JGTS Salute to GTPlanet

I want to make a JGTS salute to GTPlanet as my final post of 2011 for this blog. GTPlanet has been the only online community devoted to Gran Turismo that I have been a part of. I have been part of this message board since December 5, 2003. I had initially joined just to follow news on Gran Turismo 4. It has since blossomed to me making GTPlanet my favorite message board of any kind. It was my online message board home after having so many problems trying to get along with people on a long-defunct message board called Speedsims (where I've felt like crap and unwelcome to a number of people). I have seen and encountered many people of many walks of life post on this message board. Among the people of GTP, I have felt like family there. GTPlanet is literally its own planet with millions of people whom have joined the message boards and many more who read the latest Gran Turismo news. I have been more than pleased to encounter so many people.

Perhaps a strength of how strong the Gran Turismo community is was when I posted about the kiosk demo of Gran Turismo 5 back in 2010. I received SO MANY BLOG HITS from GTPlanet's news tidbit that I earned loads of readers in such short time. The hits came from all over the world and back. Even other message boards linked to my blog post on John's Blog Space. The hits came from almost everywhere- United States, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, most of continental Europe, Mauritus (an African island nation east-northeast of Madagascar), Australia, and New Zealand among many other places. I even try to get some casual readers from GTPlanet to visit "John's Gran Turismo Space."

I had already done one of these blog posts saluting GTPlanet back on "John's Blog Space." However, I want to salute GTPlanet here since JGTS is a more proper Gran Turismo environment than my "anything and everything" environment on John's Blog Space. The person I'd most like to thank is Jordan. Jordan is the founder and administrator of GTPlanet. I also salute the many Moderators for maintaining GTPlanet, keeping it fun and active. I am thankful for all of the many wonderful people worldwide whom I've gotten to meet on this site.

Are You Visiting JGTS from GTPlanet?

If you are visiting my blog from GTPlanet, let me welcome you to my GT-specific blog. I hope you enjoy your time here. Feel free to look around and see the many resources I've put together. Most of all, thank you for visiting!





Learn more about GTPlanet by visiting www.gtplanet.net. You can get social with GTPlanet by finding its Facebook fan page and its Twitter feed, all of which can be found on GTPlanet. I hope all of you have a happy and safe new year! Thank you for reading!

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Version 2.02 Update and Review

As a holiday gift, Version 2.02 of Gran Turismo 5 lends itself a number of updates and fixes to a host of items in GT5. The download comes in at around 240 megabytes. Is this an update to be proud of or not? This blog post will fill you in on the latest updates to GT5 as well as some of my own thoughts and observations.

--- Gran Turismo 5: Version 2.02 Update ---

You can read more about the 2.02 update by reading the official 2.02 Update Notice from the US Gran Turismo site

So what does the 2.02 update feature? Read below. Any thoughts of mine are expressed in bold letters.

New Car Pack 2.

The latest pack of downloadable cars include the following:

• 2012 R35 GT-R
• 2011 Mini Cooper S
• Volkswagen Golf VI R
• Volkswagen Scirocco R

Pretty sweet batch of compacts and one beastly GT-R.

Major Changes and New Features.

• Standard cars can now have wheels changed.
VERY welcome news. Now, you won't have to worry about being stuck with a boring set of wheels for your Standard rides!

• Family Upgrade - users registered on one PS3 can all use the same settings
I have only one account with my PS3 (mine), so I can't speak on this.

• cars purchased as downloadable content now appear in Dealerships.
You can now purchase as many of a car as you like from the Dealership.

• copy feature now added to car settings
This can come in handy for saving copies of your setups or applying elements of one setup to another. Take full advantage of this, tuners!

Gifts.

• Everyone gets a 2012 Toyota 86 GT in GT5 just for downloading the Version 2.02 update!
I like this car. Come on now... who doesn't love a free car? You can even slap on some aero kit parts to this car and make it look hot for Christ's sakes! Just enjoy the danged car!

• Free Coupons for GT Auto
These are good for free customization and maintenance of your car. Save Credits and freely use these coupons to take care of your car. You get about ten of these coupons. They are good for washing your car for free, changing your oil for free, overhauling your engine for free, and restoring rigidity of your car for free.

• A gift for those purchasing the DLC's; gifts made available for purchasing any package; made available only once per account.
Among others, you pick up a nice-looking kart for kart racing in GT5.

Other Improvements.

• Pressing [SQUARE] will allow you to exchange all car coupons at once (maximum of 100).
Exchange away as many cars as you like with these changes.

• Tire Wear speed adjustment
(can't comment...)

• In the Garage and Drive List menus in A-Spec and B-Spec events, pressing [SQUARE] shows the garage, and [TRIANGLE] shows the Driver List.
Comes in very conveniently. GREAT change.


• "Max Number of Participants" now added
(can't comment...)

• Added star marks mark the number of Gold trophies in Event Selection of Seasonal Events.

• Racing sound effect improvement
The one thing I really noted was certain air sounds as you are drafting an opponent. Other than this, there isn't really much I've noticed.

• steering assist controls adjusted
(can't comment...)

Correction of Known Issues.

• fixed issue where you'd overrun without resetting, mostly due to entering the pits at slow speeds.
• fixed issue with Performance Points calculations with the Red Bull X2010 and X2011.
• fixed issue with the rear wing/aerodynamic settingss reset when switching setting sheets.
• an issue resolved involving a certain condition in an endurance race Tsukuba. The issue in question is when your car is stuck in Autopilot from Pit Lane. The entry route during pit stops and speed adjustment have also been adjusted.
• multi-monitor stability has been improved.

--- Changes I Noted ---

Again- comments noted are in bold.

• more options to adjust the HUD
You can toggle things like the driver list, the tire load indicator, and more from Quick Options in the Pause Menu. I personally want to be able to adjust the volume of sounds and music from the Pause Menu. That is a change I'd REALLY want to see when paused.

• dynamic new chase cam
This updated Chase Cam can be pretty fun. Makes the Chase view more interesting, but not interesting to the point where you get a distorted experience.

• better-arranged menu for races
Accessing the Garage in the race screen is cleaner. I love being able to quickly access the Garage and (B-Spec races only) the Driver List menus.

• rather than exiting out from Seasonal Events after completing a Seasonal race, you stay in the same Seasonal menu with the same Seasonal event.
This is a welcome improvement because I hate going right back to the GT Life menu after doing a Seasonal. I can stay within a Seasonal and keep racing away to my heart's content without having leave the menu entirely.

• Coupons won for winning all races of a Seasonal
When I checked back on Seasonals I have cleared, many of these have awarded me with Level tickets. This is good for me because it means more cars for me. Of course, these can be earned only once per Seasonal.





So if you haven't downloaded the 2.02 Update yet, please do so to update your copy of GT5. Thank you for reading!

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Kart Space

Kart Space is one of the newest tracks for Gran Turismo 5. It is a neon-lit racing facility meant for kart racing. This would a dream kart track for a family fun center with its appeal and charm. However, it is also a menacing Gran Turismo challenge. It is one of the first tracks offered as downloadable content for Gran Turismo 5 gamers along with Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. This is a small track that can still be driven quite hard.

This blog post is a look at Kart Space for Gran Turismo 5. And by the way, I'm pretty sure "Kart Space" was NOT named in honor of or inspired by "John's Gran Turismo Space!" :) ...but it would be pretty cool if it was, though. ^_^

--- Kart Space ---

Normally, I'd have a track layout to show you to start. However (and since I don't have any downloadable content (DLC)), these are just pictures of what Kart Space is like:


^ Don't let the simplicity of Kart Space knock you out of orbit.


^ Lights, colors, and speed- Kart Space is a neon-lit paradise providing an experience unlike any past Gran Turismo course has ever provided.

Kart Space has two layouts. It comes across as the kind of track you'd expect to see in some arcade racing title or in some children's racing game. It has a beautiful showcase of lights and colors to make it incredibly attractive. As a racing track, this is a course that is very much made for karting. However, it can also be driven hard enough for the most aggressive of GT racers in almost any machine. This course is only very difficult if you're trying to race this track aggressively without committing an error that gets your time disallowed.

Kart Space I.

Kart Space 1 is a 0.48-mile thrill ride for karts. The first two corners are both sharp. Turn 1 comes up as a sharp right. You go over a checker-painted crest into an equally sharp Turn 2. But this time, it's a sharp left. The track goes downhill a bit to set you up for the smooth right at Turn 3. As you exit, a sharp right-hander approaches. A good attack will give you great speed heading into the banked carousel. You won't need to do any braking going through the carousel. After clearing the carousel, all you need is good throttle usage to power your way to the finish line with the final three corners. All of them are fairly smooth and are right-handed corners.

Kart Space II.

Kart Space 2 does away with the first three corners of Kart Space 1. It is almost essentially like a mini Indianapolis Motor Speedway but with the Kart Space carousel. Take the first two corners almost like you would at Indy's superspeedway layout. The rest of the course should be taken like you would if you were racing Kart Space 1.


Here are a couple of videos showing the two layouts (thanks to the channels who allowed for embedding of their videos):

^ Kart Space I


^ Kart Space II


Cool track, huh?





It's been a while since I've done any Race Track posts. Most of my delay in making posts for JGTS lies in YouTube video projects I'm working on as well as more blog posts for this blog on various other subjects related to the Gran Turismo series. So don't ever think that my blog is dead.

Thank you for reading!

Become a Fan (or Like) my Facebook Fan Page and subscribe this blog (and my others) via FeedBurner (or any other aggregator in the sidebar)! Visit (or subscribe):
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• Subscribe to John's Gran Turismo Space!

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