According to a report by VideoGamesZone.de, Gran Turismo 5* is at Berlin’s IFA trade show…in 3D. The news comes off Sony’s press conference at the show, focusing on their consumer electronics products. The theme of IFA seems to echo what all the big players first started promoting at CES last January: 3D movies and games.

As you might remember from CES, they actually had a copy of GT5 Prologue running on a prototype 3D television. I got to experience the game firsthand, and I can tell you that it was remarkable – not in the “oh-wow-something-is-flying-out-of-the-screen” sense, but it gave the world of  Prologue surprising depth and scale. It didn’t feel like I was looking at a screen – it felt like I was looking out of a window, watching a Nissan GTR drive around Suzuka in a miniature world defined by Polyphony Digital’s texture palette.

VGZ expects Sony to push 3D display technology hard in 2010, and they just might use GT to do it. The question, then, is what does it mean for our favorite franchise beyond GT5’s release? Could Gran Turismo 6 be used to showcase the next generation of Sony televisions? Could you justify upgrading to a new 3D TV in a few year’s time, or do you even want to?

*We’ve heard no other reports that GT5 (not Prologue) is at the IFA show, and there’s a good chance the demo is the same thing we saw at E3 earlier this year. If it does turn out to be something new, we’ll be sure and bring that to you as the news breaks.

As you may know, Polyphony Digital publishes the sales figures of each Gran Turismo game on their website, and they just updated the numbers for Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.  In the last four months (going by the numbers from May), the game has sold approximately 700,000 copies, bringing the total to nearly 4,000,000.  No doubt, the Greatest Hits price drop helped drive retail sales, despite the fact that prices  on eBay.  Regardless, this is an impressive milestone for a “small” game – and one which will, no doubt, pour fuel on the the fire of the endless GT / Forza debate…

Starting out with a large FAQ section, Conquerer’s guide takes you through gameplay modes, detailed specifications on each car, techniques on how to win each race event, car tuning tips, and much more.  This is a really awesome compendium of knowledge, and it’s far more useful than anything you can pick up off the shelf at your local bookstore.  Best of all, he’s providing this information to the online Gran Turismo community free of charge, and you can download it right here on GTPlanet.  This takes a massive amount of work – please be sure to leave him a note of thanks on his profile page or in the comments below to acknowledge his efforts.  Well done!

Download the GT5 Prologue “Ultimate” FAQ/Walkthrough (.txt format, 268 KB)

It’s always kind of interesting to find out that a celebrity shares your hobby for sim racing – especially when that celebrity competes in the highest level of international motorsport!  Renault Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet, Jr. gave lots of Gran Turismo fans something to smile about when he recently posted the above picture to Twitter from what appears to be his apartment in Monaco.  As you can see, he’s at Suzuka East with the “racing line” enabled – needless to say, that’s something that’s earned him some friedly jibes in our forums!  Regardless, Nelson embraces the web, and communicates frequently via Twitter about everything he’s doing – it’s worth following him at @NelsonPiquet_ (you can follow @GTPlanetNews, too!).

Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a Formula 1 star behind the wheel of a Gran Turismo game.  Nelson’s teammate and two-time F1 World Champion, Fernando Alonso, played Prologue (at High Speed Ring) against some lucky Spanish gamer last year.

Before you get too excited about them answering questions, though, let us be the first to warn you not to expect much.  They did confirm GT PSP will not feature damage or DLC, and that only 4 cars will be on track at a time, but Yamauchi already told us that last month.  While it’s encouraging to at least see more communication about the game, it’s hard to understand why they selected selected some of the questions when they obviously had no intentions of answering them.

Although the most likely explanation for the price cut is to clear out old inventory and make room for the Greatest Hits packagaing, a GTPlanet user has already reported getting a Greatest Hits game for the low price, and someone at SlickDeals.net claims there are no mentions of sales or clearance tags.  As good and unusual as this is, we don’t know how long it will last – so head down to your local store and pick up a copy right now.

A “demo” that has sold more than 3.3 million copies will be added to the PlayStation 3’s “Greatest Hits” library on June 16, along with several other popular titles which have “reached a significant sales threshold”.  Thus, GT5 Prologue continues the decorated history of the franchise, with each worldwide release attaining “Greatest Hits” status.

Of course, when PS3 games are added to the library, their price is reduced to $29.99.  With usual MSRP’s of $59.99, this is a significant cut.  However, Prologue has been available for $39.99 since its release, making it a less exciting addition to the library.  Regardless, it’s an interesting announcement for Sony to make, especially considering what a flood of Gran Turismo 5 news at E3 could do for sales of Prologue…

Alba, a long-time creative character in the GTPlanet community, has maintained a slick, free GT5 Prologue PS3 theme for the past few years.  The latest version was just released, and it’s looking better than ever!  All you need is a USB drive and 60 seconds to get this running on your own console – grab both red and blue versions of Alba’s theme via our download mirror below or directly from his website, follow the installation instructions, then head on over to his forum thread and say thanks!

Alba’s GT5 Prologue Theme Pack (w/Backgrounds) 15.4 MB

See the included README.txt for all the details – here’s the quick installation instructions to get you going:

     INSTALLATION PROCESS
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

     The archive (albaGT5_v145_pack.rar) contains different folders and files.

     <ROOT>
        |
        |______ PS3\THEME\*.p3t                  (all the PS3 Theme files)
        |
        |
        |______ Users (blue)\*.png               (user account images in BLUE)
        |
        |
        |______ Users (red)\*.png                (user account images in RED)

     The installation step is really easy, the only thing you need to do
     is to copy the " PS3 " folder from the archive to your USB key to
     make it look like this:

     <USB_ROOT> \PS3\THEME\albaGT5_blue.p3t
                \PS3\THEME\albaGT5_blue_nosound.p3t
                \PS3\THEME\albaGT5_red.p3t
                \PS3\THEME\albaGT5_red_nosound.p3t

     Plug your USB key into the PlayStation 3, then go into your
     " Theme Settings " tab, select " Install " and then select the
     USB key and the final step, select " albaGT5 (*color*) " and there
     you go, it's installed the only thing to do now is go back in the
     Theme Settings tab and then select "albaGT5" and press X on " Apply "

     There you go, you have sucessfuly installed the theme!

Earlier today, Amar212 dropped an odd bombshell on the GTPlanet Forums, posting a cryptic message full of hidden details about Gran Turismo 5.  Before you continue, have a look at Amar’s post for yourself.  It’s an exciting, well-crafted read that you are sure to enjoy.  If you’re still lost, keep reading for our careful analysis of each main point – and why you should believe them…

There are many winds blowing in the air right now, and every one of them is telling its own tale.

First wind whispers that final reunion will happen thirty nights before twelve months pass and that all winds from the whole world will reunite in the same moment for the first time.

This is big, but it’s also one of the least clear messages that Amar has shared.  First of all, it gives a time frame for the release of the game, although the exact date is still open to interpretation.  Some claim that “thirty nights before twelve months pass” refers to the end of November or early December.  Such a date would coincide very well with what we heard from a Sony executive a few months back, but it could also mean 11 months from “today” (mid-April 2009).  Following this interpretation, we could expect something in March of 2010.  Although Kazunori Yamauchi has rebuffed a 2010 release, it is important to consider that all previous Gran Turismo titles – with the exception of Gran Turismo 2 – have been released in the first or second quarter of the year.

Second wind says there will be more than half of dozen hundreds birds flying in the beginning of the reunion on almost eight dozen of skypaths, and some of the birds will come from the past reunion just resembling the looks of the newborn birds.

Assuming that “birds” are cars, “skypaths” are tracks, and “past reunions” are previous games, we can expect 96 tracks and 600 cars, with lots of old favorites making cameos.

Third tale says that
for the first time ever skypaths will not be just solid and already known but that new skypaths will be built by birdtamers from the parts of existing skypaths.

The “third wind” introduces one of the most profound and unexpected new features – a track editor.

Fourth wind is talking that bird tamers will reunite in numbers greater than ever and will be granted with ability to talk to each other, make guilds and alliances with undisputed freedom.

GT5 Prologue has been heralded for its ability to let 16 players compete online at the same time, and this “fourth wind” hints at even more.  It also confirms the “guilds and alliances” (private online races and race teams) that we have all been yearning for since Prologue’s release.

Fifth wind says that reunion will happen in two forms, one greater than other and bird tamers will have freedom to decide which reunion they will attend. Greater reunion will ask for great sacrifice to be made in order to get all present and future treasures without new sacrifices needed, while smaller reunion will come in form already known, asking for more sacrifices if future treasures catches the eyes of the bird tamers.

The “fifth wind” hints at multiple versions of Gran Turismo 5, at two different price points.  The highest priced version will cost more, but will include all of the features and functionality.  A “small reunion” which “will come in a form already known” alludes to a trimmed, cheaper version of the game, possibly available only via download which you can extend via small fees (”sacrifices”) for additional content (presumably cars, tracks, etc.).

Of course, the “smaller” game is probably GT5 Prologue itself – allowing new content to be purchased “a la carte” would be one way that GT5 Prologue owners could gradually upgrade to the full version without buying a new game.  This also matches the business model of the now-defunct Gran Turismo HD project.

Sixth wind is telling the tale about different reunion but almost the same as known one, smaller only for the eyes of those who do not want to see it in its whole glory. That different reunion will not happen in the realm same as the known one, but in the different realm which still has not been uncovered to the bird tamers. That realm will resemble realm already known but it will be divine new and made in the image of it.

The “sixth wind” refers to Gran Turismo PSP, and once again confirms its continued development.

All those birds, skypaths and bird tamers from all realms will unite for the Feast. And as it is already known, it will be the Feast of the Gods.

This is not the first time that Amar has referred to the Feast of the Gods, and in this context it becomes clear that the Feast is E3 2009.

Of course, after reading all that, you’re probably wondering who Amar212 is, and how can he be trusted?  What makes him different from any other enthusiastic GT fan on the internet?  He remains a mysterious figure to the public, but he is a long-time friend of GTPlanet and the administrator of the Croatian website, GT Surgeons.  It all started back in July of 2004, when Amar brought us the world’s first video of the Nurburgring Nordschliefe in Gran Turismo 4 – long before anything official had been provided, and six full months before the game was even released!  He also got his hands on early copies of Gran Turismo 4 and GT5 Prologue Spec II, and was first to discover the inclusion of the Ferrari F2007 and Ferrari F40 weeks before the game hit any shelves.  In other words, this man knows what he’s talking about – get ready for E3 and share your reactions in our Gran Turismo 5 forum!

The engineers at Digital Foundry have used GT5 Prologue to demonstrate one of their new video performance analysis tools.  As you can see in the clip above, their software graphs the frame rate at a given point in time while marking each torn frame.  They cite all of the criticism that the game has received for “tearing”, yet their objective results show the game performs exceptionally well.  Another revelation: frame rate is cut down to 30 FPS during the “pre-race drive-by”, with lots of torn frames.  Once the player gets control of the car, the game rockets up to 60 FPS, with no obvious explanation.  Watch how the FPS is, otherwise, only really affected when  other cars are in very close proximity.

What the Digital Foundry guys found most interesting, though, was how the actual level of anti-aliasing changed depending on what resolution the PS3 was set to output:

GT5 is a very special game in that while it runs with 2xMSAA in 1080p mode, at 720p, it renders at 1280×720 but invokes 4xMSAA -- one of the few games on PS3 that actually does this.

You can learn more about what MSAA means, or just head on over to Digital Foundry’s blog entry for more details.  Thanks for sharing your results, guys -- we’ll be watching for a follow-up the next time the game is updated.