You’d be excused for calling the beginning of 2016 a rough start for most of the previous GT Academy grads. While veterans like Ordonez, Mardenborough, and Heitkotter all had their positions announced by Nissan in February – joined by recent grads like Matt Simmons – an alarming number of winners were notable for their absence. Gaetan Paletou and Wolfgang Reip were just two of the drivers that found themselves without a seat in the new year.

Call time-out on the chocolate egg hunt (or the hiding of them): it’s Track of the Week voting time! Last week’s winner was Maple Valley Raceway of Forza fame, and while you won’t find a track from that franchise this week, you’ll certainly find a bounty of variety amongst the options.

Workaholic employees at Slightly Mad Studios have launched another patch for Project CARS. This time, the mending procedure focuses on content recently released within the US Race Car Pack, as well as pit stop trouble. All fixes are listed below:

With winter in its final throes – especially here in Toronto, complete with freezing rain as I type this – things are heating up all along the automotive landscape, both in the real world and digitally. While Assetto Corsa’s console release was delayed, the folks at Kunos Simulazioni continue to work tirelessly on their title in preparation for the next big update (v1.5), with the first of three blog updates dedicated to the latest version going live earlier today. Like most big projects, the real work starts at home.

Thrustmaster continues their vie for peripheral domination with their newest add-on, benefiting those with the company’s TH8A and TH8 RS shifter assemblies – the TH8 Sequential Knob.

Revealed yesterday the Nissan GT-R 2017 is an absolute beauty. Slightly tweaking the iconic design of previous models, the new bodykit and vastly improved interior has car fanatics drooling. Those wondering about the vehicle’s digital debut need worry no more – EA’s Need for Speed has the honors of putting the latest GT-R in player hands around the world.

New seasonal events are now available in Gran Turismo 6. This week’s events are the usual fare, a combination of super lap and drift trial challenges featuring 4WD non-race and tuned cars, and race cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjkfOY5vNXM

505 Games and Kunos Simulazioni have laid out the details for the second bonus pack DLC content coming to Assetto Corsa late next week, available at no additional cost.

We’ve crossed over into another franchise for this week’s Track of the Week. Welcome to Maple Valley Raceway, coming to us courtesy of GTP user GTvsForza!

Completely unexpected and from out of nowhere, Sony has announced the closure of Evolution Studios – the first-party development studio behind the WRC, Motorstorm and Driveclub series of racing games that was acquired by Sony Europe in 2008.

The world of eSports has seen exponential growth as of late, becoming the de facto standard in representing the fierce competition available in some of the most popular gaming franchises currently available. That environment now has to contend with the first virtual championship of the FIA Formula E — the Race Off Pro Series, and it’s coming to Forza Motorsport 6.

Our first look at Evolution Studios’ first Virtual Reality offering comes courtesy of French gaming outlet ‘Jeux-Video’, who recently posted a 9-minute recap of the VR offerings from the Games Developer Conference held in San Francisco last week.

The latest DLC release for Sébastien Loeb Rally EVO really holds promise for recruiting a wider audience of automotive enthusiasts to the title. The Class S pack joins the ranks of exciting racing game content thanks to some truly inspired additions.

I believe many of you will recall our report from the 2015 SEMA automotive show several months ago when we closely followed the battle between five 2015 GT Awards finalists, all brought together from various categories. Presented by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi himself, the ”Best in Show” crown was awarded to a painstakingly-modified Datsun 240Z, which is owned by popular Fast & Furious movie star Sung Kang.

Big news out of Melbourne earlier this week: in the run-up to the 2016 F1 season, Red Bull Racing and Aston Martin announced a long-term partnership that will not only see the winged logo of Gaydon adorn the RB12’s of Ricciardo and Kvyat, but the two companies collaborating on a road car. Not just any road car, either: Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s CTO (and designer of 10 World Championship F1 cars), will be working closely with Aston designer Marek Reichman on a range-topping hypercar.

Video game development involves more observation than one may think. Since producing a game implies working with various industries, every title usually has to undergo complicated schemes of developing content before it can finally reach the shelves at its best state. Naturally, if the cycle of production is slightly longer, it is likely that certain ideas that were initially set will change over time.

We’ve all got some special friends on social media… You know who I’m talking about: the people who share everything they come across, regardless of how ridiculous it looks or sounds?

This event was originally scheduled for 20th February, but had to be postponed due to issues with the PlayStation Network.

The 2016 Formula One season kicks off this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited. This year is markedly different in comparison: a new team; new qualifying; Red Bull has a new sponsor; Pastor Maldonado will no longer entertain us with his real-life “Crash FM” (I’m patting myself on the back for that reference, thank you); and Renault is back in the fray.