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.

 

DiRT Showdown 8 Ball Trailer

Gran Turismo 5′s Nurburgring Nissan goes up for sale

You could own the Shulze Motorsport Nissan GT-R N24 #71 which was co-driven by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi at the 2011 Nurburgring 24 hour race, and was then added to GT5 in the Spec 2.0 release back in October 2011. That’s assuming you have 120,000 Euros or $155,000 to spend, plus sales tax.

The car recorded a class victory at the 2011 event, driven by the team of Kazunori Yamauchi, Tobias Shchulze, Michael Schulze and Yasuyoshi Yamamoto. They completed 134 laps in 24 hours, 2 minutes and 26.9 seconds, having recorded a fastest lap of 9:17.707.

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.

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.

F1 2011 patch makes game playable online again

Despite being a fantastic game, F1 2011 has felt incomplete until now due to a bug that ruined the online racing. Thankfully though, it has now been fixed.

For the uninitiated, players could set up their cars’ springs at a certain stiffness (called the 11/11 bug, you can probably work out the ratio) and receive stupid levels of downforce, enabling them to dominate online races at the expense of those who were unaware of how to cheat. This video is an excellent demonstration of just how much advantage could be gained.

Thankfully Codemasters have now released the excitingly-titled ‘Patch 2‘ for the game, meaning players that previously joined a server only to think they were the worst player in the history of racing games were not so bad after all. They can now return to the online arena on a level playing field, and no longer will a player resisting the set-up cheating and not using driving aids be six seconds a lap off the pace. With leaderboards also being wiped in the coming week, it’s a new start for all – but it remains to be seen if players will flock back to playing an online mode which would have felt impossible for many to compete the first time they tried it.

Whilst some have made good progress through the career mode in the meantime, many have been put off and feel something should have been done sooner to remedy the issue. I am not a developer, but I would suggest something such as banning set-ups online in the interim might have helped. It is also still not possible for players wanting to play without driving aids (such as traction control which can be worth a regular 2-3 seconds per lap) to filter the online lobbies to find like-minded players – a potentially small fix that could make a huge difference to players’ enjoyment.

Codemasters have now released an effectively unfinished/untested product for two years in a row, which has detracted from the success of the award-winning and highly playable game engine. Fans will be hoping F1 2012 does not suffer a similar fate.

Codemasters have also fixed further issues in the game, such as the A.I being too fast in wet conditions, details of which are below:

 

F1 2011 Game Improvements for Patch 2:

o A connectivity rating display has now been implemented for each player in an online session lobby. This appears as coloured bars (red, amber, green) to indicate the expected online performance of the player in the game session.
o More network bandwidth is now reserved for game-critical systems in online sessions. This may result in low-bandwidth users having their voice chat restricted to fewer players, but should result in a smoother online experience.

Strategy & Setup:
o Fixed 11/11 car setup bug.
o Fixed issue where your race strategy uses the same tyre compound three times in a row & the final set are worn.
o Fixed issue where wear-based punctures would occur too often.
o Fixed various issues with the race engineer speech logic.

AI:
o Fixed an issue where the AI run on Intermediates for too long.
o Fixed issue where AI cars would be too fast in the wet.
o Fixed an issue where AI vehicles pitted too often during dry, online races .
o The AI has been tuned on several circuits to provide smoother and faster driving.
o Fixed issue where the AI’s sector 1 times in Malaysia were too slow

 

§ Co –op Championship:
o Fixed an issue with the save becoming corrupt / not able to invite the other player when playing long race weekends.
o Fixed an issue where AI difficulty was reset to “Amateur” level when resuming a Coop game.
o Fixed an issue with tyre wear in Practice/Qualifying not being carried over to Race.
o Fixed an issue with the penalties accrued in Practice/Qualifying not being applied to the Race.
o Fixed an issue with the Race Results where lapped AI are causing player to drop positions.

Online:
o Vote to Skip in Qualifying now requires 100% vote.
o Various Penalty system improvements have been made.
o Quick Race countdown timer is now set to 60 Seconds and no longer resets when a player joins the session.
o Fixed issue where host and client machines would report different qualification results during online games
o Fixed an issue where online players would sometimes see other players or AI cars using the wrong tyres.

Graphics & Performance:
o PS3 – Improved frame rate & performance.
o Xbox360 & PC – Numerous performance improvements have been made to increase frame rate and reduce stuttering.
o All Platforms – Numerous graphical improvements have been made.
o All Platforms – Fixed various issues to improve general game stability.

PC-specific:
o Fixed several functionality issues experienced when using DX11 cards.
o Fixed issue where users could hack specific files to increase car grip.

Other:
o Fixed a very infrequent issue where some sessions would be skipped over when progressing to the next session during a Long Race Weekend.
o Korea tyre compounds have been changed to those used in the 2011 race.
o Fixed an issue where in career where the “on the bounce” achievement was awarded after 11 race wins instead of 9.
o Fixed an issue where all users would be awarded the fastest lap XP and stat during some online races.
o Fixed an issue where driver’s hands & head popped in a few frames late when switching cameras.
o Fixed issue where players were able to post extremely quick Time Trial times
o Introduced option to have 30%, 40% & 75% races.

Safari Rally DLC now available for WRC 2

You can now download the WRC 2 “Safari Rally” DLC pack for 400 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360 Marketplace or 4.99 Euros on Playstation Network.

The downloadable content pack includes one exclusive special stage which is set in Tanzania and Kenya, and is longer than any current stage on the WRC calendar. And if you want to tackle it in a classic Safari car, the options include legends such as the 1991 Lancia Delta Integrale HF, the Ford Escort RS 1600, the Peugeot 504, the Subaru Impreza, the 1992 Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD, and the 1996 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3. Perfect for emulating a rally raid although you can also compete in any of the existing WRC2 selection of cars from classics to the modern era.

The DLC has been timed to appear just before the start of the real Safari Rally, considered by many to be the toughest since it was first held in 1953. This year it runs from November 19-28.

WRC 2 Safari Rally DLC Screens:

Need for Speed: The Run UK Launch Trailer

ORD hits the Wales Rally GB

Despite playing almost every rally game ever released over the years, I have to confess that I’ve never actually been to watch rallying live – my experience of rally cars was the circuit-based Rallycross alternative when the legendary Group B cars needed an outlet after being banned from the world stage.

However, that changed last weekend, thanks to Black Bean and Milestone, the people behind WRC 2. They kindly invited me along to Wales to watch Day 2 of the Wales Rally GB and obviously it was an invitation I couldn’t turn down. Sadly I’d hoped to meet up with the winner of our WRC 2 competition who had won tickets but unfortunately had to pull out at the last minute. Add in some technical and transportation issues during the weekend, and you’ll have to forgive the slightly ropey nature of the photographs I grabbed, but that didn’t change the experience of seeing the world’s best rally drivers hurtling through the woods and along the dirt tracks.

That was after the very strange site of rally cars travelling to stages on public roads, which would later spell disaster for world champion Sebastien Loeb when some Spanish spectators collided with him on single track road. I did mention to Black Bean that travelling between stages would be an interesting extra challenge for any future games!

We arrived at the Hafren stage without incident, and made it in time to see the national drivers competing in a range of modern and classic cars – the sight of vintage Escorts and other unusual cars was an unexpected bonus.

It was definitely a good stage to have picked as the weather stayed dry, so although clambering along the side of the track was a bit muddy, it wasn’t cold, and the enthusiasm of rally fans made for an upbeat mood. And despite the strange experience of seeing cars flash by and disapear for the rest of the day, from the higher vantage points you could see glimpses of them winding through the valley in the distance.

What amazed me most, having ridden on similar terrain in Wales on two wheels was that hardly any of the drivers at any level seemed to lift off for what seemed like quite big corners. Luckily if you wanted a bit more of a look at the cars, a handy hairpin provided the chance to admire a variety of techniques, including an unusual approach by Ken Block which involved having his boot fly open.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also eventually made it along to the service area at the end of the day, where we were able to witness teams working long into the night to fix and prepare cars for the next day.

This particularly lovely 1971 Alpine Renault A110, the former works car of Jean-Pierre Nicholas and Jean de Alexandris was also on display.

And obviously after witnessing the heroics of the drivers and co-drivers throughout the day, many fans were grabbing the chance to try their hand at driving on the WRC 2 setups available at the service area. Certainly the response was pretty favourable amongst the most hardcore of racing fans, and competition to record the fastest time was hotting up.

By the time we finally crashed into bed at the end of the day, it was safe to say that my conversion to rally fan was pretty much complete. It’s a very different experience to circuit-based racing, and it’s an interesting atmosphere as fans appear to be competing to find the best and most inaccessible vantage point from which to watch almost as much as the drivers are competing for the fastest time. Certainly if you’ve wondered what kind of nutters stand inches away from the cars trying to get the best photographs, you’ll be able to understand why when you’ve caught up in the event – luckily at Wales there were a lot of very friendly and helpful marshals and safety volunteers ensuring that we got as close as was relatively safe without causing any problems.

 

I did suggest that given the success of the GT Academy and iRacing champ Gregor Huttu when he tried a real car, maybe I should be a test subject to see if playing rally games helps you in actually driving a rally car. Not sure I convinced anyone enough yet, but I’m going to keep working on it – anyone fancy being my co-driver?

If not, I guess it’s back to WRC2 for the time being… In the meantime, thanks to Black Bean, Milestone, and their PR agency for a great trip.

Need for Speed: The Run Achievements and Trophies list

Need for Speed: The Run is now out and handily, the full list of Xbox 360 achievements and Playstation 3 Trophies has been shared to let you know exactly what you need to do to get the full amount out of the game. The achievements are:

• Welcome to The Run – Complete Stage 1
• Walk in the Park – Complete Stage 2
• Vegas Baby! – Complete Stage 3
• Cop Out – Complete Stage 4
• Mr. Plow – Complete Stage 5
• Thunder Road – Complete Stage 6
• The Windy City – Complete Stage 7
• Got to the Chopper – Complete Stage 8
• Hot Pursuit – Complete Stage 9
• I Heart NY – Complete Stage 10
• Coast to Coast – Complete The Run on any difficulty
• Win at Winning – Play through The Run on Extreme Difficulty
• What else you got? – Beat a Friend Recommends
• Show Off – Post a photo using Photo Mode
• Current Events – Read a News Article
• All for one – Complete a Group Objective
• Gold Rush – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “Coastal Rush” Challenge Series
• National Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “National Park” Challenge Series
• Nevada Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “Nevada Dreams” Challenge Series
• Valley Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “Desert Valley” Challenge Series
• Winter Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “Winter Blast” Challenge Series
• Interstate Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “Plains Interstate” Challenge Series
• City Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “Windy City” Challenge Series
• Industrial Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “Industrial Run” Challenge Series
• Rural Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “Rural Track Attack” Challenge Series
• East Coast Gold – Earn a gold medal or better for each event in the “East Coast Express” Challenge Series
• New Car Smell – Reach Driver Level 5
• Street Racer – Reach Driver Level 10
• Professional – Reach Driver Level 15
• Champion – Reach Driver Level 20
• Veteran – Reach Driver Level 25
• Legendary – Reach Driver Level 30
• Choices… – Unlock all Playlists
• One for all – Complete 5 Group Objectives
• Bonus Wheel – Win this Bonus Wheel reward in Multiplayer
• King for a Day – Become a Stage Leader in The Run

Let us know how you get on with the game and which achievements provide the biggest challenge by commenting below or posting the forums – why not share any tips on getting the achievements more quickly?

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