Forza Motorsport 4 demo dated and DLC Season Pass Revealed
It’s not long until the October release of Forza Motorsport 4, with the game arriving on October 11th in North America, October 14th in Europe and October 20th in the rest of the world. And you’ll get to try it even sooner, as the Xbox Live Demo will be available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace on October 3rd if you’re an Xbox Live Gold Member, and October 7th for any other Xbox Live Member. There’s no confirmation of what will be included yet…
But what we do know is that you’ll have the option of individually downloading each of the monthly car packs due to be released as DLC content ( at $7 each), the chance to occasionally buy individual cars if you prefer, or you can sign up for a Forza Motorsport 4 Season Pass to get six months of DLC, plus a launch bonus pack:
Forza Motorsport 4 Season Pass Details:
From October 11th, you’ll be able to buy the Forza Motorsport Season Pass via Xbox Live or participating retailers. It’s going to cost 2,400 MS Points, which is $29.99 US, or 21.74 Euros, and that will work for six game add-on packs. Compared to downloading each pack seperately, you’ll save 30% by buying in bulk, and you’ll get all six add-ons available between November 2011 and April 2012, which totals 60 extra cars.
Plus, you’ll also get a launch bonus of the American Muscle Car Pack, which includes:
- 1970 Buick GSX
- 1966 Chevrolet Nova SS
- 1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee
- 1967 Dodge Coronet W023
- 1968 Dodge Dart HEMI Super Stock
- 1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt
- 1971 Plymouth GTX 426 Hemi
- 1968 Pontiac Firebird
- 1965 Pontiac GTO
- 1969 Shelby GT500 428CJ
It’s safe to say we’re pretty tempted by the prospect of the muscle car pack, plus a whopping 60 extra cars over 6 months, even if it’ll play a bit of havoc with the unofficial race series to have new cars coming out all the time. But who can resist picking up the Chevy Nova SS, Dodge Dart and Ford Fairlane in-game?
Plus a new track announced:
The track list is possibly a little disapointing considering the number of circuits returning, and the lack of many new locations. It’s particularly bad for European gamers, considering the lack of iconic tracks such as Spa, and the fact that Silverstone continues to represent the UK (We’ve always enjoyed driving Brands Hatch, Donington etc far more).
But yet again, American drivers do get somewhere new in the shape of the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You’ll be able to drive the full Grand Prix circuit, plus the famous Brickyard Speedway oval.
And Creative Director Dan Greenwalt does explain that each track, whether real or fictional, takes around a year to create in-game, explaining the balance between adding tracks and shipping a game on time. Here’s hoping they spend more time visiting Europe for track data, and less time on locations like Rally di Positano, which isn’t one of our favourites at ORD. If we keep asking, maybe we could get somewhere really interesting, like Cadwell Park, on the list for Forza Motorsport 5?
Check out:
- The Forza Motorsport 4 Page
- The Forza Motorsport 4 Official Car List
- The Forza Motorsport 4 Official Track List
- The Forza Motorsport 4 Offical Achievements List
Need for Speed: The Run details revealed at E3
Alongside a 5- minute gameplay demo, various details on the forthcoming Need for Speed: The Run were revealed at the E3 games show, including some references to the plot, and particularly some of the cars which will feature.
So the third Need for Speed game in the space of 12 months will follow a character called Jack on an illicit coast-to-coast race from San Francisco to New York, to apparently save Jack’s life. It’ll arrive on November 15th, 2011, and features the now standard Autolog social feature, Frostbite 2 game engine, and online multiplayer which includes the chance to join races already in progress. Apparently the online multiplayer will feature ranked matchmaking, levelling up to access vehicles, upgrades and abilities, and a number of different playlists.
The game itself is being developed by Black Box (As opposed to Criterion developing Hot Pursuit, and Slightly Mad creating Shift 2: Unleashed). And to help you evade the cops and beat other racers, five cars have so far been named as appearing in the game:
Need for Speed: The Run Car List:
- Audi R8 Coupe 5.2 FSI Quattro
- BMW E92 M3 GTS
- Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake
- McLaren MP4-12C
- Porsche 911 GT2
Need for Speed: The Run is being released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, Wii and Nintendo DS on November 15, 2011.
Need for Speed: The Run announced
Well, that was quick – no sooner had we posted the trailer, than a press release arrived officially announcing Need for Speed: The Run which is due for release on November 18, 2011, for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, Wii and 3DS.
It’s being developed by Black Box, and will put you into a cross-country race from San Francisco to New York with underground racing involving you avoiding the police, beating your rivals and taking on urban traffic, icy mountain passes and narrow canyons. It’ll be powered by DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine.
“This is the year that Need for Speed goes to the next level,” said Jason DeLong, Executive Producer at EA. “We think that Need for Speed The Run is going to surprise people with its intense, thrilling story and big action feel. But the game would be nothing without hot cars and crazy-fast chases. So that is what we’re delivering — explosive racing that will have players flirting with disaster at 200-miles an hour.”
It’ll continue to use the Need for Speed Autlog system to track how you and your friends are performing in the game and pump out that information to all your social networks as you race from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Empire State Building.
Are there enough Cannonball Run fans to justify Need for Speed: The Run? Will you want it sat alongside Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Shift 2: Unleashed on your shelf? And will this be a successful return to the roots of the Need for Speed series? We’ll be watching this one closely!
Shift 2 Unleashed March 25 release date and gameplay trailer
Forza Motorsport 4 confirmed – Fall 2011 release
The team at Turn 10 have officially confirmed that Forza Motorsport 4 is in development and will be released in fall 2010 for the Xbox 360.
The confirmation details also include the news that it will feature support for Kinect, in addition to the classic Forza controls. The news was accompanied by an announcement trailer, which you can see here, plus four images, which at this stage, don’t reveal much, aside from the menu overlay pictured here, as it’s not clear how close these will be to in-game footage etc.
What we can start to infer from the announcement and video is that the Ford GT40 will play a big part in the game and promotion, as it’s the hero car of the first video and screenshots. That may be influenced by the ownership of one Jeremy Clarkson, seeing as the first announcement in conjunction with the U.S. Top Gear team, and the Top Gear logo is prominently displayed at the end of the video alongside Microsoft and Turn 10. The screenshots are also very likely to be an airfield type setting, which is where a certain BBC car show has located the Top Gear test track.
In addition, the video also features night cycles, cars driving off-road, and a mix of circuit and road clips, which hopefully means longer endurance races featuring changing conditions, and possibly the addition of rallying.
Obviously we’ll be covering every bit of information we can about Forza Motorsport 4, which is likely to be the biggest game of 2011 for console racing, but it would be great to hear your wishlist for FM4 in the comments below.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed – details and previews
With a release date set for Spring 2011 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, more details have been emerging for Need for Speed: Shift 2, including some brief hands-on time for some sites, and an interview with lead designer Andy Tudor featured on Eurogamer.
Given that NfS: Shift 2 is explicitly being pitched as a rival to Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5, it’s interesting to look at all the information and see whether it might stack up.
One key fact is that it won’t attempt to include every car in the world – Tudor refers to research showing most people collect 10-15 cars in game – their first career car, one or two for each vehicle level, the car they own in real life, and a handful of dream cars.
So the focus for the game has been on the handling and experience side, with a new elite handling model and more control over all the controller settings (sensitivity, deadzones, steering aids etc). The release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has meant that developers Slightly Mad Studios have been able to focus on the simulator side of racing, and streamline in-game currency and ratings for example. Two further areas for improvement are the social racing side, including an improved Autolog facility as seen in Hot Pursuit, and improving the in-game rivals.
Previews summary:
Looking at all the sites which were able to get hands-on experience of the game, it appears that the ‘helmet cam’ stands out. Rather than a view from a fixed point, it aims to simulate the effect of a cam actually mounted in your crash helmet, reacting to bumps and undulations on the track, and moving to look at the apex of corners.
Graphically it appears that Shift 2 will be an improvement over the previous game, with the new rendering engine impressing quite a few people, and the implementation of night racing becoming a key feature.
The night racing takes a different approach to most games, with a more realistic approach. Rather than including floodlights and chevrons to keeps things easy, the night racing in Shift: 2 Unleashed relies on your track knowledge and your headlights – and if you crash and lose your headlights you’ll be in real trouble!
There hasn’t been much information forthcoming about the handling model, but it appears to err on the ‘twitchy’ side as it did in Need for Speed: Shift. and along with the social side of Autolog, the driver battles, and the battle to control your car, will be the chief challenges in the game.
Will Shift 2 challenge GT5 and FM3?
Shift 2: Unleashed is certainly shaping up to be an interesting addition to the sim racing category, and it’s likely to be a viable alternative – especially for those who don’t enjoy the collection side of owning every car and completing every track in GT5 and FM3.
The first game was certainly a very fun and enjoyable racer, and it’s being timed quite well, as certainly FM3 fans won’t complain about a new racer to try. The good reception for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit will also have helped revitalise interest in the series, and the doubts over the future of Project Gotham Racing will see a potentially slimmer field. If we assume ORD readers will definitely own either GT5 (PS3 owners) or Forza (Xbox 360 owners), and exclude F1 2010 as focused on a single race category, the Shift 2 is likely to be the big 2nd race game. The only potential fly in the ointment might be the Codemaster sequel to Racedriver: GRID, depending on the release date.
Need for Speed: Shift sequel – ‘Shift 2 Unleashed’
The sequel to Need for Speed:Shift has been officially announced by EA as ‘Shift 2 Unleashed’, due for PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in Spring 2011.
In addition to apparently dropping Need for Speed from the title, the game will feature a new rendering engine with overhauled graphics, and the Autolog social tools used in the current Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It’s being developed by Shift makers Slightly Mad Studios. And you can watch the official trailer, here.
The news comes 3 days before the official release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on November 19th, which was developed by Criterion Games, the makers of Burnout.
GT5 – new release date set for November 24!
Sony has confirmed the new release date for the long-awaited, and twice delayed Gran Turismo 5 as Wednesday November 24, 2010 in both America and the PAL countries, such as the UK.
The full car and track list will also be revealed shortly, with new manufacturers including Bugatti and Lamborghini, in a virtual garage of over 1000 cars.. Alongside familiar tracks such as Mazda Laguna Seca and Trail Mountain, new additions include the Madrid city track and Cape Ring.
That’s just twelve days away, in case you haven’t already pre-ordered your copy (and possibly a Playstation 3) from the likes of Amazon, Game, Gamestop or Play.com. And if you’re wondering which version to purchase, here’s a handy rundown:
Buying Gran Turismo 5:
There are several different options available to buy Gran Turismo 5:
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 Turismo wallet, 1:43 scale Mercedes Benz SLS, voucher for six ‘Stealth’ cars and more.
- Gran Turismo 5 standard edition (amazon) (Pre-order includes Mercedes 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)
And if that isn’t enough to show you why everyone is excited for a final release date, check out our dedicated Gran Turismo 5 page, all our latest GT5 articles and videos, and our latest feature on whether you should invest in a copy or not – “To “”GT” or not to “GT”.
The good news is that 12 days is surely not enough time for them to stumble across another reason for a delay, surely?
Offical World Rally Championship game arrives October 8
The release date for the first official FIA World Rally Championship game in five years has been announced as October 8th, 2010, when WRC hits the stores for Playstation 3, XBox 360 and PC.
The game has been developed by Milestone, and published by Black Bean Games – the same team behind the SBKX World Superbikes game.
It features all the cars, drivers and co-drivers from the current WRC season, along with the P-WRC, S-WRC and J-WRC support classes, plus 78 different rally stages and over 550km of roads from 13 countries.
You get a single-player career mode ‘Road to the WRC’ with 50 different trophies, plus ‘many online multiplayer game modes’.
In terms of graphics, there’s a full 3D in car view, plus car damage effects, and the tantalising opportunity for breakable objects on the trackside. Of course, this being rallying, you’ll have an in-game management system to repair the damage you may have encountered.
So if you fancy being Sebastien Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen or Daniel Sordo, here’s your chance.
As you’d expect, you can already place a pre-order from stores including Amazon: Pre-Order WRC – FIA World Rally Championship (2010)
And check out a 10-minute behind the scenes video of the making of WRC
Atari announce Test Drive Unlimited 2 for 2010
Test Drive Unlimited 2 will arrive in Fall 2010 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, according to an official announcement from publishers Atari.
The sequel to the original Test Drive Unlimited
Test Drive Unlimited 2 is due Fall 2010 from Eden Games
Over 1 million players created accounts for the first game, and will be familiar with the blend between single and multi-player games which took place in Hawaii in Test Drive Unlimited.
This time the action takes place in Ibiza, with dynamic weather, day and night cycles, vehicle damage and interestingly an odd sounding co-op game in which one player drives while the other reads the map. Weather will affect the handling of cars, but damage will be purely cosmetic.
Story mode will allow racers to level up and unlock new vehicles, including SUVs. Meanwhile some of the cars will be exclusive club cars, which can only be driven by one player at a time – these are likely to include the McLaren MP4-12C and Gumpert Apollo.
And for the car junkie, even more details have been included, such as headlight modes, and working convertible roofs, expanding on one of the few games to offer a compelling reason for sticking with in-car views. And you can customise the outside with a vinyl-editor.
Online multiplayer allows 8 players to join in a session during free roaming, and in shops and clubs up to 32 characters can be present.
Whilst not a full racing simulation, the original Test Drive Unlimited offered something new and interesting in the car genre – being able to just pick up random races as you explore was a novel feature, and just driving around admiring the cars and scenery was a new experience for a lot of people. We can only hope it continues to provide a more chilled alternative to the world of Gran Tourismo, Forza and Race Pro, whilst also evolving the handling and community aspects of the game.
