GTPlanet Community Spotlight

Just when you think it’s all calmed down and you can finally kick your feet back and rake in some relaxation, in comes Gamescom with its own share of tantalizing information. Make no mistake, me kicking my feet back and raking in any kind of relaxation with everything that was going on prior to Gamescom was nothing but a pipe dream but it drives the point home; a point that’s been liberally hammered upon since E3 and prior, and it’s the fact that 2015 is action-packed with racing games and virtually every other game genre under the sun.

The Hungarian Grand Prix. Wow. It’s not out of the ordinary or without fair reasoning to hear or even read about Formula One fans pining for race weekends to take place under the advent of rain showers, it just makes for a more spectacular showing of the sport itself. The Hungarian Grand Prix was bone-dry and yet it stands as the best race of the entire season thus far and I would stake anything that it’s unlikely to be topped. If you haven’t seen it and you’re an F1 fan I would highly suggest that you do so.

If it hasn’t been made apparent already, this is, unequivocally, the year of the racing game. With so many options spanning across just about every platform available there’s something for everyone, and just enough of them release in such close proximity that you’ll be driven mad just trying to decide what you want to play! Another problem arises from games already on the market that are continually updated; there’s just too much going on in the racing game scene this year – what a fantastic problem to have.

This has been a much calmer week, and graciously so with everything that’s been going on throughout the past several weeks; GTPlanet’s expansion is taking quite the toll on us all and for the strangest of reasons I find myself wishing, nay, craving that this week had been as hectic as those that have preceded. Make no mistake, there’s still plenty in the pipeline that you’ll all be privy to soon enough, but I suppose I’ve grown accustomed to the frantic, fast-paced deliverance of all things racing – down with the sickness I guess you could say.

To utter the phrase “What a week this has been!” as has become synonymous with the Spotlight in recent weeks would be a gross understatement. This has been one of the most active weeks for the GTPlanet community in recent memory, and with no end in sight and even more expansion in the works, GTPlanet is not only the de facto standard in bringing forth Gran Turismo news the second it’s available, it is also becoming the standard in delivering news relating to a number of other popular racing games that pique the community’s interest. The question now becomes, for those worried, what has happened to GTPlanet – isn’t this supposed to be a community that celebrates only Gran Turismo?

We’re hot on the heels of the British Grand Prix and I’m not full of the typical vigor when talking about an F1 weekend. Fernando Alonso, who is evidently plagued with decision-makings that appear bright but are ultimately regrettable in hindsight, is quite frankly being wasted away at McLaren as they’re struggling to stay in a race let alone be competitive. Jenson Button is yet another superb talent that’s being wasted; both of these men are driver’s champions and have now been relegated to a team in a more complex stupor than even Ferrari – the only difference being that Button has been in this stupor for longer.

The SRT Tomahawk is finally upon us, and perhaps extends the most challenging obstacle by way of the The Green Hell. That’s right, in order to obtain the X variant of the Tomahawk one must go around the Nordschleife and record a time of 6 minutes or less. Of course you can always buy all three versions directly from the dealership and call it a day, but how else are you going to be able to experience the high-stakes insanity right out of the gate?

It would appear the phrase “What a week this has been!” has become wholly synonymous with the Community Spotlight. For the past couple of weeks it has been the perfect combination of words to quickly set the scene for everything that follows, and with everything that’s gone on in the past couple of days relative to E3, you could very well imagine just how much of a week this has been when compared to those prior. This is going to be a special one-off Community Spotlight that will focus on E3 while still delivering the content expected from the Spotlight.

The phrase “what a week this has been” was the flavor of the month in May, and the landscape looks no different for the month of June. With things seemingly revving on all cylinders day after day, it seems fitting to utter that very phrase.

As we head into the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix, one of the ten most prestigious races in the world, and a contributing achievement to the Triple Crown of Motorsport, I have but one thing to say: it’s time to put up or shut up. While that may sound rehearsed it couldn’t be closer to the truth unless I were present at the event myself doing play-by-play commentary. While the latter half of the season can very well cement the place of the year’s World Driver Champion, the Monaco Grand Prix is an achievement unto itself and is rightfully treated as such.

These past couple of weeks have been adventurous to say the least and for me to think things would suddenly calm down was nothing short of foolhardy, if anything at all things seem to be becoming more and more adventurous as time passes on. Whether it be the excitement concerning what this year’s E3 could bring, next week’s release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, or the increasing feedback surrounding Project CARS, the community here never rests.

I find myself repeating a sentiment from the previous week: what an absolute joy this week has been. Project CARS is finally making its way out to the world and the initial reception has been nothing short of fantastic, the scene in Formula 1 is beginning to heat up again (don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil anything!) and will hopefully carry over to the next race at Monaco because this season needs the action from last year.

What an absolute joy this week has been. I spent the majority of it feverishly looking forward to this past Friday so I could go out and see Avengers: Age of Ultron, however, that would not go as planned as I wound going the night before for an advance screening, and it was well worth the time. If you haven’t seen it already and are into comic books, superheroes, or just love a good movie, you should definitely go and see this.

GT Academy 2015 has officially kicked off with the first round this past Tuesday and features the 600-horse Nissan GT-R NISMO going to task around Silverstone, home to GT Academy for the past several years. If you haven’t had a chance to partake in the opening round you’d be best served to stop by our dedicated GT Academy forum and strap yourself in for the drive of your life.

It’s no secret that Gran Turismo 2 is my absolute favorite in the series, I mention it whenever the opportunity presents itself, however, the one thing I regret when I met Kazunori Yamauchi during Jalopnik’s inaugural Film Festival wasn’t talking to him about GT2, it was forgetting to bring my imported copy of Gran Turismo 4 with me to have it signed by him.

What a week this has been, gathering the assorted contents of this week’s festivities and ensuring it lives up to the expectational hype that’s been in play since last week has been a lot easier than one might imagine, especially considering I’ve had this planned out since last week. I can tell you right now that if you’re expecting free vouchers for your local fast-food or clothing stores you might be disappointed, but even if I had those I’d probably keep them for myself and post pictures of me ea—look, the point being this is going to be a fantastic read this week so you’d be strap in because you’ll be here for a while.

I’ve said it many times in the past and it bares being repeated: racing games have come quite a way and one of the more recent innovations is that of a photo mode where you can break free of the action on the track and attempt to tell a story by taking a picture. It is a feature that is legitimately addicting because there’s no restrictions on what one could do, you are free to tell your story and be as creative as need be, or you can simply catch that one moment during the race that made your jaw drop.

It’s going to be addressed in full later on, but I’d like to remind all of you that the Member of the Week has not been discontinued in any form or fashion, it’s simply undergone a remodel of sorts, something you’ll be enlightened to a bit later on.

The Community Spotlight has proven itself to be quite the undertaking these past several weeks, and it’s key that the community has its involvement, otherwise it’s simply me picking and choosing what I like and that’s not what this should be about. So I, T-12, need your help in making the Community Spotlight everything it should be. No, this isn’t an impromptu presidential campaign, and no I’m not pointing at my screen right now so you can stop looking around your room and scaring your loved ones.

It’s finally here, the weekend I’ve been looking forward to since the 24th of November last year, the 2015 Formula 1 season is upon us and I can only expect great things considering last season was nothing short of fantastic. How will Sebastian Vettel fair with Ferrari? Something tells me that Ferrari might be expecting the second coming of Michael Schumacher with the 4-time champion by their side. In response to this possibility, I’ll say now as I said then: if Fernando Alonso couldn’t pull it off then I don’t see Vettel being able to either.