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Free Audi Quattro S1 Group B The end of year look back posted by Marco Massarutto on the official blog gave us insight into some of the free bonus content that would be coming to Assetto Corsa in the new year, with a number of vehicles and a new circuit being mentioned within the text. Amazingly, despite all the free stuff that is talked about in that blog post, we learn from Massarutto via a posting on his Facebook, that the Audi Quattro S1 Group B rally car is another item of them and that it is due for a February release. We are also treated to 3 in-game images where we can view the stunning detail in the recreation of the car, including one that gives us a good view of the interior and the multitude of switches and buttons that cover it. As is typically the case, the model is looking to be of the high standard we have come to expect from Kunos Simulazioni. [gallery type=rectangular" link="file" size="seven-post-image" ids="6551,6552,6553] These images also provide us with more looks at the fictional Scottish track that is upcoming and will be free to download too. More information and media on this environment and what it contains should be forthcoming and being a Scot myself, I cannot wait to see what challenges and beauty await players in this location. As an aside, Massarutto brilliantly lays into the previous moaners within the community by apologising in advance that the next free bonus content will not be a SUV. This sharp little dig was made because of those super-entitled players who voiced outrage and displeasure that the free Porsches being given consisted of SUVs. We’re sure many won’t be complaining too much about this freebie, though it does make us wonder if this rally car will be getting a rally playground or something else where it can really unleash its potential? Just need to wait and see I guess.

Console Porsche Pack 3 & Private Lobbies A rather small but nonetheless important blog posting has been made by 505 Games Community Manager, Antonela Pounder, informing that Porsche Pack Volume 3 is on its way to submission next week. The third and final of the Porsche Packs has been a bit of a wait for Assetto Corsa players on PS4 and Xbox One compared to their PC brethren who got theirs shortly before Christmas, but alas the end is finally in sight. When the submission process is complete, Kunos Simulazioni will be able to give more info and a proper release date for it and the accompanying v1.12 update. The final Porsche Pack continues the run of providing some top racing and road-going models from the Porsche line-up as it includes some beauties such as the 917 K and 908 Lang-Heck for the motorsport advocates, whereas the showroom fans can have some fun with the driver focused 911 R. For those who haven't been following the path of these packs then worry not, the full range of the models included is listed below: Porsche Pack Volume 3 - Contents Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2017 Porsche 911 GT3 R 2016 Porsche 919 Hybrid 2016 Porsche 908 LH Porsche 917 K Porsche 911 R Porsche 911 Turbo S Should you not be willing to fork out some small change for the pack then a free vehicle will still be yours as the final of the freebie Porsches, the Macan Turbo, will be provided with the update just like all those previous. Still no mention of the 2017 911 RSR that was originally set for being included in the final Porsche pack but was removed and then replaced with the 911 Turbo S. The swap was done with the intention of the RSR to come at a later date some time in January as a free upgrade to that pack. However, as we are into the final part of January and nothing more has been said or seen of the car, chances are it won’t be making it this month. It will still come, of that we can be fairly sure. To keep players engaged with the game there will be a total of 40 new Special Events for the last few DLC pack releases. These are divided up between them with 15 for the Red Pack DLC, 13 for Porsche Pack Vol. 2 and 12 for the upcoming Porsche Pack Vol. 3. What's the story with Private Lobbies? As brilliant as that pack and those events are, there is another aspect that is seemingly of more importance to a number of players and that is Private Lobbies. It was really quite ridiculous of Kunos not to have this function within the game for console players, but they took notice and have been working away on making it happen for a while and now they are ready to enter the quality assurance (QA) phase. This means that the team are happy enough with how things are going and are moving on to checking how the function runs in the actual game so that they can find and detect any problems or bugs that may have been missed during the development process. If things look good, then it can go onto the next stage and get even closer to an eventual release. However if issues arise then it's back to scrolling though them screens of code to make the needed changes before repeating the process. [via Assetto Corsa blog]

DiRT 4 Announced! Surprise! That’s Codemasters today as they decided to drop the announcement that DiRT 4 is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One this June. DiRT 4 will take the “passion and authenticity of off-road racing to the next level” and wants to have players embracing the “thrill, exhilaration and adrenaline” that this sort of racing is renowned for. Giving players the ability to create in what they play on is always welcome and DiRT 4 will do this through a new system called “Your Stage”. This creation tool gives players the ability to create unique rally routes at the touch of a button: select a location and set some parameters and the game will do the hard work in creating a stage that can be raced and shared with friends. We will need to wait for more info before knowing how light or deep players can get involved with the whole process. Following hot on the heels of acclaimed rally racer simulation DiRT Rally, it is likely that the game will steer more towards the arcade spectrum but maybe with an air of authenticity that some of the previous titles seemed to move away from. With DiRT 4, we’ve sought to combine the levels of thrill and realism from last year’s DiRT Rally with the fearless excitement, fun, and adrenaline-fuelled races previously seen in its critically acclaimed prequels DiRT 2 and DiRT 3. – Codemasters blog DiRT games always tend to result in a very polished and enjoyable gameplay experience and do very well at showcasing the different types of motorsport. Factor in some massive crashes and a lot of laughs and you have a recipe for a racing game that can be enjoyed by many. [gallery type=rectangular" link="file" size="small-post-image" ids="6524,6525,6526,6527,6528,6529,6530,6531,6532,6533,6534,6535,6536,6537,6538,6539] [via Codemasters blog]

Project CARS FREE Xbox One players will be able to grab a free copy of the Project CARS racing game through ‘Games with Gold’ from mid-February. Developed by Slightly Mad Studios, it will be the second of the titles that is given away each month as a reward to subscribers of the Xbox Live Gold membership, and will be available to download from the 16th February for active members. With the title approaching the 2-year mark since its release and the sequel starting to show itself in unofficial leaks – official info and media is planned for the upcoming months – it is ‘Marketing 101’ to get the name out there and try to bring in new players to the series, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to give the game away and get people playing it. Project CARS if you don’t know, was created through the means of a crowd-funding platform with all those who contributed being able to, in some way, influence the development as it took place. Not only this, there were also advisers such as old Top Gear ‘Stig’ Ben Collins on board along with racing driver and brother of F1 stalwart Lewis Hamilton, Nicolas Hamilton. Their input and feedback made for a very authentic handling simulation that is well praised by those who do not only drive day-to-day on normal roads, but also are paid to run laps around the circuits of the world. And the game must be doing something right if you have a professional racing driver such as René Rast using it to practice often and learn the circuits of the world. Just check out the video below and his channel to view how much he not only enjoys the game but also uses it to help in his real world racing duties. It’s difficult not to take this sort of backing seriously when you know that they have experience of how the real cars and tracks feel. Oh and if that isn't persuasive enough for you then don't forget that you also get to drive and race against the ‘turboduck’ RUF too. We can never thank our former staff member Ryzza5 enough for allowing us to use his perks to make this happen and to Milli who did the actual livery design for the car itself. Cheers to you both!

The Crew Jan 2017 Patch The most recent update for The Crew is out now and it brings a bunch of fixes, improvements and gameplay changes. With the release of the ‘Calling All Units’ expansion back in November last year, players found that the chases in it can be very unbalanced, especially for those acting as the police, and so 'chase matchmaking' has been tweaked to reduce this and make them more balanced. Abilities have also been given a bit of a seeing to with the following changes being applied in order to improve the balance between street racers and police players during chases: Flashbang (Street Racers): Increased the flash intensity and duration EMP Dart (Street Racers & Cops): Increasing the cool down value from 30 sec to 40 sec Reducing some extreme effects on handling Unlimitro (Street Racers): Decreasing the cool down value from 30 sec to 20 sec Cop AI has been modified to get more challenging as a chase progresses and has even been given a bit of a telling off as now they will be less hostile to those players who are using a vehicle of a low level. They will however still attack like thunder those who brave a pursuit in vehicles of a Higher Level so they haven’t went all nice and kind. For the officers who are controlled not by machine but by an actual player, a new vehicle comes to the police garage in the form of the McLaren 12C GT3. Looking good in its police colours, this is another car that will be right at home in chasing down those pesky racers and their contraband. The Bounty System is getting an update to make it more respective of how notorious players are in both chasing and running. Should they be akin to a Judge Dredd on wheels or as good as evading capture as ‘The Bandit’ then their bucks and bounty rate will show as one to be feared and/or respected: Bounty rate will be used to determine the amount of bucks that the winners of a chase receive. This bounty will go up and down as players win or lose chases. Everyone will start with the same bounty rate, around 8250 but it can increase up to 16500 and may go down (after a lot of losses) to 0. Two separate bounties will coexist, one for street racer and one for the police. New leagues will be introduced for police and street races and these will be divided into 4 categories. The aim of players is to climb up each of them from the 4th division right up to the 1st. This ranking will be displayed during chases along with the profile ID meaning other players will be able to get an idea of how lowly or premier (bigly?) their opponents and team members are. And last but not least there is the bug squashing and fixes: Navigation Ribbon: players should no longer experience a disappearing GPS ribbon. Multiple fixes for physics issues with Police vehicles and roadblocks: players should experience less frustrating collisions during chases. PvP ranking: an issue was causing incorrect information to be displayed; this has been fixed. Achievements tied to equipped parts: some achievements weren’t properly associating the equipped parts for a vehicle, this has been fixed. Sweet Sixty Uplay badge: this has been fixed. Indian Chief Dark Horse fork: the visual bug that some players were encountering in the HQ has been fixed. Zoe’s call when completing The Crew Calling All Units prologue: after our next patch, Zoe will only call The Crew Calling All Units owners. Fixed an issue that was occasionally preventing abilities from triggering properly. Achievements tied to fines: some achievements such as “You take Checks?”, “Bills Bills” and “Hefty Fine” have been fixed. Summit events: some events were set with the incorrect weather, time of day or vehicles, this has been fixed. Interface: Fixed an overlap happening in the Chase Reward Screen with a level 1497 Police Car. The chase reward system has been revised to allow the integration of the new league system; cases where the wrong reward was allocated or incorrect car-part progression shown have also been fixed. Fixed an issue where some players’ rankings were not displayed in missions and skill challenges. Fixed an issue where the currency was unspecified when buying a Summit Access Pass. Fixed the issue where all the parts from level 51 to 60 had the acceleration bonus only. [via The Crew blog]