However, according to a recent article by Kevin Schram over on the nexus404.com website (via Joystiq), Kazunori Yamauchi – the CEO of Polyphony Digital – has just revealed that gamers will soon have the ability to save the GT5 game during those all important endurance races.

The announcement came about after a Twitter user complained to Yamauchi that they just didn’t have the time to complete Gran Turismo 5’s lengthy endurance races. Kazunori replied by stating that in-race game saves are currently in development.

The upcoming feature is one that has been requested the most by fans of the Gran Turismo franchise. The Forza racing games (Microsoft’s equivalent to the GT titles) also feature endurance races, but these are considerably shorter at about 2-3 hours long.

As you can imagine there are a few people that have already complained about the upcoming feature, stating that allowing players to save the game in the middle of a 24-hour endurance race just defeats the object of the long lengths of the said races.

Are you happy that you will now be able to save the game during endurance races?

More About: Gran Turismo 5, Polyphony Digital

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Many are questioning whether the units moved are units sold or shipped. But the most controversial conclusion being drawn is that the U.S hates GT5.

An article at The PlayStation Show presents this argument. They report that 24% of the units in question were sold in the U.S, that’s 1.5 million copies which compared to Europe’s 49%, 3.9 million copies, is significantly lower. They compared the results to Forza 3 sales when that game first released and found that the U.S made up 57% of units sold.

From this they concluded that the U.S hates the GT franchise and it wasn’t just the racing genre in general. PS3Center disagree however, saying that both the figures represent ‘lifetime sales’ which means Forza 3’s sales are for a total over 16 months compared to GT5 which has only been on sale for 6 weeks. They then compared the first six weeks of Forza 3 sales to GT5’s, finding that it only sold 613,000 copies and concluded from this that the U.S clearly doesn’t het Gran Turismo 5.

What do you think of GT5? Is it hated or loved? Let us know your thoughts.

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The update was originally announced last year at a Tokyo Game Show. Now GT5’s long-anticipated 1.06 update is here. The game has had several updates already but now according to the Sixthaxis, the game is what it should be.

One of the major changes to the game is Remote Racing. With Gran Turismo Anywhere, as it was previously called you can now control B-Spec races remotely over the internet by logging in to the GT website from your mobile device or PC.

Although you won’t be able to actually drive remotely, you will be able to spectate and issue prompts to your drivers allowing them to level up over time. Joystiq say this is a good way to earn money for other cars.

Some of the other major changes featured in the update are Performance Points online, Multi-Monitor feature, additional car settings, car Loan during events, event rewards and experience adjustments online and GT mode. A full list and details of the update can be found at the Sixthaxis.

What do you make of these changes? Let us know what you thought of the update.

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Being able to change different aspects of a vehicle is always considered the holy grail of racing sims, imagine having any car and then having the ability to change the engine and transmission? GTPlantet points out that this is not a new thing, as it has been done on previous version of the GT series.

GTPlantet has made a very good point about having hybriding on GT5, it did not matter on previous versions of the game, but having a high powered engine in a small car will not be unfair while playing online against other players. How you would feel if you had a Veyron, only to be beat by a small little Honda?

Where do you stand on the subject on hybriding? Would you be upset if you had worked hard to get yourself an expensive supercar, only to be creamed round a race track by a small hatchback that has a 1500BHP engine in?

More About: Gran Turismo 5, GT5, Polyphony Digital

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As recently reported by Brian Ashcraft over at kotaku.com, Gran Turismo 5 designer Kazunori Yamauchi spoke to Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently, and said that there are plans to increase the current number of premium cars through updates in the future.

Although Yamauchi revealed the plans, he unfortunately didn’t specify as to how many cars will be receiving the premium update. Premium vehicles offer players more detailed modeling and working windshield wipers, as well as offering a cockpit view.

James Orry over at videogamer.com made a rather interesting point. He said that while fans may be pleased to hear that some of the cars are receiving a premium update, he can’t help but feel that players would rather see some new content arriving instead.

It’s hard to give my opinion on this as I’m not really a lover of racing games (give me a first-person shooter game any day) and although we don’t own a copy of the game, my husband and son both said that while it would be nice to see cars updated, new content is always good.

More About: Gran Turismo 5, Polyphony Digital, sony

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Vehicle damage is no doubt one of the biggest features in the game, and it’s a feature which received a lot of attention prior to the game’s release. Having seen it in game, are you satisfied with the way it works or are there some elements which you’re disappointed with?

If you haven’t seen it, we have a series of videos to show you now, videos which were uploaded on PlayStation Informer. The videos show some test drives in the game, attempting to show you how mechanical damage operates in the game.

The results are pretty impressive – nothing spectacular like Burnout, but enough damage on the vehicles to add that extra bit of realism to the game. Check out one of the videos below and let us know your thoughts on mechanical damage.

More About: Gran Turismo 5, GT5, Polyphony Digital

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According to a recent article by Garrett Hartman over at ripten.com, the new patch is 149MB and although we still don’t really know much more than we previously did, we can tell you that an option for mechanical damage has now been added to the online race settings.

Players will now be faced with three options when preparing to race online – None, Light and Heavy. If they choose the “None” option they won’t have any mechanical damage, while “Light” means slight mechanical damage that will be automatically repaired after a short period of time.

As for the “Heavy” option, this of course means severe mechanical damage that can only be repaired by making a quick pit stop. As reported by Jordan over at gtplanet.net, Gran Turismo 5’s online servers were offline for a short time last night, to allow for the update.

Are you happy with what’s involved in the latest GT5 patch? What mechanical damage option will you choose?

More About: Gran Turismo 5, Polyphony Digital, sony

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According to a recent article at eurogamer.net, hackers have revealed a button press code, which gives gamers access to a hidden “special” options menu within the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue title. The menu allows users to drive any car they like in the game.

Mathieu Hervais – the main man in the group behind the PSGroove – revealed the code via his Twitter account. All you have to do to access the menu is move to the miscellaneous section on the GT5 Prologue option screen and press/hold a sequence of buttons (seen here).

Most of the options in this menu are for configuring Gran Turismo 5 Prologue to set up certain events and cars for “Kiosk” use. If you turn “Kiosk” mode on and make one choice in the favorite cars section however, you are then able to choose and race your selected vehicle instantly.

You can read more about the special options menu and how to access it over at eurogamer.net. Are you still interested in playing Gran Turismo 5 Prologue?

More About: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Polyphony Digital, sony

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Reading the reviews is fine to get an idea of how good a game is, but come on – nothing beats seeing the true performances of a game Thankfully Kotaku thinks the same as us, and has provided a number of videos for you to study. So lets take a look.

The first video we have provided for you below is called ‘GT5 TGS 2010 Visual Effects’. Once you start playing the video you will know that it looks more closely at the dynamic weather system built into the game. Not certain if this is real life game play graphics though.

The next is ‘Karting Racing Video’, which has the caption “Mario Kart, this ain’t.” If you ever want to see how F1 drivers start their career, then this is it. This mode I like the idea of, as you get a true sense of speed being closer to the ground.

There has been a lot of talk about the damage on GT5, the ‘Gran Turismo 5 advanced damage’ video aims to show you just how great this feature is. This one has no sound, but it is just a visual aid. Read our recent post looking at how damage works.

The final video that we have for you below is a ‘Snow Race’, which you can see will not take long before you become snow-blind. I even struggle driving at 20mph in the snow, let alone up to 100mph.

There are more videos for you to see over at Kotaku. I know that seeing these videos makes me want to go and buy the game, but I have been told not to, as Christmas is coming up – people need to get me something.

More About: Gran Turismo 5, GT5, Polyphony Digital

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As reported from AndriaSang, the GT5 bossman has been responding to a few user questions on Twitter, and although it’s all in Japanese, AndriaSang states that details regarding an update for GT5 in December were mentioned.

Details are pretty scarse at the moment, but we’re hearing that the update will add some sort of ‘configuration option’ for mechanical damage, and the update will also add support for backing up saved game data to other storage devices.

We’re not sure when the update will arrive, but we’ll be sure to let you know once Sony make it official. Let us know your thoughts on the upcoming patch. In your opinion, what other things need to be fixed? Don’t forget about our GT5 Vs Forza 3 debate here.

More About: Gran Turismo 5, GT5, Polyphony Digital

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