Sony’s announced a Japanese release date for Gran Turismo 5 of November 3 – along with a special ‘Racing Pack’ bundle, which comes with a blue PS3.

The Racing Pack contains a 160 gigabyte PS3 and a copy of the game and a Dual Shock 3 controller.

Everything’s a cool “Titanium Blue,” apparently designed in the image of a muffler (ha…muffler).

The announcement seems very Japan focused with a price of 35,980 (about £271) attached to the bundle, so no word as yet on whether we’ll be seeing blue PS3 consoles over here.

The EU release date for GT5 was also announced as November 3 yesterday at the Sony conference at GamesCom.

This site is updated regularly per day with the latest Free PlayStation news and hardware reviews.

Medal Of Honiour, GT5, F1 2010, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, COD: Black Ops

FirstPlay: See the future of PS3. First.

Episode 19 goes live on the Store this Wednesday, and in it we’ll be bringing you HD video footage of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. And if you like the look of the game, celebrate by installing the free theme in this week’s downloads section.

Elsewhere we take a look at the new Medal Of Honor’s multiplayer mode and check out some of the hottest games heading to PS3 in 2011, including Bulletstorm, inFamous 2 and Dead Space 2. We also rate Red Dead Redemption online, plus round-up the best new VDS movies and Store content.  

Over in the screenshot galleries you’ll find the latest hi-res images of F1 2010, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and the mighty Call Of Duty: Black Ops. We also compare Gran Turismo 5’s graphics with the real world. The real world loses.

Episode 19 of FirstPlay costs 99p to download from the PlayStation Store, or you can get episodes for just 75p by taking out a 90-day subscription at £8.99.

We’d also like to remind you that you can stay in touch with all things FirstPlay by following us on Twitter and on our Facebook page. We also have a YouTube channel up and running.

The FirstPlay team would love to hear from the PS3 community so if you’ve got anything to share, from videos and grabs to suggestions for content feel free to get in touch.

This site is updated regularly per day with the latest Slim PS3 news and hardware reviews.

After releasing a year after its competition, launching at $599 for the ideal SKU, and starting off with delays and shortages, there were points where analysts and gamers alike were questioning any success of the PlayStation 3 at all. Looking back and coming back to present day, it is difficult to comprehend where the PS3 has came just three years after the risky release. Now, looking towards the future, evidence from this past year show signs of Sony’s flagship home entertainment console coming out on top of the immediate competition.
Glancing at the sales numbers of the past 12 months of the PS3, it is clear the the tides have turned in Sony’s favor. Despite price drops, new SKU’s, and announcements from Microsoft, statistical analysis shows that the PS3 sold 14.3 million units in the past year compared to the 360’s 10.3 million, about a 28% higher sales. Adding in these numbers to the lifetime sales of both platforms, the PS3 now lags 3.6 million units behind the 360.

Also interesting to note is that the year before this past year, the PlayStation 3 had been outsold by 1.5  million units. As illustrated by the numbers, the year-to-year sales gaps are now closing and if the trend continues, the PS3 could very well overtake Xbox 360 sales in 2011. Will this happen? With the PlayStation Move and Gran Turismo 5 looking to be the biggest system-sellers of the year, it is indeed a possibility. Tell us your take in the comments below.

Slim-PS3.com is updated frequently per day with the latest Free Slim PS3 news.

Examiner.com
“Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3 has added several new features including 3D, Move, car damage and many more. One of those new features is called head tracking and uses the Playstation Eye camera to simulate turning your head side to side to look at your mirrors. On paper, it sounds neat but is it useful? After seeing a video of someone using head tracking in action, we are doubtful about this for the majority of PS3 owners.” Slim-PS3.com is updated regularly per day with the latest Slim PS3 news and reviews.

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Gran Turismo 5, it seems just keeps getting delayed with an unholy jinx. The game which is currently under development by Polyphony Digital is a PS3 exclusive title.
First revealed by its producer Kazunori Yamauchi in E3 2006, it has taken more than 4 years and $60 million in its development process. And yet according to [...] Slim-PS3.com is updated regularly each day with the latest Free PS3 news and reviews.

Polyphony Digital’s Kazunori Yamauchi has stated that Gran Turismo 5’s will look “better than reality.”

A bold statement, Yamauchi went on to say:

“In a way, it’s kind of a given that it’s going to look better than reality The thing about reality is that the criteria for looking ‘real’ are actually a lot stricter and volatile than you’d expect: the way the sun shines, reflects off something, the way it lights scenery – we seldom have the opportunity to see what we consider ‘reality’ under the best and most aesthetically pleasing conditions.”

Elaborating on his statement, Yamauchi stated that races depicted in video games are typically more aesthetically pleasing when compared to the real thing as broadcast on TV.

GT5 is due for release on the PlayStation 3 in Japan on 31 March 2010.

Sony confirmed at the Tokyo Game Show that the much anticipated racer Gran Turismo 5 will be released in Japan in March next year.

The game was expected to arrive in Europe around December, though this news would put the release back to at least March next year as we’re sure the Japanese version will, as usual, be the first to market. This removes one of the biggest potential sellers of the holiday season from your Christmas list.

The already impressive Slim PS3 sales since launch will inevitably slow in the next few weeks, although with the holiday season fast approaching it looks as though sales won’t slow down for long. Coming to help push Slim PS3 sales are a raft of Sony-exclusive titles, all scheduled for release before the end of the year. If you want to play these then you need a PlayStation console. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s coming:

Gran Turismo 5
The long awaited diving sim will surely be the hottest game yet on the PS3 when it finally arrives, hopefully later this year. Expect special bundle packs including the console and game so if you’re waiting to but a Slim PS3 then you might be best waiting for this one to arrive.

God of War: Collection
PS2 favourites will be released on the Playstation 3 this autumn and with enhancements such as 720p resolution, 60 frames per second support and trophy implementation there will be something to add to the experience if you’ve already played the games on the previous generation consoles.

Demon’s Souls
This already released in Japan role player promises to provide a deep and enthralling world filled with some seriously scary creatures. With a relative lack of RP games on the PlayStation platform we’d expect this to be a big seller.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Although it is based on the Xbox 360 title Ninja Gaiden II the PS3 version promises to contain plenty of exclusive content such as new bosses, game play alterations and all-new playable characters. You can also expect improved graphics and a two player online gaming option.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
As a successor to the popular Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune this exclusive should be  worthwhile improvement to the original. As well as improved graphics players can expect various online modes to be introduced.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Another addition to the popular Ratchet & Clank series should always be a big seller. With this release expect far features more varied game play including some exciting new space exploring segments. Another great Slim PS3 exclusive to look forward to.

PlayStation website PSBeyond is claiming that the long awaited Gran Turismo 5 will be released in the UK on 25 September. They say that the source of the date has come direct from a Sony official. Although the date conveniently coincides with the Tokyo Games Show 2009 it seems a little too close for us, although as we have seen with the Slim PS3 Sony are quite able to release something pretty soon after an announcement.

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French website JeuxVideo have clamed that a new Gran Turismo 5 bundle containing the Slim PS3 and the game will be launched on 4 December 2009. Their evidence is that they have an SKU (product code) for the package.

Nothing has been confirmed by Sony, but considering their denial of the Slim PS3 we’re not too surprised by this.

Whether it’s true or not we don’t know, but as GT5 will probably be the PlayStation 3’s biggest game and with a release date before the holiday season, we’re pretty sure Sony won’t miss an opportunity to put out such a bundle.

Source: product-reviews.net