The Red Bull X1 Prototype - the handiwork of Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey - is a car that only resides in the virtual world that is Gran Turismo 5. Dream as we all may to see the car destroy any four-wheeled vehicle in the real world, the likelihood of that ever happening is as slim as plucking a needle out of a million haystacks. Not that the X1 Prototype isn’t capable of doing so – it can obliterate anything that challenges it! – but regulations on these types of racers has made the superdupercar unbuildable.
On the flip side, it doesn’t mean that the X1 Prototype can’t be built, albeit it without a powertrain. In fact, the folks from Industrial Design Consultancy have already built a real-scale model of the X1 Prototype sans the powertrain. Measuring 4.75m long and 2.2m wide, the model was secretly built by IDC at its modeling center in the UK in collaboration with Red Bull.
There’s no Pagani Zonda Cinque like the one rampaging along the Italian mountains in the Need for Speed commercial, but either way, you can’t go wrong with all those supercars.
With all these supercars running all over the Champ Elysees in Paris, we can’t help but get all juiced up to play Gran Turismo 5. We won’t get close to owning any of these babies in real life, so we’ll just settle for acquiring all of them in the virtual world.
Okay all you die hard Gran Turismo fans, here’s the first commercial for the much anticipated Gran Turismo 5 due out in just a matter of days - November 24th to be exact. That is, unless something random happens and the game is postponed yet again, but we’re going to stick with optimism at this point.
When it is finally on the shelves, the game will cost $59.99, which is a great deal for a game that is said to be the best racing game the world has ever seen. If you will pay an extra $99, then you’ll also get a book on racing techniques, five DLC cars, a keychain, and a 1:43 scale diecast car.
Of course, all those knick-knacks will come secondary to the long list of 1,000 cars Gran Turismo will feature. Among that list is the Mercedes SLS AMG, Audi R8 V10, Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette ZR1 and many, many others. Since a lot of us will never actually get the chance to sit behind the wheel of the real live versions of these cars, we’ll settle for kicking some butt with them in GT5! This will be especially true since Sony, Polyphony Digital, and Nissan have launched the GT Academy 2010. This academy tests the mad driving skills of gamers everywhere as they battle it out in GT5 to win a once in a lifetime opportunity to train with elite race car drivers at international tracks and race as part of a professional team.
After seemingly countless delays, GT5 will finally be released on November 24th – just in time for Christmas. What’s even more exciting is that Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) and Polyphony Digital Inc., in partnership with Nissan North America, have announced the opportunity of a lifetime for GT gaming and racing enthusiasts. They are about to make thumb bandits’ dreams come true by giving gamers the opportunity to experience a proper professional racing experience. Similar to the setup in 2008, the GT Academy 2010 will be launched on December 1st in North America and will serve as a platform for fans of GT5 to see if their Playstation skills match up to their real world racing ability. The GT Academy will challenge gamers and racing fans alike across the U.S. to compete in a series of predetermined online time trials. The cars will obviously be various Nissan models that will built up from road going versions through to hardcore race-spec machines.
Hit the jump for details on the competition and how to enter.
With everything that went on with the development of Gran Turismo 5, Lord knows if we’re going to see the day when the next installment of the gaming franchise will be released. And seeing as GT5 took somewhere around six odd years to finish, we don’t know if we’re going to be able to wait until 2016 to play Gran Turismo 6. Having said that, we’re not about to get too far ahead of ourselves because we haven’t even logged any runs on GT5. We’re going to take the prudent course of action and take what we can get and at this point, that’s Gran Turismo 5.
But since we’re on the topic of GT6, we’ve learned that Kazunori Yamauchi, the man who built the GT franchise into what it is today, was at SEMA to check out the cars that he wants to be part of the next game. According to reports, Yamauchi found what he was looking for in the form of a Salsa Red 1969 Chevrolet Camaro that was modified by GM engineer Mark Stielow.
Delay after delay after delay has hampered the release of, what could be, the greatest driving game in the world. On the U.S Playstation blog, the manager of public relations for Sony has just announced the wait is over and Gran Turismo 5 would be here on November 24th.
Not only did we receive conformation on the glorious date that is November 24th, but Kazunori Yamauchi, the President of Polyphony Digital Inc., also had his own message to send to the world of excited and impatient gamers. Here’s what he had to say...
"Gran Turismo 5 is an ambitious project, with challenges and complexities which have made it our version of the Apollo Space Program! When we created the original Gran Turismo back in 1997, we wanted to set a completely new precedent for the racing genre.
With the technological leap onto PlayStation 3, our objective with Gran Turismo 5 was to create another great revolution which would not only satisfy our own high expectations, but would meet or even exceed the anticipation of the fans.
Satisfying the loyal Gran Turismo followers is at the heart of all of our efforts, which is why it was such a difficult decision to delay the release of the game, and one which we did not take lightly.
I can only apologize to everyone for making you wait so long, and I hope that when you try out the wealth of driving experiences available in Gran Turismo 5, you will not be disappointed.”
With 1000 cars, countless tracks and some sensational graphics, we are already getting antsy.
Remember when we said that the Red Bull X1 Prototype was merely just a figment of our imagination, trapped in the virtual world that is Gran Turismo 5 with no way of making it out to the real world where it can be properly – or improperly, depending on how you race it – driven around the race tracks of the world?
Well, you can throw all of that out the window.
We’ve learned that the virtual leviathan of a car is scheduled to make an appearance in Madrid at the official launch of Gran Turismo 5, which is set to take place on November 24th and 25th. It’s more likely that the model that will be in attendance at the official GT5 launch is just a model with nothing underneath it, but it would be ridiculously cool if that monster of an engine that we’ll talk about in a bit is really in there.
Few driving games have had the success that Gran Turismo has garnered over the years. Starting with the first version for the Playstation, up until now, the series has been the definitive racing video game for auto lovers.
Despite this, our patience has been tested as of late. The fifth installment of the series has been delayed numerous times and even though we keep getting word of a holiday release date, one never knows anymore. Predicting the release date of Gran Turismo 5 is like predicting the weather in the year 2031.
Now, we have word from Autoweek that the series developers are already looking ahead to the sixth version. The game’s creator, Kazunori Yamauchi, confirmed that they’re working on it, but would say no more about it. We have no idea when to expect the release of such a game or what it might have in it. The way Gran Turismo 5 is going, we might not see the sixth one until the next decade.
“It’s not something that we can talk that lightly on. It took 2,000 days to get all the ideas that went into GT5. It’s just too early to be talking about GT6,” Yamauchi said to Autoweek.
Okay, Yamauchi, we’ll talk about it in say...2,500 days?
There have been so many different delays for Gran Turismo 5 that we are getting a bit impatient, but now that its creator, Kazunori Yamauchi, has officially given word that GT5 discs are already being stamped, we’re pretty sure that this latest release date may just stick. When will we finally get to play Gran Turismo 5? As soon as we pick it up at midnight on New Year’s Day.
Now, this isn’t official as of yet, but we’re taking the word from game retailers that have updated their sites to indicate that the much-anticipated game will be arriving shortly after Christmas. Great time to use those Best Buy gift certificates you got for the holiday!
The game will cost $59.99 and it’s slated to be the best racing game the world has ever seen. It will pack 1,000 different vehicles, but if you’re really into the game, you can get the $99.99 pack that will give you bunch of goodies, including a book on racing techniques, five DLC cars, a keychain, and a 1:43 scale diecast car. Make that ten DLC cars and you might have a deal Sony.
The boys over at Jalopnik managed to get a quote from Gran Turismo chief Kazunori Yamauchi that should give all GT5 fans reason to hope that the game may finally be headed to stores.
During an interview at SEMA, Yamauichi was asked the question that’s been on the mind of everybody since GT5 was created: when will the game be released?
Yamauchi’s response: “The discs are being stamped as we speak.”
Take that for what it’s worth, but it seems that the game has finally been completed. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense to stamp discs without the game being complete, right?
Obviously, this reply should pose as great news for all of us that have been itching to buy the game and given the number of times the developers have delayed the release, it now looks like we’ve seen the last of these postponements.
Let’s just hope that nothing wrong happens to the packaging.
