EuroGamer’s Digital Foundry closely examines the graphics in today’s video games, offering highly technical analyses of all the 3D imaging techniques which developers use to build the software we play. They’ve carefully documented the performance of GT5 Prologue, the GT5 Time Trial (which hosted GT Academy 2010), and GT5 itself.

Racing by the sand dunes of Zandvoort in Holland, the No.35 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 of Lucas Ordonez and Alex Buncombe took second place in class in this afternoon’s main race, bringing the tally of podiums in Nissan’s last three GT3 races to three out of three.

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.

Since the Gran Turismo 6 demo was released with GT Academy 2013 last Tuesday, videos comparing the new game with its predecessor, GT5, have flooded YouTube. Here’s a few which have made their way to our forums.

While some of you may no doubt be attached to the recently released 2013 GT Academy demo powered by Gran Turismo 6, it’s worth noting that GT5 is still running strong with weekly updates to keep you interested, and this week is no different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjqmvGpoFcc

On the eve of the highly anticipated Gran Turismo 6 demo and the start of GT Academy 2013, 2012 champion Steven Doherty offers some advice and behind-the-scenes insight into what it’s like to win the competition in an exclusive interview with GTPlanet.

Not to be outdone by the exploits of Jann Mardenborough and Lucas Ordoñez at Le Mans last week, the newest Nismo Athletes scored some more track success of their own in the Blancpain Endurance Series round from Paul Ricard.

GT Academy expanded to the Middle East late last year, with a special round of the competition that started last December.

The Nismo Athletes on board the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan had nothing to be ashamed about. Completing a 24 hour race in a 4th place class finish after a night long battle for the podium with a first timer on board – and doing the lion’s share of the driving too – is well worth a round of applause. But this morning they find themselves with an unexpected trophy.

After a short hiatus the Rewind has returned in all its splendor and things have calmed down over the last two weeks or so, only to pick right back up with the events concerning the Xbox One and Microsoft’s steadfast DRM policies, all of which are no longer going to be implemented. What does this mean you ask; the same kind of freedom you currently have with the Xbox 360 are the same freedoms you’ll be able to enjoy with the upcoming One. This means no used games policies, no trading policies, no always online connection. All of it, gone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qowsKKGjHYY

The latest Seasonal Events take are now available in Gran Turismo 5, and the premise of these events take on a more methodical approach than previous events. There are no tuning restrictions across any of this week’s events but tires are restricted accordingly.

Many Kazunori Yamauchi interviews emerged from E3 2013 earlier this month, most of which covered or re-iterated points and announcements made during the Gran Turismo 6 reveal at Silverstone back in May.

Details on GT Academy 2013 have finally been released.

Sony has announced the new pre-order incentives for Gran Turismo 6 in the United States (see Europe’s similar offerings detailed here), along with the first details on the special “Gran Turismo 6 15th Anniversary Edition”.

Le Mans 2013 got off to a tragic start, as Aston Martin Racing driver Allan Simonsen was killed in an accident on the Tetre Rouge corner shortly after the start of the race. The thoughts and prayers of the GTPlanet community are with his family as we all mourn the loss of a very talented racing driver.

2013 marks a unique milestone in GT Academy. It’s the third successive year that gamers have taken to the track at the Le Mans 24 Hours, but this time they’re working together.

In addition to GTPlanet’s exclusive interview with Kazunori Yamauchi, where we discussed Gran Turismo 6 engine sounds and artificial intelligence, I also had the opportunity to attend a round-table discussion with him and a group of other journalists.