Last week, as part of the Specialty Equipment Market Association car show, the sixth Gran Turismo awards went down. They're held to honour some guys who cobble together the very best fancy, custom cars, and the winners are judged by none other than Gran Turismo bossman Kazunori Yamauchi. This year, five cars were honoured amongst the various categories, with JR Rocha picked as the overall winner for his 2007 Infiniti G37. That's it above. For his troubles, Rocha won a lovely custom PS3, and also the honour of having his car made playable in a "future installment of Gran Turismo". Better hope that's GT5 they're talking about. Any more "future" than that and it'll be the only car in the game that can't fly.

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Wow, this looks like it has the potential to be a better looking game than current best looking iPhone racer Asphalt 4 Elite Racing. Hopefully, Electronic Art's iPhone racer's beauty won't be as skin deep as Asphalt's is. I still can't really control the car in that game. Hit the jump for the full gallery of the game due to hit the App store later this month.

Last year's MotorStorm gave PlayStation 3 owners a novel concept, a game that added context and surroundings much more compelling than you usually get in pick-up-and-play racers. Half the fun was the exquisitely hallucinated reason for it all, that there could actually be a beyond-extreme rally "festival" held in Utah's Monument Valley, sort of like Sturgis meets Burning Man with loads more violent collisions and fatal wrecks. And, one assumes, crazy monkey sex in everyone's tents at night.

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The Need for Speed series has been slinging cars around tracks for nearly 15 years, and now EA is finally bringing the experience into the real world with Need for Speed Live. Announced today at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas, Need for Speed Live is a celebration of car culture designed for fans of exotic cars and drift racing. The event will serve as a showcase for video games, exotic cars, music, and if I know anything about car shows, women in skimpy clothing laying across hoods.

Need for Speed is all about the racing, however, and EA will be inviting the top drifters and time attack cars from all over the world to compete in an international race battle, along with a manufacturer time attack exhibition.

The event will be open to the public, and is penciled in for the Brands Hatch Circuit near London, though negotiations are still underway. Hit the jump for more details, or visit www.needforspeedlive.com, where I am certain they will eventually catch up with the press release.

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Criterion has been updating the hell out of Burnout Paradise lately, and as a rash of new blog posts on their official blog indicate, they're not done by a long shot. Today they've announced Burnout Paradise Party, an offline party mode for up to 8 people due out in February, where players will complete in simple challenges using innovative pass-the-controller technology. The new mode comes complete with some sweet new menus and new achievements and trophies to be earned by people who can at least pretend they have 7 friends.

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Halo 3 on a NASCAR? Predictable. The Wii on a NASCAR? Understandable, since everybody has a Wii these days. But we're struggling to find just where, exactly, the NASCAR fanbase and the LittleBigPlanet fanbase dovetail. Yet dovetail they did over the weekend just past, this GameStop/LittleBigPlanet racer finishing a respectable 5th place. Not bad for a car that looks like it was knitted by my gran.

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I've been playing some Midnight Club LA over the past few days and it's had me thinking about the racer debate of sim versus arcade driving and tuning styles. Unless you are a Gran Turismo or Forza, at some point you are making a choice to plant yourself on a scale somewhere between the extremes (placing the likes of Daytona firmly up the arcade end of the spectrum -- zero car tuning or choice, just slam peddles pedals and steer like hell).

Ignoring the frustrations of AI that almost never crashes, and certainly never makes a wrong turn (I largely agree with the US review, though more weight given to the 'love' column -- really enjoying the game, but it can get frustrating when a single mistake can often cost you a race), it is clear that Rockstar has targeted a very balanced position in the arcade-sim spectrum. Tuning vehicles is quite easy, but as funds trickle into your garage you do want to carefully choose which upgrades to buy and when to buy them -- getting the right performance enhancement with that spare $600 can definitely help win your next race when the competition is tough. But you can also auto upgrade and leave the next choice up to the system.

The best part of what MC LA has achieved is that you can feel the difference in vehicles when you drive them, and that is something that has often only been found in the sims. The tweaks may be simple, but you can appreciate that you have upgraded the car you are driving, and that is where you actually feel rewarded.

Any racing fans out there with their preferred position on the curve? If the tuning system is 'dumbed down', would you prefer it wasn't there at all? Or are true racing sims dead to you?

Very nice chase video promo for the upcoming Need for Speed Undercover. Hot cars, great look. Of course, all those camera angles make for more style than substance of what the game will really feel like, but let's say something out loud and hope EA hears it -- a replay mode that features a sexy AI cameraman to zoom around a chase like this would be HOT.

Car games need a good soundtrack to cruise to, so Midnight Club LA needs some quality tunes. Rockstar has today announced the highlights package and being an LA game it's very much focused on the west coast scene. A few highlights from the highlights (that probably show up my personal musical biases) include Tricky, Modeselektor, The Chemical Brothers, Bloc Party, Beck, NIN, and Ice Cube. Full list is over the hump.

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Here's the latest trailer for Midnight Club LA and the police chase action you can expect to find. Or does a police chase find you?

Get ready speed addicts because we're getting closer to the release of Need For Speed: Undercover. We got a new trailer highlighting the new "Highway Battle Mode" for you guys which doesn't show much in terms of gameplay, but a high speed race on the freeway? That's always entertaining - in a Hollywood kind of way. You can expect to be emptying your wallets on November 18th in North America and November 21st in Europe.

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This past Wednesday Erika "Skittles" Galegor, professional Project Gotham 3 gamer, was kind enough to meet me at the Flatiron mall in Broomfield, Colorado for an interview. We had to setup the interview pretty quick actually because as it turned out "Skittles" was leaving the next day for Los Angeles to compete in the World Cyber Games National Finals at 'E for All. So I decided to employ the help of two of my very good friends Andrew Croft and Matt Schultz to shoot the segment. What she didn't know was that we didn't only bring the camera, we rigged Project Gotham Racing 3 in the back of the car.

America's Best To Compete at World Cyber Games Finals in LA

Brace for it MotorStorm fans, today Sony released details about the 16 tracks you can expect to race come October 28th. We're happy to say there seems to be a lot more variety in the environments this time around. Just a word of caution though, if you want to surprised when you get your copy, you might want to skip this one. Full list of tracks and element screens after the jump.

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PlayStation 3 racing fans are advised to hop into Gran Turismo 5 Prologue today, where a game update adds three new cars to the game's stable, along with various gameplay tweaks to help tighten up the experience. The three new rides include the Ferrari California will go for 300,000 credits, the Lotus Evora for 100,000 credits, and finally the Citroen GT, weighing in at a hefty 1,000,000 credits.

Along with the new cars comes difficulty tweaks for races, increased rewards for winning, and some changes to the penalty system that I, as someone who has yet to take advantage of the highly-priced demo, couldn't possibly understand. Hit the link for more details, or just turn on your PS3 and load up the game, which I am sure will explain everything.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Update Available Now! And Includes NEW CARS!! [PlayStation Blog]

This trailer for Midnight Club Los Angeles shows off the return of special abilities: Zone, Agro, and Roar are back in the game, and the 'all-new EMP' to send out a disabling shockwave. Nice. Have to say, when I play arcade racers I very much like it when I get to weaponize!

GTbyCITROËN has been unveiled at the Paris Motor Show, and it's an interesting spot of marketing fun. Citroen partnered with Kazunori Yamauchi from Polyphony Digital to design an ultimate fuel cell concept car, and then engineered the beast as a driveable concept vehicle for the Motor Show. The car is now available as a downloadable addition to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue so anyone can take it for a spin. Naturally, they claim the car's in-game and on-road performance are true to form, but how many of us will get the chance to test that theory? Full release after the jump.

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When you think Disney you don't typically think off-road racing. Which is probably why Disney Interactive bought up Black Rock Studios, a developer known for their off-road racing titles, including their work on the ATV Offroad Fury and MotoGP franchises. This time around the studio created Pure, a brand new franchise for Disney that focuses more on the exhilaration of speed and tricks than on the nitty-gritty of realism and detail.

Can Disney break into an already saturated genre, taking on BAJA: Edge of Control and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift with an ATV trick title? Lets see.

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Yuke's Company of America has big things in store for Nintendo's WiiWare program, and they're kicking things off with an innovative take on the racing genre with BPM Racing in early 2009. It combines racing with rhythm, with drivers gifted with greater speeds, increased handling, and score multipliers for keeping up with the rhythm of the music played as they drive.

"The racing genre is ripe for a new, innovative direction and increasing the aural experience seemed like an obvious choice." said Ken Koyama, Director of Business Development at YUKE'S Company of America. "BPM Racing will reinvent the relationship between a racing game and its soundtrack."

If done right, this could be a completely blissful experience. I can't drive without music. My car radio once broke and I spent a week making up my own songs while driving to keep myself from going insane while it was being repaired. If I had had a tape recorder with me I would have made millions (of people nauseous).

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Prepare to qualify! Namco Networks, the mobile game development and publishing arm of good old Namco Bandai has futzed around with a classic racing title and dropped it on the iPhone for a whole new generation (read: market) of gamers to enjoy. Pole Position: Remix takes the primitive gameplay of the original Pole Position, tacks on some rather nifty new controls, and charges you $9.99 for the privilege of playing it.

"Pole Position: Remix is a fun and intuitive game that anyone can take for a spin," says Scott Rubin, senior vice president, Namco Networks. "Similar to playing a racing game in an arcade, Pole Position: Remix makes you feel as if you are actually getting behind the wheel and racing on the track, screeching around turns and breaking to avoid a crash."

In a fit of nostalgia I downloaded the game this morning. It's solid, and the controls are fun, both the tilt steering and the on-screen thumb-controlled steering wheel options. It's just the gameplay really hasn't aged all that well. I need some sort of nostalgia alarm that locks my wallet when the feeling hits. If you just can't resist, PP:Remix is now available at an Apple Apps Store near you.

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Most of us out there who have played a racing game for any period time have fantasized about being in the game while we're driving real cars, but the important thing is that we don't act on such fantasies. Tell that to NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, who attempted to defeat rival and two-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson by...purposefully bouncing his car off a concrete wall.

"I planned on hitting the wall, but I didn't plan on the wall slowing me down that much," Edwards said. "In video games, you can just run into the wall and run it wide open. That's what I did, but it didn't quite work out the same as the video game."

*rubs temples* Oh my head. How are we supposed to keep our children from setting people on fire when their role-models decide that driving at top speeds on a crowded raceway is a good time to see how accurate the physics in GRID are?

Johnson wins, Edwards hits wall on purpose [HamptonRoads.com]

The release of WipEout HD was a long time a-comin' and, unfortunately, its launch on the PlayStation Store is not without its problems. PlayStation 3 owners are reporting that their copies of the SCEE developed hoverracer are locking up, with users pointing to larger friend lists as a potential source of the problem. We contacted Sony PR to find out more.

"Following the release of WipEout HD on PLAYSTATION Store yesterday, we've been following the reports by some members of the community regarding problems with game freezes," SCEA reps confirmed. "We'd like to reassure you all that the WipEout team is working hard to resolve this issue as quickly as possible."

As far as the cause, SCEA tells us that anything we might have read about the source of the issue is, at this point, "rumour and speculation." It is worth noting though, that some WipEout HD players are noting that they're having better luck with a leaner friend list. Just sayin'.

Fuel, says Codemaster's exec producer David Brickley, is soooooo big that it makes Paradise City - off of Criterion's Burnout - look like a postage stamp by comparison.

The game - as Codemasters has been telling us for a while now - has a open play area equivalent to 5,000 square miles. It's not a great comparison - even by Brickley's calculations (he used Powerpoint, bless) Paradise City would need to be a postage stamp about 2.5 miles across - but I think we get his point.

So flippin' huge is the game that if made using 'traditional methods' (we think he is referring to data compression rather than hand tools and leather aprons) the game would fill a whopping 4 Blu-ray discs as opposed to the still fairly ginormous 1 Blu-ray disc it actually takes up.

Fuel's open world would fill '4 Blu-rays' [Videogamer]

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A while back we posted a trailer that claimed to have the first in game footage of Need For Speed: Undercover. The truth is that it really didn't show a whole lot. In fact it was more like a teaser. Today however, we got a new trailer that I can safely say has some of the first real gameplay footage we've seen so far. How does it look? well, if you've been itching to taunt police at high speeds with shiny expensive cars, then Need For Speed: Undercover might be for you.

You know, when you think about it MotorStorm was pretty good. There was definitely a sort of awe when it came to racing along the edge of a mile high cliff and being able to see everything. Hopefully, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift will be able to carry the torch further and fill in the gaps the original MotorStorm left empty. These new screenshots show off some of the gosh darn gorgeous visuals we can't wait to see in person. Four player split screen with giant monster trucks and molten lava? Count us in!

Motorstorm Pacific Rift Gallery