Tearing oneself away from content this endearing – even when accounting for unfortunate circumstances – is no easy task, and it should come as no surprise that Kunos Simulazioni has once again delivered in a big way with Dream Pack 3.

The WRS and 3D3 are lining up one more Online Special Event to close out 2015. While the GT500 Series will be running its final race this coming Sunday, four races taking part on the 27th and 28th will look back at some of the most popular car and track combinations the WRS have run over the course of GT6’s life.

Welcome to Around The Planet. No, we’re not a Daft Punk cover band. This new feature will look at community-building threads around our forum, where folks can share their passion for that common bond, the reason we’re all here: driving, in its many forms. For the first article in the series, we’re focusing on a thread that combines two of the most popular games in our community in a creative way.

The final WRS championship of 2015 is at its penultimate juncture, with the fourth of five races starting today. Above, you can catch the live stream (care of staff member and racer @PASM), kicking off at 20:00 GMT/UTC.

The way has been paved for the final car pack of the year as revealed in the 7.0 Update for Project CARS that went live yesterday, and Slightly Mad Studios are looking to end the year in a mad dash with the Renault Sport Car Pack coming to the game Tuesday, December 22nd.

Ghost Games weren’t kidding around about injecting the new Need For Speed with considerable fan service. Whatever your opinion may be on the arcade racer (see GTPlanet’s here), there’s no arguing that the franchise is one of the most well-known in the business. Spanning over two decades, with twenty-two (and counting) titles under its belt, there is a considerable history for the developers to draw from. With the Legends Update, that’s precisely what they’ve done.

The final major update of the year for Project CARS is upon us, and Slightly Mad Studios intends to end the year with a considerable bang and loud exhaust notes.

It’s the ninth week of our regular Track Of The Week article, and we’re changing gears. The last three circuits have been replicas of various world-famous venues (Road America, Serres Circuit, and, most recently, Portimao), while we’ve only had two fantasy tracks since the feature began nearly two months ago. The third to step into the spotlight is Melder’s Brook.

Shown earlier today, Kunos has pulled the cover off one of the stars in the upcoming Dream Pack 3, the Ford Escort RS 1600. Born from a partnership between Ford and Lotus in the late 60’s, the Escort was powered by a 1.6L Cosworth BDA Inline-4 which drove it to a number of rally and GT race victories.

Codemasters has released the most significant update for DiRT Rally yet, version 1.0, otherwise known as the ‘Winter Wonderland Pack’. The update ends the early access phase of DiRT rally, thus marking its official launch onto Steam.

The final WRS championship of 2015 is about to hit its mid-way point, with the third of five races starting today. Above, you can catch the live stream (care of staff member and racer @PASM), kicking off at 20:00 GMT/UTC.

Back in the summer, a 26-year old postal delivery driver took part in a little competition you may have heard of: GT Academy. This van-driving man – by the name of Matt Simmons – would go on to win the International Region GT Academy competition. In the article linked, we mentioned Simmons was entering the usual post-Academy 3-month training program that Nissan puts each winner through, in preparation for the Dubai 24 Hours race in January. That’s not the case anymore, however.

Earlier this year, Kunos Simulazioni confirmed work was being done to bring “the best circuit in the world”, Brands Hatch, to Assetto Corsa. Kunos have confirmed that Brands Hatch will be coming to the game alongside seven new rides in Dream Pack 3 due on December 15th.

When we first learned that developer Kunos Simulazioni would be bringing the highly-praised PC simulator Assetto Corsa to consoles in 2016 the very first question many expressed was “Are the physics going to be affected?”. That question was soon answered by Marco Massarutto, Licensing Project Manager at Kunos Simulazioni, exclaiming that the games physics would be given first priority and that the game had the same feelings, dynamism and force feedback of the PC version.

Here we are in December, days away from the two year anniversary of GT6, for the eighth iteration of GTPlanet’s Track Of The Week. It’s another real-world replica this week, as we travel to Portugal’s Algarve International Circuit (commonly referred to as simply Portimao).

Hidden among the 918 MB update earlier this week (that covered the inclusion of the Mobil 1 Car Pack, as well as numerous fixes to the game), Turn 10 has quietly snuck a Nissan Silvia into Forza Motorsport 6. Not the oft-requested S14 generation though: this is the first generation of the venerable nameplate, a model that only saw 554 units produced, all hand-built.

Update 1.25 is now available to download for Driveclub. Weighing in at 400MB the update introduces the Mercedes-AMG S 65 Coupé and the KTM 1290 Super Duke R as new accolade rewards, a new easy difficulty setting for all tour events, new options for private lobbies, and more based on the continuous feedback from the community.

A new batch of seasonal events are now available in Gran Turismo 6 showcasing this week’s super lap and drift trial challenges. The events feature classic European cars representative of the ‘golden age’ of motoring, race cars, 4WD non-race cars, and Japanese racing machines proving their worth.

Interestingly enough, forum member @Whistlesnap has found evidence of two cars being added to the game: the 2020 Vision Gran Turismo, and Toyota’s tiny S-FR. Both of these were on display at the Tokyo Motor Show back in October, and the S-FR was even playable in a special build of Gran Turismo 6.