[ALL] GRID: Autosport

[Swarley]

Just an announcement tease right now, but it's on the GRID YT page and it's the GRID logo in the video. Kind of disappointed. GRID 2 left a sour taste in my mouth. I'd wish this team would go back to the ToCA series. I also figured DiRT 4 would be Codies first reveal for 2014. Reveal coming on Tuesday.

[jms493]

yeah not really excited after Grid 2

[Swarley]

yeah not really excited after Grid 2

I'm sure a lot of people have voiced their displeasure with GRID 2 and DiRT 3 and how they've gone too arcadey with them. I just hope they listened and start moving back towards their previous games.

[Handleit_44]

GRID: Autosport was leaked by Eurogamer (article was already taken down)


360/PS3 and PC

[Swarley]

Looks to be a step back in the right direction for this team. Not quite back to the ToCA days, but it doesn't look like we have another GRID 2 on our hands here (hopefully).

I at least notice Hockenheimring and Sepang International Circuit in the pics.


GRID: Autosport headed to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this year

GRID: Autosport is a new entry in the Codemasters racing franchise coming to PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 30 in just a few months.

The announcement follows a Codemasters tease which everyone everywhere knew was going to be a new GRID game.

According to BrasilGamer, the racer is due on June 27.

Codemasters said Autosport will have the most content of any GRID game to date, while retaining all past features and offering an authentic racing experience. Additions include long night drives, and the screenshots below indicate cockpit view is available.

A full career mode will chart events like recruiting a teammate, and earning sponsorships, while online play will offer racing clubs, weekly challenges and raceNet leaderboards. There will be five styles of racing available, 22 locations and over 100 tracks.

Lots of pics:

 

[Swarley]

Introducing GRID Autosport

We’re very pleased today to announce GRID Autosport, the next game in the GRID series and descendant of TOCA Touring Cars.

GRID Autosport aims to move the series back in line as a more authentic racing game and below you’ll be finding out some of the ways we’ll be doing that. Hopefully, you’ll be seeing plenty of news, shiny screenshots and video on your favourite websites and in magazines on our announcement, but we thought it’d be a good time to talk directly to you about what the game is, why we’ve done it and the direction we’re headed in. Particularly as this game is, at its heart, inspired by you guys, our core community.

On release of GRID 2, I think it’s fair to say that through listening to you guys and a after a substantial amount of reflection, we hadn’t quite achieved everything we set out to do. We’re proud of the game, really delighted with some of the great reviews for it, but we’re not above admitting that we made a few decisions that perhaps we shouldn’t have, and perhaps moved some of the aspects of the game too far away from our core fanbase.

When you’re making games, you always have to make choices – which features to include, what emphasis to put on various aspects of gameplay – even if we had unlimited resources (we don’t by the way!) there’s always people who are going to be disappointed. And we’re obviously aware, that some of you were. We’re not ok with that.



So, following the release of GRID 2 we were determined to improve things where we could. The Community Patch we released was derived nearly entirely from our most active players’ feedback and the release of the Demolition Derby DLC for free was something you guys put on our agenda. We think both improved the game, and whilst we would like to do more, there is only so much you can achieve with patches.

But we hope that it signals a pivot which we’re taking at Codemasters, to cater more closely to our core fanbase, to be responsive where we can and hopefully reassure you that when you talk to us, we do listen, even if we cannot act on everything you’d like.

To GRID Autosport then. While we were patching GRID 2 and releasing new content, we were busy gathering feedback. We devoured the comment threads under articles about GRID 2 on gaming websites, took stock of our reviews, and of course, digested all the comments on our social channels and forums where we received direct feedback. It’s this feedback that helped create GRID Autosport.

If GRID 2 raced off into a more narrative-led world of racing with more accessible controls, it’s clear that for many of you, that wasn’t what you wanted or expected from GRID 2. So with GRID Autosport we had the opportunity to make a much more focussed motorsport game, a desire that many of you have expressed directly to us, and a game that in spirit goes back to some of our earlier titles in terms of content and handling.

Let’s dive in shall we?

The Handling

As ever, our handling model has had a lot of effort put into it and you’ll really notice the difference, we think, from GRID 2. For GRID Autosport we’ve gone back to a more authentic handling style. It’s definitely not a full simulation – we want it to be authentic, not clinical – but it’s more towards that end of the spectrum than before. If anything, we believe the handling is actually one or two steps further towards simulation than Race Driver: GRID, to give you an idea.



Each car has been tuned and adjusted to really give a sense of its personality so they will act and behave differently from one another, as they would in real life. This is especially noticeable across disciplines. Pick up a WTCC spec Touring Car and it’ll feel completely different to a Formula 3 car for instance. The goal has been to replicate an authentic feeling of what it’s like to race each of these cars in the games as if you were out on the track yourself.

We’ll be talking more about the handling and how we created it in the coming weeks, including how you, our Community helped shape it in ways that you may not yet know.

The Racing Disciplines

You’ll be hearing us talk about disciplines a lot as they make up another of the core foundations of the game. Disciplines are various types of motorsport, of which there are five within GRID Autosport, each with its own unique style and feeling. There’s a vast difference in the way a Touring Car race unfolds compared to that of an Endurance race. Each discipline requires a different approach, strategy and comes complete with its own style of racing.

For instance, in Touring Cars it’s all about aggressive pack racing. You’ll have to manage tyre wear and race into the night in Endurance competitions but look to race smoothly and with precision in our Open-Wheel races. Street Races are about reacting on the fly on claustrophobic streets through cities with unpredictable changes in elevations and drift cars are all about demonstrating your car control. To become an all-around driver, you’ll develop a broad set of skills.



Each discipline has a number of dedicated series within them; ranging from Touring Cars, GT, Single-Seaters, Muscle Cars, Drift, Supercars, Hypercars, Time Attack, Prototypes and many, many more. You don’t just get five broad experiences, but also different racing experiences within those styles.

We’ll be going into more detail of each discipline between now and launch, starting next week with our in depth look at the Touring Discipline.

The Locations

You will have noticed the likes of Hockenheim, Sepang, San Francisco, Jarama and Yas Marina within our announcement video but that’s far from the complete roster, there’s plenty more to come.

GRID: Autosport will feature 22 locations with a combined route list that totals over 100!

While we will have a selection of great city based locations it’s the circuits that make up the bulk of the roster and there’s a great variety on offer.

From the iconic to the old favourites, the ones classed as legendary and of course some new faces as well. In fact, there are more circuits in GRID: Autosport than there are in Race Driver: GRID and GRID 2 combined.

The Career

The single player career in GRID Autosport will allow you to become a professional racing driver. As you make progress you’ll be able to join and switch teams, fulfil sponsor demands and beat rivals.

Racing with a teammate is back and at your request he/she will now attack the cars ahead or defend their position. All this is handled by a simple button press on the controller and it’s a feature that will also allow you to request information from your team engineer.



The career is open and this means that you’ll only ever have to compete in the racing disciplines that you want to. If you’re a Touring Car fanatic then by all means find a home within the Touring section, and never leave. If you love the precision of Open Wheel racing and also enjoy the odd bit of Endurance then you can happily bounce between the two.

The choice is entirely yours to make – choose your favourite style of racing or master them all.

The Racing Experience

When you take an authentic handling model, a great selection of cars and a variety of racing disciplines, it still needs the racing experience to hold them all together and in GRID Autosport your racing experience revolves around the paddock.

This is the menu you’ll find yourself in before a race and it’s from here that you’ll be presented with a number of pre-race options, such as practice and qualifying.

If you find yourself racing on an unfamiliar circuit or route then simply head into practice and spend some time on the track. After practice you can jump into qualifying where, as you’d expect, you’ll be able to set your fastest time with the aim of starting higher up the grid come race day.

Much like the career, the choice is entirely yours. If you want to have a practice session and jump straight into a race then great. If you want to give practice a miss and just do qualifying then that option is also entirely possible, as is skipping straight into the race itself should you so desire.

The paddock will also allow you to tune your car before the race. Tuneable components include: brake bias, differential, downforce, gears, ride height and suspension at both the front and back. All of the cars in the game run great as ‘stock’ but the option to tune is there should you wish to get the car handling to your own preference.

Multiplayer

Powered by RaceNet you’ll be able to join with friends to form Racing Clubs and race under team colours against other clubs in the community. Receive new challenges every week with the new and evolved Discipline Challenge, track your stats including your complete vehicle history and climb weekly and persistent leaderboards.

We’ve got a series of features planned for the coming weeks, all of which dive deep into the multiplayer of GRID Autosport so be sure to keep your eye out for those!



Driven by Community Feedback

While we were patching GRID 2 and releasing new content we were also busy gathering feedback. We listened to everyone who had an opinion on not just GRID 2 but our older games as well. This feedback was digested and ultimately it played a huge part in the early development of GRID Autosport.

The authentic handling model has been shaped by Community feedback but we haven’t just stopped there. Cockpit view makes a return, and with it a dashboard view too, yes, GRID Autosport will ship with two in-car cameras.

More soon

We’re incredibly excited to lift the lid on GRID Autosport and we’re looking forward to the coming weeks and months. We’ve got a regular flow of new information and content coming your way and all of it starts tomorrow when we reveal our first team which sees the return of some old friends…

In the mean time we’d love to hear what you think of GRID Autosport so please do stop by our forums, head over to Facebook or drop onto Twitter to join in the discussion.

GRID Autosport launches on June 27th on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

TL:DR – Yes, we have an in-car view, two in fact.

[Swarley]

Well I'm impressed, Codies. A development team that has listened to their core audience and understands that after the ToCA series and Race Driver: GRID, GRID 2 was just too arcadey and not the game the fans wanted.

Yeah, it's disappointing that it's not on PS4/XB1, but as long as it provides a good racing experience, I can look passed that. The fact that they've included different disciplines, provided more real-like motorsport events that include practice and qualifying, and taken the handling back towards the sim side of racing has me pretty excited to see more about this game.

I also like the idea of not forcing you to race in disciplines that you aren't interested in. Like me, for example, I absolutely love touring car, GT endurance and open-wheel racing in real life, so that's what I'm excited to play in the game. I find drifting to be a complete joke form of motorsport, so the fact that they wont force me to run that series in the game is pretty cool.

I'm interested to see the reveals and info they have in the coming weeks.

It'll be interesting to see what they've done with DiRT 4. It's obviously in development and, just like the GRID series, people weren't all that thrilled with DiRT 3 in comparison to the first two and their Collin McRae series. Hopefully they've gone this route with that series as well and listen to their core audience.

[Swarley]

Eurogamer Preview with a few laps around Jarama Circuit in a Formula 3 car:

[Swarley]

The Damage of GRID Autosport

With GRID Autosport going for a more authentic feel, we’ve added several new features to our mechanical damage, as well as improving existing features. As a result of this, the impact of mechanical damage in the game is much more severe than in previous GRID titles and will change your strategy when it comes to racing.

Wear and tear

Motorsport puts tremendous stresses on cars, so wear and tear is a new feature that we’ve introduced for GRID Autosport – as you race over time, various parts will gradually lose performance through general use.

For instance, gearbox damage will build up every time you change gear, while over-revving and shifting at the wrong time, (primarily in manual gears), will cause the gearbox to accrue damage more quickly. Once the gearbox is damaged, shift times will start to increase and a failure to address your driving style will cause a damaged gearbox to eventually start to skip gears.

Brakes will also be affected. Repetitive high speed, late braking will eventually cause your brakes to fade quicker than if you use a more gradual approach.

Collision based damage

Our collision based damage model only affects the areas of the car that are damaged through collisions with other cars and objects. By the very nature of these collisions, the results are also much more severe and will hamper the performance of the car significantly.

Collision based damage can be broken down into three main areas.

Wheels

Damage to the wheels will cause the steering to become misaligned and as a result will make the car pull to the side. While you’ll be able to feel the car’s steering being affected, you’ll also be able to see the wheels buckle visually. Furthermore, with enough damage the tyres will eventually puncture, which will then lead to a tyre blowout.

Engine

There are 4 components to engine damage;

• Radiator – This will cause the engine to overheat
• Turbo – A damaged turbo will cause the engine to lose power
• Exhaust – Damage to the exhaust will see a small amount of power loss, however if it falls off there is significant power loss
• Engine – a damaged engine will have a big reduction in performance

Engine damage is also linked to both your acceleration and top speed. Performance is linked to any damage made to the engine components. Damage to the engine will also change the sound it produces, and in some cases you’ll begin to notice smoke emanating from under the bonnet.

Suspension

As the player damages their suspension the car will become less precise and visually the car will exhibit a lot more roll. The damage towards suspension will also affect the car’s springs and damper values.

Suspension damage is a brand new feature for GRID Autosport and we’re looking forward to seeing it in action once the game launches this summer.

Feedback

A lot of the improvements to our damage model have come direct from our Community’s suggestions with one example of this being the OSD. It’s now much more detailed and contains the condition of all the major areas of the car which change colour based on the amount of damage received.

A key new feature we have added is the Team Radio system; at any point during a race you can now request information from your engineer at the touch of a button. This means you can pay full attention to the action on track but still have easy access to standings and car health updates as and when you want it.

There’s plenty more nuance to our damage model and feedback – we think both add a lot more depth for players who want that more authentic racing experience. If you have any comments, join in the discussion over on the forums or track us down on Facebook and Twitter.

[Swarley]

One of the sim-racers I follow on YouTube got to go to Codies and play the game. He's a sim-racer like the rest of us and plays all sorts of sims and posts videos about his careers and races and whatnot. He talks about the game quite a bit in these videos and since he's a race like some of us league guys here on the site, it's a good perspective on the game.

[Garrett67]

I'm looking forward to this and I will be getting it on PC.

[jms493]

I'm looking forward to this and I will be getting it on PC.

same here. I look forward to racing on the PC. I think I will preorder soon.

[Swarley]

I'm looking forward to this and I will be getting it on PC.

This is the type of career mode that I want, and luckily this and pCARS are both going with this career setup. I love having different disciplines and you having an actual career in those disciplines.


I'll be having fun by myself on the 360, tho.

[jms493]

no preorder on Steam...

[jms493]

This is the type of career mode that I want, and luckily this and pCARS are both going with this career setup. I love having different disciplines and you having an actual career in those disciplines.


I'll be having fun by myself on the 360, tho.

Now is that time to save for that PC!