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New GT5 Seasonal Event Features French Cars, La Sarthe

To help get you in the spirit for next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, Polyphony Digital has just pushed out a new Seasonal Event in Gran Turismo 5 with a focus on everything French. The championship runs across five different circuits and, of course, must be driven in a French car with 500PP or less:

The Landscapes & Architecture of Gran Turismo 5

While the cars are usually the stars in Gran Turismo 5 (and rightfully so), some of GTPlanet’s users have turned their cameras away from the track to get a closer look at the exquisite detail found in many of the buildings and landscapes in the game. Here’s a few of my favorite images that highlight so many little details that often go unnoticed (don’t miss Polyphony Digital’s photographers in this shot). If you get inspired, head on over to our GT5 Photomode forums and share your own!

The Netherlands’ GT Academy 2011 Regional Finals

Sony has released a batch of pictures from last week’s GT Academy 2011 Netherlands region finals, where 24-year-old Thomas Arends (Thomms) from The Hague and 20-year-old Edwin Bos (GTHQ_BosjesmanEB) from Groningen came out on top after completing a series of physical, media, and driving tests (just as finalists did in the UK & Ireland).

GT5’s New “Muscle Car” Seasonal Event & Updated Online Car Dealership Now Available

As PlayStation Network services are coming back online, many of you will notice that you now finally have access to the new “Muscle Car” Seasonal Event races in Gran Turismo 5. It was actually launched shortly before PSN went down last month, though few people got to see it. Here’s a look at the races, available to pre-1980 American cars with no more than 550PP and any kind of tires:

PlayStation Network Service Restoration Begins Now

It looks like the long wait is nearly over – Sony will begin restoring PlayStation Network services around the world over the next 24 hours. A new PS3 firmware update is already available and will be required to connect to the network when it finally does come back online in your location (SCEA is maintaing a service map for U.S. users here). Everyone will, of course, be prompted to change their PSN passwords upon signing in. Watch the video above from Sony president Kazuo Hirai for more information.

GTPlanet Forums Reach Over 5 Million Posted Messages

After celebrating 10 years online in January, I am excited to announce that GTPlanet has already hit another milestone, with over 5 million messages having now been posted in our forums. Since the release of GT5 in November of last year, the community has grown by nearly 1.1 million posts, with an average of more than 6,300 new posts per day. 7-year member and Super Moderator, TB, takes the honor of making the 5 millionth post, with this very appropriate celebratory message.

GTPlanet Members Win UK & Ireland GT Academy 2011 Regional Finals

Regional finals for GT Academy 2011 are taking place around Europe, and the official results from the UK & Ireland event are in with two GTPlanet members earning tickets to Silverstone! 19-year-old Jann Mardenborough (TECHNIKRS4) from Cardiff and 29-year-old wild-card winner James Hudson (TwinturboCH) from Bromley came out on top after a challenging event. Not only did the finalists have to compete against each other, they also had to prove themselves in a series of media, driving, and physical fitness tests at Brands Hatch.

Lucas Ordoñez & Team Lead LMP2 Class after Spa 1000km

GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez and his Signatech Nissan team competed in the Spa Francorchamps 1000km on Saturday, in front of a massive crowd of over 35,000 people. Starting from third-place qualifying position in the LMP2 class, Signatech took the class lead in the first corner of the race. All went well until contact with a GT car required work in the pits that put them 4 laps down, then a steering problem later in the race required even more unexpected repairs.

Sony Offers Another PlayStation Network Service Update: It’s Still Down

As you’ve probably noticed, it’s been nearly seven days now since Sony last offered up a “this week” time frame for the restoration of PlayStation Network services. While there’s still no real end to the downtime in sight, Sony has at least acknowledged they’re probably going to miss that soft deadline with their latest blog post:

PSN Gaming Services to Return “This Week”

Sony held a press conference in Tokyo today to provide more details about the PlayStation Network outage and their plans moving forward. There’s a lot of information of in the press release below, but the best news – for those of you eager to back online with GT5, at least – is they expect online gaming services to return “this week”.

PlayStation Network User Information Compromised, Service Remains Offline

Yikes – the ongoing PlayStation Network outage that started last week has gone from bad to worse. Sony has announced that private information associated with PSN accounts may have been exposed to attackers who gained access to the PlayStation Network. The company has posted an official announcement with more information and compiled a list of frequently asked questions about what happened and what you can do to protect yourself (they’ve also added this page with a bit more information, thanks BTK!).

The World’s Largest Gran Turismo Collection

You think you know a lot about the Gran Turismo series? This jaw-dropping collection of GT games and memorabilia collected by GTPlanet’s own edward_v12 will educate even the most hard-core fans.

Caterham Brings Gran Turismo 5’s Tokyo Circuit to Life

Before you ask in the comments below, no – the PlayStation Network isn’t back up yet (not as of writing, at least). While you wait, check out this slick video tour of Gran Turismo 5’s real-world Tokyo R246 circuit, put together by Caterham Japan to feature their Superlight R300. For comparison, here’s a lap of the track in GT5:

GT5’s Online Features Remain Crippled by PSN Outage

What started as downtime in the PlayStation Network last Thursday has gradually snowballed into a very serious problem for gamers. The inability to connect to PSN has rendered Gran Turismo 5’s online features and races useless, with angst is growing in our forums and around the world.

90,000+ Players Compete in GT Academy 2011 Time Trials

The GT Academy EU 2011 Round 1 time trials just wrapped up earlier this week, and SCEE has released some official stats about this year’s contest. More than 90,000 players from each of the 10 eligible countries took part in the competition (as you may recall, the first U.S. competition brought in 50,000), but only the top 20 drivers from each region will be moving on to their respective, head-to-head racing finals.

Kazunori Wanted “Another 2 Years” for GT5 Development

This interview conducted with Kazunori Yamauchi shortly after the release of Gran Turismo 5 has been flying under the radar since it was published back in February. It was just recently brought to my attention and, though there’s obviously no bombshells, it provides a few interesting details worth highlighting here:

GT Academy Winner Jordan Tresson Competes in 2011 Blancpain Endurance Series

There’s been a lot of attention (and rightfully so!) around winner of the first GT Academy, Lucas Ordonez, after it was announced he’d be competing in the 2011 ILMC this year. However, last year’s GT Academy winner, Jordan Tresson, is also steadily making his way up the racing ladder, running in this year’s Blancpain Endurance Series – a European championship which includes the challenging 24 Hours of Spa.

GTPlanet User Takes First Spot in GT Academy UK Finals

Winner of the first GT Academy “Wild Card” was just announced last week, and I’m very happy to report the award goes to GTPlanet’s own James Hudson. Hudson, who goes by TwinturboCH here in our forums, has now become the very first confirmed national finalist in all of Europe. The second UK “Wild Card”, of course, is still up for grabs in the GT5 time trials currently underway at GAME retailers around the country.

25 New Track Logos Discovered on Gran Turismo 5 Website [UPDATES]

While poking around the Remote Racing section of the official GT5 “My Home” website, GTPlanet user Yonis made an interesting discovery: the site has been loaded with 24 logos for tracks which aren’t currently playable in the game. Here’s how he did it (hint: the images are publicly available on Polyphony Digital’s web servers if you can decipher their file names), and here’s what he found: