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Bugatti Veyron finds its way into Forza Motorsport 3

The Bugatti Veyron is largely accepted as one of the fastest production cars available on the market today with an astonishing 1000 horsepower and top speed of over 250 MPH. With those specs, I bet you would love to drive one, right?

Well, unless you want to fork over $1.4 million you’re just going to have to settle with driving it in Forza Motorsport 3 as it was just announced that the car will be making an appearance in the title.

Included above is a video detailing the meticulous work that went into perfectly replicating the vehicle for Forza 3 and I must say, the results are stunning. However, for now, you’ll have to sit tight for your chance to drive the Veyron as Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport 3 doesn’t hit store shelves for the Xbox 360 until October 27th, 2009.

First official Gran Turismo 5 screenshots released

If you thought you’ve seen previously seen screenshots of Gran Turismo 5, you’d be wrong, as they were screenshots of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Lucky for you, Polyphony Digital has released what they are calling the first official screenshots of the actual game which we’ve included in the blow gallery.

As you might have expected, they look like screenshots of Prologue but they aren’t, they are of Gran Turismo 5, get it right.

Gran Turismo 5 getting simultaneous worldwide release?

Gran Turimso 5 has been in development seemingly forever but that’s to be expected considering the amount of effort Polyphony Digital is putting into it. While we have yet to see a solid release date, one could only expect that the game hit North American shelves sometime after it dropped in Japan.

Thankfully, Polyphony Digital’s Kazunori Yamauchi recently sat down for an interview to speak of the issue where he was quoted to have said, “its release is not too far away – it will be after the PSP GT release – and, most likely, it will be a simultaneous worldwide release.”

Most likely, huh? That doesn’t sound too promising but it can at least be assumed GT5 will be released in Japan and North America very close to one another.

via kotaku

Need for Speed: Shift teaser “The Driver’s Experience”

A new teaser trailer for EA’s upcoming Need for Speed: Shift has surfaced, featuring the Formula D and D1 Grand Prix racer Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Need for Speed: Shift will be out in stores September 17th in Europe, the 18th in the United Kingdom, and the 22nd in North America. Check out the track list and car roster listed back in May here.

Keep an eye out for our review of the game soon.

Forza Motorsport 3 dated

Publisher Microsoft announced today that Forza Motorsport 3 will be released in North America on October 27th. Turn 10 Studios’ racer includes more than 400 cars and over 100 tracks in its standard retail package.

As for the Limited Collector’s Edition, which retails for $79.99 exclusively at GameStop, more vehicles and perks are included, along with a 2GB USB thumb drive.

Forza Motorsport 3 will, of course, be released on the Xbox 360. Be sure to check out the trailer of the game, which took about a month to make.

Need for Speed Nitro dated for Nov. 17th

Back in May we were given a first glimpse of EA’s Nintendo Wii/DS title, Need for Speed Nitro however, at that point we weren’t sure when we would see it hit the market.

Well, EA was today informed us that the game will be hitting store shelves on November 17th for the abovementioned consoles. According to the press release this game will offer “fun and intense competition for every type of gamer”.

With Need for Speed’s tarnished past perhaps the impending releases of Need for Speed Nitro, Shift and the Criterion developed title will help bring the franchise back to greatness.

via Joystiq

ModNation Racers debut trailer

Kart racing never gets old; they’re always a fun pick-me-up that you can play with with your friends or with yourself. At this year’s E3, Sony showed off their entry into the genre with ModNation Racers, with their own little mix.

Developed by United Front Games, ModNation is mostly a user-generated content game, allowing players to create and share their own tracks and characters. The trailer shows off some of the ways you can customize your character and use the level designer to create unique maps for you to share with the world.

ModNation Racers will be out sometime next year on the PlayStation 3.

GRID 50% off on Steam for the weekend

In case you’re itching for a bargain, Steam is offering Race Driver: GRID for a nice 50% off its regular price, bringing the total down to a nice $14.99.

A sequel for GRID will also be coming out this September, so if you want to take a look at the series before you buy it for the full retail price, this is probably a good idea.

Personally, I have played the game and found it to be one of the better racing experiences of this generation. You can grab the download over at the Steam Store, however, the offer will only be available for the weekend.

Race Pro Game Review–Like Driving A Brick Through Wet Cement

Yes, it’s yet another in a long, long, LONG series of racing games currently available for the Xbox 360.  This time, we’re talking about Race Pro, a game that breathlessly promises to be “the ultimate racing simulation experience”, and I’m sure that is the case on planets where no one has discovered driving, video games, the internal combustion engine or the wheel.

That’s the thrust of the review today, folks–this IS in fact the ultimate racing simulation experience if you’ve either never actually had a racing simulation experience before or you’ve never actually driven anything before.

Basically, the plot of the game, such as it is, is exactly that. You’re going to drive cars.  No, this doesn’t exactly have the same literary quality of Ridge Racer’s young up-and-comer looking to burn his way through the ranks of the professional driving circuit, or the various underground racers where you’re out to gather pinks and impress hot chicks who like to wave flags half-naked for little or no conceivable reason.  You’re just here to go fast and turn left, except for when, on occasion, you will be called upon to turn RIGHT.

You may be asking yourself at this point, hey, if that’s all I’m supposed to do, then why even bother?  I mean, if I wanted to be stuck in traffic for twenty minutes while I tried to drive a car down a twisty, windy track, then why don’t I just jump in my car and actually, you know, go somewhere?  At least then everybody on the Internet’ll stop calling me a basement dweller because I haven’t left the house in months.

Sadly, I don’t have much of an answer for that.  Oh, sure, with Race Pro you’ll get to try out various different kinds of cars, on various different types of tracks, with various different types of options.  I give Race Pro due credit for having an almost OBSCENE number of options–not only can you tweak the difficulty, you can also tweak subclasses of the difficulty as well.  For instance, if you’re racing on hard mode and find the AI’s just a little TOO aggressive with the competing drivers, you can actually dial down the racers’ AI difficulty level.  It’s an absolutely customizable racing experience.

Absolutely customizable, yes…but worthwhile?  That’s where I’m going to have to say no.  I had SERIOUS problems with the controls on this one–even something that should be video-game simple, the drift maneuver, I couldn’t manage to pull off.  In fact, driving the Mini Cooper in the first level felt exactly like the headline described, like driving a brick through wet cement.  I remember trying to pull off a turn, so naturally, I decelerate so I can jam on the gas after I’ve started to pitch my nose a bit.  The car promptly decides that it prefers going straight, and thusly goes COMPLETELY OFF THE TRACK and into the dirt.  The game then warns me that I’m “cutting track”, to which I respond with a torrent of obscenities detailing the fact that, one, I already KNOW I’m off the track and, two, that I wouldn’t have been if the game had done what it was told to do in the first place.

This is, of course, profoundly irritating, but there’s probably a workaround if you’re desperate enough for a new racing game to try.  I personally say that there are better racing games out there–vastly better, in fact–but if you want a driving sim that’ll give you a huge fight, then Race Pro is the game you want.

DIRT 2 for PC delayed to implement DX 11

Usually delays are pretty bad and frowned upon by the fans, especially if other platforms sees the release on time. However, rally fans might be interested and appreciate the wait for DIRT 2, which is delayed until December. The delay will be spent on implementing new Direct X 11 technology in the game, which will make it look a lot better and play smoother (at least that’s what DX11 is supposed to do).

Mario Kart Wii Game Review–Time For Hyperbole

I’m generally not given to hyperbole, especially in the headlines of pieces I write, but there’s just no other way to put this.  Mario Kart Wii, for the Wii, may well be the best racing game I’ve played yet.

There really isn’t much of a plot here to speak of, but basically, you play as one of the various characters from the Nintendo universe, from King Boo to Wario to Diddy Kong and all the way back around to the standards.  You’ll then mount a go kart, or a motorcycle, at three varying levels of engine power and proceed to run amok on a series of wild tracks.

That may be it for the plot–and yes, by any standard this game has virtually no functioning narrative to speak of–but that’s not it for the game itself.  The game itself, you see, is a riot of fun things to do as you drive your go kart or motorcycle on a panoply of tracks with all sorts of different designs.

There’s a whole lot of fun involved in driving through a shopping mall (the Coconut Center) at breakneck speeds, whether you’re doing it on a go kart, or the admittedly much more fun motorcycle.  Seriously–who here hasn’t pictured the sheer amount of mindless fun involved in riding a dirt bike through a mall?  Bouncing up stairs and escalators, jumping fountains, tearing around columns in a beautiful slalom?  It’s fun on a bun, that’s what it is, plain and simple.  Though I have to admit, my time spent driving on the Rainbow Road left a lot to be desired.  Just try driving on a track several hundred miles above the Earth’s surface with no rails or anything else to keep you on the track and a whole bunch of lunatic drivers looking to get ahead of you?  I still get chills.

The controls are what make this really special.  If you don’t want to shell out for the Wii wheel, which is pretty ridiculous when you look at it, then you can simply hold your Wiimote like a steering wheel at nine and three and steer that way.  The controls are almost shockingly smooth and responsive, if a little twitchy at the higher engine levels, and do a pretty solid job of approximating actual steering.

Even better, there are tons of characters and karts and bikes and tracks and everything else that you can think of available to unlock, so there’s lots of value in charging around all the various tracks in single player mode.  For the completionists in the audience this will be an absolute nirvana.  There are those who’ll be turned off by the fact that the unlockables are only available in single player mode as opposed to any of them being found in the multiplayer modes, but this is a fairly small issue when compared to the sheer amount of stuff to do here.

It’s great to find a Wii game that has plenty to it and doesn’t result in a sore arm or a general feeling of disappointment, and Mario Kart Wii is just that game.  Single player or multiplayer, you’re sure to have a good time with this one if you even vaguely enjoy a good racing game.

DiRT 2 acknowledges the late-and-great Colin McRae

Racing fans everywhere mourned the death of the great Colin McRae after his unfortunate helicopter accident back in 2007. Furthermore it left fans of the popular DiRT series wondering if the franchise would push on.

Well, despite the tragic death, 2008 rolled around and DiRT 2 was announced still sporting the Colin McRae branding. The game’s title isn’t the only appearance Colin McRae will be making as according to MTV Multiplayer, there will be some other subtle and not-so-subtle acknoledgements in his memory.

Apparantly, a large chunk of the game will have players working to qualify for a Colin McRae Memorial Cup. Additionally, Codemaster’s Mark Turosz was quoted to have said “You’ll hear other drivers talking about him. He’s the central figure in the narrative.”

Colin McRae: DiRT 2 is set to hit shelves for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in September of this year.

Forza 3 getting Limited Edition

Limited Edition games are nothing new, especially when it comes to highly anticipated ones, like Forza Motorsport 3.

Microsoft has revealed that a Limited Edition Forza 3 will be released, which will include the game, a 2 GB Forza 3 branded USB key chain, several exclusive in-game cars, a dashboard theme and a “VIP Membership” to the Forza 3 online community. The Limited Edition will be priced at a hefty $80, $20 more than the standard edition when it comes out this September.

E3 Award nominees announced

The gaming press has voted and the list of nominees for best of E3 2009 has been released. Full list after the jump.

Best Of Show:
Brütal Legend (Double Fine Productions/EAP for PS3, Xbox 360)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare/Electronic Arts for Xbox 360, PC)
Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward/Activision for PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft for Xbox 360)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog/SCEA for PS3)

Best Original Game
Alan Wake (Remedy/MGS for Xbox 360)
Bayonetta (Platinum Games/Sega for PS3, Xbox 360)
Brütal Legend (Double Fine Productions/EAP for PS3, Xbox 360)
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream/SCEE for PS3)
Scribblenauts (5TH Cell/WBIE for Nintendo DS)

Best Console Game:
Brütal Legend (Double Fine Productions/EAP for PS3, Xbox 360)
God of War 3 (Sony Santa Monica/SCEA for PS3)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare/Electronic Arts for Xbox 360)
Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward/Activision for PS3, Xbox 360)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog/SCEA for PS3)
More »

Forza 3 confirmed to include Le Mans

It seems that Forza 3 still has some surprises up its sleeves, despite over a hundred tracks and 400 cars shipping on 2 DVDs, Microsoft has confirmed that Forza 3 will also include the popular and prestigious Le Mans race track, including the 24 hour multi-class racing mode.

Things are certainly looking interesting for Xbox 360 petrol heads. Forza 3 drops this September.