Autoblog

Advertising has been creeping into video games for a while now, but in most racing games is relegated to billboards that we hardly notice while whizzing by and concentrating on our line for the next turn. Codemasters, however, is working with in-game ad firm Engage to take video game advertising to a new level by including a fully functioning eBay Motors marketplace in the developer's next racing title, Race Driver: Grid. Players in the game will actually buy and sell in-game vehicles using the eBay Motors service just like they would in real life. eBay Motors will also get a title race in the game called "The eBay Motors Mustang Muscle Series" in which they can drive the eBay Motors Mustang GTR concept car in San Francisco, Long Beach, Washington D.C. and Detroit. This type of next-gen in-game advertising should work well within the confines of Grid, since eBay Motors is widely visited and used by the type of person who might pick up the game.

[Source: Joystiq]

Hey, the pseudo-video-game as a car ad technique worked well enough for Pontiac, so why shouldn't Alfa Romeo give it a try too? While we think Alfa's take on arcade-style driving enjoyment is clever, it's not quite as cool as the G8's Spy Hunter recreation, which, as children of the era of excess, we were totally smitten with. Regardless, the expert driving Italy's newest hot hatch looks to have had a great time racing through all 11.1 kilometers of the Forest Track stage, which is actually Arjeplog, a town in Lapland, Sweden, and a popular European destination for winter automotive testing. This video makes us wish even more so that an official announcement regarding the Mi.To's hopeful trip across the Atlantic is impending shortly. Follow the jump to watch it.

[Source: Youtube via Autoblog.it]

Click above for more screen shots of Bus Driver

When I was in Kindergarten, I rode Bus 11. It was an oil-burning 32-passenger GMC that was ready for retirement by 1982. It was driven by Sarge. I'm not sure why she was called Sarge, but her demeanor definitely lived up to the moniker. Frequent exhortations to"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP" kept us all in line. Nobody ever laughed when she ground the 2-3 upshift. Think you'd enjoy ruling passengers with an iron fist? You could go get the endorsement on your license and then hit the job market, or if that takes too much effort, just buy Bus Driver, the video game.

Hey, at least it's still a driving game, but it's the staid, responsible version of gaming. Rather than speed around a track or create mayhem, your mission is to follow routes in your school bus, city bus or tour bus while picking up and dropping off fares. What fun, the replays must be enthralling. It could be worse, though – it's still a wheeled conveyance you're controlling rather than some Wiimote-powered silliness. We do wish that Meridian4, the game's publisher, had included the DeLorean bus that never got off the ground.


[Source: Winding Road]

The Gran Turismo series is one of the most successful franchises in all of gamedome, and the racing game's fifth installment will be available in Japan on December 13, just two weeks before Christmas. If that seems like a long time to wait for GT5's release, we have some good news. Demos of the game with the same great graphics as the final version will be sold on the Sony store, but they cost a despicable $43.10 on Blu-ray. If you want to go cheap, you can download the game from the Sony store for only $38.95. We remember back to a time when demos were given away for free to entice potential customers to buy the full version. If the demo is worth $43, we're sure that the full game will be worth skipping it in favor of the real thing, even if it takes until Christmas.

[Source: PS3 Fanboy]

Drinking and driving has been a dangerous gamble taken by millions of motorists around the globe since the first cars hit the road. Police have gotten very good at spotting, arresting, and prosecuting offenders, but many still slip through the cracks, and thousands of innocent people die in accidents as a result. In Germany, this major problem is being combated with urine. No, bodily fluids aren't being used to test blood-alcohol content. Instead, video game makers are converting drunken streams into a bathroom steering wheel.

LCD screens located above urinal stalls display a video racing game that uses sensors inside the urinal to track the urinal stream, which steers the car. Quick reflexes are needed to "steer" the car through heavy traffic and objects (not the "mint" at the bottom), and when the gamer loses stream, the car crashes violently and the phone number of a cab company appears on screen. We can see a lot of people liking this game, as it passes time when you're at the stall. We just hope people don't start drinking more so they can get in more laps. At this time there is no word on whether a similar game is being made for women.

[Source: InsideLine]

click above image to view more screenshots of Transformers: the Game

As excited as we are to watch Michael Bay's vision come to fruitiion on the celulloid big screen this summer, we're even more excited about the accompanying Transformers video game that will likely be released on many next-gen gaming consoles. After all, we grew up playing with Transformers toys (the metal ones!), and in this digital age we're more interested in controlling our robots in disguise than watching them dance around on screen.

From what we know, you'll be able to play the Transformers Game as either an Autobot defending the Earth or a Decepticon trying to detroy it. It would seem, then, that game features two campaigns, although we're hoping for a nice online multiplayer function, as well.

We have some screenshots of the game, but you're going to want to watch the game's trailer after the jump. If you've been waiting to see Optimus Prime fly off a building and transform midair, your wait is over.

[Source: IGN via Jalopnik]

Does a three-hour marathon session of Burnout Revenge on the Xbox 360 give you the urge to go wreak automotive havoc on an unsuspecting public? Perhaps not, but you might be more inclined to run a red light or wantonly speed according to a new study that confirms the correlation between racing games and risky behavior behind the wheels. While surveys have been done to establish this correlation in the past, this is one of the first hardcore studies conducted to back up this theory.

Conducted by Peter Fischer at Ludwig-Maximilians University and the Allianz Center for Technology in Germany (Allianz is one of the largest insurance companies in the world), the study took a very scientific approach. Published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, it began with interviewing a number of subjects on their driving habits and how often they played video games that featured driving in a real-world setting. Next, researchers actually compared the effect of playing games like Burnout, Midnight Racer and Need for Speed on the brain. It was found that such games did increase cognitions that relate to risk taking and arousal/excitement. Finally, the study gauged whether these types of driving games actually translated into risk-taking behavior by using the widely accepted Vienna Test System. Sure enough, it was found that men (though not women) were more likely to take risks in traffic after playing these games.

The linked article from Arstechnica makes the good point that the study steered clear of driving games like Project Gotham Racing, Forza and Gran Turismo that take place on virtual tracks in controlled environments. Such games, if studied, might be found to promote increased motor skills and concentration since the goal is to get the best lap time and not run over granny in your Gremlin.

What's worrisome, however, is if the correlation between these types of driving games might eventually give the insurance industry cause to increase rates for gamers that like to indulge in a little Grand Theft Auto.

[Source: Arstechnica]

A few videos recently uploaded to YouTube show what appear to be development work on a new Ghostbusters videogame that features none other than a stretch Chrysler 300 Touring playing the part of an updated Ecto wagon, i.e. the Ecto 2. We're all about videogames here at Autoblog and we're also down with any nostalgia that can bring back the sights and sounds of the 1980s, so the chance to experience life as a Ghostbuster in all its free-roaming, first-person glory is tantalizing to say the least. It came to us while watching the videos, however, that no vehicle would make a better Ecto 2 than the Dodge Magnum. The videos show the Magnum's European doppelganger, a Chrysler 300 Touring, mainly because they're attributed to game developer Zootfly, which is based in Europe where the 300 wagon is offered. Regardless, were the game produced the Dodge Magnum would likely be the Ecto 2 parked in our firehouse.

Despite the fact that no one knows if these videos show an actual game in development, a mod to a current game or a fanboy's sick homage to the original film, the idea of a reinvigorating the Ghostbusters franchise and making the Dodge Magnum a part of that is something that DCX should seriously consider funding. And why stop at video games? Aren't we all ready for a darker, more serious-in-tone Ghostbusters 3 for the adult crowd? We say this partly because we want to see the nervous sexual tension between Peter Venkman and Dana Barrett on the big screen one more time, but also because marketing opportunities like this don't come along for a manufacturer every day.

If you can think of a better late-model vehicle to play the part of Ecto 2, let us know in the comments. For us, however, the casting couch is closed.

Check out all three videos of the mysterious Ghostbusters game after the jump.

[Source: Joystiq]

Who could forget Tetris, that most addictive and iconic of video games. Honda calls on our nostalgia with this ad for its European-market Jazz (which debuted at Detroit as the Fit for the North American market).

The jazzy TV spot shows how much you can fit in the versatile 5-door Honda hatch. (The ad's in German, though the only voice-over is for a second at the end. Wunderbar!)

(A sharp commenter on the source site pointed out a similar clip from The Simpsons. "Simpsons did it!")

[Source: paultan.org]

If you're a video game freak and a Mustang fan, chances are you're going to pick up Ford Bold Moves: Street Racing for the PS2, XBox 360 or PC no matter what kind of reviews it gets. Manufacturer specific driving games are not a new thing, even for Ford who is now on its third version of the Ford Racing series. Still, they can often devolve into extended digital test drives when there's only one brand to race.

Perhaps Ford Bold Moves: Street Racing is a cut above the rest, as it has some interesting features beyond the obvious draw of driving 18 of the greatest Ford vehicles of all time (see complete list of available vehicles after the jump). Gameplay is structured around short challenges, competitions and league play that takes place on 24 tracks based on the streets of L.A. Why video game makers insist on having us race the streets of the most congested city in the U.S. is beyond us, but we digress. In addition to winning cash to modify your Ford of choice, the game also goes the extra step to simulate real damage. The real hook, however, is a Maximum Team Control Racing mode in which players can control a team of up to three cars at once and can switch which car they're controlling on the fly.

With a name like Ford Bold Moves, we were hoping there'd be a management mode where we could swap out CEOs, bargain with teamsters and close plants, but it looks like game developer Razorworks is saving those features for its follow up, The Way Forward: Turnaround Xtreem.

[Source: Ford]