Gran Turismo Academy: if virtual cars just aren't enough

As realistic as cars in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue are, there's no substitute for the real thing. If you want the real deal instead of virtual cars on your screen, here's your chance with the Gran Turismo Academy, which has just gone live!

In GT Academy, you'll go against fellow Gran Turismo gamers in an online tournament that will run for seven weeks. Twenty winners will be further tested in the finals, and the fastest three among them will be invited to Silverstone, for the real thing.

In Silverstone, the three lucky fellows will race against each other in real cars, in a real track, in a real Nissan GT-R. Two winners will go on to enter a four-month training program to get racing licenses, to participate in a real life race in Dubai.

The contest is open to residents in UK & Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany & Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Chance of a lifetime, people. Time to get it into gear. Follow the link below to enter. Good luck!

Article from: QJ

Army of Two to get veteran map pack soon

Electronic Arts has announced that Army of Two (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) will be getting a free update on May 29 via the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation 3 store. This update, called the Veteran Map Pack, is sponsored by Pontiac and offers gamers a trio of maps.

The first map has Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios exploring a subway station in Kiev where they have to shutdown an underground militia. The second map has the two heroes back in the SSC headquarters where they have a chance to take out their former employer, Dalton. Finally, the third map is an online-only map which pits two teams of two players each against each other in the China Canal Lock map.

Once again, the Veteran Map Pack for Army of Two will be available on May 29. Keep checking this space for more information on this game.

Article from: QJ

GTA 4 helps UK's economy

Video games are good for the economy. Don't believe us? Well, it was recently revealed that Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) helped the U.K. economy in April.

According to the reports, retail sales in the country only dropped by 0.2 according to the U.K. Office for National Statistics, much better than the 0.5 drop economists initially predicted. A feat which Wall Street Journal reported, was attributed to the great sales numbers of Grand Theft Auto 4.

Well, this blogger may not know how much truth there is in that statement, but he won't deny that Rockstar North made a really good game which has broken sales records in multiple countries. If Grand Theft Auto 4 really helped boost the economy of U.K. then we have yet another reason to keep buying the games that pique our interest.

Article from: QJ

Report: Sony may be closing in on Gaming 3.0

Some observations were made during Sony's Pre-E3 Judge's Event about the company's community-building strategy with its upcoming lineup. Joystiq pointed out that the touted "Gaming 3.0" of former boss Phil Harrison could be closing in.

By building sites where players can go beyond gaming and converge, Sony hopes to increase the success of upcoming titles. The site writes that what Sony plans could be something along the lines of a Web 2.0/Web 1.0 hybrid.

It was pointed out that two titles right now are showing great potential in breeding vibrant communities. Off the bat, Insomniac's Resistance 2 shows great promise because the community aspect is among the "four C's" that the devs want to emphasize. It's community site is being overhauled, which could give way to some nice, new features.

Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet doesn't have any big announcements for a community-intensive site as of yet, but its user content sharing mechanics could lead to big things. We'll have to wait and see what Sony does about it.

Killzone 2 and SOCOM: Confrontation will are likely to have their "My" sites assigned to them, though the latter may have a bit of a problem will that because MySOCOM.com is taken. Nevertheless, a domain should be easy to get with Sony's resources. Features and activities now remain as the aspects to be capitalized upon.

As for Motorstorm Pacific Rift, details haven't been spilled, but Evolution Studios did promise a community site. Again, that's something to look forward to as we approach E3.

In any case, it looks like the PlayStation 3 is catching on in the community aspect, and it can only be a good thing for them as having a loyal following is a great plus to any game with online features. What do you think?

Article from: QJ

Rockstar's new 'possible' fixes for GTA 4 freezing issues

Ok.. My experience so far on my launch version 60GB PS3 with GTA 4 has been extremely frustrating! I pre-ordered my copy of the game from GameStop and received it on 29-April. Of course, I was just as excited to pop it in my PS3 as every other gamer in the world but unfortunately the first time I popped it in, it froze almost immediately! I saw the copyright information, then I saw the two Rockstar logos, it said "Installing game data" and at about 50%, it froze! I then deleted the data that had been installed and gave it another go and guess what, it FROZE!

I tried this about 20 times and made it through the copyright information about twice! Going by tips from other gamers online, experiencing similar problems, I deleted the game data again, and tried one more time... The install made it all the way through! At this point I was getting excited, however, that excitement faded quickly when the first cut-scene came up, or should I say, DIDN'T come up! All I got was audio, then when the audio was through, it was completely frozen... I gave up, put it aside of the night and went through all the same issues again today! I then went into GameStop and exchanged the game for a new copy, seeing as most people out there are having at least a little more luck than me... It actually helped considerably.. It went right through the copyright screen, the logos, and the install went just fine, however the game still froze when the cut-scene launched.

I then called Rockstar and they took a bunch of my information and gave me a couple tips. The kind young British lady that I was speaking to told me to erase the game data and save data and install again. She also told me to be sure to turn off the PS3's screensaver and select only 720p from the display list (I was running it in 1080p initially.) She also told me to sign out of the PlayStation Network on the XMB and go to Settings-->Network and disable both the internet connection as well as the Media Streaming server. Last but not least she told me to reset the PS3 to the factory default setting (other than the display which was now set for only 720p and the internet connectivity.)

I followed all of her instructions and for the first time I got to see more than a black screen with audio during the first cut-scene! Unfortunately it still froze about halfway through the scene, but it did look promising. I took a break after that and now I am posting this experience... I have yet to be able to get any actual gameplay in (although, if I push X quickly enough before the cut-scene launches I do get the game to load to the first mission but it freezes before I can even hit the gas pedal.)

Feel free to give some of these ideas a shot and see if you get any more luck than me.

Motorstorm 2 title tweaked?

We know that the sequel to one of the Sony PlayStation 3's best-selling games, MotorStorm, is coming this Fall. As early as now, we're seeing signs of what the second coming's title will be. However, there seems to have been some slight changes.

It's still unconfirmed, but sources close to Evolution Studios are calling the game Motorstorm: Pacific Rift now. Does this mean that earlier news of the sequel being called Motorstorm: Pacifica is moot? We'll find out soon, but as long as there's still off-road tracks and monster trucks to be driven, this one ought to be a blast just the same.

The first Motorstorm enjoyed nice commercial and critical reception as it launched with the emerging PlayStation 3 platform. Will Pacific Rift replicate its big brother's story? With 16-player online races and four-player split-screen, it has a good shot of doing so.

Article from: QJ

Rockstar president sees appeal in EA alliance

Even though Take-Two is still busy fending off Electronic Arts' hostile takeover bid, Rockstar Games' Sam Houser apparently sees some appeal in working under EA's umbrella.

The reason appears mainly to be John Riccitiello. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Houser called the EA CEO "the real deal". Riccitiello has also expressed interest in Rockstar Games even before becoming EA's CEO.

Houser also mentioned that an EA alliance would result in Rockstar being a "much smaller fish in a much bigger pond", adding that he's "not someone who has any kind of problem with that."

Be that as it may, Houser said that if they ever work with EA, Rockstar would most likely still maintain its autonomy, a setup similar to Blizzard's in the Activision-Vivendi merger.

Article from: QJ

Prototype delayed until next year

Just when we were getting really hyped up for Sierra Entertainment's Prototype (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC), the studio has announced that the game's release has been pushed back to next year. Aw dang.

Seeing as how the game looks really great from the gameplay videos we've seen though, let's keep the whining at a minimum. Better a late great game than an early sucky one. Here's what Sierra had to say about the delay:

Since its announcement, Prototype has been regarded by many as groundbreaking and taking the open-world genre in new directions, and in the simplest explanation possible, we need more time to deliver the game the team initially set out to create.

Article from: QJ

GTA 4 killed my PS3!

My PS3 is dead... The fabulously ridiculous freezing issues that GTA 4 has been plaguing many of us with finally took its toll on my poor system. I've been giving GTA a whirl at least a few times per day since its launch day... Just like the rest of the world, I was very excited about receiving my pre-ordered copy of GTA 4 and have unfortunately not even been able to get the game to work more than 10-30 seconds at a time. Like most other folks that have been let down by Take Two's "12 steps to getting GTA 4 working" failed for me to. Today I tried one more time and like always, it froze! This was not like the other 50 times that it has froze though... This time, it restarted the system on its own and started up to a frozen XMB. I then did a hard reset -- no luck. Then I flipped off the switch in the back, unplugged the cords, and waited. When I turned it back on I could hear the familiar sound of the PS3 starting up and it was still frozen EXACTLY how it was originally, even the fancy dancing waves in the background were in the exact same position... I called Sony and they were, well, they didn't have a clue why it died on me. But they were nice enough to tell me that I could send it to them and for $150.00 they will either fix it or send me a refurbished unit... I took it.

My advice -- Be careful and if GTA 4 keeps freezing perhaps you should just be more patient than I was and wait for a patch. I hate to put all the blame on Rockstar and GTA 4 but my system has always (including right before I tried it today) ran perfectly and I was enjoying a nice deathmatch on COD 4 right before I tried GTA today and it was working wonderfully... There is obviously something quite wrong with GTA 4 considering many of us have problems similar to mine and many of the gamers that originally stated their copy was working great, are now being plagued with freezing, from what I've read...

Resistance 2 playable at PlayStation Day

The latest episode of Insomniac's "Full Moon Show" podcast, as well as subsequent posts on NeoGAF, indicate that a playable build of Resistance 2 will be available for press at PlayStation Day. Unfortunately, no video of the game will be made available after the event, leaving you to snack on only a collection of screenshots and hands-on impressions before June 13th. We'll be at the event and will endeavor to bring you those all-important screenies and our own hands on impressions of the game as soon as possible.

PlayStation Day occurs on Tuesday, May 6th so be sure to check back here for full coverage of the event.

Article from: PS3 Fanboy