Blake Davidson, managing director of licensed products at NASCAR, has incredible faith in the game. "They're going to do it better than anybody's ever done it before," he stated in a video posted on the PlayStation.Blog. "It's really the next step for us, it's the best depiction of what NASCAR cars are in any driving game to date." Certainly a bold statement, considering NASCAR is just one feature in the racer. According to Davidson, one of the reasons why NASCAR teamed up with Polyphony Digital is the recommendation of one of the sports most famous racers today. "Dale Earnhardt, Jr. himself actually came to us and said 'you really need to look at Polyphony Digital. They're a great developer, the best in the world at what they do.'"
Gran Turismo PSP helps series top 55 million units sold
We hate to be all Captain Obvious about it, but there's good reason the Gran Turismo series is still doing laps around the virtual track. People are voting with their cash, as the latest figures from Polyphony Digital show that Gran Turismo PSP has managed to sell 1.8 million copies. And through its success, it's hit one hell of a milestone for the Gran Turismo series at large. Here's the rundown of the franchise's success: The original Gran Turismo has sold 10,850,000 units Gran Turismo 2 has sold 9,370,000 units Gran Turismo 3 A-spec on the PS2 managed to sell 14,890,000 units Gran Turismo Concept Series sold 1,560,000 units Gran Turismo 4 "Prologue" invaded 1,350,000 homes Gran Turismo 4 has been a heck of an earner, selling 10,980,000 units Gran Turismo 5 "Prologue" brought the series to the PS3 by selling 4,650,000 units Gran Turismo PSP recently recorded sales of 1,800,000 units That brings the total to 55,450,000 units. It seems impressive enough -- over five million units sold in the last year-and-a-half ain't too shabby -- though there are some caveats. For one, the Gran Turismo series has been around for over 10 years -- much longer than any of its competitors. Secondly, it's been the definitive diehard simulation racing experience on Sony's consoles, effectively making it the only show in town. Finally, the series has over seven Guinness World Records. Basically, when you have the world record for "Largest Instruction Guide for a Racing Game," it's, like, a guarantee people are going to buy it. [Via GI.biz]
Sony Europe: Don't worry, Gran Turismo 5 will be out before Christmas. Maybe. (We hope.)
The vice president in charge of "Southern Europe" (read: Spain, Portugal) at Sony Computer Entertainment isn't a man to mince words. No sir, James Armstrong answered his recent interview question from Canarias Al Dia on the subject of Gran Turismo 5's release date with rock solid certainty: "We believe that we will launch the product this Autumn, before the holiday, though this hasn't been decided yet" [our translation]. Alright, so Armstrong wasn't exactly 100 percent nailing down a date for the game that's been delayed more than a few times (Sony most recently pushed back its Japanese release to an unknown date). However, it is nice to see someone at Sony saying the sim might actually see release before the end of this console cycle. Oh, and in case you were wondering, he also puts doubt on the use of Sony's Motion Controller in the game, so at least we've got that knowledge to console us in the meantime. %Gallery-71410% [Via GT Planet, Videogamer.com]
Yamauchi: Gran Turismo 5 uses 80% of PS3's power
If you're someone who loves themselves some arbitrary console performance figures, Polyphony Digital boss Kazunori Yamauchi has you covered. Speaking to VentureBeat, the Gran Turismo creator reckons the latest game in Sony's flagship racing series taps "about 80 percent of the processing power" of the PlayStation 3," adding, "the PS3 hardware has a very high peak performance. The better you manipulate it, the better it performs." That last quote sounds more like it's about an engine than a console, which isn't surprising given the amount of time Yamauchi spends behind the wheel of the actual supercars from his oft-delayed game. We seriously hope he's not aiming to use 100 percent of the system's potential -- we'd really like GT5 to come out before a child born today is able to drive a real car.
Gran Turismo 5 delayed in Japan, new date unknown
Sony announced that the Japanese release of Gran Turismo 5 has been delayed from its unspecified March date to an undecided future date, to be announced later. Sony apologized for the inconvenience, citing some kind of "circumstances" around the release date. No concrete information was provided about what exactly caused this drastic move. Things seemed to be looking up for Gran Turismo 5 for a while. Sony announced a March release for Japan and a tentative summer release for North America, sent out a very popular demo, and even revealed the North American box art design. But this latest move suggests that Polyphony's latest racer may not be as close to the finish line as expected. [Thanks, Copland and Niko]
Gran Turismo 5 'Time Trial' demo races into one million European households
Sony sent out a press release this morning stating that across "15 European countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand," one million gamers have downloaded and played the Gran Turismo 5 demo. The demo -- which is available on PSN up until January 24 -- allows players to tear around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a Nissan 370Z to set a lap time, with the top 20 players from select regions earning a chance to join the GT Academy. It's the second gameplay tease for Gran Turismo 5, the first being the oft-praised GT5 Prologue, and shows us that, surprisingly, people want to play this Gran Turismo 5 game. Who woulda thunk it?
Gran Turismo 5 is real enough for box art
Click for high-resolution box art. 2010 is totally the future. How can we tell? Gran Turismo 5 will actually come out. Half a decade after Gran Turismo 4, Polyphony Digital is finishing up a true successor to the self-described "real driving simulator." The evidence? Box art! Mercedes-Benz's gull-winged SLS AMG has the honor of gracing the GT5 cover. It's a terrific marketing decision, if only to trick Back to the Future fans into thinking this is a game all about time travel. (It's not, we're afraid.) Check out a brand new video of Sony's long-awaited PS3 racer after the break. %Gallery-81744%
