As far as gifting video games goes, racing games are easy. You generally know if your loved one is a racing fan, and if they owned an Xbox 360 and hadn't picked up a game in the past few months, then the gift for them was pretty obvious - Forza Motorsport 3. Turn 10 took a moment during its holiday weekend to let fans know via Twitter just how much fresh meat was being introduced to the popular racing title.

Merry Christmas Forza faithfuls! We saw a huge jump in users this week and over the past day or so, we added approx 1 new user per second!

One user per second? That's like 60 users per minute, or 360 users an hour. If they kept up that pace for an entire year, that would be 3,153,600 users in a year!

Of course they won't keep up that pace. I was just having fun with Windows calculator. I've been on vacation far too long.

100 million is a large number. According to EA, it represents nearly every household in America, and is three times the population of Canada, which helps put the over 100 million Need for Speed games sold since 1994 into perspective. The driving game series has sold more copies than passenger cars in the U.S. during the same time period. Of course most of us don't trade our cars in for a new model every year, and you can't lease a Need for Speed game.

Did you know that Need for Speed games have been released in 22 languages in more than 60 countries, or that all of the Need for Speed boxes, if laid out end-to-end, would span 173,609 football fields? No? How about the fact that players have driven more than 279 billion miles in the games, and generated more than 17 trillion vehicle customizations? Impressive, right?

What's most impressive is that EA has managed to release a new Need for Speed on average every year since 1994, and the series still hasn't grown stale for countless players. With a few exceptions, ever new version has managed to differentiate itself from the others enough to keep us from constantly whining about another game coming out. That takes some serious skill. Well played, EA.

It's DJ Hero day at North Carolina's Lowe's Motor Speedway this weekend, as Target and Activision bring together DJ Hero and NASCAR fans for a day full of scratching and racing, which sounds like any other NASCAR event, now that I think about it. This time around the scratching will be done on DJ Hero controllers located at The Fan Midway across the street from the track, where kiosks will be running DJ Hero all day long.

Along with wrapping his car in video game advertisements, Truex Jr. will also be appearing at The Fan Midway between 3:30 and 4:00pm to try his hand at the DJ rhythm game, no doubt some sort of contractual obligation of sorts that should result in an awkward 30 minutes of entertainment, at the very least.

"Playing videogames has always been a favorite activity of mine, and I can't wait to get my hands on DJ Hero," said Martin Truex, Jr. "We've had some great partners on our Chevy this year, including two of Activision's biggest hits, Guitar Hero Smash Hits and Guitar Hero 5. They were both awesome, but I've really been waiting on DJ Hero to hit the shelves. I know NASCAR fans are going to love both the game and our car. Target and Activision have really helped to give my Chevrolet an awesome new look that is sure to turn some heads!"

For those of you scratching your heads, trying to figure out some connection between NASCAR and DJ Hero to help make the announcement go down a little smoother, realize that both go round and round and make noise. You're welcome.

The story of James Elterman finding a cheap livery designer via the Forza community forums is inspiring, but I'm much more interested in watching Peugeot 908 Le Mans driver Stephane Sarrazin take a drive through courses he's raced on in cars he's familiar with. The fact that he can hop onto the game and clock a time one millisecond over his actual race time is simply mind-boggling.

Who needs Shenmue 3 when you can get the total Shenmue experience playing as Ryo Hazuki in Sega All-Star Racing? Ryo puts the kitten-feeding and gashapon collecting to rest in order to make sure Sonic, Tails, and that damn monkey from Samba De Amigo don't prove themselves faster than his motorcycle. If that fails, Ryo can also get behind the wheel of a forklift to truly fork with the opposition.

With the inclusion of Ryo as a Sega superstar, could Shenmue 3 be far behind? Probably.

Update: Sega has posted a video of Ryo in action:

Ryo Hazuki Returns [IGN]

It's all in the name of multiplayer, according to the Activision press release announcing Blur's move into next year, a move that will give the development team "more time to enhance the game's innovative and distinctive online multiplayer gameplay". In other words, the online isn't quite finished yet.

"We are committed to making Blur a great new racing franchise, and we are very encouraged by the game's design," stated Mike Griffith, President and CEO, Activision Publishing. "The additional time will allow the studio to fully optimize the vision they set out to create for Blur including a distinctive and groundbreaking multiplayer mode that will appeal to a broad audience."

It remains to be seen when in 2010 the game will be released, with the company only mentioning the year without any specific month or season or even half. Here's hoping it's early in the year, for the sake of anyone who might have been really looking forward to it. Anyone?

Nitro's animated style gets a bit more animated with the inclusion of custom car skins from celebrated brands tokidoki and Upper Playground and the video game culture celebration that is i am 8-bit. Not only have each contributed full vehicle skins to the game, they've also provided more that 140 brushes that players can use to add their own personal touch to their vehicles, from Lamborghini to Volkswagen.

"tokidoki, Upper Playground and i am 8-bit create art with distinct and cutting edge personalities," said Gil Rimmer, Art Director, EA Montreal. "With Need for Speed NITRO, we wanted to give players a variety of ways to customize their vehicles, introducing vivid and fresh urban art styles that have never been seen in racing games before."

Nitro keeps looking better and better. I've been captured by the unique art direction of the title since the first set of screenshots were released, and the contributions of these three lifestyle brands just make things that much sweeter.

Need for Speed Nitro for the Wii and DS is slated for release on November 17th.

If I were a big face of racing games on the iPhone and had really large pockets, this product might be right up my alley. Your iPod Touch or iPhone fits snugly in the middle of this plastic wheel, creating an apparatus that while a great deal less portable, delivers a driving experience a bit closer to actual driving than simply holding a plastic and metal rectangle in your hands does. It comes complete with multiple adapters, so your device will fit no matter what generation it might be.

The steering wheel comes in two flavors, both with and without the suction cup base. I'm not finding pricing details on the items in the official announcement, but can you really put a price on this sort of functionality? Head over to CTA Digital's website for more product information and a listing of stores carrying their products.

Sure it isn't a hyper-realistic racer that lets you see your own reflection in the rear-view mirror. That's not really what the Wii is all about, now is it? Need for Speed Nitro looks like it could be a hell of a lot of fun, and that trumps realistic vehicle physics and design any day in my book...mainly because I suck horribly at realistic driving games.

As for the DS version...yeah, not a big fan of DS racing titles that don't end with the word "kart".

The game actually doesn't seem to have suffered too much from the transition. Sure, it's nowhere near as detailed as its big brothers on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but it looks like Codemasters has done a pretty reasonable job of keeping the core game play intact while tweaking the graphics so they don't simply seemed like a dumbed-down version of something from a much more powerful console. Good for them!

Few dirt bikes or ATVs are driven in close proximity to Kotaku's New York branch office, but the cultural alienation from the sputtering, noisy and much-beloved sport racing vehicles is no barrier to appreciating their presence in a hit gaming series.

But given the spectacle of Sony's MotorStorm series, THQ and Rainbow Studios' series needs to advance to still impress. Here's how the newest one is shaping up.

What Is It?
MX Vs. ATV Reflex is the latest in Rainbow Studios' decade-long series of games with similar or related names, including MX Vs. ATV Untamed, ATV Offroad Fury and more. This one's slated for an Xbox 360, PS3, DS, PSP release this holiday.

What We Saw
I tested two of the game's main new features, a right-stick body-lean and some "physical" rut-creation. I did this in a few empty environments, a snowy mountainside set up for a race and a freestyle stunt course set up near an aircraft carrier.

How Far Along Is It?
The game's set for a holiday release.

What Needs Improvement?
Clumsy Hands: The new controls map body leaning to the right stick. They also map tricks to the right stick. The player switches the right stick from the former to the latter scheme by holding down a shoulder button. This is as simple a system as I can imagine but one that took some getting used to. When I took a jump in the freestyle bike park, I sometimes thought I was knocking the right stick every which-way to make tricks happen, but, because I pressed the wrong bumper, I was instead just leaning my rider every which-way. I think this is one of those instances where I take the blame, not the game. But it's something to watch out for when trying the game and testing the responsiveness of its controls.

Signs of Life: The racing areas I showed were, for demo purposes, sparsely populated. But in an age of high-calamity racetracks like those seen in Disney's upcoming Split/Second or the party-on-the-roadside rave racing of MX vs ATV competitor MotorStorm, fans may be looking for a lot of excitement and energy on the periphery of their racing, not just on the track. It remains to be seen if MX Vs. ATV will have an abundance of that.

What Should Stay The Same?
The Lean: When riding a bike or an ATV, the left analog stick turns the wheels. The right analog stick shifts the rider's weight. So regular turns just involve leaning the left stick. Sharp turns are made by leaning both sticks. Leaning the rider's body in the air helps tilt an airborne vehicle. The mapping is perfectly intuitive and feels great.

The Analog Tricks: Tricks in the game are now inputted with about 70 variations of right analog-stick movement. Gone are button presses, replaced by a more intuitive and fluid system, one that feels reminiscent of inputting fighting game quarter-circle attacks.

The Creative Ruts: Many games allow players to drive ruts into the ground. The THQ rep showing me MX Vs ATV: Reflex said that no racing game until this one made those ruts have physical properties in their games. I'm not sure that's correct, but it makes me no less impressed with how well it worked in Reflex. Mud, snow and other non-hard surfaces can be dug into by tires, feet dangling from sharp-turning bikes or even from the impact of a body after a crash. The ruts and divots re-shape the track and, despite all the donuts I made in the mud, they stay in memory for multiple laps. This is how it should work.

Final Thoughts
No, I still don't want an ATV for Christmas this year. But the creative decisions made in MX Vs ATV are smart enough to make this a racing game to care about even for people who aren't fans of the title vehicles in real life.

The racing works. The innovations feel right. This one is on its right track, so far.

Teaser trailer? More like taser trailer. While the screenshots did an admirable job of showing off the game's graphics, I believe this teaser trailer captures the game's essence. This isn't your average pretty yet boring racing game. I'm a little worried about their overuse of electrical effects, but this is Bizarre Creations we are talking about, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt until I see more.

"We did our homework and saw a huge opportunity to move beyond traditional racers and create a game completely focused on making racing ‘fun' again," said Martyn Chudley, Creative Director, Bizarre Creations. "Blur delivers a new style of racing experience for all gamers, regardless of their experience, skill or genre preferences. Everything the player does, both in their cars and with their cars, is a dramatic adrenaline rush; it's a real blast!"

Blur will feature 20 cars, offline or online, on a track and offensive and defensive attacks set in real-world locations ranging from L.A. and San Francisco to Hackney, UK and Barcelona, Spain. The game also supports four-player split-screen play.

"We know that racing can be fun for everyone, and we are excited to enter this genre with a game that keeps players in the pack and combines fun with intense racing battles," said Maria Stipp, EVP and GM of Owned Properties, Activision Publishing. "Bizarre Creations is one of the most creative studios in the industry with a rich heritage of top-rated racing games and we are excited to partner with them on Blur, which is set to break the mold of traditional racing games."

The game will be presented through "Bizarre's innovative new community-based interface", according to the press release.

This unique story-driving social network evolves dynamically as players compete in different races, make new friends, rivals and fans, and connect with other racers both in-game and in real life.

Custom Groups will let anyone create multiplayer modes with custom settings. These new modes are then shared through Blur's "social network" so others can try the modes as well.

Blur is set for a fall release on the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

I'm not exactly sure what Codemasters' marketing folks were thinking when they decided to create a trailer that compared modern-day car navigation systems with red arrows flying through the sky in the direction you are supposed to be heading. One is a relatively mundane technological tool, while the other is obviously a result of the dark magics that created the apocalypse in the first place. The game blames global warming, but once you start harnessing demonic energies to help you find the nearest Wal-Mart the world is pretty much screwed no matter what direction the temperature is moving.

DiRT 2 shows up the original DiRT in several different ways, featuring more cars, more real-world locations, and enhanced graphics courtesy of an enhanced version of the EGO game engine, as seen in Codemaster's GRID. Aside from the usual upgrades we expect from a sequel, DiRT 2 will also feature a robust online community to serve as a social hub for fans of off-road racing, complete with leader boards, news feeds, and "scribbles" that keep you posted on your friends' achievements in-game.

I'm really amazed by the visuals Codemasters achieves with the EGO engine. Mud has never looked so sexy.

The game is said to be a third-person Bond game that's racing and driving focused. But they're also working on a second racing game, described last year as Mario Kart meets Forza.

With both games on their plate, Activision wants to make sure that the developer will have plenty of time to make sure the games shine.

Activision publishing president Mike Griffith said the game was moved away from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and a crowded holiday slate, two factors which he said " negatively affected" the sales of its previous Bond effort, Quantum of Solace.

GTi Club+ is a nifty little arcade-style racer that sees you and your opponents making your way through the tight city streets and winding mountain roads of France's Ville De Circo in those little tiny cars the Europeans are so fond of. Players can explore the city in their Volkswagen Golf or Mini Cooper, participate in races, or play hot potato with explosives, which we really don't recommend trying at home.

This is one I've been waiting for since they announced it back at the Games Convention at Leipzig. I am eagerly refreshing the PSN as we speak. In the meantime, check out some new screens below, featuring tiny-cars getting far more air than they should.

KONAMI ANNOUNCES GTI CLUB+ EXCLUSIVELY FOR PlayStation®Network

Arcade-Style Racing Game Revs Up With High Definition Graphics for up to Eight Players Online
El Segundo, Calif. – Jan. 15, 2008 – Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced that GTI Club+, the classic arcade-style racing game originally released by Konami in 1996, is now available for download on the PlayStation®Network, the digital media delivery service for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. With spectacular HD graphics, GTI Club+ enables players to compete online with up to eight friends in either free-for-all events or team play.

In GTI Club+, players race through the tight city streets and winding mountain roads of France’s Ville De Circo with an elite collection of high performance European hatchbacks, such as the Mini Cooper and Volkswagen Golf. The easy pick-up-and-play racing game allows beginners and experienced veterans alike to explore the open city for the most efficient routes between checkpoints, race each other to the top of the worldwide leaderboards, or partake in the fast-paced game of Bombtag, a free-for-all-mode where players play hot potato with explosives.

GTI Club+ takes full advantage of the PLAYSTATION®3 system, utilizing the DUALSHOCK®3 wireless controller to create vibrations when cars race over bumps in the road, as well as provide motion controlled steering. As an added bonus, gamers can take pictures using the PLAYSTATION®Eye and distribute them to other gamers during crucial racing moments such as overtaking, crashing and ramming.

For more information on GTI Club+ please visit: www.konami.com.

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 negotiiations 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.

EA BRINGS NEED FOR SPEED TO LIFE IN NEXT SUMMER'S BIGGEST DRIFT AND TIME ATTACK RACING EVENT
London to Host Need for Speed Live 2009 International Race Event

GUILDFORD, UK – November 5, 2008 – Today at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced Need for Speed™ Live, a unique festival and competition that celebrates car culture. This first-time event will be open to the public and will be hosted next summer at the world famous Brands Hatch Circuit* located near London, England. The weekend-long experience will be a showcase of entertainment, videogames, music, car shows and displays designed to appeal to fans of racing games, proud owners of hot vehicles, fans of exotic cars and motorsports enthusiasts.

Need for Speed Live will invite some of the world’s top drifters and time attack cars from across Europe, North America and Japan to gather in one location to compete in a battle of the continents. Need for Speed Live will also include demonstrations by some of the world’s most famous race and exotic cars in a manufacturer time attack exhibition.

“For over 14 years, Need for Speed has been at the forefront of automotive culture and this Live race event brings the spirit of Need for Speed games to life with all of the energy, adrenaline and sexiness that the franchise represents,” said Rod Chong, Creative Director for Need for Speed Live. “Need for Speed Live will definitely push each driver and their cars to the limit as they contend with dramatic elevation changes and harrowing fourth-gear 100 mph drifts.”
For more information on Need for Speed Live, please visit www.needforspeedlive.com.

* To be confirmed; Negotiations in progress.

High Voltage Announces New WiiWare Racer [Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

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.

Loved
Exhilarating Tricks: Tricks in Pure truly stand out. They are what make this game different from the others hitting this year. And it's not just about the occasional can-can or Superman, it's about building up your ability over the course of the race to do increasingly absurd, over-the-top tricks that have you floating free of the ATV for giant chunks of time. Better still, if you mess up, and don't scramble back into your seat in time, you know there's a good chance you'll lose.

Snappy Controls: Forgoing the realism of locked tires, or speed-induced topples, Pure concentrates instead on making sure the controls are exceptionally responsive. It might not be completely realistic, but it's fun.

Custom Rides: I'm not a gear head myself, but even I thought that it was kind of neat to be able to change every single piece of my ATV out with a laundry list of substitutes earned through races. You can even paint everything. And if you don't want to bother you can have a ride randomly created for you.

Tight track design: The tracks in the game, there are only a dozen locations, are all fairly hitch free. Each offer up enough different routes over the course of a race to almost give the illusion of total access.

Strategic Boost System: Boosting in Pure is tied directly to tricks, which are tied directly to boost. To earn boost you need to perform tricks. The more boost you have the more complicated the trick you can perform, which delivers even more boost. This yin and yang of boost and trick adds a bit of strategy to races as you try to determine if you can pull off a trick in the short amount of air time you get on a jump. If you don't take the chance you can boost as much, but if you do and fail it's going to be hard to catch up.

Hated
Limited Tricks: With the game relying so heavily on its beautifully animated trick system, you'd think the developers would have included more. Sure, getting up to the highest level of tricks is hard and performing them requires monster air and very good timing. But even the 70 or so tricks will get old overtime.

Static Tracks: The tracks are well designed, but it would have been nice if they showed a bit more wear and tear as you zip around them over and over and over again. I'm all about track deformation these days and while the game says it has deformation, I've yet to run a race where it was noticeable in a way that affected the outcome.

No Local Multiplayer: Local multiplayer should be a must, in my book, but I understand the reasoning behind not always including it. Well, usually I do. With a racing title, one that has such a short list of tracks and tricks, you really should include the option for split screen racing.

I like Pure, a lot. But I suspect that won't last. I need my off-roading to be a bit more robust, offer split screen races, maybe some more modes, to keep me interested. Despite that, Pure has one of the best trick systems for an off-roader that I've seen in quite awhile.

Pure, developed by Black Rock Studios and published by Disney Interactive onami was released on Sept. 23 for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Retails for $59.99. Played all tracks and modes of Playstation 3 version and tested online.

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