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…
Ah, that last week of the year, the only time you get two big holidays so close together. Did the big guy in red treat you well? Did you over-do it on shortbreads? No matter – with the likely down time from work or school, now would be the chance to enter our last Photomode competitions of this year! Make sure to click on each competition’s title to be transported to the respective first posts in our forum for each set of rules. Make sure the image you’re submitting follows those rules (and the theme), and then sit tight until the deadline to see if you’ve made the poll! Now, onto the themes…
The ‘Nürburgring 24 hour race’ is the world’s largest touring car event. Kazunori Yamauchi has returned to this extreme race, driven on the combined Grand Prix course and Nordschleife of the Nürburgring.
To tide gamers over into the New Year, four fresh events were added to GT5’s Seasonal Event roster on 29th December. Here’s a breakdown of the requirements and prizes:
Amongst the listed changes for GT5’s v2.02 update earlier this month was an adjustment to the tire wear speed. Up until this point players had been used to the three tyre compounds within each grade – Racing, Sports and Comfort – wearing at relatively similar rates while offering different outright grip levels. The soft tires were the racers’ obvious choice for grip without a tire life penalty.
Work on the third issue of the popular grass-roots “GTlife” magazine (the first two issues received over 230,000 collective downloads) is now complete!
In a Christmas Day surprise, Newegg, Amazon, and Buy.com have revealed a mysterious new game: Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition. Both Amazon and Newegg list a release date of January 17, 2012 and a price of $39.99 USD, but offer no further details on what this “XL Edition” will actually contain.
We’re less than 100 hours away from Christmas, and while Santa Kaz has already dropped off a few presents (and yet more if you’ve got a few dollars for him), there’s even more fun to be had in our Photomode section this week. For our digital photogs, this update was welcome as it returned a few features that were mysteriously removed from Photomode during 2.01. Lens flare and bloom have returned, so before you’re stuffed to the gills with shortbreads and other festive treats, take a look at our competitions this week!
The latest batch of new downloadable content in Gran Turismo 5 is slowly becoming available in the PlayStation Store around the world. “Car Pack 2” contains the following new cars and can be purchased for $3.99 in the United States (check your local PSN Store for specific pricing information):
Corresponding with the release of Gran Turismo 5 2.02, a new Seasonal Event has also been made available. Here’s a closer look at the events, featuring American cars with no more than 600PP:
In a substantial update, Polyphony Digital has brought a wide range of tweaks, changes, and new features to GT5 with update v2.02. It’s available as a free download for all versions of the game, weighing in at 246MB.
Polyphony Digital has updated their title sales list, and the new numbers are impressive. Between January and September of 2011, Gran Turismo 5 moved an additional 1 million copies. This brings the game’s total sales up to 7.3 million, and helped push the entire series past 64.7 million sold.
Nissan and PlayStation are aiming to demonstrate the success of their GT Academy programme with a ground-breaking driver line-up at the prestigious Dubai 24 Hours (January 12-14, 2012). All four winners of the innovative virtual-to-reality competition will tackle the demanding endurance race as a team sharing the wheel of a 410bhp Nissan 370Z.
New Time and Drift trials have just gone live in Gran Turismo 5. Here’s a look at the new events, which feature the game’s karts and a double-feature of the Nurburgring GP/F circuit. The Online Car Dealership has also been updated – here’s a complete list of what’s available.
To put the finishing touch on an already incredible year, SPEED.com has announced original GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez as the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup “Rookie of the Year”.
Since Polyphony Digital announced the Gran Turismo 5 Spec II disc and box-art update for Japan earlier this month, there has been some confusion about the changes spreading to the rest of the world.
With former steering wheel market leader Logitech resting on its laurels, there’s been a flurry of activity fill the mid-to-high end range of steering wheels over the last few years. For Gran Turismo 5 players, the licensed Thrustmaster T500RS was generally considered one of the best options – until now.
