GTPlanet Weekly Rewind: The Beat Goes On

What a great week it’s been thus far, the 2013 GT Academy demo was released this past Tuesday and has left many of us wanting so much more. Whether or not we’ll get more remains to be seen but I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high because we all know something has to be maintained for when Gran Turismo 6 sees itself onto store shelves later this year.

What are my personal thoughts on the demo? I think it’s absolutely fantastic, however, it leaves me wanting more and I’m referring to content in this regard. The vastly improved suspension modeling is a very welcomed addition to the series, but the entire package as it’s presented in the GT Academy demo leaves me thinking it’s operating within the confines of a hybridization of the old data present in GT5, and the forthcoming new data that will debut in GT6.

Of course I could be mistaken but that’s the lasting impression I’ve been left with. I’ve enjoyed the demo nonetheless and will patiently await the games release in the coming months alongside any and all new information that creeps its way through in the process.

GTPlanet Picture of the Week

This week’s image, recommended to us by The Stig Farmer and courtesy of Gagtooth, features the ever-so-quick Ferrari 458 Italia taking in the sights around Toscana in Italy.

Have a suggestion for next week’s featured image? Drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Picture of the Week” and fill it out with your two choices and they’ll be featured in upcoming Rewinds. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTPlanet Weekly Race Series (WRS) Online Events: 2013 WRS F1 Championship

You’ll recall back in May this was featured to coincide with the Grand Prix of Monaco, and now it’s time to revisit this illustrious series in the WRS as the Grand Prix of Germany awaits the F1 crowd this coming weekend.

The competition is fierce and the winner of the Monaco GP, GTP_Pasm, will be looking to extend his lead in the upcoming event with a back-to-back victory so you’d better come prepared. Best of all, if you’re unable to participate you can catch the action as-it-happens for qualifying and the Sunday event on oink’s TwitchTV channel.

There’s no hard feelings here, you’d might as well be racing in the actual Grand Prix’s because the rules, regulations and practices are pretty much identical. You have 2 Practice Sessions (instead of 3), Knock-out Qualifying, and of course the race itself – all over the course of a single week. To give an even greater feeling for the attention to detail being paid for this series look no further than the Steward’s comments:

This special event series has been designed to offer participants a Full Formula 1 Experience covering all available GT5 Grand Prix Circuits.  Each stop on the calendar is scheduled on the same weekend as the corresponding real life FIA Formula 1 Grand Prix and includes free practice sessions on Thursday and Friday, a three round knockout qualifying session on Saturday, and a full length race on Sunday.

Full Formula 1 Experience

  • Live F1 style knockout qualification
  • Multiple tire compounds – Race Soft and Race Hard
  • Drivers must use both compounds during the race, but will only be provided two sets of Race Soft tires
  • F1 style formation lap and standing start (race starts at the 3 minute mark)
  • Race distance will match the real FIA Formula 1 Grand Prix (+1 for the formation lap)
  • The driver championship will utilize the FIA Formula 1 point system (25 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1)

You’d better be prepared for some of the most hair-raising and intense on-track action seen nowhere else. Who will be the Sebastian Vettel in each of the five WRS Divisions? I can’t wait to see the results!

Stop by the official thread here and remember that you NEED to be registered before officially participating in the WRS, and that can only be done by submitting a time for the official GTP Registry Qualifier.

GTPlanet Member of the Week

You know what time it is, time to place another member in the spotlight and acknowledge the worth they bring to the GTPlanet community. This week’s inductee is a bit of a special case and is someone many of you will undoubtedly be familiar with, welcome axletramp to the Member of the Week hall of fame!

For the full interview be sure to stop by the Member of the Week thread and get to know Logan better, or maybe even ask him why after so much confusion he’s decided to change his name to the very thing people confused it for thus causing even more confusion. He is, after all, the eleventh member to be recognized among his peers. Who’s next?

Anyone you’d like to see recognized as the Member of the Week? Drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Member of the Week” and fill it out with your choices and they’ll be featured in upcoming Rewinds. NOTE: You cannot nominate yourself.

GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week

Managed by Zagato, this week’s featured vehicle was the late celebration of Alfa Romeo’s centennial year and may come as a surprise as being a rebodied Dodge Viper.

Based off of the Viper ACR’s mechanical chassis with a carbon fiber body, the TZ3 Stradale uses “Bellezza necessaria” (necessary beauty when translated from Italian) as the inspiration for the car which can be represented as the first American Alfa Romeo.

Have a suggestion for next week’s featured image? Drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week” and fill it out with your two choices and they’ll be featured in upcoming Rewinds. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTPlanet Tune of the Week

This week’s tune, recommended to us by tuning aficionado danbojte, features yet another ‘Ring Toy taking the spotlight and is perhaps the lightest and nimblest track-specific tune to date. The focus is the 1996 Lotus Elise in 400PP sporting Comfort/Soft tires, and having been helped along by mainstay tuning addict praiano63 it’s sure to make short work of the competition, whoever they may be.

Victory is the name of the game as usual and if it’s a deserving victory that you’e after then you’ll want to stop by and see the tune for yourself.

Exactly like the Picture and Vehicle of the Week features, if you have any suggestions for the upcoming Rewinds be sure to drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Tune of the Week” and let me know. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTPlanet Photomode Competitions

In Week 136 of the Standard and Advanced competitions you are to put your best foot forth and show the community just how seriously you take your in-game photography. All you need to know is as follows:

Week 136, Standard: The Cross-Dresser vs. The Partial Professor – I know what you’re thinking, well maybe I don’t because I’m not entirely sure what to think myself coming across such a title as it’s certainly one of the more unique ones we’ve had in the past weeks so let’s get to the bottom of this.

The challenge this week is simple, any track in the entirety of GT can be your canvas and any car your proverbial brush and the subject matter is simply whether you enjoy a bit of cross-dressing with the Cross-Processing filter, or a bit of half-dress with the Partial Color filter. The choice is yours.

Week 136, Advanced 2.0: Momentum – Take it away ShaolinMasta:  This video inspired me when I was thinking about a theme. Think it can inspire anyone no matter how many times you see it. Fantastic video, I can watch it again and again. 

This week I want you to capture something unbelievable, something really amazing. It could be a moment of absolute tranquility, when it seems that time has stopped or really intense, breathtaking moment or… whatever you like. There are so many great things that can be happened. Just catch the moment and use your imagination. I would like to see pictures that maximally convey the amazing atmosphere of captured moment. Have fun.

For all of the relevant information pertaining to this week’s challenges be sure to stop by here and here.

GT5 Photomode images by MadMoss and BlameAuntJemima.

See more articles on and .

Comments (25)

  1. Woody3says

    I have an original release fat PS3 and it works fine here too. As with anything on a computer, if its not working for you perhaps just delete it and re-download…

  2. adrianhettich

    And again, gt6 is designed for ps4. Kazunori said that gt6 will push to the limit ps3 so what people want to see????!!?? And doesn’t mater how much they’ll improve gt6 and how much beautiful gonna be, it’s always not enough for 80% of guys here. Remember this is just a game a really superb game. If you all want to have simulation then buy a real one for £20k but don’t expect miracles from game console for £200. Other then that what I’ve sow on gt6 demo it’s amazing and can’t wait for full version. If I have a chance I could carry kazunori on my hands 10 h a day and rest 12 ill play his game

    1. adrianhettich

      By the way if gt series were never create, you all will play in NSF or forza so please keep calm and enjoy. Love ya all

  3. MLRSparco

    As of right now playing this demo I am not seeing anything that has convinced me to believe that they needed to make a new GT6.Most if not all of the features that I’ve seen in the demo are things that they could’ve just added as a big update for GT5.They could’ve released the update, add a few new cars and then go back to working on GT6 for another year or two and then release it.

    I know that this is just a demo so a lot of the big features have not been released like the livery editor,body kits,cars,etc so as of right now I’ll just wait and see if GT6 is really GT6 and not GT5.5 in disguise.

  4. Blood*Specter

    As far the shortcomings of the Demo, I think it would be wise to wait and see all the bells and whistles and actually experience more time behind the (virtual) wheel before pronouncing the game is a failure. This is still pre-production software we’re using here. Not the finished product.

    And I will bet that PD and Kaz are taking all the feedback they are getting from this site and other gaming publications.
    There will be “Ninja Editing” going down. Just like always.

    Keep the observations coming, but just RELAX people. We should be having fun, not heart attacks.
    We’re all way too young for that crap.

  5. Blood*Specter

    And the beat goes on………

    I can not wait to drive the Ferrari F-40 with this new suspension package.

  6. Redline900

    I’m worried for GT6, I don’t think that they will fix all of these complaints in 5 months.

    1. Falango

      Some of the complaints are pretty ridiculous though. Besides, overall, the demo is already quite an improvement over GT5. I think the community in general is expecting quite a bit. Yes, the GT series has some things it can do without. I wish they would focus on the quality of the cars, rather than the quantity. The AI bothers me too. The AI in the demo can’t really be judged, because I doubt they bothered to make half decent AI for ‘races’ that meant nothing.

    2. TomBrady

      I agree.

      There’s really not a long list of complaints at all.

      Really the only important complaints in my opinion are the engine sounds, the AI, and the frame rate/graphics issues.

      There are some other small complaints I’d like to see addressed but they’re nothing serious and some may be a design choice. I would like to see mechanical damage be always on, also would like the gap between the driver in front and back be displayed on checkpoints instead of just the leader. I think allowing us to look in any direction would be good too (not just left and right).

      But overall, the biggest priority has been handled well (physics). Also it’s showing great improvements in presentation, loading times, and a better UI for sure.

      Hopefully they fix the AI and engine sounds, and also limit the amount of omissions on the car list. I have a feeling that once again, especially with GT3 class probably bloating the premium car number like super GT and NASCAR did, we’ll probably end up being disappointed by the car list. But that’s something that could be slightly improved with DLC.

      I don’t know what will happen but eitherway, I think it’ll be the best GT yet. I just hope it’s the GT we’ve always wanted.

    3. kekke2000

      If they release a game with GT Academy physics and graphics. 1200 cars and all tracks listed and tuning from GT5 I would be satisfied. Anything else is just a bonus. From the looks of it, there will be bonuses :).

    4. Tvensky

      how about a complaint that GT6 is not working on old FAT PS3’s.. I think thats a huge issue.. even more important than all other things combined…

      its not working on mine.. and other people having same issues… thankfully not all are having this problem..

  7. 05XR8

    Nice pic of the SLS. There should have been more pics, events and reviews of this car as it’s the out-going cover car.

  8. HuskyGT

    I want to try that Alfa so bad. Sexiness like only Zagato can deliver, plus the raw performance of the Viper. Which is actually the Viper ACR-X the one it’s based of.

    1. TomBrady

      Yea that thing’s gonna be a beast. Glad that the preorder bonus basically confirmed the regular 2013 Dodge Viper GTS. Would’ve been stupid if they didn’t include it.

Comments on this post are now closed.

About the Author