Gaming

2017 is shaping up to be a big year for sim racing eSports. While the year started with a bit of a wobble in Vegas at the Visa eRace event, the next affair is trading Formula E for one of the wildest open-wheel racers the world has ever seen.

News has arrived out of Germany that Fanatec’s older racing wheel base, the ClubSport Wheel Base V2, has received a makeover and has been upgraded to V2.5. Even though the technology inside hasn’t been completely altered, the V2.5 does feature some noticeable improvements.

Remember when Porsche was — other than a few exceptions — limited to only Electronic Arts games? When we first broke the news that the EA exclusivity deal was done, we figured the Stuttgart sports cars would start cropping up in other titles, but few could have predicted the pace at which it’s now happening.

Teased earlier last month, the veil has been removed from Italian developer Milestone’s all-new IP at this year’s Games Developer Conference in San Francisco, revealing Gravel — an off-road racer due to be released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms this summer.

Alongside yesterday’s news of DiRT 4 special editions, Codemasters released the first development diary shown above for the upcoming rally game. In it, more light is shed on one of the most interesting features in the game: Your Stage.

The North American PS Store is currently offering 50% discounts on the PlayStation 4 version of Assetto Corsa and its Season Pass. The offer will be available until March 7, 05:00 EST.

February began with the taunting reveal of the latest addition to the “not even halfway done” Vision GT Project. The Fittipaldi EF7 is headed by the legendary Italian coach-builder Pininfarina, and bears the initials of the two-time F1 and Indy 500 Driver’s Champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Set to be revealed in earnest next week, March 7 at the Geneva International Motor Show, some new information has emerged before its big day.

Codemasters has taken to its official blog to detail the various versions of DiRT 4 players will be able to choose between when the game releases this June, with multiple options and perks being available to choose from. The differences between each edition mostly seem to be related to in-game items so those looking for some physical goodies may be slightly disappointed.

Thanks to a Q&A thread hosted here in GTPlanet’s Forums, with questions being answered by Ian Bell (the head of Slightly Mad Studios) along with The_American (the man voicing the in-game spotter), we’ve now learned about a few features that are planned to further evolve the Project CARS 2 experience.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) has announced the winners of the prestigious 20th D.I.C.E. Awards. A total of 24 awards were granted to various titles that formed the gaming landscape last year, one of which went to the widely-acclaimed Forza Horizon 3.

It’s time for Forza Horizon 3 players to prepare for another set of Forzathon events, which will be scattered through the entire month of March. This month’s events have been posted on the Forza Motorsport Twitter channel, showing new and familiar faces alike will be making their debut in the Horizon series, free of charge.

Integrated Systems Europe. While it isn’t up there with E3 in the average gamer’s vocabulary, the ISE show in Amsterdam is a hotbed of cutting edge display tech. Gran Turismo Sport was part of Sony’s showcase, and a small detail from the franchise’s earlier years was spotted by our eagle-eyed community.

If there’s one thing the sim racing community can usually agree on, it’s that running a dozen hot laps all in the name of further improving your skill is the very definition of fun. While sounding tedious to some, the thought of learning the track inside and out, pushing the car to its limits and gaining familiarity with what can and cannot be done is an adrenaline boost.

At the tail-end of 2015, Turn 10 quietly snuck the 1966 Nissan Silvia into Forza Motorsport 6, mated alongside the Mobil 1 Car Pack released just two days earlier. Not formally announced, players quickly identified that the CSP311 could only be obtained through the game’s career mode.

While there’s not been a lot of news trickling out about GT Sport as of late (we’ve had our hands full with Project CARS 2 instead), the next Gran Turismo game is confirmed to be featured at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC).

Racers with an Xbox Live Gold membership looking to snatch two of Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport games are in for a deal this week, as a bundle combining FM5 and FM6 is now available on the Xbox Store at a reduced price.  

Polyphony has pulled the trigger on the latest Seasonal Events for Gran Turismo 6. This week’s events are a combination of time trial and drifting challenges, testing your mettle at a variety of racing venues. Whether it be tuned or purpose-built racing machines, this week’s events have a little bit of something for everyone.

Forza Motorsport 6 players were faced with an unexpected title update for the game yesterday. Continuing to build off of the foundation set late last year with an eSports-focused update introducing a number of new features, another effort has arrived with the intent of improving the game’s multiplayer and spectator features ahead of the third season of the ForzaRC.

iRacing is set to add another heavy hitter to it’s current car roster, with a certain Italian manufacturer joining the current crop of racers available to players. The firm in question is none other than Ferrari, who are set to bring the 488 GTE to the subscription-based racing simulator.

2017 is upon us, and we’ve already bet on it being a bumper crop for racing games. This should be special for anyone with an interest in Sony’s flagship racer, as we should finally have the first entry of Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo series on the PlayStation 4.