New Ferrari gamepads for PC and PS3 from Thrustmaster

If you’re a Ferrari fan, you’ll love the new Ferrari 150 Italia edition gamepads which are new from Thrustmaster. First up is the F1 Wireless Gamepad Ferrari 150 Italia Alonso Edition, which is an exclusive and numbered wireless gamepad which is even signed by Fernando Alonso.

Featuring 2.4 GHz technology, the pad also has an optical wheel with a 90 degree rotation angle and auto-centering feature, plus two progressive triggers for precise control. The lower grip has a ‘peach skin’ texture to help you hang onto it in comfort, and the gamepade is entirely programmable. That means all the buttons, ministicks, D-pad, optical wheel and triggers can be switched around as required, and the internal memory remembers how you have set everything up even when disconnected. The F1 Wireless Gamepad Ferrari 150 Italia Alonso Edition is available for the PC and PS3 (featuring a home button for PS3), and costs £34.99.

Meanwhile there’s also the F1 Dual Analog Gamepad Ferrari 150 Italia Exclusive Edition, which is cheaper at £19.99, but still provides a good benchmark with the PC, with 10 buttons, an 8-direction D-pad and 2 ministicks. It also has the ‘peach skin’ texture, plus the sticks are rubber-coated to help you keep control. The F1 Dual Analog Gamepad Ferri 150 Italia Exclusive Edition is available for the PC and costs £19.99

Need for Speed The Run Limited Edition trailer

Need for Speed: The Run “Death from Above”

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…

My first week with GT5

It’s been six years in development and severely delayed, but having now spent a week with the game so many virtual racers have waited so long for – is it any good?
The short answer is yes, but not quite as good as it should be. The problem is when you wait so long for a game you expect perfection – and people that expect perfection will almost always be disappointed with what they get.

Don’t get me wrong, the game itself is excellent – but it has a few niggling flaws that stop it being a genre-definer. Firstly there’s the installation – which took my PS3 25 minutes to eek it’s way through, and even with a full hard drive install loading times are no faster than I would expect with any other game. I may have forgotten about it in a few week’s time, but the initial excitement of getting the game out of the cellophane wrapping and inserting it into the machine was tempered slightly by the delay before playing, although it did give me the chance to get some vacuming done.

The problems with the game are not with the actual ‘racing’ itself, which is tremendous, but the bits you have to go through to get to the racing can be a little laborious. Once it’s all up and running, the main ‘GT Life’ career-game menu initially looks impressive, but despite the large install loading times still slow things down. It should be much easier to skip between all the menu screens, and waiting for each of them to load in turn can be frustrating. The GT series format hasn’t changed much since it’s PS1 inception. You still have to do licence tests and they are the same as always – stopping challenge, drive through the cones quickly, drive round a corner very fast without leaving the circuit etc. You still have to race in the Sunday Cup and Clubman Cup too. Whilst it’s a little nostalgic that these things are still there, that feeling in tinged with a sense of disappointment – an ‘oh, they didn’t come up with anything new then’. You could argue the ‘ain’t broke don’t fix it line’ but I don’t find the format exciting anymore – a bit like a year-on-year update of an EA Sports game that’s a bit better than the last version, but doesn’t offer much that’s new.

But a lot is new within the game, for example we now have the ‘Special Events’ menu which is how Polyphony Digital have incorporated the new game modes – karting, NASCAR and WRC, alongside other challenges such as racing the Top Gear Test Track in VW Camper vans. These challenges however aren’t different enough to the regular events to seem to warrant their own menu. The VW Camper event for example is more a test of patience than of skill, and felt to me more like a licence test than a motor race as you trundle along at 50kph and get disqualified for nudging a rival. Some gamers will enjoy this challenge, others will find it infuriating.

The game is also huge. No, gigantic. To obtain a Platinum Trophy, one must obtain a gold-standard achievement on EVERYTHING. That’s every race, every special event and every licence test. To do this would take some serious dedication, as getting gold on some of the harder events can take hours of practice. On the flip side, you certainly get value for money as it will take players months and years to obtain all of the top vehicles on offer. The ‘used car dealership’ has been well-implemented too, as some of the rarest cars in the game pop up now and again, so it rewards regular checking. It’s also still great fun to customise your cars and paint them, fix them with alloys and give them a wash. They do feel like your babies, and you can share them with online racers and even donate them to friends – a nice touch.

Speaking of friends, online racing is impressive. Based in a well-designed lobby, the loading times are good, communication is easy and the events themselves are stable. As a session host you can provide cars for other people to use, enabling some great one-make racing so the winner is determined by driver skill rather than whoever has saved up enough credits to get the best car. I also like Polyphony Digital’s decision not to offer credits for online racing. This deters players from ramming and makes it all about the fun and enjoyment of competition, as well as guaranteeing the longevity of the online racing community.

The course creator was initially disappointing but after a few goes I managed to make a couple of impressive circuits. The layout is almost too simple, but if you have the patience to sit and tweak your masterpiece it can be rewarding. The number of locations on offer is a little small however, and the ability to personalise the tracks by placing grandstands and advertising hoardings etc. would be welcomed by those who expected something a little larger and more detailed.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week with GT5 and have got into it more and more as the week has gone on, but I had to get over my initial disappointment. The game is not as polished and slick as I thought it would be, and arguably should be for a game that has been in development for so long. However the few flaws won’t stop me playing and enjoying a great game that still has a lot to offer anyone with the time and patience to get their teeth into it. I’m off to take another big bite, but if you’d like to read more about the game, ORD’s GTDon has done a rather lovely full review of it, which you can find here.

Special edition Gran Turismo Titanium Blue PS3

If you want to go one step further than the special editions of Gran Turismo 5 (of which there are several), then you could go the whole hog with the special edition ‘Titanium Blue’ PS3 and limited edition copy of the game.

You’ll need to import it from Japan when it’s released on November 3rd with 5 DLC cars, 308 page booklet and a 160GB hard drive, or just hope it’ll be rolled out around the globe shortly afterwards. It’ll cost 35,980 Yen, which is about £271.

And if you don’t fancy stretching that far, here’s the details of all the various Gran Turismo editions, one more time:

Different Gran Turismo Packages:

Collector’s Edition: Game, Custom-etched keychain, 1:43 scale model of the Nissan GTR Spec-V, 300 page book, voucher for 5 DLC cars, Certificate of Authenticity.

Signature Edition (Exclusive to Europe/Australian): Steel case, book, Gran Turisimo wallet, 1:43 scale Mercedes Benz SLS, voucher for six ‘Stealth’ cars and more.

• Gran Turismo 5 standard edition (amazon) (Pre-order includes Mecedes SLS AMG Stealth)
• Gran Turismo 5 collectors edition (amazon) (Pre-order includes Mercedes SLS AMG Stealth)
• Gran Turismo 5 Standard edition (Game)
• Gran Turismo 5 Signature edition (Game)
• Gran Turismo 5 standard edition (Gamestop) (Pre-order: McLaren F1 stealth and GameStop NASCAR car with Gran Turismo 5 logos.
• Gran Turismo 5 signature edition (Gamestop) Pre-order: McLaren F1 stealth and GameStop NASCAR car with Gran Turismo 5 logos.
• Gran Turismo 5 standard edition (Play.com) (Pre-Order: Mercedes SLS AMG and Nissan GT-R GT500 Stealth models)
• Gran Turismo 5 Collectors edition (Play.com)

From virtual racing to the Spa 24 hours

The GT Academy competition was created by Nissan and Playstation to find new GT racing drivers from virtual racers on Gran Turismo. Lucas Ordonez was the first winner in 2008, and now he’ll be part of a four man team for the Spa 24 Hours. He’ll drive a GT4-spec Nissan 370Z prepped by RJN Motorsport and sponsored by Polyphony Digital and Playstation.

Pic of the RJN Motorsport prepared Nissan 370Z by Playstation.Blog.Europe on Flickr.

The 25-year-old Spaniard has already driven in the Dubai 24 hours as his GT Academy prize, and then went on to partner Alex Buncombe to second place in the European GT4 Championship last year.

He’ll drive at Spa with Alex Bumcombe, brother Chris Bumcombe and Rob Barff.

ModNation Racers launch video trailer

ModNation Racers review: 3/5

So – is it a Mario-Kart beater? Well, nearly. There you go, you can stop reading now. Oh, you’re still here? Enraged and want me to justify that irritatingly ambiguous conclusion? Oh, alright then – just for you.

The main problem for ModNation Racers, and indeed for any game of this type is that Mario Kart is brilliant. It always has been brilliant. It’s status as ‘king of the karters’ has been unblemished since it first appeared on the SNES. Over the years it has seen off competition from Crash Bandicoot, Sonic the Hedgehog (and the comically unconvincing M&M’s Kart Racing) remaining brilliantly balanced and playable through its incarnations on the N64 and now the Wii. It’s like Michael Schumacher – been around for years and still irritatingly excellent. But don’t let that put you off ModNation Racers – sometimes things are just good in their own right, and here’s why:

MNR (as it shall be abbreviated from here on), cleverly, doesn’t try to be Mario Kart and offers quite a plethora of options, opening up the game to the user and making it fully customisable. Think Little Big Planet on wheels. Don’t want weapons while you race? No problem. Want to create your own character? Done. Want to paint your own vehicles, tune and upgrade them? Sorted. In fact you could argue that the creation and editing tools are equally (if not more) entertaining as the game itself, and this comes into its own with the track editor. Deliciously simple to use, the track editor enables you to create stunning tracks in less than an hour (you could make yourself an oval in less than thirty seconds), complete with hills, crossovers, jumps, changes in the track surface and even animals by the side of the road. The editor could be a game in itself and once you have finished your masterpiece you can upload it and share it with the rest of the world. If enough people download it, who knows, you might become the new Hermann Tilke and get a call from Bernie Ecclestone one day. In short, it’s a brilliant piece of software.
Buy ModNation Racers (PS3) via Amazon

The handling of the karts is solid enough, and the race mode is supported by a healthy 12-player online mode and thanks to the editor, a potentially infinite number of tracks to race on. Yet whilst the racing is good fun I found myself having much more fun creating circuits, perfecting my hairpin bend at the top of a mountain… but then I like that sort of thing. The racing is not quite as instantly accessible as Mario Kart but that should come with time and practice. The new weapons seem unfamiliar at first and you also have access to a shield as you race which is a nice feature – the square and circle buttons act as ‘attack’ and ‘defend’ rather like in Wipeout HD. The graphics and sound are solid too, other than the irritating voiceovers, but thankfully you can turn them off – you really can customise everything in this game to your personal tastes and therein lies the brilliance of MNR.

The best games are the ones that are perfectly balanced, which is why Mario Kart’s appeal has endured for so long, but MNR is a new breed of kart racer that warrants serious consideration, especially if you don’t own a Nintendo console. It is left to you to make MNR the game that you want it to be – which in itself is a double-edged sword, as its success will defined by how much effort each user puts into the game.

It is said that in modern life, the more choice that is available to us the less satisfied we are with what we already have. Philosopher Alain de Botton argues the secret to achieving happiness is to lower our expectations, and if you don’t expect ModNation Racers to be exactly like Mario Kart you’ll be in for a very pleasant surprise.

3/5

Motorcycling kicks off for 2010 with World Superbikes

International motorcycle racing has kicked off for 2010 with the Australian round of the World Superbike Championship.

The opening round this weekend saw Britain’s Leon Haslam claim his first international race win after a career including GP and British Superbike campaigns.

His maiden World Superbike win came in a photo finish with four thousandths of a second between him and second placed Michele Fabrizio. Noriyuki Haga finished third.

The second World Superbike race saw Haslam denied by Spanish veteran Carlos Checa, with Michele Fabrizio third.

This means that Haslam leads the WSB championship on the Alstare Suzuki. And British fans had another reason to celebrate as Eugene Laverty took a commanding win in World Supersport by 4.359 seconds from Joan Lascorz and Kenan Sofuoglu.

If that’s inspired you to pick up some two-wheeled virtual motorsport, then there are two options in the SBK series:
SBK: World Superbikes 09 (All Formats)
SBK-08 (All Formats)

Almost everyone should go for the ’09 version – the only exception beings being PC and Playstation 3 owners looking to save some money. PC owners can save £20 by opting for the older game for just £4.77 new from Amazon by following the above link. And Playstation 3 owners can pick up SBK-08 for £17.12 compared to the newer ’09 version for £43.48 – the Xbox 360 version is already down to £12.98.

There’s still some time before the MotoGP season kicks off on April 11th at the Losail circuit in Qatar, but pre-season testing has been dominated by the legendary Valentino Rossi, who has posted a lap record at the most recent test at Sepang in Malaysia last week.

Next Page »