Review

Video games, at least in the beginning, are a fairly inexpensive hobby. Sure, a console will set you back a few bills, and games cost substantially more than a physical copy of a movie (I hear some people still buy those). But on a cost-per-hour basis, gaming has its advantages.

Next week, Ford of Australia will produce its very last car. The Broadmeadows assembly plant will cap off a 57-year production run of over 4.5 million sedans, wagons, utes and crossovers on October 7. Only two days ago, the Geelong facility — Australia’s oldest of its kind — wrapped up engine production after 91 years.

There’s a local brewery that has gained a lot of fans in Toronto since it started selling beers at the turn of the millennium. Despite winning numerous awards, the team has bucked the craft beer trend of branching out, opting to exclusively stick to the original product their reputation has been built on. The motto? “Do one thing really, really well.”

“You’re going to rally school!”

Need For Speed is a racing touchstone for a lot of people. Up there with Mario Kart and Gran Turismo, it is a name that crosses boundaries, recognizable to not only the driving-obsessed, but also those that don’t consider video games “their thing”. It even has the necessary cachet to attract Hollywood, delivering a movie last year starring Jesse Pinkman (a move the GT franchise looks likely to follow).

Considering the weight, stability and adaptability of the Wheel Stand it’s one I’d heartily recommend. If only I’d had it in June, I might have been a contender…

Two GTPlanet members, Synwraith (Maz) and GTP_Ingram (Alex), were involved in the setup and organization of the recent “15 Years of Gran Turismo” event at Silverstone, where Gran Turismo 6 was revealed.

Tuning – in the real or virtual world – can dramatically change a car’s performance and handling characteristics. It can also be very time consuming, involving hours of tweaking, testing, trial, and error.

Sim-racing continues to grow as a hobby world-wide, and more companies than ever before are introducing high-quality racing seats at increasingly affordable price points. One of the latest products on the market is the rSeat RS EVO V3, and they’ve sent me a complementary unit to take a look at for myself.

2011 has been yet another rollercoaster year for Gran Turismo and its fans, and our first full year of GT5. The year has been dominated by game updates, GT Academy successes and significant events affecting the infrastructure of both the PlayStation Network and the people of Japan. Just as with the last two years, GTPlanet is taking a look back over the last 12 months before we head on into 2012…

Fans of the Gran Turismo series have been through a lot over the past 13 years or so, but none of those years have been as dramatic as 2010. Though I wasn’t able to get this out before the calendar flipped over, I wanted to take one last look at where we’ve been before moving forward (just as I did at the end of 2009)…

Amar212, infamous GT insider and founder of Croatian fan-site GT Surgeons, finally has his hands on a copy of Gran Turismo 5! Instead of sharing pictures or videos, though, he’s focused on providing hard-core fans with all the details in a comprehensive and thorough review of the game. This review isn’t about comparing it to other racers or whether or not the title is worth your money – it’s a detailed study of how each new feature in GT5 actually works and how the gameplay unfolds.

This head-to-head shootout between GT5 Prologue and Forza 2 by the Inside Sim Racing guys caused quite a stir in our forums last week, and it’s worth posting here for those of you who missed it.  Needless to say, the latest GT game didn’t fare quite so well, partly due to the fact that it wasn’t able to provide the features, size, or scale of a complete title.  This has put some GT fans up in arms, and you can argue that some of the evaluated criteria wasn’t appropriate.  That aside, their critiques are honest.  More than anything, though, the review spotlights what features Gran Turismo 5 needs the most in order to stay competitive.

What’s the difference between real-world performance driving and Gran Turismo?  How does the virtual experience measure up to the real thing?  These questions have long-haunted forum discussions, and finding the answer usually requires a fair bit of debate.  Of course, you can only accurately compare the two with a healthy dose of maturity and extensive experience with both – making relative comments sometimes difficult to find on the Internet.