Jordan Greer

Members of the press who visited Polyphony Digital last week were treated to something special: an unpublished Gran Turismo 5 trailer showcasing an apparently more impressive damage model. The news comes from Spanish site MeriStation, making them first to mention this clip. Unfortunately, cameras were carefully controlled in the screening room, so we have only this description to go by:

If you didn’t pre-order your copy of Gran Turismo PSP and you just can’t wait until your local retailer opens up, you can fire up your PSP and start downloading from the PSN Store right now. To encourage that, Sony’s offering a special incentive: a free Nissan GTR in a limited “metallic blue” color. Despite the bonus and convenient access, is it enough to entice you away from your physical game store to participate in the sacred act of purchasing the latest GT game? (For you snidely commentators: that was a joke.)

It’s been more than 5 years since Gran Turismo was officially announced for PSP system at E3 2004 – and today, you can walk into a store and buy it! Needless to say, a lot has happened to get us to this point – let’s take a quick look back at what a long and winding road it’s been:

Worried about missing out on the pre-order bonus cars offered with Gran Turismo PSP? Don’t fret – you can still play this fun little mini-game to claim a free Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren! It’s simple: work your way through 8 different GT-themed challenges, score enough points along the way to earn the car, enter your email address, and wait for a PSN voucher code to hit your Inbox. A few caveats and unknowns:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxheZY-txoQ

Last weekend’s interviews with Kazunori Yamauchi are finally hitting the web. While most reveal nothing that GTPlanet readers don’t already know, if we add up the bits and pieces of new information, we can get a better idea of what he is trying to tell us (or not). With so many interviews out at once, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed. To help out, I’ve organized Yamauchi’s comments for you, dividing them up by topic. Let’s get started…

Here’s the latest batch of high-res Gran Turismo 5 screenshots, giving us our first glimpse of the Enzo Ferrari and the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 in full GT5 glory.

It’s always interesting to take a peek inside Polyphony Digital‘s studios – a modern space packed full of computers, PS3’s, model cars, and Japanese toys. While we wait for the interviews from GamesBlog and GameSpot, take a look at some of the pictures from they’ve already started sharing. Be sure and watch for the iconic Ferrari 330 P4 getting its interior modeled, along with some interesting track-side elements, curiously blocky screens of Gran Turismo 5, and a talking George W. Bush figurine (?). What else can you find hiding in the background? Take a look at our full gallery of 111 images right here.

After spending some hands-on time with the Gran Turismo 5 demo at the Tokyo Game Show, IGN editors got the chance to speak with a “Sony rep” who was able to clarify some of the questions about the differences in vehicular damage. Concerns were first raised when Yamauchi specifically mentioned “damage to racing cars”, leaving the door open to speculation that “street cars” in the game may not be so fragile. This notion was reinforced when only Subaru’s WRC rally car showed damage at GamesCom.

Since Kazunori Yamauchi announced the Japanese release date on Thursday, the news has been met with a wide range of emotions, from elation, relief, to anger. The drama forming around Gran Turismo 5 is boiling over like never before, and all eyes will be on Yamauchi’s next interviews. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long, as Polyphony Digital has welcomed several groups of journalists over to their studios for tours, taking questions along the way. One site, GameSpot, is taking a bold move by actually inviting their readers to recommendquestions for Yamauchi-san – you can take advantage of the opportunity by leaving a note in their comments right here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w76dGdY0CY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9MRsDC1l8A

Gran Turismo 5’s release window has just been set to March 2010 for Japan, according to Kazunori Yamauchi at the TGS press conference.  This, unfortunately, runs directly counter to everything that we’ve heard so far from a wide variety of sources for nearly an entire year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I29SJlorlbI

Here we go again! After the keynote address a few hours ago didn’t bring any news about Gran Turismo 5, we’re looking to the main event: Sony’s Press Conference. As usual, keep an eye on the “live blog” above to “watch” the event. If you’re on Twitter, follow GTPlanet and include the #gtplanet hashtag in your tweets to join the conversation in the box below!

Gran Turismo 5 wasn’t mentioned during Sony’s keynote address at the Tokyo Game Show, but news is already starting to trickle out of the GT5 booth at the show. Our first peek comes from this guy who appears to have uploaded a clip from his cell phone. The quality is about as bad as it gets, but you can clearly see that quite a few cars are playable, including the Ferrari 458 Italia. The most exciting thing we can confirm right now, however, is the fully animated pit crews which can be seen working on a car as it enters the pits. I’ve grabbed the best shot I could find and posted it above, but you can watch for the scene yourself in the video around 8:00.

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Just as Mercedes-Benz told us, their new SLS AMG is on hand to represent GT5 at the Tokyo Game Show. 1UP.com offers this sneak peek at the show floor, and it looks like our favorite racing game is taking center stage at Sony’s massive booth. It’s hard to see much else behind the big display, but it’s a safe bet there’s a few PS3’s loaded up with a fresh new demo of the game hiding back there.

It’s here! At each major gaming industry conference this year, we’ve collectively held our breath for news about Gran Turismo 5 from the halls of Polyphony Digital. We got our first peek at the game in the E3 trailer, and then took a closer look at the new damage feature in a playable version of the game at GamesCom. Exactly what’s in store for Tokyo is still anyone’s guess, but significant details about the game (including the release date) are long overdue. Kazunori Yamauchi himself has already told us to expect a “major advancement” from the show, and both Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz have curiously started bragging about their latest vehicles getting featured in GT5 this week.