Brendan Rorrison

F1 2016 is a mere day away from launch. Codemasters’ latest iteration in their long-running franchise promises the return of features in previous games, whilst bringing in some new additions. Here at GTPlanet, Micheal Leary (you’ll probably know him as Terronium-12) and I have bashed our heads together and listed the top 5 features we can’t wait to try out when the game releases. These are listed in no particular order.

The DRIVECLUB VR saga is finally over. This morning at Gamescom, Sony confirmed the existence of the game and that PSVR players can expect to pick it up before the end of 2016 in a blog-post on the official Playstation EU blog.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Forza Horizon 3 is shaping up to have the most fun car roster in any current-gen racer. The latest garage update courtesy of EVO magazine further illustrates that point, featuring 30 cars in total. This week’s three stars are all modern-day wonders that span Asia, Europe and America in origin. A world-class buffet of driving pleasure from some of the most established names in automotive history, starting with the 2015 Aston Martin GT12.

In the world of driving simulators, a lot of attention has been focused on Assetto Corsa recently. The highly-regarded PC sim is finally coming out on consoles in the next 2 weeks and thanks to Los Santos Sheriff on Youtube, we have some honest impressions about how the game is shaping up on PS4.

After Kunos posted their own video highlighting how Assetto Corsa controls with a regular gamepad on console, many fans of the game on PC felt it wasn’t very representative of how the game actually behaves with a controller.

With Assetto Corsa due to launch this month, the official Assetto Corsa Youtube channel has uploaded the above video to highlight what those on controller can expect against those with a dedicated steering wheel in terms of car control. Due to the PC-centric development approach that many sims have these days, the handling on controller has become an important metric when players factor in if they should purchase a game.

The Xbox One S seems to have had a great launch: the redesigned console has caught the attention of fans thanks to it’s sleek looks, faster operating system and slightly increased performance. One such version of the One S that has flown off shelves is the meaty 2TB model which is nearing the end of it’s first batch of stock. However, if you’re hoping to land the white 2TB console in the future, prepare for disappointment — Microsoft will not be restocking this particular model of the console.

Nicolas Hamman, who won the 2014 US GT Academy, will participate in NASCAR for the first time this weekend after securing a seat for the XFINITY series race at Watkins Glen. Driving the #74 Mike Harmon Racing Xfinity Car, Hamman will make his debut at the famous circuit in a Dodge branded stock-car.

Alongside dropping the news that GT Sport is currently 70% complete, Kazunori Yamauchi has also revealed an interesting insight into how Polyphony Digital view the latest entry in the Gran Turismo series.

In a recent interview with Chinese news outlet Sina, Kazunori Yamauchi has revealed that Gran Turismo Sport is currently around “70% Complete” and improvements are occurring on a ‘daily basis’ to ready the game for it’s November release.

Despite last week’s unfortunate leak, Forza Horizon 3 continues as normal with it’s car reveals on the run up to release. This week, Road and Track have unveiled 14 of the cars that will take their place in the car roster — and in particular 3 beauties which are sure to make your car senses tingle.

Although noise has gone relatively quiet on the official news front for GT Sport, new images of GT Sport’s Scapes mode have appeared thanks to WordPress blog ‘Clix GT’ (discovered on our forums by Farushi).

DiRT Rally is one of the best racers available this generation. After launching on consoles this year, the audience who could experience the title has grown past the initial PC audience who got the game in early access a year previous. Those PC players once again have the upper hand in terms of features, with VR support launching on PC today through the Oculus Rift.

It doesn’t feel so long ago that E3 2016 opened it’s doors to the gaming press and eyes from around the world. For racing game fans there wasn’t much actually at the show to get excited about in terms of news – however, the announcement of the inevitable Forza Horizon 3 and it’s trip down under to Australia did excite fans with it’s new locale, vehicles and weather effects. It turns out the gaming media felt the same, and as such, Forza Horizon 3 has been awarded the best racing game on show by the Game Critics Award board.

A generation in the gaming industry usually means a leap in the scope and technical ability for a new entry in a given franchise, and courtesy of Motogames’ direct comparison video of GTS and GT6 above, it seems Gran Turismo will be no different.

The pioneer behind Gran Turismo’s own ‘gamer-to-racer’ programme, ‘GT Academy’, has now turned his focus to creating a professional virtual motorsport team set to take on competitive gaming. This past weekend, Darren Cox launched ‘eSports+Cars’, a foray into bridging the virtual and real-world divide in motorsport together – an ambitious, regulated team that competes and operates at the same standard expected in real-life motorsport.

Gran Turismo’s immensely successful GT Academy programme has started to roll out it’s preliminary rounds across Asia as it reaches it’s 8th year in competition. The hunt for new racing drivers start with Sony and Nissan hosting live events across Thailand and the Philippines. The top 20 drivers who set the fastest times will progress to the next round. The car/track combo is the Nissan GT-R 2017 on Tokyo Expressway, PD’s newest street circuit for the series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRg5Sp1iQMc

Grand Theft Auto V is an incredible game – huge, expansive and filled with content. As far as GTA titles go, you’d be hard pressed to find one with more stuff to do. That being said, perhaps the most impressive thing the game is capable of is this incredible GT5 homage video from Youtuber RavenwestR1.

Ginx TV, the UK’s dedicated gaming channel, has undergone a re-branding and change of focus: becoming the world’s first dedicated eSports TV channel. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Ginx eSports will provide a programme mix that will take footage from eSports tournaments and other relevant events to provide gamers and mainstream viewership alike with the latest from the ever-growing eSports gaming scene.