When your first transformation sets the racing world on fire, why stop there? Last year’s Dirt catapulted the franchise formerly know as Colin McRae Rally to stardom, and Codemasters is set to repeat that magic with Grid, the re-imagining of its superb TOCA Race Driver series.
Alex Grimbley, Codemasters’ senior producer, instantly won us over by confessing that Grid’s team has “feature fatigue,” so they’re focusing simply on delivering an exciting race experience. “We wanted to get away from car-collecting and decals,” he says. “Yes, we know it’s popular, but a lot of the feedback on Dirt was that people weren’t too fussed with that. [So] we haven’t just gone, ‘Let’s put in 200 cars.’ All our cars are aspirational in the race-driver sense.”
What that means is 50 real-life race cars that Grimbley calls “thoroughbreds,” although Codemasters isn’t yet revealing specifics beyond the usual blend of exotics, tuners, and muscle cars. There’s no tuning — the cars mimic their very specific real-life set-ups, and remember: Grid’s all about the racing. That means no pit stops either. “We don’t want to go too far down the simulation route and punish you,” Grimbley explains.
A key part of that promise is the behavior of A.I. drivers in the pack, and the Grid team knows that well. “[We] thought a lot about what makes a race cool, so you’ll see lots of human errors [from the pack] — it’s not just a procession around the track.” We had a few turns behind the wheel of the preview version, and could quickly confirm that Grimbley wasn’t just spouting well-rehearsed hype. The CPU opponents we faced took different lines, made mistakes, and even spun out right in front of us — it was kinda thrilling, actually. All told, Grid includes 600 A.I. characters with their own personalities (aggressive, corners too fast, hangs back at start, and so on), and as you progress in your career, you’ll get to know them and be better able to decide who you want to hire and fire.
Speaking of that career, Grid follows the familiar formula of the rookie driver making his way to the top and forming his own superstar team. While it doesn’t use Dirt’s pyramid of events, it’s equally nonlinear, and you can skip whatever you like. The U.S. events involve city-based circuits, the European ones visit famous race tracks, and in Japan, it’s all about the drift. “There’s no Vin Diesel and loud music,” Grimbley laughs. “We included it because it’s a legitimate form of racing in Japan.” On the multiplayer side, the Grid team wants you to “just have fun,” so all the cars and tracks are unlocked from the start for 12-player action over Xbox Live.
Last but not least, Grid is already ridiculously fast and pretty. Remember how Dirt’s graphics blew everyone away last year? Grimbley’s team spent a year tearing apart the Dirt engine, damage modeling, and visuals to improve them all. So get ready — part deux is inbound, and it’s looking like the 360’s new king of circuit racing.
SIDEBAR: Be Kind, Don't Crash
One of the niftiest things about Grid is that Codemasters agrees with you — crashing sucks. So in single-player races, you can pause and rewind the action about 10 seconds, pick your respawn point, and not screw up that turn the next time. Yes, there will be a price. Rewinding prevents a lap time from being posted to the leaderboards, and Codemasters is still deciding how to otherwise limit it — once per race, reduced earnings, that sort of thing. Still, we’re not ashamed to admit that bad wrecks make us quit and restart anyway, so props to Codemasters for saving us the trouble.
hotwheels1968
July 03, 2008 at 9:12pm
h people like Kenny Carwash and say this game is hard as hell to drive. the Codemaster spends more time on making the cars look good and fail on making them handel desent. i got the demo form the OXM issue #86 and the cars handeled like they were on ice!!! one wronf turn and i'm doing a burn out spin! at least in the PGR games you had more grip. so i will not be spending the $60 on this game due to the handling sucks and for the fact it has DRIFTING IN THE GAME!!!! I HATE DRIFTING IT IS THE LAMEST FORM OF AUTO SPORT ON THE PLANET!!!!!!!
Spybreak
June 05, 2008 at 1:13pm
Dudes, it's not supposed to be a realistic racer, go and grab Forza 2 if you want that. This is under the arcade racing genre, you know the ones that don't put you to sleep. DiRT was a great arcade rally racing game and GRID is the same but more race heavy now.
ROBBMAC
May 18, 2008 at 8:54pm
Kenny Carwash: I have the same problem with Codemasters games. The handling is unrealistic and the cars turn on a central pivot which is very unnatural. They seemed to spend more time creating car interiors than a proper physics engine. The good thing for me is they keep releasing demos that save me $60 everytime. I thank them for that.
playerpro_44
May 18, 2008 at 8:20pm
Does anyone know whether there will be Formula 1 style racing in the game like there was in the past TOCA Race Drivers'?
TruthofLg
May 15, 2008 at 9:08am
This game looks great. Can't wait until it comes out. I want to drive the Stang since I have one and of course a big fan of them.
Kenny Carwash
May 13, 2008 at 6:36am
Downloaded the demo, thought it looked great and the I like the sound of the career mode structure. Unfortunately the handling is totally nerfed and unrealistic, just like DIRT was. In DIRT, Codies made gravel as grippy as asphalt and in GRID, the cars corner like they're on rails. It's horribly unrealistic and makes the game near unplayable for anyone used to proper handling. This was way high on my To Buy list, but after the demo I'm not going to bother. I had the same reservations after the DIRT demo and voiced them, along with many others, on the Codemasters forums but nothing changed. If they're going to insist on nerfing the handling like this, they should at least include some kind of 'true physics' option. That way they can please the kiddies who've never driven a car in their lives, and the gamers who like proper racing games. I'm now very worried about what Codemasters are going to do with the Formula 1 licence.
Spybreak
May 12, 2008 at 1:13pm
Man I loved PGR3 and 4 and DiRT was really really good so I think GRID will have my vote. Bring on the fun racing games.
oldguygamer
May 10, 2008 at 10:25pm
From the oldguygamer: I like racing games very much, but the PGRs were disappointing somewhat. This one looks better. I will buy it to see how it stacks up. Can it compete with the upcoming GT5? I'll buy that one too. How many achievements can I can stack up with Grid? When it gets so difficult to play, I usually just stop playing the game. What good is a game that is frustrating?
cart00nstrip
May 10, 2008 at 12:51am
Don't worry, CCR, my Xenon just RROD'd a couple months ago. The "coffin" came within a few days of my calling them, and I had it back within a week and a half. Plus they sent me a 1 month Live subscription card to boot! gt: cart00nstrip
PaperLantern
May 09, 2008 at 4:08pm
Is the demo worth downloading? That'd be valuable GTA time lost.
Paul OXM
May 09, 2008 at 11:11am
Yup, you can use the 360 wheel with Grid, and I noticed the demo up when I was on Live last night.
CCRacerWins
May 09, 2008 at 10:36am
There's a Grid ad in the June Issue of OXM that says in bold print download the demo now. I couldn't find it in the Marketplace. Oh well, no matter, the red ring spoiled all my plans last night. :^( Grid looks like a very cool racing game. I will buy it, if/when I get my system back.
ShenaniganCannon
May 09, 2008 at 3:52am
Oh wouldn't you know, XBL won't let me download this for some reason. Even though it's rated E. Gotta love MS restrictions...jeez
stonekeep
May 08, 2008 at 6:19pm
Was just wondering if you can use the 360 wheel with this game? Downloading the demo now... Hope it lives up to all the ROAR!
