Fanatec has officially announced their upcoming ClubSport Wheel and the highly anticipated Formula One rim that has been whetting sim racers appetite for quite a while now.

The company has decided to go in a very interesting route for their new high quality products, selling the wheel base & rims separately to allow buyers a maximum of flexibility, Fanatec is the first mass-market wheel manufacturer to follow this route.

Both the ClubSport Wheel base and the Formula One rim come with plenty of impressive features as Thomas Jackermaier explains below. The new products look very rugged and extremely adjustable as sim racers even get to adjust the shifting lever angle, distance and travel on the F1 rim as well as the belt tension of the base without opening it.

The Formula One rim will be followed by a GT-style rim later, Fanatec is already working on more rims with NASCAR, rally & drifting style rims already in development. 

With the Gamescom Expo being wrapped up, the last bits of F1 2011 material is here as Codemasters have finally released the latest video trailer of their upcoming Formula One title.

The trailer first surfaced four days ago, being filmed off a screen at the expo. Now, the HD version is available, allowing us to check out plenty of racing action and the atmospheric parc ferme & paddock sequences.

Furthermore, a new gameplay video of the showfloor demo is available, showing an action-packed race at Abu Dhabi in Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes.

F1 2011 will be released for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on September 23, right in time for the final races of the real life 2011 Formula One World Championship season. The new title will come with improved graphics & handling, new features such as multiplayer splitscreen, a working safety car as well as a much more extensive career mode.

It appears that Codemasters have greatly improved the 3D Vision support in the new PC Patch 1.02 for the game DiRT 3, although they do not say anything specific in the release notes for the patch regarding stereoscopic 3D support. So if you’ve postponed playing the game in stereo 3D mode due to the various issues it had before patch 1.02 was released, now you can try it again, it should be handling great in stereo 3D mode with 3D Vision.

DiRT 3 PC Patch 1.02 Release Notes:

- Resolved an issue which could prevent the user successfully saving with profiles that contained unicode characters.
- UI elements are no longer incorrectly displayed in Gymkhana
- Improvements to input system, supporting multi-device action maps. The user can now set button configurations to span multiple devices; previously a bug would cause these settings to be lost upon game restart.
- Corrected various spelling mistakes across all languages
- Reset line corrections to prevent potential ‘out of world’ or ‘driving into crowd; issues on several tracks
- Corrected an issue which could, in rare circumstances, prevent the display from rendering in the event of 16xCSAA being selected.
- Steering wheel no longer jolts to the left in the race reward screen
- Removed an incorrect limitation which could cause VSync to lock the refresh rate to 60Hz on a 120Hz system.
- Physics output to motion simulators is now correctly faded out at the end of a race, preventing some situations within which motion would continue after crossing the finish line.

Sony has confirmed that its 24-inch Playstation-branded 3D TV/ monitor will be arriving in the UK and Europe this autumn. First unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2011 back in June, the tri-dimensional display is meant to provide an accessible entry point (read: a cheaper alternative to a full-fledged 3D-capable HDTV) for 3D gaming.

Equipped with edge LED backlight and active-shutter 3D technologies, the Playstation 3D LCD monitor/ TV features the company’s proprietary “SimulView” functionality which allows two players to view two different full-screen pictures on the same screen, which is likely to contribute to a more exciting multiplayer gaming experience. To enjoy this feature both players will have to wear compatible 3D eyewear, but fret not, because Sony has thoughtfully included two pairs of 3D glasses with sets sold in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Turn 10 has released a new preview video of their upcoming Forza Motorsport 4 driving title for the Xbox 360.

The video follows the Turn 10 staff to Hockenheim as the German Formula One venue is one of five all-new tracks in Forza Motorsport 4. We get to check out the guys collecting reference material as well as their work and track modeling and some footage of the finished product.

Forza Motorsport 4 will be released on October 11 in the US and October 14 in Europe, the new title will bring over 600 cars from 80 manufacturers, five brand new tracks and and an improved tire model thanks to a partnership with Pirelli.

Camshaft Software has released rather impressive preview videos of their maiden product, the car tycoon game Automation.

Automation lets you run your own car company all the way from post WWII to modern times, allowing players to build and sell all kinds of cars, from small hatchbacks to full blown supercars.

The title will feature a highly detailed car and engine designer, both of which are based on quite sophisticated physics, making this a potentially interesting title for sim racers, even though there will be no actual driving in the title.

The two preview videos below show off the car body designer and the engine designer as we get to watch an engine being put together component by component.

Aside from the building components, the title will feature a realistic & dynamic world market & realistic buyer demographics. The title will put a lot of focus on the technical stuff, less skilled players will be able to use prebuilt designs to get going.

Camshaft Software aims to have the title out by the end of 2011, a demo will also be available. Until then, check out the impressive videos below!

Codemasters has released the second developer video diary of their upcoming Formula One 2011 title, showing off some new gameplay footage and interview tidbits.

The video centers on the improvements made in terms of handling and AI,  two areas in which the predecessor disappointed many customers.

F1 2011 will be released for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on September 23, right in time for the final races of the real life 2011 Formula One World Championship season. The new title will come with improved graphics & handling, new features such as multiplayer splitscreen as well as a much more extensive career mode.

iRacing has announced that their online racing simulation service will be organising an officially-sanctioned V8 Supercar Series online racing series.

Officially known as the V8 Supercars Series presented by BigPond, the Australian series will be the fourth officially-sanctioned online racing series in iRacing following virtual NASCAR, Indycar & Grand Am competition.

iRacing already offers one V8 Supercar Series race car, the Ford Falcon, as well as one Australian race track as Phillip Island is available in the simulation.

The video below shows off some new gameplay footage from the Canadian Grand Prix and forty seconds in, a real-life comparison video kicks in, allowing us to check out the level of track accuracy.

F1 2011 will be released for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on September 23, right in time for the final races of the real life 2011 Formula One World Championship season. The new title will come with improved graphics & handling, new features such as multiplayer splitscreen as well as a much more extensive career mode.

Check out the Q & A here http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/08/11/f1-2011-your-questions-asked-more-than-50-of-them/