In order to promote the launch of the new Golf GTI on the US market, Volkswagen is offering the model on a mobile device in a free version of the popular Firemint Real Racing game. Most importantly, the users of the Real Racing GTI App in the U.S. can compete for the chance to win one of six, limited-edition 2010 GTIs that are fully-customized inside and out.

The free Real Racing GTI App is available worldwide and spares no detail, allowing players to experience every thrilling aspect of the all-new 2010 GTI right in the palms of their hands on iPhone and iPod touch. From the redesigned exterior with more aggressive headlights and the famous red-striped grille, to the sporty interior with a race-inspired steering wheel, the all-new 2010 GTI races its way to life on the screen for a thrilling gaming experience.

So, so at www.vw.com/RealRacingGTI and start having fun!

Press release after the jump.

Real Racing GTI Game - Volkswagen GTI iPhone game originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 23 October 2009 09:49 EST.

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The latest Gran Turismo PSP commercial features two of the greatest supercars of all the times: a 1969 Corvette Stingray and a 1988 Lamborghini Countach. And what is even greater is that they are scraping sides on a race track. But, what do you think? Is this for real or just a computer generated scene? Let us know!

GT PSP commercial: Corvette Stingray vs. Lamborghini Countach originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 22 October 2009 13:45 EST.

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While we all still fret over the still-to-be-finalized release date of Gran Turismo 5, another equally important question has surfaced recently: which car will have the privilege of gracing the cover of the most hotly-anticipated car racing game in five years?

Well, if you take the word of GT5 Creative Director, Kazunori Yamaguchi, then he has an opinion on one car that’s in the running – so to speak – to grace the cover of GT5: the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG Gullwing.

Sony has not made anything official as of yet but according to Yamaguchi, the SLS AMG is one of the favorites to be featured on the cover of GT5. “"The foremost reason is that the SLS AMG will probably be the most exciting car in the world when Gran Turismo 5 is released ... Also, in terms of styling and driving performance as well, it’s probably the hottest car around right now," he says.

We’re not arguing the fact that the SLS AMG is right up there at the top of a lot of people’s holiday wish list and in the event that it does end up as the face of GT5, then we have no oppositions on that too.

Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing to be on the cover of Gran Turismo 5? originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 22 October 2009 12:30 EST.

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There really aren’t a lot of F1 games available for the iPhone – actually, with the exception of this one, there’s none – so when one becomes available, you take them any way you can get them.

And for just $2, we think the new BMW Sauber F1 game for the iPhone is as good a two-dollar investment as you can find anywhere.

Let’s face it, a lot of people in America aren’t very familiar with Formula One. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy it, even if it comes to us as an iPhone game. The game, by all accounts, caters to a lot of different racing game nuts. Those who want instant gratification can choose to play the quick-race mode in the game while the championship-starved fellows can opt to give the championship mode a shot. There’s also a professional mode, which gives you control of the pit crew and once you’ve gotten deeper into the game, the engineering mode will become available, which, eventually makes you the principal of your team where you will be tasked to make all the decisions for your drivers and cars.

Continued after the jump.

Video: BMW Sauber F1 game for the iPhone originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 13 October 2009 10:00 EST.

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You won’t mistake it for Gran Turismo 5 or even Forza 3, but nevertheless the new Need for Speed: Nitro for the Nintendo Wii is about as fun a racing game can get. Sure, the graphics are nowhere near GT5-caliber but that’s not exactly what the Wii is all about. The Need for Speed: Nitro is about racing cars and having fun doing it, not racing them while gawking at the uberly-detailed graphics.

That being said, EA recently released the first batch of cars that are scheduled to appear in the game. Like we said, don’t take it against these guys if the realism is not up to par with your standards. Take into account that with the Wii, it’s not entirely about the graphics, but more so, on the racing experience.

And if you know you’re video games, you know that when it comes to gaming experience, the Wii doesn’t take a backseat for anybody.

Need for Speed: Nitro reveals first batch of cars for the Wii originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 12 October 2009 11:00 EST.

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We don’t understand too much Japanese, but we do know that we were caught by surprise to find out that the recently-revealed Toyota FT-86 Concept is actually a playable car on Gran Turismo 5.

Shortly after the concept car was revealed to have a ticket for the Tokyo Motor Show, a video of it joining its predecessor, the Toyota AE86 Corolla in an all-out run where both cars end up sliding sideways.

Now since Sony was kind enough to share us this video, it makes us all the more excited to cop the game as soon as it comes out. You never know what other yet-to-be-unveiled concept cars GT5 has in store for us.

GT5 releases video of Toyota FT-86 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 6 October 2009 14:20 EST.

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Apart from the portability of the PSP, bragging rights over the PS3 come few and far in between, so you can imagine the giddiness PSP owners have after Gran Turismo 5 was released for the portable gaming console yet the official date for the PS3 is still yet to be resolved.

As if things can’t get any worse for PS3 owners, GT5 recently released a new PSP-exclusive GT5 commercial, showing all of us exactly what we are missing.

The commercial shows a race team taking in a few laps at Laguna Seca and the passenger of the two-man unit playing on his PSP while the driver runs through a lap at the famous Monterey circuit on a Corvette ZR1, engaged in a spirited race against a Ford GT and a Nissan GT-R. As for the supposed navigator playing on his PSP, he’s racing on a Corvette ZR1 against, you guessed it, a Ford GT and a Nissan GT-R

Kind of exemplifies Gran Turismo’s eternal tagline, ‘the real driving simulator’, doesn’t it?

Watch and enjoy.

Video: New Gran Turismo 5 PSP Commercial originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 30 September 2009 10:00 EST.

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The rumors surrounding Gran Turismo 5’s release date has taken yet another turn. Days after Sony announced that the game would be due out in Japan on March 2010; Polyphony Digital - a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. - said that the game could make its highly-anticipated release at the start of 2010.

According to PD boss Kazunori Yamauchi, the US and Europe release dates shouldn’t be too far behind the Japan release, a turn from the traditional practice of having Japan get its hands on new games months before any other region in the world. Yamauchi also said that the GT5 release date would all depend on Sony’s marketing campaign for the game.

We find it unfathomable to believe that Gran Turismo 5 – a game car nuts have been clamoring for the past couple of years – needs any more marketing. Isn’t it a foregone conclusion already that as soon as it hits the stores, it’s going to be swooped up in mere seconds?

These guys need only to look at how sales of GT5: Prologue went to know that the game doesn’t need any more marketing. It markets itself already.

Nevertheless, we’re all still guessing as to when the actual date really is. While Sony did say that March 2010 was the date, it’s not like Polyphony Digital doesn’t have any credibility either. They are, after all, a subsidiary of SCEI so their comments should have some weight in them too.

Gran Turismo might be released sooner than expected originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 30 September 2009 08:00 EST.

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Gran Turismo 5’s official US release is still up in the air despite what some sites - hello, Amazon! - will make you think. But one thing has been made official (at last!) by Sony execs regarding the fifth-generation racing simulator; GT 5 will hit the shelves on March of 2010 in Japan.

The March 2010 release is six-months after the game goes out on sale for the PSP. But the one thing on everyone’s mind – especially to us on this side of the world who doesn’t speak nor understand Japanese – is when the game will hit the Western world.

Sony has yet to announce a specific date – thank you for keeping us all hanging, by the way – for the US release, although if history is any indicator, we might not get to see it until a few months after its Japan release.

It looks like the wait for GT5 should become more and more excruciating, especially when you take into consideration the fact that GT4 was released in 2005.

Yes, it’s been THAT long, and to be honest, we don’t know how much longer we can wait before we go crazy.

It's official: Sony announces March 2010 release of Gran Turismo 5 in Japan originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 26 September 2009 13:00 EST.

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Let’s make it clear: when picking between Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5, you can’t go wrong with either game. Exclusive game platforms aside, both games offer the purest form of racing you can find out in the gaming market so picking between the two is like picking between apples and oranges: both are awesome in their own light.

But what Forza 3 seems to have a leg-up on GT5 is this: 29 Ferraris. That’s right; the Xbox-exclusive racing game comes with a truckload of your favourite prancing horse-badged super cars. From all time classics like the 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO to the ultra-modern exotics like the 458 Italia, Forza 3 has addressed your Ferrari craving down to the last drop.

It’s easy to get carried away by all the Ferraris you can choose from in Forza 3 so we clearly won’t take it against you if you scoop a copy up as soon as it hits gaming stores all over the country.

Just make sure you leave a copy for us.

Forza 3 comes with 29 Ferraris originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 24 September 2009 08:30 EST.

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As we count down the days leading up to the highly-anticipated release of Gran Turismo 5, the game is generating a ton of buzz regarding what super cars will be made available in the game. A few days ago, we couldn’t contain our excitements after we learned that the Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing would be a playable car in the game.

We’ve barely had time to settle down when news broke out that another super car that’s made its way into the top of our wish lists would also be available on GT5.

That’s right, Ferrari junkies; the all-new Ferrari 458 Italia is headed to GT5!

If you don’t believe us, then you should know that pictures – or videos – are worth a thousand words.

Video: Ferrari 458 Italia headed to Gran Turismo 5 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 24 September 2009 08:00 EST.

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We’ve been talking about Gran Turismo 5, Forza 3 and Need for Speed SHIFT so much we kind of feel bad that we’ve left other racing games out to dry.

In the midst of the hoopla surrounding the three aforementioned games, one game we haven’t gone on record as worth playing is Vertical Run, a racing game you can find in Sony’s Playstation Home community. The game is the first to be developed by ‘Audi Space’, which, if you don’t know, is Audi’s new virtual community inside the Playstation Home.

While it’s not in the class of GT5 or Forza 3, Vertical Run is a pretty fun game to play, especially if you’re the type who considers yourself a card-carrying member of the Wipeout franchise. The objective is pretty simple enough: all you need to do is win a race while zooming past a vertical course – hence, the name Vertical Run – while gathering the most electrical energy in the process. Simple enough, right?

The game becomes all the more exciting because of the presence of one car, the Audi E-Tron concept, which we first saw at the recently-concluded Frankfurt Motor Show. We don’t know whether or not the actual Audi e-tron concept actually makes it to production, so this may be the only chance we’ll ever get to see the car in a racing situation.

Audi E-Tron Concept featured in online game originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 24 September 2009 07:00 EST.

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If you’re a fan of the Volkswagen Scirocco R like we are, then you’ll understand our giddiness in finding out that Volkswagen is releasing the ‘Scirocco R 24-hour Challenge’ for the iPhone.

If you don’t know, the Scirocco R 24-hour Challenge is a free downloadable game from the Apple App store that allows you to drive your own Scirocco R in a series of different play modes, inclufding qualifying mode, a 24-hour mode, and a multi-player mode that players can play together using Bluetooth.

It may not be as realistic as the video we showed a couple of days ago featuring the aforementioned Scirocco R and the Golf R20 taking in a few laps at a race circuit, but it’s a pretty good racing game to have, especially when you find yourself in need of scratching that racing itch every now and again.

Volkswagen to release iPhone game featuring a VW Scirocco R originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 23 September 2009 07:00 EST.

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If you’ve always wanted to drive your own BMW M3 but have no financial flexibility to even get as much as a sniff of the car, then here’s your chance to win a BMW M3, courtesy of Need for Speed.

The oldest and most successful racing game franchise is giving you – yes, you! – a chance to win a BMW M3 through their Need for Speed M3 Missions Sweepstakes.

The competition is, of course, free and you’ll only have to use Twitter and follow NFS’s @NeedforSpeed account to participate. All you have to do is continuously monitor their account where they’ll be posting five daily missions for you to join. The more missions you accomplish, the better odds you get in winning the M3.

Sounds simple, right?

Click after the jump to check out the rules and guidelines for the contest.

Need for Speed to give away a BMW M3 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 22 September 2009 10:30 EST.

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As if we don’t have enough reasons to buy Gran Turismo 5 as soon as it hits stores on December 29, Mercedes has given us one more.

It’s just been brought to our attention that the most eagerly-anticipated racing game ever will be featuring no less than Mercedes’ new super car, the SLS AMG Gullwing. If that doesn’t make you salivate for another three months, we don’t know what will.

The car was successfully unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show and it sure lived up to all the previous hype it was getting around the industry. The Gullwing comes with a monstrous front/mid-mounted 6.3-liter V8 engine capable of producing 571 horsepower with a top speed of well over 300 km/h. Now, we can go all day just drooling over the specs of the Gullwing and it probably still won’t be enough to contain our excitement knowing that it will be a playable car on GT 5.

Hey, it’s not like we can just head over to a local dealership and pony up a quarter of a million dollars to buy the real thing. So, we’ll settle for the next best thing. At least we’ll only have to shell out 60 bucks for that.

Mercedes SLS AMG will be a playable car on Gran Turismo 5 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 22 September 2009 10:00 EST.

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