Gran Turismo 5 Staying Up North For Christmas. Another Delay Rumored To be in the Works.

Fans of the seemingly vapor-ware Gran Tursimo 5 will want to take a seat if they’re envisioning a holiday full of GT5 racing. It appears that GT5 may not make it in time for the end of year celebrations. Shocking, I know…

Thank you god: Nascar 2011 coming from Activision. Franchise says good-bye to EA.

Now I’ll preface this article by saying that back in the day (read: early 2000′s), I loved racing games, especially those produced by Sierra/Papyrus. Back then, the “Nascar Racing” series was a pretty fun series of games in that it was more of a real sim racer instead of your standard arcade style game. And then Sierra/Papyrus went through a purchase or two and eventually closed up shop, after which, EA picked up the rights to Nascar. That was the end of Nascar racing games as we know it. EA moved from a more involved, sim-style game to a more “everyone-can-play” arcade-style. It was ok — for one game. Each subsequent release felt less and less exciting. But there’s hope. Eutechnyx (Test Drive Le Mans, Big Mutha Truckers and SuperCar Challenge) and Activision are now in charge…–>

Dynamic weather in Gran Turismo 5 makes my eyes ooze gobs of joy…

If you follow Gadgetsteria on a rather consistent basis, you’ll know I have a thing for racing games — Forza and Gran Turismo in particular. Since Forza 2 came onto the scene, I’ve largely ignored Gran Turismo (any version) mainly due to the damage modeling and more precise physics in Forza. There’s something about GT’s 200mph wall bouncing that just isn’t very…real. However, GT 5 is changing all of that. The damage modeling that we’ve seen so far looks kind of cheap and pretty unrealistic. The physics, however, are leaps and bounds better than even GT 4. But there’s something even better that should make GT5 the kind of racing sims at least for a few months — dynamic weather.

It’s not a new development and has actually been demoed several times before. However, the video waiting for you just after the break is a a thing of beauty. Not only does it feel real, it looks like it will add a completely new set of challenges. Grab the popcorn and jump on in…

Ferrari Espresso Machine oozes extravagance. If only it were real…

If there’s one thing Ferrari owners generally have copious amounts of, it’s money. Lots of it. So much so, they’re willing to spend ridiculously overpriced amounts for anything with a Ferrari logo on it. I can’t judge though. I’d probably have a similar bit of loyalty myself if I was giving a particular company hundreds of thousands of dollars too. Nevertheless, I’m sure plenty of Ferrari owners have dreamt of a morning in which they could wake up to a fresh cup of espresso from their uber special, limited edition Michael Schumacher Ferrari Helmet Espresso machine.

Concept for now. But all it takes is one aspiring entrepreneur and outrageous licensing fees for this simple concept to become reality. Any taker?

Gran Turismo 5 lobbies ball back into Forza’s court. What’s your call?

If you’re a SIM racing nut, there’s really only two legitimate options that every get mentioned: Gran Turismo and Forza. Both have their own unique feel and approach to the racing SIM ideology and are literally separated by an unsurpassed divide (Forza being Xbox only and Gran Turismo PS3 only).

Back when Gran Turismo 3 (and even 4) were brand new, all of the spit polish and eye candy couldn’t help me get past the fact that smashing into a barrier at 200+mph did absolutely nothing to the car. That’s a problem. Hence the reason Forza began to win me over. And then, talk of Gran Turismo 5 and it’s long sought after damage modeling pulled me back into a conundrum of not knowing exactly who’s “best”.

So where do we stand?

Gran Turismo 5 get’s another release date target: October 2010.

Is this a repeat from 2009…2008…2007…etc? I sure hope not because I have been waiting (and…waiting) for Gran Turismo 5 to grace my ocular cavities. By far one of the most visually impressive games for the PS3 even considering the fact that it’s 4 years late is nothing short of amazing. Even still, I find myself questioning more and more each day just how much the PS3 gaming population still cares about GT5. I know I’ve lost a tad bit of interest — being teased with release dates year after year only to see nothing come of it.

This news is all compliments of Pocket-Lint who says they’ve confirmed the October 2010 release. This could be the real deal folks. We won’t know for sure though until Sony takes the stage at E3 later on down the road. I’m hoping they bring plenty of visuals and hands on time at E3 because not many things in the gadget/technology/gaming world survive very well with such long delays affixed to their original release date.

My personal wish: I hope they got proper damage modeling finally implemented in the game. You can have all the high flying visuals you want, but if you can run along a harpin turn at 200mph, bumping along the wall the entire way with no ill effects, you’ve just lost me right there. That was acceptable in GT1-4 because it really was the best of the best that was out there. Now in 2010 however, the bars have been raised. Can GT5 still pull it off?

Excited?

Pocket-Lint

Racing Sim geeks, this is what you need…[Mod]

Back in the day of video game benchmarks and goals being measured in “bits”, a true racing sim involved at most a monstrous TV, racing sim of choice, and a comfy chair. Thankfully we’ve made some decent progress since those days. Today’s racing sim geek generally has multiple monitors, racing “seat” that is actually a cage more or less, replicating the interior of a real car, and of course steering wheel and pedals. But even then, those are all fake parts made to mimic a real car. What if you want the actual real deal?

…then you go and rip the gauge cluster out of your car of choice like Alex Rosiu did above. Using the gauge cluster from a 1992 BMW 325i, an Arduino for controlling the mechanical motion side of things, and a PC app written in C# to make it all sing in harmony.

Racing sims are one of my favorite genres so I’m definitely impressed. Being that this particular mod by Alex is but one part in his DIY Racing Hardware Sim, I may just have to get crafty and finally put together this vision of racing awesomeness in my head that just won’t go away. Anyone else intrigued?

Video

Slashgear

The 80mph Mario T-shirt.

All of those days speedin’ by Peach and Bowser in your cute little Mario Kart without so much as a single ticket were moments of luck. Don’t let yourself end up like the t-shirt above — out of shells, no star power, and now in debt….

• Purchase the “80 mph Mario Shirt” from Anti-Clothes

TheAwesomer