Amazing datalogger puts your ghost in Gran Turismo
If you’ve ever wanted to compare your real performance around a track with your talent in Gran Turismo, then you’ll probably want to consider a new datalogger.
The CAN-Gateway ECU (Controller Area Network-Gateway Electronic Control Unit) has been developed by Polyphony Digital, Denso and Toyota to log a huge list on car data as you take on a track. This then allows you to recreated your performance in Gran Turismo, and race against yourself if the track is in the game.
Even if you’re not in a position to use the data-logger, it’s likely to be used to record celebrity laps which can then be featured in the game.
Tracking includes vehicle speed, engine RPM, accelerator pedal stroke, steering angle, brake signals and vehicle position, which you can transfer to your Playstation 3 via a USB drive. It’s taken five years to develop and should go on sale in 2012, with a price yet to be announced.
Watch the Gran Turismo datalogger in action:
This video from Polyphony Digital shows the system at work with a real in-car shot compared to external in-car and external views from a Toyota GT86 at Fuji Speedway in Japan. The car happens to be driven by Polyphony Digital boss and part-time racer Kazunori Yamauchi.
More than 830,000 enter GT Academy online
A whopping 830,000+ people downloaded and played the online qualifying demo for the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy 2012 by the time entries closed last week. The UK headed the nations entering, with over 161,000 hopefuls taking part followed by France and Spain as drivers attempted to record the fastest one lap time trail in a Nissan 370Z around the new version of the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit.
The 16 fastest online gamers from the UK and Ireland will join 16 Live Event Wild Card winners to take part in a National Final event at Silverstone Circuit on July 17-18, 2012), with the challenge of both Gran Turismo 5 challenges and driving tests in a real Nissan 370Z. The 6 best from the 32 finalists will then be selected for the International GT Academy Race Camp which takes place in August.
If you haven’t seen previous competitions, the overall winner will end up being trained to international race licence standard to prepare for a drive in the Dubai 24 Hour race in January 2013 in a full race-space Nissan 370Z GT4 car.
Previous winners Lucas Ordonez (Spain, 2008/2009) and Jordan Tresson (France, 2010) both competed at the Le Mans 24 Hours race in Nissan-powered prototypes this year, whilst Jann Mardenborough (UK, 2011) has gone on to win a round of the British GT Championship in the GT Academy Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 car.
Following the success of previous years, 2012 saw the GT Academy expand to include separate competitions for Europe, Germany, USA and Russia, with each Race Camp winner from each region getting the opportunity to compete in a Nissan car at a national level race.
New GT5 Season Events feature legendary tracks
If you’re a fan of the Nurburgring Nordschleife and Spa-Fancorchamps circuits (And what right-thinking race fan wouldn’t be?), then you’ll be pleased with the latest Gran Turismo Time Trial and Drift Trial events.
Time Trial No. 34
- 600PP Racecars: Nurburgring Nordschleife Time Trial
Period of Availability: 2012/04/18 23:00 – 2012/05/02 23:00
Gold: Cr.250,000 Silver: Cr.150,000 Bronze: Cr.100,000 - 700PP Spa-Francorchamps Time Trial
Period of Availability: 2012/04/18 23:00 – 2012/05/02 23:00
Gold: Cr.250,000 Silver: Cr.150,000 Bronze: Cr.100,000
Drift Trial No. 34
- Race car Drift Trial at Clubman Stage Route 5
Period of Availability: 2012/04/18 23:00 – 2012/05/02 23:00
Gold: Cr.250,000 Silver: Cr.150,000 Bronze: Cr.100,000 - Toscana Reverse Drift Trial
Period of Availability: 2012/04/18 23:00 – 2012/05/02 23:00
Gold: Cr.250,000 Silver: Cr.150,000 Bronze: Cr.100,000
New cars and B Spec seasonal events in GT5
The latest season events in Gran Turismo 5 are now live and feature B Spec racing with the following challenges:
- 400PP Circuito de Madrid Mini. 5 Laps, Credits 117,500
- 500PP Fuji Speedway F. 5 laps. Credits 200,000.
- 650PP Nurburgring 24H. 2 Laps. Credits 420,000
And in addition there is a new selection of vehicles in the GT5 Online Car Dealership. The list is:
- Toyota CELICA TRD Sports M (ZZT231) ’00 – 22,500 Cr
- Toyota Tacoma X-Runner ’04 – 24,520 Cr
- Mitsubishi GTO Twin Turbo ’95 – 43,150 Cr
- Nismo 270R ’94 – 45,000 Cr
- TOM’S X540 CHASER ’00 – 50,000 Cr
- Mugen MUGEN S2000 ’00 – 50,000 Cr
- Alfa Romeo Spider 3.0i V6 24V ’01 – 51,190 Cr
- TVR Griffith 500 ’94 – 58,730 Cr
- Opera Performance 350Z ’04 – 75,000 Cr
- Spoon S2000 ’00 – 85,000 Cr
- Nismo Skyline GT-R S-tune (R32) ’00 – 90,000 Cr
- Nismo 400R ’96 – 120,000 Cr
- Nismo Skyline GT-R R-tune (R34) ’99 – 125,000 Cr
- Trial CELICA SS-II (ZZT231) ’03 – 125,000 Cr
- Nismo Fairlady Z Z-tune (Z33) ’03 – 150,000 Cr
- Callaway C12 ’03 – 175,880 Cr
- Nissan OPTION Stream Z ’04 – 200,000 Cr
- Amuse Carbon R (R34) ’04 – 250,000 Cr
- Pagani Zonda LM Race Car – 1,000,000 Cr
- Nissan Fairlady Z Concept LM Race Car – 1,000,000 Cr
- Vauxhall Calibra Super Touring Car ’94 – 1,500,000 Cr
- Gran Turismo Formula Gran Turismo -5,000,000 Cr
Don’t forget, there’s also a maintenance outage on Tuesday, February 7th, followed by an update release for patch 2.04.
New update patch for Gran Turismo 5 due for release on Tuesday
The next patch release for Gran Turismo 5 will be on Tuesday, February 7th, as confirmed by Kazunori Yamauchi via Twitter. It should arrive after the online service maintenance period, which is currently scheduled between 03:00 and 04:00 GMT, during which time you won’t be able to connect to any of the online services – likely to affect U.S gamers more than the UK we’d imagine!
There’s no confirmation on exactly what is included in the patch, which should be version 2.04, besides one minor bug with drift trial replays will be solved.
Trucks on their way to GT5
As Forza 4 was released on the Xbox, PS3 users rejoiced in the ‘Spec 2.0’ update given to Gran Turismo 5. Alongside this release, developers Polyphony Digital released the first paid-for pack of downloadable content for Gran Turismo 5.
The downloadable content, or ‘DLC’ for short, featured the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium along with a few new cars, a kart track and some more helmets and paint items. Not that you had enough already. You can get the whole lot for ten pounds, twelve dollars, and by the current exchange rate, eight hundred million Euros.
Gran Turismo 5 DLC will include truck racing for the first time
Whilst the addition of Spa to the game is welcome, one might argue it is the only part of the DLC worth paying for – given there are already a thousand cars to choose from – but players have clearly voted with their wallets, the DLC reaching more than a million downloads in the first two weeks of being on sale.
In an interview with IGN, Gran Turismo’s creator Kazunori Yamauchi has confirmed GT6 is in the pipeline (although that’s little surprise given the success of the series) and that DLC for GT5 would continue to be released every couple of months:
“…we’re ready to release more expansions and content to add to the game. I think that will include cars and trucks that we’ll be releasing maybe once every two months or so from here on out.”
So PS3 players can look forward to racing trucks for the first time in the series (hopefully they’ll be as fun as the ones from Toca Race Driver 3) but will have to fork out for the privilege. Fingers crossed Polyphony Digital offer players some decent new tracks and value for money, rather than a thousand new truck horn sound effects. Honk honk.
MotoGP stars Rossi and Lorenzo take battle to Gran Turismo 5
The 2011 MotoGP season may have ended, but two top motorcycle racers are continuing their racing rivalry via Gran Turismo 5 during the break.
Valentino Rossi endured a tough first season riding for Ducati, failing to record a single victory for the first time in his 15-year career, so was possibly trying to boost his morale when he issued a Gran Turismo 5 challenge via Twitter. “I’m issuing a challenge: Gran Turismo 5. Nurburgrïng. Driving the Zonda R. A lap time of 6.14.211. Can anyone beat that?”, and clarifying the rules with “Simulation mode, not driver aids except traction control at level 5. With the steering wheel.”
Given than he has almost 250,000 followers he was probably expecting a challenge, but possibly not from Yamaha MotoGP star Jorge Lorenzo, whose title challenge had ended after he was forced to miss the Phillip Island round of the championship due to injury. After asking “That was a warm-up lap, right”, Lorenzo followed it with photographic evidence of a 5:58.2 lap, which he has since dropped to 5:48.7. Rossi took the response in good humour, responding “5:58.2 Jorge? Nice lap. I have to practice!”
Valentino Rossi has famously raced in various rallies, including the Rally GB, and tested Formula 1 cars with times comparable to many of the permanent F1 drivers at the time. But Capcom are probably wondering why they chose to battle via Gran Turismo 5 rather than MotoGP 10/11!
Incidentally, if you wanted to take up the challenge and don’t have a wheel, don’t forget we reviewed the awesome Thrustmaster T500 RS, which is the officially licensed GT5 wheel and pedal set. And with Christmas almost here, it’s not too late to drop a few hints to anyone who might buy it for you! Or to potentially pick up a bargain on ebay at the moment.
Gran Turismo 5 voted Racing Game of the Year at Golden Joysticks
Gran Turismo 5 was awarded Racing Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick awards on Friday, in a year which saw a record number of votes cast by the gaming public, with 2.06 million votes setting a new Guiness World Record for a videogame awards.
Obviously Forza Motorsport 4 wasn’t in the running, but to claim the award, GT5 still beat nominees including DiRT 3, F1 2010, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Shift 2: Unleashed. So although Sony’s flagship racer was always a clear favourite, it wasn’t a complete foregone conclusion.
DiRT 3, Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit were also in the running for the Ultimate Game of the Year, which was awarded to Valve’s first person puzzle game Portal 2, which we can understand, even if it’s not a racing game. Sega Rally Online Arcade lost out to Minecraft in the Best Downloadable category, whilst both Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Real Racing 2 were overcome by the phenomenon which is Angry Birds in the Mobile Gaming category.
Obviously it missed out this year, but from what we’ve seen so far, and what’s coming up in the next 12 months, we reckon Forza Motorsport 4 might continue the rivalry by taking top racer next year…
Forza Motorsport 4 – tops UK sales charts in debut week
Forza Motorsport 4 became the biggest selling title for both the Xbox and the All Formats charts in its debut week, according to tracking firm GFK Chart-Track.
It claimed the top spot by virtue of selling 700 copies more than Fifa 12 which was demoted to the second spot. Also in the top 10 all formats chart for the same week is F1 2010.
But the sales figures we’ll all be interest in will be the ones we can compare with Gran Turismo 5 in the ongoing fanboy fanaticism between Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 racers. As apparently GT5 sold 6.3 million units in around the first two months of release, it’s a big target for Forza to live up to – we’ll find out whether it can achieve similar figures in another 8 weeks!
Four New Time Trail and Drift Trial Events for Gran Turismo 5
Four new Time Trail and Drift Trial Events are now available for in Gran Turismo 5, along with a host of new cars now available in the online car dealership.
First the races:
Two new Time Trials:
Japnese 90s Deep Forect Raceway Reverse is for any 1990s Japanese production model which can be tuned and lightened to 345bhp and 1000KG. You’ll also be limited to Comfort/Soft tyres or lower.
The PP750 Cape Ring Outside Time Trail, as you’d imagine, limited you to any car with 750PP or less, and Tyres are allowed up to Racing/Hard.
Two new Drift Trials:
Eiger Nordwand G Trail Reverse is for any car equipped with dirt tires, where’as Autumn Ring Mini/Reverse is for any car with Comfort/Soft Tires or Less.
New cars added to the Gran Turismo 5 Online Car Dealership:
- Audi R8 Race Car 2001: 2,125,000 credits
- Bentley Speed 8 race Car 2003: 2,875,000 credits
- BMW M3 GTR Race Car 2001: 500,000 credits
- BMW V12 LMR Race Car 1999: 1,900,000 credits
- Caterham Seven Fireblad 2002: 30,000 credits
- Formula Gran Turismo: 2,500,000
- Ford SVT F-150 Lightning 2002: 17,525 credits.
- Jay Leno Tank Car 2003: 2,000,000 credits
- Lamborghini Nomad Diablo GT-1 2000: 375,000 credits
- Nissan R390 GT1 Race Car 1998: 1,500,000 credits
- Nissan R89C Race Car 1989: 1,750,000 credits
- Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Race Car 1998: 1,500,00 credits
- Pescarolo Courage C60 – Peugeot Race Car 2003: 2,000,000 credits
- Pescaralo Courage -Judd GV5 Race Car 2004: 2,000,000 credits
- Pescaralo C60 Hybrid – Judd Race Car 2005: 2,000,000 credits
- Sauber Mercedes C9 race Car 1989: 2,675,000
- Toyota GT-ONE Race Car (TS020) 1999: 1,500,000 credits
- Suzuki GSX-R/4 Concept 2001 2001: 62,500 credits
