Gaming

2016 was a great year for the Xbox brand, and the Redmond gaming team are looking back on the previous year – all while keeping a firm eye on what 2017 has in store for gamers on the platform.

One of the latest entries in the steering wheel market was first announced last year by Thrustmaster. Dubbed the TS-PC Racer, the new product is touted as the company’s first “open-wheel” design, and officially went on sale just over a month ago. Our friends over at Inside Sim Racing thoroughly tested the wheel recently to see how it stacked up.

The biggest race in eSports history is about to kick off in Vegas today. You can watch the whole event kick off via the embedded ELEAGUE Twitch channel above.

GT Sport will get its first public display of 2017 later this month, in its home country no less. Polyphony Digital recently posted the news on the official website, confirming the game’s presence at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon.

When the latest update for Forza Horizon 3 was released, there was a slight issue with its distribution. The update brought the Rockstar Car Pack accompanied by a new barn find to Xbox One players without any complications. On the PC side, things didn’t go as smooth…

A very special event for racers of the digital world and real world alike will be taking place in Las Vegas this weekend. Ten of the fastest sim racers (who were decided from the ‘Road to Vegas’ championship) will hit the virtual asphalt along with 20 Formula E drivers all in an effort to obtain a piece of the $1,000,000 prize that is up for grabs in the Visa Vegas eRace.

Being an Assetto Corsa player on Xbox One can sometimes be a trial of patience. Watching from afar as the original PC platform began receiving Porsche packs, it may have smarted when the first Volume arrived on PS4, only for the Xbox One version to be delayed an additional week.

It was 2002 when Ted and Sue Richardson decided to take an ordinary 1962 Buick Special and convert it from top to bottom into a spectacular 550 bhp machine. Today we recall what we love about this car as it appears on sale for $150,000 at the Barrett-Jackson Collection Showroom.

Forza Horizon 3’s weekly event cycle looks to have a strong start in 2017 with Forzathon ramping up this month with a rare Subaru, expensive Lykan, and … a horn, all winnable by participating in the challenges each week in January.

The third and final episode of “Porsche, Porsche, and more Porsche!” landed on the laps of PC players late last month. While console players continue to participate in the waiting game due to Microsoft’s and Sony’s lengthy approval processes, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to show off some of the contents of the final pack in Porsche’s current offerings to Assetto Corsa.

Japanese game developer Genki has recently announced it will be launching a new installment in its Shutokou Battle racing series later this January. Dubbed Shutokou Battle Xtreme, the game will be available for free download on iOS and Android platforms.

During its presentation at CES 2017 yesterday, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it has sold 53.4 million PlayStation 4 units as of the beginning of the year.

Amidst the leaks that have outed all sorts of interesting cars, Forza Horizon 3 has gained another free, new-to-franchise car. The latest barn find was tucked away in the title update that came alongside the Rockstar Car Pack, and reports quickly announced the new car as none other than the 1972 Volvo 1800E.

The long awaited ‘Red Pack’ for Assetto Corsa on Xbox One and PS4 finally has a release window, with developer Kunos dropping the news today on Twitter. The pack launched in 2016 for PC players and offers a very nice selection of Italy’s finest racing machines. Alongside new cars, the track roster will also see a new premium addition.

Last we spoke, Marco Massarutto gave a rough outline of the content players could look forward to getting their hands on in Assetto Corsa this year. With over a dozen cars already planned for release within the first half of 2017, players may have missed the word of a new circuit coming to the racer.

Earlier this week, we named Project CARS 2 as one of the things set to make 2017 a great year for sim racing. While news remains sparse on the title — unless you’re one of the backers of the project — it sounds like the silence will be broken soon, according to Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell.

Oh dear. After Turn 10 accidentally unloaded a developer version of FH3 on PC players yesterday, the community has been diving deeper into the open-world racer. Yesterday, the first batch of leaks showed a handful of new cars, including some Porsches that have proven quite familiar on the XB1. Today’s discoveries, however, show something new.

Well now this is a surprise. The Rockstar Car Pack released earlier today for Forza Horizon 3, and at the usual 10AM PST time, the accompanying title update became available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfqdpr8UYpo

Ah the festive period — is there a better time to be merry for days on end? We sincerely doubt it. With parties left, right and center, one may expect that big organizations also get in on the fun. It seems Polyphony Digital is no exception, based on tweets by original GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez and Super GT driver Satoshi Motoyama. Both racers attended the annual party, held at the Japan offices of the Gran Turismo creators.