GTPlanet

Aside from looking forward to the second installment of this very feature, I’ve had quite the busy week and you’ll all be glad to know it included a fair dosage of GT5; a game I’ve been playing more and more since last week. Funny how that works, isn’t it? I’m still quite a long way from being as interested in the game as I was in late 2010 when the game hit the shelves but that doesn’t mean I can’t come back to it from time-to-time to enjoy several lapping sessions, some photo sessions and maybe even some senseless spending of credits on cars I already have — how is that not fun?

As previously announced, GTPlanet has teamed up with Nissan to host a live Twitter party during Thursday night’s episode of GT Academy 2012, which aired on Spike TV at 11:30pm ET in the United States.

This weekend marks the return of Formula 1 to the United States, in Austin, Texas, at the 2012 United States Grand Prix, and if the chatter in our forums is any indication, lots of GTPlanet community members will be attending.

During his recent trip to Las Vegas for SEMA and the 2012 Gran Turismo Awards, Kazunori Yamauchi had a chance to get behind the wheel of Daijiro Yoshihara’s (2011 Formula D Champion) Discount Tire/Falken Tire S13 drift car.

Welcome to the first installment of the Weekly Rewind, a feature where the primary focus will be you, the GTPlanet community. Of course that means there’s going to be plenty to discuss over the lifetime of this feature, so if you’ve been sitting idly by waiting for your time to shine among our brightest stars this may very well be the perfect opportunity for you. Continuing from that, there’s plenty to get through in this first installment as the community here has been ever-so-busy, so sit back and enjoy the ride.

Before the 2012 GT Awards, I had the opportunity to sit down with Kazunori Yamauchi for a brief interview. We covered a wide range of topics, and I tried to cover some of the most frequently asked questions and discussed topics in GTPlanet’s forums.

As hobbies go, gaming tends to attract the stigma of being solitary, sedentary and for geeks. The image of the slacker playing games in his mom’s basement is tough to shake off and online gaming doesn’t do much to help.

One hundred. It’s a milestone, and just before we celebrate two years since GT5’s launch, GTPlanet’s own Photomode Competitions are breaking into the triple digits this week. Our two initial competitions, the aptly named “Photomode Competition” (PMC) and “2.0 Advanced Competition” (2.0) hit the ground running back in the same week Gran Turismo 5 made its way into gamers’ eager hands, and haven’t looked back. GT4’s initial inclusion of a Photomode was originally met with criticism back in the last decade, but in an age where sharing is central, it’s now basically a requirement of the racing genre. GT5’s Photomode might be the most in-depth, fully-featured implementation of its kind too; it’s certainly popular, as our GT5 Photomode forum sub-section boasts a massive +220,000 posts!

Automotive news website PistonHeads had a brief chance to talk with Kazunori Yamauchi during his recent visit to the EU GT Academy 2012 finals.

Following on from Jordan’s review 3 years ago, Wheel Stand Pro have kindly sent over a complementary pair of their upgraded v2 stands for GTPlanet to put through their paces. On review this time are their Logitech Driving Force stand (compatible with Driving Force GT, EX, FX and Pro wheels) and the Logitech G series stand (compatible with G25 and G27 wheels).

Tuning – in the real or virtual world – can dramatically change a car’s performance and handling characteristics. It can also be very time consuming, involving hours of tweaking, testing, trial, and error.

GTPlanet’s Gran Turismo 5 forum was a critical hub of activity for news and rumors in the months and years before the game’s release. Now hosting over 2.2 million posted messages, it’s a massive resource, and continues to be the ultimate source for breaking news of game updates and downloadable content.

Kazunori Yamauchi put to rest any doubts about Polyphony Digital’s long-term plans for GT5, confirming the company is “preparing” new DLC for the game in response to “continued interest” and requests from players.

Kazunori Yamauchi sported a Spanish soccer jersey at one point during a media session in Barcelona today at GameLab 2012, and some of his early interviews with local news outlets are now being published.

GT Academy Event 8-5 is the Platform for This Week’s WRS!

Thanks to an invite to the race day on behalf of Nissan and RJN Motorsport from Glen Gibson at Jardine International, daan and I were able to spend the day in and around the busy garage of the #35 Nissan Nismo GT-R GT3 – trying our hardest to stay out of the way. With the race over, Jann Mardenborough and RJN Motorsport team boss Bob Neville were kind enough to answer a few questions from us and Calvin de Freitas of Jardine:

With the GT5 GT Academy 2012 now available to gamers around the world, GTPlanet was able to get an interview with 2011 European GT Academy champion Jann Mardenborough. Jann was kind enough to answer a few questions for all the budding racing drivers and GT Academy hopefuls out there, to give insight into the before, during and after of the internationally successful Gamer-to-Racer program.

Each month, over half a million people visit GTPlanet using Google’s Chrome browser, making it the most popular way to access the site. Now, it’s going to be easier than ever for Chrome users to stay on top of news from the “world of Gran Turismo” with GTPlanet’s new Chrome extension!

GTP_Registry to host Laguna Seca Enduro!

Thanks to some computer difficulties, the Photomode update just wasn’t possible last week, but we’re back… and just in time! The knockout-style Tournament is in it’s semi-final round, with only four users left for each division. And, of course, we’ve got our weekly competitions, five in total, that are open to any registered GTPlanet member. Want to take part? Read on!