By Alec Meer on March 15th, 2013 at 6:00 pm.
I haven’t played a car game for aaaaages. Much like my real-world driving, I’ve always been rubbish at them but secretly enjoyed them, and Codemasters’ original GRID, with its subtle silliness and invaluable rewind mechanic, very much hit the sweetspot of pandering to incompetence without chucking out all vestiges of believability. I’ll probably be driving into walls and accelerating into rather than out of corners in the upcoming sequel, which we now have in-game footage of to look at.
Looks reasonably flashy – maybe not epically so, but perhaps that’s just because they’re not running the game on the triple-SLI GeForce Titan systems every RPS reader but you has. Do keep up. The outdoor tracks look extra-nice, though, and I really dug the Yankee-Doodle livery on show in the first race there.
Quite tasty generally, I think. I feel the need for a racing game that isn’t called Need For Speed. Not to long wait, fortunately – GRID 2′s out in May.
15/03/2013 at 18:15 Creeping Death says:
“the triple-SLI GeForce Titan systems every RPS reader but you has”
I knew it! :’(
I liked GRID and GRID 2 is a no brainer day one purchase for me. Would be nice if they kept the multiplayer going this time around though.
15/03/2013 at 21:05 Roger-McCarter says:
my classmate’s aunt makes $81 an hour on the laptop. She has been fired from work for 6 months but last month her pay check was $19952 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this site… http://zapit.nu/31b
15/03/2013 at 18:17 Faldrath says:
Mandatory “no cockpit view, no sale” statement, even though it depresses me.
15/03/2013 at 19:32 wodin says:
I find myself thinking this every time I see the name Grid 2.
15/03/2013 at 20:39 ShineyBlueShoes says:
Really? Wow that’s disappointing considering how nice they’ve been in their previous games.
18/03/2013 at 00:57 carol391 says:
Its definitely the most-financially rewarding Ive ever done. Make money with Google. last monday I got a new Alfa Romeo from bringing in $7778. I started this 9-months ago and practically straight away started making more than $83… per hour. I work through this link, GoogleJobs.com
15/03/2013 at 23:14 Shadowcat says:
Yeah, it’s freaking weird. Clearly we’re not the target audience, though.
16/03/2013 at 01:07 sfasniperfox says:
Same here. I would think in order to compete in today’s racing genre, that features is a must have. I think for some people, going from Grid 1 to Grid 2 would be a downgrade, on that feature alone. I know for me it does. For me, cockpit view puts me more into the game, creating the fantasy of being in a car race. I’m willing to bet the clock’s ticking and they didn’t have time to put it in the game, because they needed to get the game out the door to turn a profit. I think it would be ironic if Grid 1 out sold Grid 2 on Grid 2′s release date.
16/03/2013 at 11:29 RiptoR says:
Actually, it’s not time pressure that caused them to scrap the cockpit view. Codemasters stated months ago that they won’t include cockpit view because players don’t use it enough. According to their internal statistics only 5% or so of the players use it, and Codemasters said it wouldn’t be cost effective to include the option.
16/03/2013 at 11:35 Hashbaz says:
I would be worried about it, but being that i’m going to play it on PC i can almost guarantee there will be a mod for it before too long.
15/03/2013 at 18:19 CaspianRoach says:
And you know what’s best for me? There actually will be Steam achievements, yipee! I’m happy as shit.
15/03/2013 at 18:19 Iskariot says:
For some reason I never liked car games in which the player is the car and the only thing the game is about is driving your car, especially when you are limited to driving a fixed track.
I love to drive cars in a game like GTA IV in which I can leave my car, do other stuff, get involved in a car chase, jump out of the car, flee with the police on my heels, steal another car etc. etc. The only thing GTA IV driving sorely lacked was a good cockpit view.
15/03/2013 at 18:21 CaspianRoach says:
Well, there’s Saints Row 4 coming out soon, so… yeah.
15/03/2013 at 20:06 chackosan says:
GTA IV driving sort of lacked good driving as well – felt like it was awkwardly caught halfway between an arcade racer and a sim.
15/03/2013 at 18:23 rb2610 says:
Still don’t get why they’d possibly think no-one wants a cockpit view in a driving game :/ At least having the option to is pretty much a staple of the genre for a reason.
15/03/2013 at 18:33 CaspianRoach says:
I don’t know, I find it hard to play in a cockpit because you can’t look around fast enough and you have no peripheral vision. It’s okay IRL because you can actually see what is happening to the sides but in a videogame it’s very restricting.
A workable solution would be using three monitors at once but that’s like a fraction of a percent of players.
15/03/2013 at 18:50 Stochastic says:
I wonder how well the Oculus Rift would work with racing/driving games.
16/03/2013 at 09:12 GreatGreyBeast says:
Oculus Rift would be fucking AWESOME for racing/flying sims. Combined with a wheel and peddle controller, it would be almost completely immersive VR.
15/03/2013 at 22:13 Jason Moyer says:
In a racecar you have basically no peripheral vision, anyway, since you’re concentrating on focusing your eyes as far up the track as possible (not to mention head restraints, helmets, etc severely limiting your FoV).
15/03/2013 at 18:57 iainl says:
They say they have data from the game that many of us were on bonnet cam instead, because we don’t have big enough monitors.
15/03/2013 at 19:17 xfullboost says:
that data was taken from multiplayer, where everyone used 3rd person as to not lose the advantage. using cockpit view in single player makes the overall experience that much more enjoyable, even if its a bit harder. Since grid 2 won’t have cockpit view, it wont be a day 1 purchase for me. I’ll happily stick to the games and developers that actually listen to their customers.
15/03/2013 at 19:31 Fox89 says:
It wasn’t taken from multiplayer only, it was taken from anything that was online, regardless of if you were playing SP or MP.
I like cockpit view for the effect – well, as long as I’m not using a wheel. If I’m using a wheel suddenly cockpit view means I am looking at two sets of arms and two steering wheels, which is just weird. But other than that it’s a nice touch – still get a better feel for cars with bonnet cam though personally.
15/03/2013 at 23:37 King_Rocket says:
Since the data is obviously flawed, and they are not forthcoming on how, where and when it was collected. I like to believe that the data was taken from the player base of Dirt:Showdown. Which has no cockpit, the 5% is just statistical error. (I’m only half joking.)
15/03/2013 at 20:40 ShineyBlueShoes says:
Except for those of us running eyefinity specifically for that beautiful feature of racing games.
16/03/2013 at 12:42 wodin says:
bonnett cam? I HATE that cam angle..if I’m not in a cockpit I’d rather be above and behind than the bonnet.
15/03/2013 at 19:15 Mctittles says:
Maybe it’s misdirection so people talk about this instead of how they shut down their servers for their previous title. Then near launch they announce “bringing back” the cockpit view and all else is forgiven.
16/03/2013 at 00:12 Azdeus says:
I love playing in a cockpit view, but I’d love it more but for the fact that I can’t see past the A-post in any way. I’d have to have TrackIR or something for that, but I’m not cool or rich enough to get that.
15/03/2013 at 18:30 The First Door says:
Wow… I really wish that guy would shut up for a moment and let me hear what the cars sound like!
15/03/2013 at 18:48 SilentDawn says:
He’s rich. he can talk whenever he wants.
15/03/2013 at 19:35 The First Door says:
Damn you, money!
15/03/2013 at 18:41 Mrs Columbo says:
I have a copy of Grid 1 but never played it. There’s some weird problem with the disc that apparently means new-ish DVD drives can’t read one of the main data files. I’ll blame DRM even if it’s nothing to do with it because it makes me feel better.
15/03/2013 at 18:52 mehteh says:
If dumbed down gameplay and incrediby annoying voice like Dirt 3, then no buy
15/03/2013 at 21:30 trjp says:
What was dumbed down about Dirt 3 – it was Dirt 2 with nastier DRM, is all it was???
16/03/2013 at 09:45 Han says:
For me the thing that made Dirt 3 seem dumbed down is despite the bigger focus on actual rallying, the Rally stages were deeply underwhelming. Most were too short for a proper rally stage, and a few you could just hold down the accelerator for 90% of the stage, something at odds with actual rallying.
Maybe that was Codies intention, as the hardcore rally crowd is probably not the most lucrative market. Gorgeous game though.
15/03/2013 at 19:07 kwyjibo says:
That trailer is almost as bad as the Galaxy S4 presentation.
Instead of putting you in the place of a race god, it thinks you want to hear some douchebag VC entrepreneur’s lapdog. It’s like having Bernie Ecclestone do the trailer for F1 games.
15/03/2013 at 19:32 Fox89 says:
Yaaaaaay Grid 2 ^_^
I am excited. Loved the original. If it’s only half as good then it will still be very good, and I’m expecting it to be at least half as good – probably more like three-quarters!
15/03/2013 at 19:51 Beernut says:
It looks very nice, will probably play this alongside Trackmania² Stadium :)
slightly OT “in-my-days”-rant:
There’s not a single shred of gameplay in this trailer, just another bunch of replay-cuts and camera-panning. Maybe it’s “in-game-footage”, but it’s certainly nothing to give you any idea of how the game might play like, completely useless to me.. :(
15/03/2013 at 20:12 analydilatedcorporatestyle says:
I find race cams too agressive for normal road use, fast road cams are ok with a bit of conservative fuel mapping.
15/03/2013 at 22:16 Jason Moyer says:
A survey production car racing game needs to do something to surpass Shift 2 at this point or I’m not really interested. So pretty much a pass, even though I buy nearly every non-Codemasters racing game that comes out.
15/03/2013 at 22:24 trjp says:
I think it’s safe to assume this will take on it’s predecessors mantle as ‘driving game most likely to reduce your PC to a smoking ruin”
I think I’ve owned 3 PCs since Grid game out and only this one runs it well :)
16/03/2013 at 06:15 Guvornator says:
The flipside is how nice it looks, even now. I’ve just been revisiting it, and apart from low res sponsorship decals on your car it looks better than the F1 2012 demo IMHO, even with the latter on ultra.
16/03/2013 at 01:41 caesarbear says:
I like racing games but never liked Grid. It had no love for cars. Every vehicle was a sterile piece of a menagerie. I couldn’t just enjoy the idea of driving whatever car I had at the moment, something that any racer has to accomplish. Never understood the love for it.
16/03/2013 at 02:04 TheManko says:
I hope it’s as blisteringly fast as Grid 1 was, and that it has incidental music during races. I loved the music they played during the last 4 minutes of the Le Mans 24hr race.
16/03/2013 at 10:30 Tritagonist says:
The main reason I liked GRID wasn’t the cars or the tracks, though it had good ones of both, but the oddly engaging mini-game of choosing sponsors with their race targets, combined with the ability to run a teammate. Do I go for a $50,000 sponsor reward for a P1 finish – or a $30,000 for a podium and try to get that teammate up there to maximize the return? Good stuff.
As to the camera debate: I don’t like cockpits in anything but open wheel formula cars. If I can’t see the tyres, in other words. Add to that the limited field of view on monitors and I’m definitely in the hood-cam camp.
16/03/2013 at 13:26 DonDrapersAcidTrip says:
What’s with all the Geforce Titan references in every article
16/03/2013 at 13:30 SuperNashwanPower says:
In before “it has all the graphics”