The second round of GT Academy USA kicked off Monday, this time with two car/course combos: the Indianapolis Road Course in a GT-R V-Spec II Nür (R34) and a Toscana Tarmac circuit in the XANAVI NISMO Z Super GT race car.

If you’ve been following the online reviews and chatter surrounding Gran Turismo 5 you know how contentious most of it has been. Between the “fanboys”, the trolls, and the rest of us, it’s very difficult to actually see what most people really think about the game or how it could be improved. It’s even more difficult to pass along your feedback to Sony Computer Entertainment or Polyphony Digital, and – unless they ask you directly for your opinions- your thoughts may just get lost in the noise.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Sony has just announced the true successor to the PSP. Code-named the “NGP” (Next Generation Portable), it features some impressive hardware specs and the titles announced so far look great. Popular games such as Uncharted, Killzone, and Call of Duty were all confirmed to arrive on the NGP when it’s released at the end of this year, but one special franchise was nowhere to be found this time: Gran Turismo.

Ten years ago, GTPlanet first made its appearance on the web. Since that time, it’s grown to a scale far beyond what I could have ever imagined and, in the process, has made a profound influence on my life’s work and interests. Though the site remains a one-man show behind the scenes, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has played a role in the success of this community over the years.

A tiny delay this week, but here we are, Week 9 of the Photomode Competitions. Like always, I’m here to bring you a quick overview of what’s going on in this particular sub-forum of our community. Want to take part? This previous News article covered just about anything you could need, but the community is always available if you have more specific questions. So what’s in store this week? We’ve got a Head2Head theme involving two of the craziest British marques in PMC, a look back in time in 2.0, and… a new competition. Oh, and two prizes still to be won for those first two comps. Read on…

After more than a month of grinding away at Tsukuba, Rome Reverse, and Cape Ring, the top regional drivers in GT Academy USA have finally crossed the finish line – see here for all of the official results. I’d like to congratulate all GTPlanet readers and members who made the cut, and a special thanks to everyone using their GTP_ “tagged” PSN accounts which can be found throughout the leaderboards (nice work, GTP_potatochip for being the highest-placed tagged driver).

According to several users in our forums, Sony has started sending out surveys inviting participants to “Help Gran Turismo 5 Stay on Top of Its Game”. In addition to basic demographics, the questions are focused around your progress in the game, how much you’ve been playing it, and which in-game events you enjoy the most. The invitation email goes on to say “your opinions may change the way new games are created”.

It’s been a long time coming, but GT Academy finally arrived in the United States last month to, apparently, a very warm reception. According to the PlayStation Blog, over 50,000 players have registered since it kicked off just one month ago. Though registration is still open, if you need to act fast if you want in – Round 1 ends this Sunday, January 23rd, at noon EST.

Ahoy ahoy everyone! Approaching the two-month mark for the competitions, we’ve settled in as people are really starting to crack how to best get shots out of the game, and the rush to discover all GT5 has to offer means now we finally have more cars to shoot! This was all readily apparent last week as we had a record number of entries (and votes) in the competitions. Haven’t entered before? This previous News article should cover everything you need to know, and the knowledgeable community can answer any additional questions you have. We’ve got some interesting new themes this week that leave plenty of opportunity for creativity, and just like last week, I’ll be putting prizes up on offer for those who walk away with the most votes in the poll. So, what’s in store this week?

One of the more interesting and unusual GT5 features announced before release was “Remote Races” (also known as “Gran Turismo Anywhere”), enabling you to control your B-Spec races on your PS3 from your PC or mobile device. Obviously, this was missing from the game when it shipped last November, and its future has been uncertain – despite the fact that it remains listed (with this screenshot) on Polyphony Digital’s official GT5 feature list.

GT5 was off to a great start last month, selling over 5.5 million copies worldwide in just two weeks. Now, we’re able to catch a glimpse of the game’s performance in the United States thanks to fresh numbers from the NPD Group: 560,500 copies were sold in the U.S. throughout December.

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As you’ve probably heard by now, the PlayStation 3’s security has been completely cracked, allowing unfettered access to the console’s software, files, and games. Unsurprisingly, GT5 has been an active target for hackers taking advantage of the compromised system. Their first major accomplishment involves a way to easily duplicate game-saves between different PSN accounts (sorry, I won’t be providing any source links for information on how to do this).

Kazunori Yamauchi has been honored in UK Esquire magazine’s “Man at the Top 2010” awards for his work on GT5 and the GT series. Esquire recognized ten men who “rewrote the future through their works in the past year”, placing Yamauchi alongside some big names, including actor Russell Crowe, “Inception” director Christopher Nolan, Twitter CEO Evan Willams,  Tour de France star Mark Cavendish, and others.

Hello everyone, Slip here again for this week’s coverage on our forum’s Photomode Competitions. If you missed last week’s entry, click here to catch up, and get the low-down on what exactly happens each week with the competitions. A quick refresher – post an image (no bigger than 500 pixels on the largest side on the forum, but linked to a bigger image for full-size viewing) following this week’s theme, in whichever competition you choose (or both!), and compete against others for in-game prizes! This week the prizes are in the shape of Peugeot’s torquey Le Mans prototypes, or for runners-up, those paint chips that take 30-car intervals in your garage to win, like Matte Light Green or the elusive Chrome. Now, let’s jump to this week’s open themes, and details on those prizes…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mi_xKz3WLw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pmGJNejl-M

Photomode image courtesy of Animera.

The new “official” GT5 steering wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS, releases this Wednesday, and InsideSimRacing got their hands on an early unit to provide us with some much-needed details and first impressions.

Hello everyone! For those unfamiliar, I’m Slip, and I’ll be posting weekly updates here on the main page about one of our forum’s more exciting community events: Photomode Competitions!