GTPlanet Weekly Rewind

With so many great options for us to choose from I sometimes wonder how we haven’t gone mad, and by that I mean we have Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, the upcoming Assetto Corsa, iRacing, Raceroom Racing Experience (R3E), rFactor 2, Project CARS, and Codemasters’ F1 series of racing games. With so many options to choose from there’s literally something for everyone and it’s because of this wealth of choice that the gaming scene for racing simulators isn’t as much of an empty void as some would believe.

Coming off the high of last week’s Jalopnik Film Festival is no easy feat and I was aware of this challenge the entirety of last week, but the problem now is whether or not I actually want to come off of such a high, and the answer is relatively simple. No.

What an amazing week this has been. Not only has there been a steady influx of news regarding GT6 and things related to GT6 (with more coming!), but there was also the event of the week, the coveted special as it were; of course I’m referring to the Jalopnik Film Festival.

Gran Turismo 6 has yet to make it’s way into our homes and there’s already talk of it’s successor, Gran Turismo 7. It would appear, at least at the moment, that the simplified system architecture used in the PlayStation 4 will allow Polyphony Digital, as well as any other developer, to drastically shorten the amount of development time required; more to the point, it will allow PD to return to their usual release schedule which ranged anywhere from 2-4 years.

It’s been much quieter this week thanks in part to the Tokyo Game Show being right around the corner, however, while there hasn’t been any newsworthy tidbits regarding the upcoming Gran Turismo 6 as a game, there is the upcoming Jalopnik Film Festival, presented by Gran Turismo 6.

If this looks familiar you’re not just imagining things, Pagani’s Huayra is once again gracing the Weekly Rewind. However, the image you’re looking at isn’t from Gran Turismo 6 or any Gran Turismo title for that matter, no, what you’re looking at is a brilliant shoot done by one of our very own in Forza Motorsport 4.

Within that list you will undoubtedly notice cars such as the Pagani Huayra, Audi R18 TDi, and the BMW Z8 as newcomers to the series, however, also within this list are two gems: the Cizeta V16T, which is now a Premium model, and the return of the Mark 1 GT40 road car not seen since Gran Turismo 3, if memory serves me correctly.

Gran Turismo fans definitely had some unexpected news this week, with the announcement that a Gran Turismo movie is in the works. How the producers will develop a plot around Gran Turismo will be very interesting to see. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of interesting (and hilarious) ideas being shared in our forums!

Aside from the recent 2.14 update for Gran Turismo 5 and the GT Academy demo raking in over 1 million downloads, nothing of any real interest has happened this week, at least as far as I’m concerned. That could all change at the drop of a hat though so don’t bury your head in your pillow just yet. Who knows what’s going to happen this weekend. 

Gran Turismo 6 is steadily becoming a more attractive product as the days progress and with the recent reveal of the Goodwood Hillclimb making it’s debut in the upcoming game, that attraction has nearly doubled since the GT Academy demo was released last week.

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.

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.

It only happens once a year and it’s often likened to the Super Bowl, as in “the Super Bowl for gamers”. It can likened to any major event that only happens once a year that has massive appeal but at the end of the day all that matters is it’s E3!

We’re here, heading in to the final chicane leading onto the main straight — I’m referring to E3 of course. It all begins next week Monday if you weren’t aware and there’s so much I’m looking forward to, so much I’m looking to get a better hold of, and even a bit more clarity should it be provided.

It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday! You’ve gone several weeks, months even, ducking and weaving the inevitable – you’ve just been Rebecca Black’d.

For those of you still scratching your pretty little heads, there was no Weekly Rewind last week. How could there have been with all of the news coming in left, right and sideways regarding the GT6 reveal at last week’s 15th Anniversary Celebration at Silverstone? The Rewind would have been a tight squeeze in the midst of that onslaught of news.

I think it’s time to blow this scene. Get everybody and the stuff together. Okay, three, two, one – let’s jam! 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU for short, struck gold once again with the release of Iron Man 3. I won’t delve too much into details despite my utter excitement but it was a fantastic effort for the third entry in the series, and RDJ plays the role brilliantly yet again so there’s not going to be any surprises there, and if you’re a War Machine fan you’ll be pleased to know that Don Cheadle/James Rhodes has his fair share of screen time.

Snake Eater! Oh I can see I may have already confused some of you, sorry about that. This week’s title is a direct reference to the song “Snake Eater” from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. That worked out flawlessly, wouldn’t you say? I’ve been a fan of the series since an old acquaintance of mine introduced me to it a long time ago, yet Snake Eater remains as the only major console release I’ve yet to play for reasons I don’t quite understand to this very day. Alas, all of this will be rectified soon enough as I’ve been on quite the MGS binge as of late and yes that definitely includes Revengeance.

This has been an eventful week for me if I do say so myself: picked up a new keyboard (more on that later) and I’m on the cusp of upgrading, or should I say, overhauling my current PC rig. In what way you ask? Well that’s the quandary in itself because I don’t know what I’m going to upgrade, or when for that matter. I’ll be keeping my usual close eye on things as they develop over the next couple of weeks and judge from there when the time is indeed necessary. Although I will say that I’ve been eyeing the GeForce GTX 690 since it was launched last year, and with plans having fallen through to obtain one I’d almost regret not getting something I had my sights on for close to a year now.