Michael Leary

For those of you scratching your heads, wondering where you recognize this week’s title or why there’s this strange sense of familiarity coming into this week’s Rewind after having read just the title, then I’ll tell you: Gran Turismo 2. “Now Is The Time”, performed by The Crystal Method was one of the many tracks featured in the game and was perhaps one of the most fluid music tracks in the game. It could mesh in with any track, with any car, under any circumstance and it would seemingly make the moment that much more intense.

This week’s Seasonal Events are accompanied by the introduction of the new “Overtake Challenge”, which places you in three different vehicles with the objective being to overtake as many vehicles as possible on a specific section of the track. Caution is advised in these new challenges as crashing or running off of the track will result in immediate disqualification.

It’s finally here, after more than four months of rest and anticipation the 2013 Formula 1 season is about to kick off, in fact for the more fussy among us it could be argued the season has already begun, what with the inaugural weekend having begun today with practice sessions 1 and 2 earlier. The opening race—considered to be the real beginning of the season by those of us less fussy—kicks off this Sunday at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. Judging by the looks of things it’s going to be a fairly close season.

The latest Seasonal Event challenges are now available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring NASCAR. Cars are limited to a maximum of 650PP and Racing/Hard tires or less.

This weekend will mark the merging of ForzaPlanet and GTPlanet into one cohesive being, henceforth known as “ThePlanet”. I’m only kidding of course, as a great deal of you will already be aware that GTPlanet will remain GTPlanet but with even more bits. A never ending well of potential is how I would reference the upcoming merger. Of course it’s nothing like a law firm where the names can be partnered, because then you’d have Planet-Planet and that’s just confusing for everyone involved.

The latest round of Time and Drift Trial Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring vehicles from the Dodge brand, one of which being the Viper SRT10 ACR.

Before anything else, before I even advance into my usual introductory diatribe I want to preface the entire Rewind with wishing the late and great Carroll Shelby a belated happy birthday; he would have been 90 years old this past January. For those of you (and I’m one of them) who are of the opinion this entry isn’t long enough, fear not because we’ll revisit the subject in May where I’ll put together a lengthier tribute.

Note the “Performance Difference Bonus” applies, so more credits will be awarded for using a slower car below the maximum allowed PP value.

Yes, another reference to “Friday” by Rebecca Black. It’s a catchy song once you’ve listened to it over one hundred times, but of course we’re not here to discuss Auto-Tune wonders, are we?

The latest round of Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring one of Italy’s premier supercar manufacturers, Lamborghini. The challenges are as follows:

Here we stand at the precipice of what may very well be the outlining of the upcoming eighth generation of video game consoles. As you all know by now Sony is poised to make a special announcement of some kind next week Wednesday. Is it really the acknowledgement that the eighth generation begins this year or will it be something else?

The latest round of Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring revered European racing cars. Cars are limited to a maximum of 590PP and Racing/Hard tires or less. The challenges are as follows:

I’m not even going to beat around the proverbial bush this week with the titular reference; the song, performed by .38 Special was the main theme to one of my favorite comedies ever: Broken Lizard’s Super Troopers. If you’re familiar with the movie or the comedy troupe’s work in general you’ll no doubt appreciate that you’re now picturing one (or all) of your favorite scenes right now, and for that you’re welcome.

The latest round of Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring both race car and non-race cars alike. The challenges are as follows:

You’re probably sitting there wondering to yourself “Why is the Rewind so late this week?” and to that I say it isn’t late, quite literally it was postponed to make way for other bits of worthy news I’ll cover again later on in the Rewind, so consider this a special ‘on-the-weekend’ edition of the Rewind. And I know you’re staring at this week’s featured image again—back to me; look, I’m on a horse! There’s no horse why are you looking over here?

That latest round of Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring Mazda’s flagship sports car, the MX-5. Cars are limited to a maximum of 380PP and Comfort/Soft tires or less. The challenges are as follows:

As of today’s posting the GTP Rewind is three months old, quite the achievement for a weekly dose of what’s been happening in the community at large here at GTPlanet. I know you’re staring at the Lexus image above not paying a single solitary thought to what I’m saying right now, so allow me to quell any further thoughts regarding the image: that Lexus, the 2014 IS-F, is an edit and a shockingly fantastic one at that.

As many of you have probably heard by now, since the latest 2.10 update for Gran Turismo 5 went live last week some users have been reporting a strange game-disrupting issue involving the GT5 logo screen loop where the root cause was, of all things, vehicles in the game.

A week after the all-new 2014 C7 Corvette was introduced into the game, the Corvette is now the star of this week’s round of Time & Drift trial Seasonal Events now available in GT5, and the challenges are as follows:

This past Sunday, the 13th of January, the entire world witnessed the official unveiling of General Motors’ next generation iconic American sports car, the Corvette. The new C7 reasserts the “Stingray” moniker and looks the part just as well, with a hint of not only the Stingray concept that was introduced not long ago, but also concepts of previous generations, such as the Mako Shark and the Aerovette – the end result, while not revolutionary was indeed a necessary evolution in the brand’s lineage. So, here’s to the 2014 Stingray!