GRID 2

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Swarley
    A Special Kind of Cat
    • Jul 2010
    • 11213

    [ALL] GRID 2

    Originally posted by IGN
    In 2008, Codemasters released one of the best received racing games of all time, Race Driver: Grid. Keenly balancing driving simulation and pure racing elements, Grid did much to re-invigorate the genre, most notably with its oft-imitated Flashback feature. Then, nothing. In the four years since, there have been three DiRT releases and two F1 titles from the developer, but not so much as a whiff of burning rubber from Grid. Until last week, when Codies salaciously teased a new entry. Panning over a gorgeously modelled car and capped with a flash of the logo, the hint was a mere 20 seconds long – but still enough to get gamers’ engines revving.

    Understandably, the foremost question on most players’ minds was ‘what took so long?’ Clive Moody, Executive Producer on Grid 2 and a mainstay on the series since its earliest ToCa days, explained that gaming technology played a large part. “Grid 1 came out relatively early in the console life-cycle, and our technology at the time reflected that; it wasn’t as polished or mature as it is now. A lot of the ambition, the things we knew we wanted to introduce in that game; we just couldn’t make it happen. As time moved on, we’ve refined and evolved how we make games and we’re at the point where we can do justice to the experience we wanted to produce.”

    Casting eyes on the game in action confirms the series has made immense strides while it’s been away. Footage rendered in-game shows the tiring console hardware being pushed to its absolute graphical limits by a glorious array of lighting and reflection effects. Even at this early stage, Grid 2 is breathtaking to behold. Rival drivers have been sent to AI cram school, now boasting over 60 distinct abilities which will allow personal grudges and race styles to evolve. Dynamic vehicle damage – already one of the finest points of Grid 1, with cars’ handling changing based on impacts – is similarly enhanced, each dent or knock causing unique effects.

    More importantly, Grid 2 remains all about the pure experience of the race itself. In fact, the core game philosophy being bandied about Codemasters’ Southam studio is ‘total race day immersion’. “What we’ve tried to do over the years, and even more in Grid 2, is broaden the experience; dirt racing, street racing, open road racing,” said Moody. “Elements get tied together into a much, much wider experience for the gamer, giving them something fresh to experience at every level of the game. I think that’s really important.”

    “From the view of tech, art, design, audio – everything really, we’ve actively sought out areas where we can improve,” Associate Producer Iain Smith adds. “It all comes together to crystallise that immersion. The race feels tangible. You feel like you’re in a tactile world and all those things have been coming together.”

    Getting hands on with Grid 2 proves captivating. Zooming around the urban sprawl of Chicago, one of the earlier tracks in the game, is an exhilarating experience. Sunbeams crack through towering buildings as the tarmac speeds beneath you, while the audio authentically bounces between buildings and creates roaring sound funnels as you tear through tunnels.

    Moving to the California stage and placed behind the wheels of a beefy Ford Mustang Boss 302, the experience changes. A lush forest track with hairpin turns threads between the trees, the challenge as much to avoid careening off cliff edges as you speed through each curve as it is to overtake your opponents. Professional race drivers, including Formula 2 wunderkind Jordan King, assisted in getting the feel of the cars right, particularly for trickier circuits such as this one, ensuring vehicles’ acceleration out of corners and braking times are appropriate.

    The immediate impression is that handling seems much improved from the first Grid outing and while it still demands your focus, it’s not so punishing as its predecessor could be at times. Codemasters are calling it ‘TrueFeel’ handling, trying to capture the character of driving these vehicles, yet remaining accessible for newcomers. It seems like one for the win column, so far.

    While the full garage is still to be announced, petrolheads can at least look forward to taking the likes of the BMW E30 M3 Sport Evo. Nissan Skyline GTR R34, Chevrolet Camaro SS, McLaren MP4-12C and even the UK’s own BAC Mono out for a spin. You’ll even be able to race some of these against each other out of class, as the cars are spread across four competitive tiers ranked by performance.

    “It’s not classed based on engine size or BHP, but on which cars realistically give each other a run for their money,” explains Toby Evan-Jones, also an Associate Producer. “Each tier will have balance within each level in that tier. You’ll start off with an entry tier-1 car that won’t be quite as good as the cars at the end of tier 1, but it’ll still be competitive.”

    With all this and a unique online mode, wholly independent of the single player career, that Moody hopes will “redefine multiplayer” and “show the racing genre what can be done,” an evolved Flashback feature refining those all-important mid-race saves, and full integration with the increasingly important RaceNet service, and Grid 2 is already looking like a must-have. It’s been a long four years, but clearly a case of time well spent.


  • jms493
    Junior Member
    • Feb 2009
    • 11248

    #2
    a year away..........

    Comment

    • Swarley
      A Special Kind of Cat
      • Jul 2010
      • 11213

      #3


      Comment

      • jms493
        Junior Member
        • Feb 2009
        • 11248

        #4
        I can fap to that

        Comment

        • Swarley
          A Special Kind of Cat
          • Jul 2010
          • 11213

          #5
          GRID 2 Release Date and Box Art Announced

          Originally posted by GameInformer
          Codemasters has announced the official release date for Grid 2 – a long-awaited sequel to the original landmark racing game – as well as a clutch of exclusive cars and track routes depending on where you pre-order the game.

          Grid 2 comes out for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on May 28, and if you pre-order the game, you can get an exclusive car or two via download.

          GameStop (Turbo-Charged Edition)
          • McLaren MP4-12C GT3 Special Edition, plus two-new circuits around the Brands Hatch GP circuit
          • Nissan GT-R SpecV road car (above), plus all five Yas Marina routes during the day

          Best Buy (IndyCar Edition)
          • Dallara IndyCar & IndyCar Pace car, plus two new routes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

          Amazon (Head Start Edition)
          • Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT car, get discounts in the car upgrades store in online game modes as well as a "unique" RaceNet bonus

          Comment

          • Swarley
            A Special Kind of Cat
            • Jul 2010
            • 11213

            #6
            The Game Stop preorder is very tempting, b/c I love Yas Marina and Brands Hatch, but I just can't turn down that Best Buy preorder with the Dallara IndyCar.

            Comment

            • PepperNY
              Best in the World
              • Jan 2011
              • 904

              #7
              Never played the first one. Is this similar to NFS Shift?

              Comment

              • jms493
                Junior Member
                • Feb 2009
                • 11248

                #8
                Originally posted by PepperNY
                Never played the first one. Is this similar to NFS Shift?
                it is kind of one of a kind....u should try it.

                Comment

                • Swarley
                  A Special Kind of Cat
                  • Jul 2010
                  • 11213

                  #9

                  Comment

                  • Garrett67
                    Glory Hole Monitor
                    • Feb 2009
                    • 4538

                    #10
                    Good info in this first one













                    Comment

                    • Swarley
                      A Special Kind of Cat
                      • Jul 2010
                      • 11213

                      #11

                      Comment

                      • jms493
                        Junior Member
                        • Feb 2009
                        • 11248

                        #12
                        I bought GRID for $5 the other day on live to play it again...it plays so different. It was actually pretty hard to be honest but the game still hold ups graphically and game play wise.

                        This is a day one purchase...love the trading paint style of racing.

                        Comment

                        • Swarley
                          A Special Kind of Cat
                          • Jul 2010
                          • 11213

                          #13

                          Comment

                          • JimLeavy59
                            War Hero
                            • May 2012
                            • 7199

                            #14
                            Will be getting this day one just to troll people online.

                            Comment

                            • Swarley
                              A Special Kind of Cat
                              • Jul 2010
                              • 11213

                              #15
                              Grid 2: Tearing up the Multiplayer Tarmac
                              Rewriting the multiplayer rulebook one corner at a time.

                              Originally posted by IGN
                              The souped-up motors of Grid 2 are about to take their starting positions. The long-awaited title is finally set for release this May, almost a half-decade to the day since its much-lauded predecessor was rolled out. The maxim for this sequel is one of “total race day immersion”, an ambitious effort to recreate the tension, glamour, and sparking rivalry of any authentic competitive driving event. From our hands-on with the game’s re-imagined multiplayer modes, that sense of competition has filtered right through to the development team – Grid 2’s multiplayer is set to stand alone from that pesky career.

                              “We’ve decided to make it a completely distinct experience from the single player, because of the fiction we’ve created in the career – we didn’t want that impinging on the multiplayer at all,” says Senior Game Designer Ross Gowing, with a grin. Essentially, this separation means there are two dedicated games under Grid 2’s hood, with victories in solo and multiplayer modes resulting in rewards unique to each. “Online has its own progression system of XP and cash, and all the vehicles that you might have acquired throughout the career, you have will have to earn to use in multiplayer,” Gowing explains.

                              A significant shift from the first game is the new LiveRoutes system, which is implemented in various modes and randomly creates the track ahead of the racers. “The tracks will change lap by lap, dynamically,” says Becky Crossdale, Level Designer. "They’re all in the same location but at one point you might go down a straight and on the first lap, you’ll take a left and by the time you’ve come around again you might take a right but you won’t have seen anything change; it’s very subtle.”

                              For those who don’t fancy putting it all online, Grid 2 also brings back local two-player split screen, where players can create custom races based on the career mode. For the gently confrontational, there’s also asynchronous online play linked through Codemasters’ Racenet – think any turn-based game on Facebook for an idea of how this will work, where you won’t have to be online at the same time to compete and challenges are delivered to friends the next time they connect.

                              That’s all well and good – and as we’ve previously covered, the game looks great, boasts a stunning selection of cars (from classic BMWs up to supercars that Bill Gates probably couldn’t afford), and has spent its five year absence honing every nut and bolt. The handling in particular already seemed hugely improved when we looked at the game last. But how does that hold up in match conditions?

                              In a word, marvellously.

                              Dropped into a straight-up, first-past-the-post race against a squad of Codemasters’ finest – an unfair advantage to the home team, surely? – the Subaru BRZ responds well to the slightest touch and it’s soon clear each vehicle is performing to its own standards. Interestingly, cutting a corner in a mis-timed overtake prompts a penalty, decreasing performance until the illegal benefit had been equalised. We like it, but how this approach goes down with players en masse will be interesting to see.

                              Endurance mode mixes it up, first by showcasing LiveRoutes in action, the streets of a bewilderingly pretty Dubai snaking off into the distance, each corner providing a new surprise, second by forcing a new approach to play. Victory goes to the driver covering the greatest distance in lengthy races – customisable up to a whopping 40 minutes, though here a couple of merciful five-minute defeats – rather than passing a finish line first. Constantly keeping up with the unpredictable track while trying to nimbly zip between rivals and avoid collisions, all to get the most miles on the wheels, proves a thrilling challenge.

                              The last mode tested was Checkpoint. Flipping Endurance on its head, this knocks players out of the race as the run out of time between, well, checkpoints. Nothing gamers haven’t seen before but, coupled with LiveRoutes again randomising the track progression, feels somehow fresher than comparable efforts elsewhere.

                              Although not shown yet, Gowing promises that Grid 2 will also have “Time Attack, which is all about setting the best time whilst all drivers are on track but not jostling for position. Face-Off and Touge –two-player focussed race modes. Drift challenge. Then the Global Challenge which adds a couple of race types to that – Power Lap, which is standing start, timed lap; Overtake, which is passing event traffic in a given time, and the Checkpoint mode”

                              Beneath the hood of all the multiplayer components is Codemasters’ integrated Racenet. “[It’s] technically been in beta since [DiRT Showdown] was released, so Grid 2 will signify the 1.0 release of it,” Gowing told us. “We’ve been listening to community feedback, so that’s allowed us to expand our feature set. You’ll see Racenet being a pillar of the game, driving our Global Challenge system, where nine events are presented to the world each week, and you compete against your friends or rivals to do the best cumulative performance over the week. Racenet is the main pusher and puller all of that, it’s providing all of the rosters in-game, the tracking, everything.”

                              Although some players may not like the sound of ‘levelling up’ through the two chains of career and multiplayer, those separate paths and the option of playing with the variable LiveRoutes routes helps make the action genuinely competitive. There’s no grinding on single player only to take the best cars online, and having ever-shifting routes means every twist and turn is down to skill, reaction and performance rather than more obsessive players memorising tracks. Another subtle tweak is in upgrades, purchased with the cash won in-game, which can nudge a cars’ performance into the next championship tier. Trick out a Nissan R34 just right, and you could be racing it out of class against the likes of the BAC Mono. In these situations more than any other, each victory has to be 100% earned.

                              In the five-year gap since the first Grid, the DiRT series has veered between rallying and stunt driving, while the Formula One license has been focussed on creating a precise simulation of the real-world sport. Grid 2 now has the chance to complete Codemasters’ triptych of racing offerings, delivering an experience distinct from its garage-mates – and with it shaping up to be a chrome-plated, sexed-up street racer with a fresh take on competitive multiplayer, it should do just that.

                              Comment

                              Working...