When we first learned that the in-game GTTV feature was going pay-per-view, prices were still up in the air. Today, Sony announced that all content would be available for just 99 cents during the two weeks starting August 1st. Presumably, programs will be priced differently once this introductory promotion is over, but it will encourage people to at least try out the service. What do you plan on watching, if anything? Head on over to our Gran Turismo 5 Prologue forums and join the conversation!
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue has played a prominent role at the 2008 British Motor Show, with rumored circuits like the Nurburgring Nordschliefe and Le Sarthe both making appearances. The most exciting news coming out of the show, however, is the Lotus Evora. Shortly after its debut, Lotus allowed show goers to “drive” the new car in - you guess it - GT5 Prologue. Obviously, the Evora isn’t in the current version of the game, and rumors are flying that it’s coming via a future update. Here’s the first batch of official screenshots, including a rare look at the new car’s interior.
Now that the GT Academy competition is officially over, GTPlanet user Timppaq has taken on the task of organizing and sorting the international results to see just how close the drivers really are. A special congratulations go to Timppaq of Finland and spyrrari of the Netherlands, who used their registered GTPlanet names to enter the competition. Thanks to you guys for supporting our site, I know you will represent us well! Check out Timppaq’s list of all the times along with a breakdown by country right here in his thread. Of course, if you are also a finalist, be sure to stop by our forums and make yourself known!
Update: After one of Great Britain’s top 20 drivers withdrew from the competition, GTPlanet member rinkydink is now the third driver wearing the official GTP_ tag to join the finalists. Congratulations!
Congratulations to Ahmad El Azmi of Kuwait, the fastest driver of more than 10,000 participants in the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Middle East Challenge 2008. Preliminary rounds took place in nine regional cities across the Middle East in June and July 2008, with the finalists invited to Dubai for the Grand Final this past weekend. Ahmed walked away with a trip to Japan to test drive a Nissan GT-R, a “GT Racing Pod”, 40” Bravia LCD TV, and a new PS3. If you’re reading this, Ahmad, be sure to stop by our forums and say hello.
Now, what do we have to do to get Sony/Nissan to organize a competition like this in the United States…?
As you may or may not be aware, the August 1st update to GT5 Prologue will wipe all of your “Quick Tune” settings. This is obviously a big problem, but an understandably necessary side affect from updating the game’s physics engine. The solution, of course, is to “back up” your settings by writing them down, and GTPlanet user MeWhiteNoise makes the task even easier with his professionally crafted “Quick Tune Record Sheets”. Available in a high-quality PDF file, these Record Sheets can be easily sorted, stored, or filed away however you prefer. Be sure to stop by his thread on our forums and thank MeWhiteNoise for his contribution to the community!
In a very interesting statement at E3 today, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi brought us both good and bad news. The good news is that he confirmed that the Polyphony Digital team was focusing nearly all of their efforts on Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, working hard to bring us features like vehicular damage, private online races, new tracks, and more cars. Of course, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, and he added that these updates could push the full version of Gran Turismo 5 back into 2010. He also confirmed that Gran Turismo Mobile, for the PSP, is still in “active development” but probably not be released until after Gran Turismo 5 (in other words, 2011).
Our own eagle-eyed GTPlanet user FRED SIMÕES pointed out a video on the official website for the new Ferrari California. The video, as you can see, shows the new car around various locations in the world of Gran Turismo, including Le Sarthe and the Nurburgring Nordschleife. There are also appears to be several new locations, but whether or not these are actually circuits that will make their way into Gran Turismo 5 or even GT5 Prologue: Spec III remains to be seen (you’ll also notice the is wearing a suit instead of helmet and racing gear). In the meantime, though, it’s always fun to speculate, so join the fun and share your two cents!
As part of the new update coming August 1st for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the Gran Turismo TV feature will finally deliver what has been promised for many months. In addition to Top Gear, episodes of Video Option and Best Motoringwill be available, along with coverage of international racing events such as Japan’s Super GT series and the D1 Grand Prix. Polyphony Digital is going to continue providing their own unique content, this time releasing a special tour of Ferrari’s headquarters with Kazunori Yamauchi himself. Other details not included in the video above: file sizes are included in each video description, you’ll be able to download up to 8 videos at the same time (in the background), and stop/start downloads whenever you like. Take a look at the screenshots below for a closer look, or head to our forums and discuss this with other players. We will continue to post new information as it becomes available.
Polyphony Digital has just posted a special news release to their Japanese site - a downloadable update to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (the Japanese version, at least) will be available on August 1, 2008. Aside from the updates to the Gran Turismo TV service, which we will cover in another post, here’s the primary new features that you can look forward to:
Improved penalty judgments in online races.
Improved collision physics in online races.
Improved handling characteristics for S1-S3, and R1-R3 tires
New calculation rules for performance points.
6 new songs added to the soundtrack.
Players matched in Online races now added to the [Friends] -> [Players Met] menu within Playstation 3.
The time and score from replays of time trials, drift trials, and distributed demo replays are now displayed after their replay.
From the latest screenshots, a new “location” for your selected car appears to have been added to the main menu screen.
There is still, unfortunately, no word on using your own music in-game or making any use of the PlayStation Network’s “trophy system”. See the full press release, with all of the new features and changes, after the jump.
Since the release of Gran Turismo 1 in 1998, one feature has been on the wishlists of GTPlanet members everywhere: the ability to load your own music into the game. With the release of the new PlayStation 3 firmware update 2.4, those dreams will finally come true. The 2.4 firmware allows you to access the XMB PS3 menu while you are actually playing a game on the system, including all of the music that you’ve loaded onto your PlayStation’s hard drive. As you can see from the video below, you simply turn down the in-game tunes (so they won’t interfere with your own, obviously), fire up the XMB, find your song, and hit the play button**. Also, because the PlayStation 3 is backward-compatible with both PS1 and PS2 games, you’ll be able to take advantage of this new feature in every single Gran Turismo game released in the series. Many of you don’t listen to music while you’re driving, but this is a very welcome addition to the games for those who do! The new firmware will be available to download via your PS3 on July 2, 2008.
**UPDATE: Since this was first posted, more information about in-game music has been revealed. According to this post on the Sony blog, “Currently only music stored on the HDD is accessible in games that support this feature. We’d also like to reiterate that Firmware v2.40 merely enables custom soundtracks. It’s up to developers to include this feature in upcoming games (or to patch existing ones).” That obviously rules out all PS1 or PS2 games, and the current Spec II edition of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. So much for that…
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Congratulations to Ahmad El Azmi of Kuwait, the fastest driver of more than 10,000 participants in the 
In a very interesting 
