Autoblog

At first glance this could be Super Aguri's latest F1 contender. It's not like they need any bodywork for all their sponsors' stickers...

But no, it is a limited edition Takuma Sato Play Seat that can be parked in front of your TV for just 60,900 cents/Yen (around $600 USD). There goes that precious living room square footage freed up by last year's purchase of an ultra thin widescreen plasma display. Play Seats are comaptible with PS2s, 3s, Wiis and X-Boxes, and we're just aching to give one, or preferably two, a test drive. Fortunatley, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue came out yesterday and a few of us have it in hand, though we're not sure how we're going to convince AOL that a Play Seat is a required business expense for reviewing the game.

Source: Auto Gallery via Le Blog Auto

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]

In a perfect world, everyone who wanted a car like the Porsche 911 Turbo S would get one. In the real world, sadly, not everyone can afford the six-figure price of admission. Fortunately there's virtual reality in between, where enthusiasts can toy with cars like the Turbo S in video games. To bridge that ever-narrowing gap for game-playing Porschephiles, Stuttgart has licensed this super-realistic force-feedback gaming wheel package.

The Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel from Fanatec is a proper replica of the wheel found in the actual car, complete with hand-stitched leather, authentic metal badge on the hub...the works. But while a real Porsche has one engine, this wheel has three belt-driven force feedback motors to perfect the feeling. The wheel is accompanied by a three-pedal set, gas, brake and clutch likewise calibrated for an ultra-realistic feel. Fanatec even provides two interchangeable gearsticks – six-speed manual H-gate and Tiptronic sequential. Two versions are available, for Playstation 3 or PC, the former with lap braces and the former with table clamps. It even comes with a special 1GB USB drive in the shape of a Porsche key.

In addition to the manufacturer's online shop, the wheel package is available through Porsche dealerships and will set you back $350, who can hook you up with the only thing more realistic for about 200 times that.

[Source: Fanatec via Motorpasion]

If you're reading this from your home or office in the UK, despair not, for all is not lost. To compensate for the bland food and consistently rainy weather, we've got a game for you!

The flash-animation quiz game after the jump pits the Top Gear presenters Clarkson, Hammond and "Captain Slow" against Formula One stars present and past: Nigel Mansell, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton. Chose your player and your opponent, and test your knowledge of all things related to grand prix racing and the BBC's famous car show...er, programme. (Sorry, chaps.)

It's good for literally minutes of fun. Tens of minutes, even, if you get hooked on watching Mansell and May kick the bullocks off each other after each right or wrong answer. Jolly good fun, that.

[Source: VCars]

Scion's feeling that it's time for an advertising change, and they're taking the campaign dark. The Toyota offshoot, which is intended to attract young, hip, urbanites with an active lifestyle (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean), is attempting to harden the edge of its image.

We've been peppered from day one with Scion ads targeting fans of electronic music and hip hop, though we're more insulted than enticed by the pandering spreads that assault our irises in every new issue of Remix. Now the scope has widened to include rock and metal tinged customers. Scion's looking to team up with music events, bands, and record labels as a way of promoting its wares, but the real news is Scion's new website.

LittleDeviant.com has you being a "Deviant," with the mission of genocide. The city is filled with "Sheeple," beings that blindly follow (Camry purchasers?). Deviants are seriously bloodthirsty -- you need to complete various tasks such as throwing Sheeple across the city and a sicker version of whack-a-mole in which you juice the Sheeple like oranges. The site is quite well done, but the premise of the game is quite dark. In the end, gameplay is little removed from those flash-based novelties like billiards and golf, but if you're looking to waste some time on the web by bloodletting, Scion's got you covered.

[Source: Brandweek]

Project Gotham Racing 4 on the Xbox 360 has new AI, a revised in-car view, a career mode, better graphics, more cars... and a dynamic weather system! Thunderclouds, rain in the day, snow at night, icy roads, the perfect 4-wheel slide that suddenly turns mid-corner into a face full of Armco, it's all there -- you'll just never know when, because it's "dynamic". The quote from Bizarre, makers of PGR4: "This results in changing physics when powering around a corner on the wet or icy surface in Shanghai and St. Petersburg or any of the game's 10 other locations." You can see standard and HD movies of the unpredictable dynamic weather here. Get ready to get wet.

[Source: Joystiq]

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]