Gaming

This year has certainly been kind to racers on the Xbox One so far: just earlier this month the Forza Horizon 3 Car Pass was up grabs to Live subscribers for 40% off, and it appears the Xbox team has already outlined its plans for February. Another racing game will be the highlight, this time offered for free through the Games with Gold program.

Gran Turismo Sport was playable at the Taipei Game Show this past weekend—on the new PlayStation 4 Pro no less. While the build doesn’t appear to be much different from the one shown at the PlayStation Experience last December, it nonetheless shows us some new aspects of the game.

In recent years, Formula 1 has faced the harsh challenge of trying to engage a young audience. Due to the high prices of the events themselves, and the general barrier of interacting with the series, F1 can often feel like it’s in a world of its own. However, Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost believes that there is an answer for developing the relationship between the younger generation and the historic motorsport—and it involves the world of eSports.

With the spotlight being shined on racing eSports events like the upcoming ESL Multi-Class Championship, it should come as little surprise that Project CARS’ successor will be featuring a driver rating system to help filter different players by their abilities in online races.

Late last week, news broke that Assetto Corsa developer Kunos Simulazioni has been purchased by 505 Games parent company Digital Bros. A salient detail was hidden within the comprehensive Trend Online report, however: sales figures.

Following yesterday’s surprising news that Kunos Simulazioni has been acquired by Digital Bros, there have been a lot of questions regarding the future of Assetto Corsa within the sim racing community. Marco Massarutto has taken to Facebook to lay those concerns to rest.

A few weeks back, some of the fastest drivers in sim racing descended upon Las Vegas for a chance to win big money in the Visa Vegas eRace. While the race itself was a controversial event in the spotlight, it did afford us the light-hearted entertainment above.

When the team behind Assetto Corsa began speaking of its plans for Assetto Corsa in 2017, no one could have seen this one coming: Kunos Simulazioni is being acquired by Digital Bros, the parent company of 505 Games based in Milan, Italy.

When it comes to a good-value racing game on PlayStation 4, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better game than Driveclub. With plenty of tracks and cars being added for free and at a premium, owning all the content gives you a serious amount of virtual cars, events and tracks to play around with. To make the various parts of Driveclub—the base game, Bikes expansion, and Season Pass—more appealing to players new and old, The UK and European PlayStation Stores both currently offer limited-time price reductions on the game.

The world of iRacing has had a good start to 2017. Following the huge announcement of Porsche joining the PC simulation’s car roster, the team behind the subscription-based racer has now begun to tease the long-awaited addition of dirt driving within the game. Although it’s just a small glimpse of what is to come, it’s certainly exciting.

Last month, user Yui-san gave us the gift of a misty-eyed stroll down memory lane for the holidays with his gallery of 23 racing games recreated in Forza Horizon 3. For the next installment in his series, the photographer has derived inspiration from iconic cars of television and movies.

In our world of racing games, many players have different preferences as to what peripherals they choose to drive their virtual machines with. Some folks swear by using a wheel and won’t bother playing with anything else. Other people are content with using the standard controller supplied with a game console. The mouse, on the other hand, is probably something that you haven’t seen being used to play a racing game in any serious capacity—until now.

The latest pair of racing wheels to come out of Thrustmaster’s skunkworks may seem very familiar. That’s because the wheels themselves are the same, but now come bundled with an elite set of pedals.

If you’re still combing through the launch lineup of cars for Forza Horizon 3 and have yet to pick up the Car Pass, there may not be a better chance to do so than this week. Through the Deals with Gold program, the Car Pass is now available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers for $17.99.

https://www.facebook.com/festivalofspeed/videos/1319306231446695/

Playground Games’ third entry in the Forza Horizon series has moved from strength to strength since release last autumn. Not only was it a critical success at the GAME Awards, but it looks like a commercial success as well. According to GfK Chart-Track (link via NeoGAF), Forza Horizon 3 came in an impressive tenth position in terms of physical game sales in the UK last year.

Virtual reality is becoming a mainstay feature within the video game industry, seemingly growing by the day. Last year Microsoft announced their own entry into the growing market, and with a starting price of $299 the company’s own efforts are sure to become the most affordable entry point, undercutting the likes of Sony’s PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift that dominate the market.

Late last week, Kunos Simulazioni announced that in an upcoming v1.12 console update for Assetto Corsa, players are to expect a slew of new Special Events. The offline affairs will revolve around the recently-included Red Pack and Porsche Pack Volume 2 downloadable content, as well as the highly anticipated finale to the Porsche content, Porsche Pack Volume 3.

During the month of December, the Top Gear website counted down its own version of the top 50 driving games ever made. The range of games included in its list was varied with realistic sims like GTR2 being placed alongside all-out fantasy games like Super Mario Kart. With so many different driving games included, the number one spot would have to be something truly special, and what better winner than the original timeless Gran Turismo on PlayStation—the game that redefined the genre.

Endurance racing is a war of attrition. That was certainly the case for the GT Academy team at last weekend’s Dubai 24H race, as the #123 car was met with numerous setbacks en route to an eighth-place finish in-class.