Examining the Historical Firmaments of Racing as a New Gaming Standard

If you were thinking that Forza Horizons is the only official response to the threat posed by these other games and the upstart iRacing service, think again! The folks over at Sony did not get to the top of the gaming world by being blind to changes within it, or by failing to react to those changes, and the most recent incarnation of that reaction is the newest offering in the established Gran Turismo Academy, GT Academy 2012.

The free distribution of GT Academy 2012 began on May 1st (it can be downloaded from PSN), with gamers all over the world participating in the GTA events as they acquire advanced skills and learn successively more complex sports driving techniques in the 8 rounds of trials that become available over time. The only excuse that we have for not noticing and covering that before was our preparations for E3, and while that is not much of an excuse it is all that we have...

At its heart GT Academy 2012 is really a contest though, where drivers can not only acquire skills in racing but also receive prizes they can use within Gran Turismo 5, assuming that they attain sufficient skills and achieve the required performance levels that is. Drivers who unlock a gold trophy in all 5 events within a round will receive a reward car -- the GT Academy-Spec Nissan -- which happens to be the very same car that was used in the trials in each of the rounds.

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One of the reward cars from this year's Gran Turismo Academy 2012 -- a free GT Game via PSN whose aim is to assist GT Racers in improving their Racing Skills...

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In addition to that, the drivers have the chance to acquire the following cars in the 4 rounds currently open at the present time:

Round 1: Nissan Leaf G (GT Academy)' 11

Round 2: Nissan SILVIA spec-R AERO (GT Academy) '02

Round 3: Nissan SKYLINE GT-R V・spec II (GT Academy) '94

Round 4: Nissan 370Z (GT Academy) '08

And additional cars will be obtainable as rewards from round 5 and onwards. Drivers who manage to clear all eight events with at least a bronze trophy or better will receive special "GT Academy 2012" racing gear -- and how cool is that? Highlighted by a head-turning black driving suit adorned with the GT Academy logo, the reward kit will certainly give your avatar serious style ala Gran Tursimo 5!

The fact that gamers can participate in GT Academy 2012 for free, and are not required to own a copy of GT5 in order to do so, is certainly a major kudo for Sony, though we will not be shocked or surprised if gamers who are playing GTA for the first time end up buying a copy of GT5, because if you happen to be a PS3 gamer it is the best game going for racing.

If you had asked us before E3 what we thought of the present state of video game racing, the answer would have been very different; for one thing there would have been an assumption that the status quo remained in effect, even with the rising star that is iRacing taken into consideration. A post-E3 assessment of the situation is a very different set of conclusions however, as we have indicated above.

Taking into consideration the announcement by iRacing that they are expanding their tracks catalog and adding new cars at a rate that is roughly twice that of previous years, and then adding the reveal of Forza Horizons, and combining that with the agressive expansion of the free GT Academy 2012 for PSN/PS3, and the very nice collection of cars that players can win simply by improving their racing abilities -- what we can only consider a win-win situation, no pun intended -- and what we have is a very different racing world for gamers!

It was obvious when we arrived in LA that something was different -- in fact it was obvious from the very moment we got off of the train down the street from the Microsoft Pre-E3 Press Briefing and noticed the collection of half-a-dozen slick high-end race cars with Forza livery circling the block! In fact the Forza Horizon markings on the cars made it clear that there was something new waiting for us inside, and while we did not get a live-play demo (the Forza presence at the briefing consisted of nothing more than a trailer played out on the big screen) the millions of dollars of Italian steel circling the block more than made up for that.

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An army of Forza Ambassadors who, easy on the eyes, were present at E3 2012 to help ease games journos into the idea that the Forza series can include racing outside of the track, in civilian territory via the roads and byways of an imaginary town in Colorado...

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Inside the big show at E3 we were introduced to the Forza Girls (they called them Ambassadors) while outside the cars that we saw the previous day circling the block were now on display -- and we used our lunch break to multi-task, grabbing sandies from the food trucks across the street and eating while observing cars on display that, to be brunt, just insuring would put a major dent in our wallets -- but the message that something new was coming and something different was happening in the racing game scene was clearly delivered.

We will be keeping an eye on the situation -- and keeping you informed -- so stay tuned to Gaming Update for ongoing coverage of this new racing scene and what it means for gamers everywhere.

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Do you have an opinion about all of these changes? Did we miss something? Do you have something to add? That's why we have an official comments system! Please feel encouraged to share your thoughts and comments below -- with us and with the GU community! Have you been playing GT Academy 2012? We would love to hear what you think! Comment below!

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