When playing car racing video games, do you find yourself choosing vehicles or brands that you've owned in the past? We are definitely guilty as charged on this count, but it seems that this sort of logic works the other way too. People that play popular games like Gran Turismo and Project Gotham Racing have shown an affinity towards real-life vehicles that they used in the gaming realm. Subaru WRX or Mitsubishi Evolution anyone?

Financial Post researchers recently conducted a brief study that put people in front of gaming consoles running car racing simulators. Other people were placed in separate rooms where the games were being broadcast, but not played. Afterward, both groups were surveyed, and the results were eye opening. Those that played the video games responded that they were 50% more likely to purchase vehicles that they used in the video games than those that just watched.

Sure, these results don't necessarily prove anything, but automakers and advertisers have certainly taken notice. Current estimates put the in-game advertising market at $1.8 billion within the next few years.


[Source: Financial Post]

We've been playing Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for about a year now on our PS3, and it looks like we'll be waiting another 12 months before we get our hands on the full version. Spanish newspaper El Financiero claims that senior executives at Polyphony point to a Christmas 2009 date for the full GT5. This comes after GT creator Kazunori Yamauchi told our friends over at Joystiq that the debut of GT5 might not happen until sometime in 2010. The full GT5 would contain far more race tracks and vehicles than the already competent Prologue, which we would welcome with open arms. Many are speculating that, like previous versions, GT5 will first be launched in Japan. That means it's highly likely that we'll have all the details on the prodigious racing game well before it hits our shores.

While we're hopeful that GT5 finds its way underneath our Christmas tree next year, the GT racing series has been anything but timely. One example could be the promised GT4 for PSP. It was announced four years ago in 2004 and Polyphony execs insist that it is still forthcoming – after GT5 is finally released.


[Source: Joystiq]

Polyphony's Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is about to get a pretty substantial upgrade. The next time you boot up your Playstation 3, an update will be available for GT5 that will add the GT by Citroen, Ferrari's new California and the Lotus Evora. Lotus fans got a sneak peek into the Evora's GT5 inclusion at the British Motor Show a few weeks back, and now everybody gets to join in on the aluminum-intensive fun. It's always a pleasure to strap yourself in a Ferrari, in real-life or virtually, and the California is the latest Italian Stallion around, so its addition was a foregone conclusion. The biggest news, though, is the new French GT, which its maker says was "a partnership between Citroën and Polyphony." In the game-realm, the new GT concept will be powered by electrons generated from a hydrogen fuel cell. Even if the technology isn't quite ready for prime time in your driveway, it can always make waves in digital form, running around various race tracks while emitting nothing but water.


[Source: PlayStation Blog via Joystiq]

First art imitates life and now video games do the same, with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Nissan having joined forces to create the GT Academy. Over the course of eight months, the academy culled a group of wannabe racers from a field of entrants who posted the best lap times in GT5 Prologue. Then, for five days at Silverstone, the finalists competed in the game and on the actual track, watched by ex-F1 racer Johnny Herbert and a panel of five judges.

The two winners were just announced, and Top Gun status went to Lars Schlomer and Luis Ordonez. Schlomer is a taxi driver in Bonn, Germany; Ordonez is an MBA student from Spain. Now that they've won, they'll be thrown into boot camp for four months to learn to how to race for real silver: in four months, they'll have to earn their racing licenses and get ready to drive a factory-backed Nissan 350Z in the 24 Hours of Dubai this coming January.The rest of us will have to be content with GT5 Prologue for now...

[Source: Sony]

Nunez's ride this week...

We Autobloggers chat on AIM all the time. Imagine a text-only version of the podcast, only 100 times more scatterbrained (who knew this was even possible?) and you'll get the general idea. So anyway, here's an exchange between The Neff and myself from earlier this afternoon, in which he hits me with a solid uppercut using his Brass Knuckles of Perspective. I think they may have bits of dead Alero cast into them.

Neff: Chris Grant from Joystiq got Sony to send us a review copy of GT5 Prologue
Neff: Arriving Tuesday
Nunez: You are such a d**k
Neff: Okay Mr. RS4
Nunez: HAHAHAHA
Neff: At least the car in your driveway right now is real
Nunez: I want to drive a PRETEND RS4, too!

Let the online play begin. What Neff doesn't tell you is that he -- at this very moment -- is writing up something that makes the (undeniably, ridiculously badass) RS4 press car parked out in my driveway seem like a Kia Optima. But you'll have to wait until Monday to read about that. Oh, and as it happens, I can't drive a pretend RS4 in GT5 Prologue when it arrives this week, anyway. I'll have to make do with the real thing.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be dropping April 17th in the U.S., both as a downloadable game from the Playstation Store and on actual Blu-ray disc. We reported last week that damage modeling, long missing from the Gran Turismo series despite being featured in many of its competitors, was for the first time being considered, and today we have word from Gran Turismo head Kazunori Yamauchi that it could come as a downloadable feature for the game as early as this fall. Gran Turismo games have always set the standard for racing sims, but the lack of physical damage to the cars when buddy bumping on a back straight or flying grille first into a barrier have held them back. In fact, smart players can use the lack of damage to their advantage by heading into turns without breaking and bouncing off the wall. Hardly the perfect line, but it gets the job done on those particularly difficult courses. Thanks for the tip, Brad!

[Source: PS3 Fanboy]

Click above to watch the video

We love our Xbox 360s here at Autoblog. We really do. But lately we've been thinking about trading in for a PlayStation 3. The cause is Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the temptation only intensifying with every screen capture, new feature and list of drivable cars that crosses cyberspace. We recently brought you news of the Ferrari F2007, Kimi Raikkonen's championship-winning Formula One race car, being available in the new game. Today we bring you a video of said F2007 lapping the Suzuka circuit in Japan.

For those not familiar, well... you should be: Suzuka is one of the most famous race tracks in the world. It's owned by Honda and, on the grand prix set-up, features a unique figure 8 configuration with an overpass. The Japanese Grand Prix moved to the Fuji Speedway (owned by arch-rival Toyota... uh-oh) while Suzuka is undergoing renovations, but is due back on the calendar for next year when Raikkonen will undoubtedly try to beat his own lap record that he set there in 2005. Until then, GT5 will give you the chance to beat Kimi's time in his own car. Check out the (admittedly crude, but exciting) bootleg video after the jump.


[Source: GTPlanet]

Click above to view more screenshots of the Ferrari F2007 on GT5

The beauty about driving games like Forza 2 and Gran Turismo 5 is that they give us (yes, even us here at Autoblog) the chance to drive cars we otherwise couldn't get anywhere near. The latest virtual joy ride to hit the news cycle is the Ferrari F2007, the very same Formula One car that Kimi Raikkonen drove last year to the drivers' title and – with a little help from teammate Felipe Massa – the constructors' championship, as well.

According to the latest information posted on the official Playstation blog, the F2007 will be among the many exciting new cars available for your gaming pleasure in the new GT5 Prologue. The championship-winning racer in officially sanctioned rosso livery will be available for 2 million game credits from all Ferrari dealerships on Gran Turismo 5, so start earning your points as soon as you get your hands on the game. Then spend your sleepless nights trying to beat Kimi's laptimes. Until then, keep the dream alive with the screenshots in the gallery below. Thanks for the tip, Peter!

[Source: Playstation.Blog]

click above image to view video

If you watched last night's Video Game Awards on Spike then you saw were among the first to see Digital Polyphony's new Gran Turismo 5 Prologue trailer. If you missed it, however, we've got the vid for you right here. Once again, the graphics are simply stunning. Whether watching the new Nissan GT-R whiz by or staring at a race-prepped BMW Z4 in the pit garage, there's nary a pixel out of place. Though we all know the Playstation 3 is a graphical powerhouse, few games have really shown off the console's potential. This one will, if it ever gets released. And this is just the prologue! We're still a good era away from the full game's actual release.

Click here to watch the video after the jump.

[Source: Joystiq]

If it were a dessert, it would be Death By Chocolate. Since it's Gran Turismo 5, we're going to call it Death By Motorized Magnitude. Word is the full game will come with 900 cars -- or as The Count would say on Sesame Street, "Count dem, 900 cars, ha ha ha!" And one of those cars will be the Ford GT LM edition. Which could really count as five or six cars by itself, it's so bloody tasty.

The GT Prologue Demo will come with a mere 30 cars, but there are some tarmac toasters in there, one of them being the GT LM, as well as a smattering of other really fast but non-race cars. There's also a BMW 135i Coupe, convenient in case you wish to test it out on CG twisties before spending a heap of your very real money on the genuine article. As for tracks, word is that the Prologue could also add either Laguna Seca, Infineon, or (mouth ... watering ... must ... concentrate) the 'Ring. We sign up where?

[Source: GT Channel]