All Articles: Gran Turismo 5

New Releases: Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition

Posted on January 14, 2012 by John Scalzo

We continue our slow slog through a January that’s almost completely devoid of new releases.

This week, the biggest new game available is actually a game that’s over a year old. Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition is a super-sized version of the PS3 racing sim that includes the “new and improved features and functionality from all downloadable game updates through Spec 2.0 right on the disc.” If you love racing sims and, for some reason, haven’t purchased GT5 yet, then this is the version to get.

The only other new release available this week is Kids Learn Spelling and Grammar: A+ Edition, an educational cartridge for the DS.

Sigh. Maybe something interesting will come along next week…

Posted in DS, News, PS3 | Tagged

Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition power slides into your PS3 in two weeks

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Chris Urie

Did anyone seriously think that Gran Turismo 5 was lacking for content? With 1000 cars and 70 tracks, it already took 20 minutes just to figure out how much camber to dial in on the wheels and what sort of weather you wanted on the Top Gear Test Track. But, Polyphony Digital decided that you needed even more glorious cars, racetracks, and features.

On January 17, say hello to Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition. It’s for all of you petrol-heads that thought that Gran Turismo 5 didn’t have a long enough install time. Featuring the original game and all the online updates through Spec 2.0 right on the disc, it would be best pop it in before you go out Friday night to party like a race car driver. It might be ready by Sunday morning.

As a little bit of anti-freeze icing on your gasoline-flavored digital cake, included is a voucher for $20 worth of downloadable content including the Racing Car Pack, Car Pack 2, Course Pack, Racing Gear Pack, and Paint Pack..

All that for $39.99? That’s about $999,960 less than it would cost to actually have a Bugatti Veyron in your garage.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

6.37 million copies of Gran Turismo 5 are out in the wild

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Polyphony Digital has released new shipment figures for Gran Turismo 5, and it seems the game has lived up to the success of the franchise. Since releasing late last November, 6.37 million copies of the game have shipped to retailers. Granted, that’s not how many copies have been actually sold, but it’s an impressive figure nonetheless. If you combine that with the 5.2 million of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the series has shipped over 11 million units this generation alone.

GT5 was a fantastic game and it’s great to see the final product enjoy this kind of success after so many years of work went into it. Unfortunately, my time is consumed by another PS3 exclusive right now.

Posted in News | Tagged

A look at Forza Motorsport 4’s development

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

After Forza 3‘s two year-plus performance at retail was outsold by Gran Turismo 5 in little over a month, Turn 10 Studios is hard at work to take the racing sim crown with Forza Motorsport 4. This hard work was recently exposed in an excellent article at MSN Autos, exploring how racing games like Gran Turismo, Forza, and the upcoming NASCAR The Game 2011 translate real world driving into interactive entertainment.

As you can imagine, developing these racing sims is getting really insane. For example, Turn 10 is incorporating proprietary performance data from tire manufacturers like Pirelli to emulate how tires grip and slip in the game. Additionally, the team spends two three days accumulating terabytes of video and pictures to render every track down to subcentimeter accuracy. Finally, the developers teased a little bit about “Kinect-only Mode,” where you’ll be able to lean inside of the car in cockpit view to peek around blind corners or your competitors’ vehicles. The article also features input from the developers of NASCAR The Game 2011.

It’s been a big day for racing game news, and any fan of the sim sub-genre in particular should check out the article. Racing games are just as guilty as FPS for over-saturating the market this generation, but with the games still breaking new ground in accuracy, bring ’em on I say.

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged , ,

Sony CES 2011 Keynote: 3D, TV, and Qriocity, oh my!

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Sir Howard Stringer, Kaz Hirai, and the rest of the gang took the stage at CES and presented Sony’s unified strategy going forward in 2011, with bold claims that it will be the premier consumer electronics manufacturer in the US by 2013. As the title suggests, the highlights were 3D, Bravia televisions, and Qriocity, Sony’s video and music cloud-based service. The company is implementing 3D into every device imaginable, from TVs and PS3s (including Gran Turismo 5 and Uncharted 3 demos) to camcorders, Vaio laptops, and Ericsson Xperia smartphones.

Consumers looking for a new TV will have many options with the Bravia line, including choices in 3D and/or Internet TV, the latter of which includes partnerships with Google and Time Warner. Qriocity also takes a multiple device approach, allowing you to sync your music library across multiple devices to take with you.

Notably absent from the keynote was any talk of the all-but-officially-confirmed PSP Phone or PSP2. The PSP Phone is rumored to have the Xperia branding, but all that was shown was an extremely slim Android-running phone. Hopefully when these devices do get announced, they’ll carry some of the 3D, Internet, and Qriocity features we heard about tonight, provided Sony can maintain some pricing discipline.

Posted in News | Tagged , ,