Community Spotlight

Tom Brooks, the man behind the voice of GT Sport’s in-game videos and host of the FIA Online Championships, has spent much of 2020 (where permitted) trying to put his money quite literally where his mouth is. After commentating on motorsports for years, including MotoGP and GTPlanet’s own endurance championship, he wants to become a racing driver.

As we’ve been following throughout this year, our friend Tom Brooks is looking to get out of the commentary booth and onto the race track. His latest video is now available, and again focuses on driver training.

If you’re keeping up with the efforts of Tom Brooks, the voice of Gran Turismo Sport and GT World Tour commentator, to make his way into real-world motorsport, there’s a new video for you to get stuck into.

As you’ll have seen recently, official Gran Turismo commentator Tom Brooks is taking the plunge. He’ll still be commentating on races, but he wants to try his hand at doing them as well. To chronicle his journey from sound booth to race track, he’s taking a camera along and filming a documentary series called “Make Me a Racing Driver”.

You may recall that earlier in the year Tom Brooks — the voice of Gran Turismo — has decided to try his hand at becoming a racing driver, and film the process.

Over the past few weeks, we have celebrated two years of GT Sport Livery Editor competitions with a very special round dedicated to the GTPlanet community itself.

Since he first began commentating on GTPlanet’s live racing streams so many years ago, Tom Brooks has become known as the “voice of Gran Turismo Sport”, and you have almost certainly seen him on the FIA Gran Turismo Championship World Tour live streams.

With this year’s Need For Speed title on the horizon we’ve taken the opportunity to look back on the 2012 entry in the franchise, and we’ve happened to come across some details that paints an entirely new picture for what the revived title could have been.

With so many racing games beckoning for our attention in 2017, it’s very easy to lose sight of the fact that there are some hidden gems outside the scope of the usual Assetto Corsa, Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo games of the racing genre.

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.

Gran Turismo 2 was the host to an impressive number (and variety) of racing machines, and whether the vehicles be race-modified to emulate their real-world counterparts, or the tried and true machines themselves, there’s quite a bit more to these cars than one would expect.

https://youtu.be/xy4G7qeSTw8

The Spotlight is back again to share the goings-on within the GTPlanet community. Last week the attention was drawn toward 24 racing games recreated in the world of Forza Horizon 3, by user Yui-san.

It’s been a while since I’ve done this, so if you’ll allow me one moment of enjoyment: the Community Spotlight has returned! As ever, this feature is all about bringing attention to the workings of the GTPlanet community. So without further ado, let’s get right down to business.

The 2016 Formula One season kicks off this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited. This year is markedly different in comparison: a new team; new qualifying; Red Bull has a new sponsor; Pastor Maldonado will no longer entertain us with his real-life “Crash FM” (I’m patting myself on the back for that reference, thank you); and Renault is back in the fray.

In a world where we analyze every minute detail, striving to understand every facet, and every nook and cranny of the hobbies we take part in, it’s weeks like this one that makes everything worth it. If you haven’t been keeping up with the events of this week then allow me to outline a few things for you.

A sentimental longing for the past; for a period or place with happy personal associations. That’s the definition of nostalgia, and the reason this is both the prelude and underlying theme this week has to do specifically with nostalgia playing such a significant role among those of us here at GTPlanet.

I’ll be honest, originally, the title was going to be “Everybody Wants to Rule the World of Racing Games” but I changed it, obviously. Why? One, it’s a little long-winded. Two, it would almost certainly conjure up thoughts of Tears for Fears, at least among those old enough or even savvy enough to know who they are.

With spring drawing near, talks of the upcoming Gran Turismo Sport beta are going to become commonplace and for good reason. Gran Turismo Sport is an opportunity to steer the franchise in a new direction; to reinvent and reassert it is as one of the key players in this niche genre, and what better way to do just that than with an offshoot title.

We all love racing games; it’s the reason we’re all here. Whether it be waiting for the coveted Assetto Corsa, cheering a professional team, or putting our own spin on things, it’s a genre we know and love for better or worse. And it is a genre is need of a reboot.