Codemasters’ 2013 racer Grid 2 is a fairly geriatric entry in the car-wot-goes-fast pantheon – so old that RPS’s prior coverage of it was written by the impossibly ancient likes of Rossignol, J. and Smith, A. – but we sure did like it back then.

I’ve just been back in and, yeah, it still looks and feels dang good for a non-car-gonk like me. Its cheeseball blend of arcadey racing, ludicrous damage modelling, time-rewinding, Chosen One storytelling and hilariously of-the-time achievement titles including “Here’s My Number, Call Me Maybe?” holds up remarkably well. I’d happily play that all day long. And free, as it is so is so long as you snag before the end of the weekend, is doubly hard to argue with.

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I liked GRID 2 quite a lot but I’m some kind of racing simulation heathen who has no qualms incorporating a little bump and grind into the art of the automobile. Codemasters manage to avoid the phrase ‘going back to our roots’ when describing the newly announced follow-up, GRID Autosport, but a lengthy and informative blogpost suggests that’s exactly what they aim to do.

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 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.

What does it all mean? A flashy teaser, an enticingly close June 27th release date and a pile of information to wrap your head around.

… [visit site to read more]

As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, Derby is no stranger to acrid fumes and the grinding progress of metal on metal. Perhaps that’s why it’s the place that cars choose to wage war against one another in designated arenas? Grid 2 has now added just such an arena, along with a suitably violent car to smash around in it. Oddly, Codemasters reckon the car-crashing facility is in Detroit but that seems unlikely. If this isn’t taking place in the East Midlands, I’ll eat a carburettor. If you’re still playing Grid 2, it should now contain more destruction. The Masters of Code have also added light modding support but I’ve yet to return to the game to check what that involves. Below you will find culture.

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UPDATE: Oh dear, turns out to be some mobile thing. BETRAYAL.>

The DIRT and GRID games have all been jolly good, accessible fun, but I know a certain contingent of Metal Box Moving At High Speed fans have long rued Codemasters’ retreat from traditional rally games – specifically the once-ubiquitous Colin McRae Rally series. Looks as though mud’n'hatchback fans might be due to have all their Christmases come at once, as the CEO of Codemasters has announced plans to visit all their houses, tie them to a kitchen chair and force-feed them 85 whole turkeys, 340 roast potatoes and 21 pints of gravy each. After that, he might even confirm that there will indeed be a new McRae Rally game, as today’s viral teasing has heavily implied. (more…)

PC people really are clever and dedicated folks. If they’re not inventing new and grotesque ways to contort the G-Man’s face and limbs, they’re making mods for games that have only been out for a few hours. Codemasters didn’t include cockpit views in their enjoyably silly racing-game-with-a-plot, GRID 2. The reason given was that only 5% of people who played the original ever used the in-car cams and “they are expensive to run due to the requirement for high-resolution interior textures which are seen close-up and require a considerable amount of in-game memory (to store) and processing (to render).” Intelligent sorts have already modded the game, adding cockpit views, and, lo, the interiors are indeed low resolution, but there are already folks working to sharpen the whole thing up. Video under the hood.

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I’ve had my suspicions about GRID 2’s narrative since I first played the game, believing the multi-disciplinary racing organisation around which the story is constructed may be a front, concealing something more sinister. Now that I’ve conquered most of the world’s continents by driving around them really fast, I’ve discovered the truth. You can read all about it below.>

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