Racing

The publisher has announced Super Star Kartz, a kart racer starring characters from Dreamworks films including Shrek, Madagascar, How To Train Your Dragon and Monsters Vs Aliens. It will be released for DS, 3DS, Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 before the end of the year.

Yesterday reports claimed that up to three million codes giving a free Steam copy of Dirt 3 had been taken from Codemasters' servers. The developer later got in touch to clarify that it was an AMD promotional site, and the graphics card manufacturer has confirmed that. In a statement, it said: "These activation keys were hosted on a thirdparty fulfilment agency website, www.AMD4u.com, and did not reside on AMD's website. Neither the AMD nor Codemasters servers were involved. We are working closely with Steam, Codemasters and our fulfilment agency to address the situation. AMD will continue to honour all valid game vouchers, however the current situation may result in a short delay before vouchers can be redeemed."

Ubisoft is offering free access to Driver: San Francisco’s multiplayer modes to all players – and not just those who bought the game new at retail, as initially planned - after a printing error left users unable to redeem codes to unlock the title’s online component. Beginning with Driver, copies of the publisher's "popular core games" were supposed to ship with a valid one-time code required to access multiplayer features, while second-hand buyers would have to pay to get in on the action. A post on the Xbox support forums confirmed that printing errors had put paid to those plans, for now. "To solve this problem, Ubisoft has made the Uplay Passport offer free for all purchasers of Driver: San Francisco,” it read. Ubisoft says players can access all of the game’s online features at no extra cost by accessing the Uplay Passport option from Driver’s online multiplayer menu.

UPDATE: AMD has provided the following statement: "This past weekend, activation keys associated with free Dirt 3 game vouchers shipping with select AMD products were compromised. These activation keys were hosted on a thirdparty fulfilment agency website, www.AMD4u.com, and did not reside on AMD’s website. Neither the AMD nor Codemasters servers were involved. We are working closely with Steam, Codemasters, and our fulfilment agency to address the situation. AMD will continue to honour all valid game vouchers, however the current situation may result in a short delay before the vouchers can be redeemed." ORIGINAL STORY: Publisher Codemasters has, together with AMD, been running a promotion giving away a download copy of Dirt 3 to purchasers of one of the latter's graphics cards. Kotaku reports that Codemasters had three million codes sitting on a webserver, which was accessed by hackers. One saving grace is that the codes in question were for Steam, which should make it relatively easy to blacklist the stolen codes, and gives Codemasters or Valve the option of banning those who used them.

Martin Edmonson, founder of Driver San Francisco developer Ubisoft Reflections, has thrown his weight behind the publisher's controversial always-on DRM that has been a constant source of frustration among PC gamers since its debut last year. "You have to do something," he told Eurogamer. "It's just, simply, PC piracy is at the most incredible rates. This game cost a huge amount of money to develop, and it has to be, quite rightly, quite morally correctly, protected. If there was very little trouble with piracy then we wouldn't need it." Edmonson also defended the recently introduced Uplay Passport, saying: "If people don't buy the game when it first comes out and wait and pay for rental or for second-hand usage, then the publisher sees absolutely nothing of that. [The online pass is] just one of those things we have to get used to. It's going to happen."

Driver: San Francisco will receive a full digital release on the PlayStation Network in the coming weeks, presumably in line with the retail version’s September 2 launch. “We are doing triple-A games you can download to the hard-drive,” Ubisoft Reflections MD Gareth Edmonson said during a Gamescom panel attended by Develop. “Driver is released on the PlayStation Network in a few weeks, for example. That’s the full Blu-Ray/DVD experience you can download. I think physical media will remain very important, but I think things are going to shift. How long that will take I’m not too sure. I don’t agree that the size of data will be the limiting factor, though, you can store this data on your hard drives.” A few weeks ago, Driver: SF creative director and Gareth’s brother, Martin Edmondson, told Edge there’ll be at least one more home console cycle before cloud computing takes centre stage. “I’m pretty sure there’ll be one more cycle,” he said. “Whether there’ll be a fifth is real crystal ball stuff. But it’s pretty obvious the way things are ultimately moving.”

Gamescom brings the latest footage from Criterion's top-down take on the Burnout series' beloved Crash mode, set for release through Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Store this autumn.

Ubisoft has been busily raising the ire of PC gamers for some time now, delaying the release of many of its games and, in Driver San Francisco's case, requiring a persistent online connection for the game to be played. "We've heard your feedback requiring the permanent internet connection requirement for Driver and have made the decision to no longer include it," the publisher told Rock Paper Shotgun. Instead, the game will only require an internet connection for a single check when the game is launched.

Finnish developer Bugbear Entertainment's upcoming racer is a Ridge Racer spin-off in name and deed, with an emphasis on destruction and aggression rather than the series' trademark sweeping powerslides. Other firsts for the series include an in-world HUD, user-generated content and, astoundingly for an 18-year-old franchise, a PC release.

The latest trailer for SCE Studio Liverpool's futuristic Vita racer, debuted at Gamescom last night. Follow the below source link for all our coverage in one place.

Red Lynx has announced that Trials Evolution, the sequel to XBLA hit Trials HD, it will makes its public debut at Gamescom this week. The developer will also be showing the game at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle later in the month. “Ever since we teased Trials Evolution at E3, gamers have clamored for more information,” said Red Lynx CEO Tero Virtala. “But until recently, we’ve been quiet and working hard on the game. Now at last, we are ready to start showing everyone why this game is called Trials Evolution – why it is more than just a sequel, but is a huge step forward in digital downloads.” Watch the first singleplayer gameplay footage below.

UK indie developer Hello Games has revealed Joe Danger: The Movie, a sequel to its sunny PSN multiplayer stunt bike game, Joe Danger. This time, Hello Games is targeting yet to be confirmed multiple formats and the developer will present a playable version at Gamescom in Germany next week. Eddie The Eagle-eyed readers will notice the wide range of vehicles in the poster below, Hello Games promising a more diverse experience this time round with the game charting Joe's burgeoning career as a Hollywood stuntman. We'll give Hello Games boss Sean Murray the last word: "That’s right, we’re doing a sequel buddy, and you can’t stop us!”

The week's least surprising news comes from Ubisoft, which has confirmed that Driver: San Francisco will be its third PC game in the space of a month - following From Dust and Call Of Juarez: The Cartel - to suffer a delay. It will now be released for PC on September 30 - four weeks after the console versions.

Eat Sleep Play's demented vehicular shooter was due in October this year, but in a post on the PlayStation Blog David Jaffe confirms it has slipped to early 2012. "We're going to miss our date," he writes. "We're going to be late. A lot of dedicated, supportive, passionate Twisted Metal fans have been waiting for a long time but the truth is: we're just not ready yet. Thing is, you gotta trust me when I tell you that – with this extra time for tuning and polish – the game is going to be so much better than it already is. With Twisted Metal we plan to ship a multiplayer classic."

The publisher once again got on the wrong side of PC gamers this week when it was revealed that the PC version of the upcoming Driver San Francisco requires a constant internet connection. Speaking to our friends at PC Gamer, an Ubisoft representative said the end justified the means, with the publisher seeing "a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a success."

Alongside the announcement of its latest financial results and a worldwide 3DS price cut - on which more later - Nintendo has narrowed down release windows for two high-profile titles. Mario's return now has a final name, Super Mario 3DLand, and it will be out in Japan in November; Mario Kart 7 will follow in December.