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.
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.
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
Gran Turismo 5 major update and makeover
Forza 4 is coming out shortly, and by complete coincidence, Gran Turismo 5 is now getting a makeover.
In what Polyphony Digital are calling a screamingly unsexy “Functionality Update”, there are some major changes afoot. So is it going to be snog, marry or avoid? The early signs are it may be a candidate for marriage, and the date is already set for 11th October.
GT5 is now a year old, and whilst it’s still a fantastic title there have always been some major gripes with it. For example, the inability to save the game during endurance races – in order to complete the Le Mans 24-hour race, you would have to leave your PS3 on for at least 24 hours, and factoring in things like screen, toilet, sleep and food breaks. You would be lucky to do it in much less than a week. But good news – the 2.0 update will let you save your game DURING the races. Hurrah!
The other big changes are that all ‘standard’ cars will now feature an in-car view (previously only ‘premium’ cars did), some tweaks to the driving physics, and weather settings will now be much more customisable – with players able to “incrementally adjust weather settings for race start and race end”.
I believe GT5’s main weakness to be the clunky menu interface and loading times between screens, and this too is being addressed, with “shortening of load times and improved menu response” and “improved and enhanced user interface” in the pipeline. There will also be 11 new NASCAR’s added to the game (surely these are just liveries?), some new online features and the thing everyone has been screaming out for – updates to the ‘Travel Photo Mode’. At last.
One might argue that these things should have been in the game from the start, but there’s no denying this is an improvement, and fair play to Polyphony Digital for not making everyone pay extra for it… oh, hang on a minute… what?
Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi says: “I can also advise you of more great news – very shortly we will be sharing with you details of a forthcoming package of exciting DLC [downloadable content] for GT5 that will include new vehicles and tracks plus a host of other additional new content. “
Oh right, butter us up with the free update news and then reveal it’s just to make room for all the new stuff we’ll have to pay for. Great news indeed.
Needless to say when we have any more details on this we’ll bring them to you, but maybe don’t book the church just yet.
New GT5 seasonal event: Japanese 90′s Challenge
If you’re a fan of Japanese cars from the 1990s, then you’ll enjoy the latest Gran Turismo 5 Seasonal Event, which allows cars from that era with up to 450PP to compete at:
- Grand Valley East: 5 laps, 416,700 Cr
- Trial Mountain Reverse: 5 laps, 393,000 Cr
- Fuji Speedway F: 5 laps, 435,900 Cr
- Cote d’Azur: 5 laps: 463,200 Cr
- Toscana Tarmac 109A: 5 laps, 490,500 Cr
Special NASCAR event in Gran Turismo 5 on August 29th
For the first time, a seasonal event has been announced in advance for Gran Turismo 5, with Polyphony Digital announcing a special ‘NASCAR-themed online race event’, which will take place on Monday, August 29th at roughly 8pm, PST.
Time to coincide with a period of scheduled maintenance, racers are being encouraged to take part with the promise of a unique prize in the shape of Jeff Gordon’s 2010 driving suit and helmet. Details of what the actual racing will consist of have yet to be confirmed, but it looks like season events could start becoming even more of an occasion in the future…
So are you planning to enter and maybe claim the race suit and helmet as your prize? Let us know, and come back and share how you got on!
Upcoming maintenance scheduled for Gran Turismo 5
There will be four scheduled maintenance periods for Gran Turismo 5 between now and the end of September, and Polyphony Digital have kindly announced the dates in advance, allowing us to spend the time remembering what our friends and families look like instead of racing. (That’s obviously not true – there’s still Forza, iRacing, WRC, Dirt, Need for Speed etc).
The details of what will be included have not been released, and as August will only see a small update for bug fixes, don’t expect any major DLC or updates to necessarily appear unless something sneaks out in after the September dates.
The maintenance dates for Gran Turismo 5 are:
- August 23, 2011 10:00-16:00 EST
- August 29, 2011 22:00-23:00 EST
- September 6, 2011 10:00-18:00 EST
- September 13, 2011 10:00-18:00 EST
So now you know when to schedule a day with your family or friends.
Latest GT5 season event goes for German Touring Cars
It’s the turn of German Touring Cars, as DTM provides the inspiration for the latest Gran Turismo 5 Seasonal Event, which has also provided an excuse to update the Online Car Dealership with lots of DTM cars available at half-price brand new to let you compete. The tracks included are:
- Eiger Nordwand Short Track (5 laps)
- Indianapolis Super Speedway (5 laps)
- Madrid reverse (5 laps)
- Circuit de la Sarthe 2009 (2 laps)
- Eifel Circuit 10bZ (5 laps)
And the cars are:
- Dodge RAM 1500 LARAME Hemi Quad Cab ’04: 18,965
- Chevrolet SSR ’03: 22,280
- RenaultSport Clio Renault Sport Trophy Race Car ’00: 57,500
- RenaultSport Lutecia Renault Sport Trophy Race Car ’00: 57,500
- Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary ’88: 91,000
- Lamborghini Countach LP400 ’74: 108,300
- Honda ARTA NSX ’00: 375,000
- Honda Castrol MUGEN NSX ’00: 375,000
- Honda RAYBRIG NSX ’00: 375,000
- Nissan CALSONIC Skyline ’00: 375,000
- Nissan LOCTITE ZEXEL GT-R ’00: 375,000
- Toyota Catrol TOM’S Supra ’00: 375,000
- Toyota DENSO SARD Supra GT ’00: 375,000
- Audi Abt TT-R Touring Car ’02: 500,000
- Audi A4 Touring Car ’04: 500,000
- BMW M3 GTR Race Car ’91: 500,000
- Opel Astra Touring Car (Opel Team Phoenix) ’00: 500,000
- Mercedes-Benz CLK Touring Car ’00: 625,000
- Alfa Romeo 155 2.5 V6 TI ’93: 750,000
- Mercedes-Benz 190 2.5-16 Evolution II Touring Car ’92: 750,000
- Opel Calibra Touring Car ’94: 750,000
- Vauxhall Astra Super Touring Car ’00: 750,000
- Vauxhall Calibra Super Touring Car ’94: 750,000
- Mazda Furai Concept ’08: 750,000
- Bugatti Veyron 16.4 ’09: 1 million
- Pescarolo C60 Hybride – Judd Race Car ’05: 2 million
- Audi R8 Race Car (Audi Playstation Team Oreca) ’05: 2 million
- Formula Gran Turismo: 2.5 million
- Audi R8 LMS Race Car ’09: 2,625,000
- Audi R8 LMS Race Car (Team Playstation) ’09: 2,625,000
New GT5 Season Event – British Lightweights
If you’re a fan of small British cars, you’re in luck as the latest Gran Turismo 5 Seasonal Event is for cars under 55PP and weighing less than 1200kg.
The races are:
- Tsukuba: 8 laps. 366,300 Credits
- Cote D’Azur: 5 laps. 399,000 Credits
- London: 5 laps. 381,300 Credits
- Nurburgring Nordschleife: 1 lap. 439,500 Credits
- Mt. Aso: 5 laps. 392,400 Credits
So there you go!
GT5 – new seasonal events live featuring Lamborghinis
A new season event is now live in Gran Turismo 5, featuring the Lamborghini models racing around five different circuits.
The races are all 5 laps around the following tracks: Cape Ring Periphery, Madrid City Course, Trial Mountain, Nurburgring GP D, and Toscana (Pavement). You’re able to run tuned cars up to 600PP, with any type of tyres, and you can replay the events as many times as you like…
