Jordan Greer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_66KyeyfI4

In a shocking turn of events, it has just been announced that Gran Turismo 5 will only be playable in “B-Spec” mode.  What’s that mean?  As fans of Gran Turismo 4 will recall, the game featured two modes of play: “A-Spec” and “B-Spec”.  In A-Spec mode, you drive the car yourself – just like every other racing game.  B-Spec mode allows you to act as a sort of team manager by controlling the computer driver’s pace, passing, and pit strategy – and now it looks to be the future of the GT series!  Kazunori Yamauchi explains:

In a revealing statement from last week’s Game Developer’s Conference, SCEA Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller mentioned that Gran Turismo 5 will be released across “all platforms” when it “makes the most sense”.  The comments came from a Q&A session and were just picked up by VG247:

You know exactly what features you want in Gran Turismo 5, but how many people out there actually agree with you?  It’s easy enough to peruse our Gran Turismo 5 forum, but even the most popular ideas get lost in the sea of discussions and opinions.  That’s why we’ve launched ideas.gtplanet.net, a new type of forum that lets you submit and vote on the features, cars, and tracks that you most want to see in future updates to the Gran Turismo series.  The ultimate goal is to efficiently utilize GTPlanet’s large audience to communicate what we, the fans, are most looking for from Polyphony Digital.  To keep things organized, the GTPlanet Ideas site is divided into three categories, or forums:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NxKSsXZ9mI

Since the Logitech Challenge cheaters were exposed, many of you have spread the word and contacted Sony/Logitech, expressing your anger with poorly-skilled drivers who were bending the rules to get ahead.  Now, we’ve got official word from Logitech on exactly what is (not) going to happen.   Chris Pate, Logitech’s Global Product Marketing Manager, stopped by the GTPlanet Forums:

The Logitech Challenge in GT5 Prologue is well under way.  Unfortunately, though, with thousands of dollars worth of prizes up for grabs, it has attracted the attention of cheaters with no regards for fair play or clean driving.  The first week of competition ended on Tuesday, and GTPlanet’s own challengers are up in arms over the drivers who took the top positions by “wall riding” around the High Speed Ring circuit.  “Wall riding” consists of nothing more than exploiting the game’s physics engine to carry unrealistic speed through a corner without losing momentum.  The only skill involved is simply avoiding activation of the penalty system – a far cry from watching your braking points, turn in angles, and throttle modulation.

If you’re a regular GTPlanet visitor, you already know about the Citroen GT.  It’s a monumental and unique achievement for a video game production company – the one and only Polyphony Digital.  However, you may be surprised to learn how many “real world” projects the Gran Turismo master minds are responsible for.  Tucked away on their Japanese website is a fascinating timeline of  collaborative projects, from the Nissan GT-R concept in 2001 to the Citroen GT today.

What’s the difference between real-world performance driving and Gran Turismo?  How does the virtual experience measure up to the real thing?  These questions have long-haunted forum discussions, and finding the answer usually requires a fair bit of debate.  Of course, you can only accurately compare the two with a healthy dose of maturity and extensive experience with both – making relative comments sometimes difficult to find on the Internet.

In a perfect world, all of us would enjoy our favorite driving games in the comfort of a purpose-built virtual cockpit.  Unfortunately, practical limitations like space, cost, and wives prevent most virtual racers from achieving this ideal.  Although such circumstances may inspire creative solutions, nothing is more frustrating than spending $250 on a Logitech G25 or Fanatec 911 without a proper place to enjoy it.  This is the problem the Wheel Stand Pro aims to solve – read our full review to see how it stacks up!

A new official competition is afoot in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and while it may not be quite as good as the ultimate racing cockpit, a trip to the GT Academy, or the Drifting World Championships, you’ve got a much better chance at winning something.  The Logitech Challenge begins tomorrow, and will consist of three week-long events.  The top three finishers from each week will win prizes from – you guessed it – Logitech, including steering wheels, speakers, and more.  Specifics on what cars will be used will only be released at the beginning of each week, but here is what we know so far:

Aside from a few seconds of screen time in the rolling credits at the end of each game, few people aside from Kazunori Yamauchi get much credit for the countless hours of hard work that goes into each masterpiece of the Gran Turismo series. True, Polyphony Digital is a very secretive company – that’s just a fact of life in their industry – but there are hundreds of brilliant people getting their hands dirty (and sleeping on cots under their desks) who deserve more credit for what they do.  A single web page on Polyphony Digital’s corporate site offers the rare opportunity to place faces with names.  Thanks to the magic of online translation, let’s take a closer look at who they are.  GTPlanet wishes all of them well – keep up the great work, guys, we are looking forward to what you have in store for us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY0MGB1OO4A

Looking for a new job?  If you’ve got a background in marketing and a passion for Gran Turismo, you might want to consider applying for this position with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeXaKFWg9NE

We reported last December that Polyphony Digital’s Citroën GT may actually be headed for production.  That’s now confirmed thanks to Citroën Product Manager Vincent Besson‘s recent comments to Autocar.  Of course, no pricing or official specifications have been released, but we do know that it won’t contain the futuristic fuel-cells that we’ve played with in GT5 Prologue.  Instead, the French company will enlist V8 power from a GM or Ford motor, much like the one found in the concept that the car magazines have been playing with.  As was originally speculated, production will be limited to no more than 20 units, so you’d better get those orders in right away…  Thanks to Alex P. for the tip!

The Guinness World Records releases annual “Gamer’s Edition” books, which rate and document some of the more dramatic feats in the world of video games.  However, Guinness is branching out from the objective realm of records and numbers into the subjective world of opinion and “expert judging panels”.  One of the products of this ideological shift is a ranking of “The Top 50 Console Games of All Time“, and the results are raising a few eyebrows.

Sim racers love their hobby, and we’ve seen some pretty impressive setups over the years (see our Racing Cockpits forum for more).  This, however, raises the bar to a completely new level – it’s a full size replica of a Ferrari F1 car wired up for video gaming, and it can be yours for £13,500 ($18,944 USD).  The mysterious model is actually listed for sale on a website where ‘real’ F1 cars can be bought and sold, but this one substitutes a PlayStation 2 in place of a V10.  Yes, that’s right – more than $18,000 and you don’t even get a PlayStation 3!

Two numbers that have befuddled many HDTV buyers throughout the years are 720p and 1080i.  What do they mean, exactly?  There are plenty of technical explanations (here’s a great one), but most of you just want to know which will give you the best experience on your PlayStation 3.  That answer will change depending on your television set, but if you want to see what the difference really looks like, check out these screenshots of GT5 Prologue.  GTPlanet user R0M posted a few in this forum thread, and added 200 more to his post at TaxiGamer.

If you’ve spent any amount of time playing GT5 Prologue, you’ve surely noticed the “Tuned Nissan Skyline Coupe (V36)”.  It offers just enough modification to the standard car’s shape without going overboard, and the result is beautiful.  Of course, much like the GTbyCitroen, it was designed entirely by Polyphony Digital, and it was not until last year at SEMA that we learned this car will be brought to the “real world” by Japanese tuning shop Zele Performance. We’ve now got the full details – Zele is actually offering up the official body kit for Skyline Coupe/Infiniti G37 owners everywhere, but it doesn’t come cheap.  For the rest of us, though, it provides an interesting look at yet another car that made the jump from our TV screens.  Take a look at the photos below or visit Zele’s website for all the details.