Hasta La Gadget!

Gran Turismo is one of the premier titles in the Sony PlayStation stable. It’s existed on every one of the PlayStation platforms, from the original PlayStation to the PSP to the latest version on the PS3. It is the poker of racing simulation games, since it’s easy to pick up in minutes, yet it’s so deep that it will reward hours of gameplay. Usually the second question out of gamers’ mouths after Sony announces a new PlayStation is “When will Gran Turismo appear on this platform?”

It took a while to program the new version, which is why there was an almost six-year gap between Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2 to Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3. Though hardcore fans have been chomping at the bit, the game is worth the wait. The gameplay instantly feels like Gran Tursimo, rather than the arcade-like driving on the Project Gotham racing series on the Xbox. If you’ve played before, you can pick it up almost from muscle memory. If you’ve never played before, it’s still easy to learn.

The game comes with over 1,000 cars, including a variety for makes and models from the lowly Fiat 500 and to multi-million dollar supercars like the Bugatti Veyron and McLaren F1. True-blue racecars appear, from Formula One to WRC Rally racers to NASCAR (WRC and NASCAR are new for GT5). Notable cars include the Tesla Roadster (an electric-only supercar), The GT by Citroën (a real concept car initially created for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue), and the Mercedes SLS AMG (The gull-winged car on the cover). You’ll be able to drive more modest, everyday cars like the Toyota Prius, Honda Fit, and the Scion xB as well.

Car models are beautiful, and they reflect the environment, adding to the realism. If you choose one of the Premium models (roughly 20% of the cars), then the interior view will include cockpit details like working mirrors, tachometer, and speedometer in the car’s instrument cluster. The illusion of being in the car extends to snow or rain hitting the windshield at speed. You’ll actually need to use the windshield wipers to avoid being blinded.

Netflix caused a lot of head scratching in October when it started rolling out its new, disc-free Netflix experience for the PS3. Namely, different people were getting a different UI, and there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the differentiation. Well, it turns out Netflix was flexing a bit of its HTML5 muscle, rapidly testing different experiences to see which ones worked best for users, all without having to push out app updates or back-end changes to accommodate its indecision. Apparently, Netflix’s engineers actually ported WebKit to the PS3 to make all this possible, and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come in the HTML5 iPhone, iPad, and Android apps — which could probably use some serious sprucing, or even a bit of scattered rapid prototyping just to relieve the monotony. It’s also seems to be good news for other PS3 apps which can lean on the framework — presumably VUDU’s own HTML5-based UI took advantage of this when it landed on the PS3 in November. What we’d really love is if Sony and Google are secretly in cahoots to bring the entirety of Chrome and its couch-friendly Google TV UI with it. Hey, we can dream, right?

Netflix ported WebKit to the PS3 to enable HTML5 goodies, a dynamically updatable UI originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don’t go knockin’ Sony for resting on its laurels. The company that has spearheaded the 3D gaming push (NVIDIA notwithstanding) is apparently not even close to finished, with SCEE studio director Mick Hocking taking the time to get our juices flowing in an interview with Develop. The full spill is quite lengthy, and definitely a solid read for those interested, but a few key nuggets jumped out at us. For starters, Mike confessed that Sony has “techniques like holographics for the PS3 that [he thinks] will be very interesting for the future 3D games,” and continued with this: “In regards to that we have some new technology that we’ve shown to developers that uses 3D techniques, it allows two players to play full screen multi-player games but without each being able to see the others view, and they have been massively keen on them.” Of course, such a technique isn’t exactly new — we saw prototypes of the sort in use back at GDC — but bringing them to a market as vast as the PS3 owner pool would definitely be a monumental step. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got a Gran Turismo 5 disc laying here that needs our undivided attention for the time being.. .

Sony working on same-screen 3D multiplayer, holographics for PS3? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GameStop’s Black Friday ad leaked out a few days early, and there are some pretty decent deals if you’re buying a new console — each of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo’s systems come with pack-in games, and they’re fairly good ones too. Still, the items your gadget-loving soulmate truly wants under the festive hearth are nowhere to be found in the ad — so don’t be surprised if you have to pay top dollar if you’re planning on grabbing a commemorative red Wii, hacker-friendly Kinect or a PlayStation Move as part of your holiday haul.

GameStop breaks out the bundles for Black Friday, but not the cream of the crop originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Nov 2010 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are you prepared to be blown away? Have your mind flipped inside-out? Experience a revelation to end all revelations? Tough luck, bubs. During an earnings call yesterday, GameStop president Tony Bartel was cited as saying that both Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s PlayStation Move would both be difficult to find this holiday season, noting that the Kinect would be “a hot item through the holiday season and the key opportunity will be just to continue to keep them in stock.” He also stated that the Move would be “in short supply,” and even went so far as to predict that consumers would be “following the UPS truck to our stores to pick up that product as soon as they can find it.” Naturally, GameStop’s in-stock guarantee won’t apply to the two things it actually should (read: Kinect and Move), and Tony stopped short of providing hard evidence that this so-called shortage would in fact occur. But hey, no one ever said that drumming up demand for a product your store hawks was a bad business move, you know? And on the real, we’re guessing that Santa will actually have the hots for these things, and if you’re considering one, it’s always wise to be proactive. Or spend countless nights attempting to snipe Johnny Doe on eBay — your call.

[Image courtesy of Geek In Heels]

Shocker! GameStop expects Kinect and Move to be in short supply this holiday season originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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