Jordan Greer

This interview conducted with Kazunori Yamauchi shortly after the release of Gran Turismo 5 has been flying under the radar since it was published back in February. It was just recently brought to my attention and, though there’s obviously no bombshells, it provides a few interesting details worth highlighting here:

Winner of the first GT Academy “Wild Card” was just announced last week, and I’m very happy to report the award goes to GTPlanet’s own James Hudson. Hudson, who goes by TwinturboCH here in our forums, has now become the very first confirmed national finalist in all of Europe. The second UK “Wild Card”, of course, is still up for grabs in the GT5 time trials currently underway at GAME retailers around the country.

I’m very excited to announce that GTPlanet has partnered with GT Academy and the Gran Turismo Boutique to run two special challenges alongside this year’s GT Academy 2011! Here’s an overview of how each works:

If you’ve ever taken a look at photos of Gran Turismo 5’s real-world locations, you were surely impressed by the accuracy of the game’s city environments. When Russian ad agency SmartNewSolutions was tasked by Sony to create a banner ad for GT5, they wisely chose to highlight this trait in a 300×600 banner ad using Google Street View.

While many complain about the shortcomings of modern games, it’s way too easy to forget just how good we have it. For some perspective – and a good laugh – check out this video trailer for an 8-bit version of Gran Turismo 5, created by 797Productions and uncovered by GTOne2Three.

As I announced a few weeks ago, Electronic Arts invited GTPlanet to a “community day” event for their latest driving game, Shift 2: Unleashed. I took them up on the offer, and I’m eager to share my impressions of the game. There’s a lot of eyes on Shift 2 after the series’ first title, billed as a realistic simulator, was highly criticized by “sim racers” for its too-friendly physics. According to EA’s marketing, these issues have been addressed, going so far as to call it “the most realistic racer ever”.

GTPlanet is very excited to team up with Nissan to co-host a live Twitter question & answer session with Lucas Ordonez, the real-world racing star that’s emerged from the first GT Academy competition! As you know, Lucas and his Signatech Nissan team just finished second-in-class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the first race in the 2011 International Le Mans Cup calendar. They’ll be participating in all the events around the world this year, including the ultimate endurance race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans.