Grid Updated Impressions

Codemasters made a name for itself among driving fans with its off-road Colin McRae Rally series. Codies is also no stranger to tarmac racing with its long-running TOCA series of circuit-racing games. Last year, the company revamped the Colin McRae series for the current generation of consoles, resulting in Dirt, a well-received off-road racing game that combined the developer's racing expertise with gorgeous graphics and presentation. Consequently, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that a circuit-racing game wasn't far behind. The name of the game is Grid, and we got a chance to see an updated version to check how the company is building off of the success of its previous effort.

Producers were quick to tell us that Grid won't be about collecting cars or insane customization options. Instead, it seems, the developers have focused their efforts on creating a racing game that's about...well, racing. Long-time TOCA players might remember the story-driven Pro Race Driver games on the Xbox; though you won't be watching cutscenes starring grumpy Scottish pit chiefs, you will have a progression of sorts in Grid's career mode. As expected, you'll start off as a rookie driver looking to make a name for yourself. You won't have much to start, aside from a meager garage and a handful of cars available to you. As you win races, you'll build up cash you can use to purchase new cars for the next event.

Grid career events will be organized into three different regions--Europe, Asia, and North America--and each region will feature different tracks and different cars available to you. The European events will be the most straightforward, including traditional circuits such as Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans Sarthe (in fact, at the end of each racing season, you'll finish with a 24-minute long version of the annual Le Mans 24 Hour race). Asian events, inspired by the legal (and not-so-legal) street-racing scene, will feature Japanese domestics and activities such as downhill mountain racing and drift events. Finally, in North America, you can expect to take on some of the most powerful American-made muscle on courses modeled in real cities such as Washington D.C., San Francisco, Long Beach, and Detroit.

The career mode in Grid is nonlinear, so you'll have some choices in deciding which events you want to enter. However, as you win races, your stock will rise as a driver (by earning both money and reputation, the latter of which will open up new licenses and new cars available for purchase). You'll also be invited to more significant races, and will eventually move up to a role as a team owner, where you'll have the ability to hire and fire drivers you've met along the way. Codemasters is also promising individual driver personalities that will combine things like ability, aggression, and driving style to create characters that will have their own approach to races. If you find a driver you like, you can hire him to your team and the two of you can work to win races together; but not all racers will be appropriate for the different types of race events in Grid, so you shouldn't feel too sentimental when it's time to give him the boot.

Dirt had damage modeling that could result in your car going belly-up if you drove it too roughly, and Grid looks to replicate that with extensive damage modeling that is more than cosmetic. Sure, your cars can dent and crunch during hard shunts, but if you incur too much damage, then you run the risk of damaging your car's engine, tires, or other internal essentials. Yes, it's possible to kill your car in the game; unfortunately, you won't be able to head into the pits to repair an ailing car.

Then again, you might not need to, thanks to a new feature in the game known as flashback. At any point in a race, you'll be able to rewind time back 10 seconds to attempt a section of track over again, simply by pausing the game and accessing the flashback feature in the menu. When watching the replay of the previous 10 seconds, you can then choose to jump back into the "live" race at any point with the press of a button. This is a pretty powerful feature, and as such Codemasters are currently looking at ways of balancing it with gameplay to prevent players from constantly using the feature to get perfect laps. Current ideas being tossed around include letting you use the feature only a certain number of times per race, or having the flashback feature negatively affect the amount of reputation points you can earn from a race.

From the looks of things, Grid is going to tread the line between simulation and arcade racing. For one thing, the powerful cars that make up the Grid vehicle roster (such as the Dodge Viper or the Ferrari F430, as well as prototype, GT1, and GT2 Le Mans-style sports cars, among many others) will be a handful for experienced and amateur drivers alike. That said, the game won't feature any weather effects and, in a questionable decision, you won't have any control over the setup of your cars. On the plus side, dealing with gear ratios and brake bias probably interests only the hardcore Grid contingent, and producers told us the cars will be properly set up for the event you're running; on the other hand, that very same hardcore crowd (us included) is going to miss being able to have the flexibility that you're afforded by car setups, especially when racing online.

Speaking of online racing, a maximum of 12 drivers will be able to battle it out online in any of the tracks found in the game. The region-tied events found in the career mode won't be as restricted online, and you'll be able to race nearly any car found in the game on any of the available tracks.

If Grid isn't as visually striking as its off-road predecessor, it's only because Dirt looked so darn good. That said, there appear to be some striking moments in Grid. The massive crowds in the game--up to 45,000 spectators on some tracks--help bring a sense of life to the races, and the game is still using the excellent lighting effects that gave Dirt such a unique look. The Milan circuit is especially notable, given that you'll be zipping by an impressively rendered version of the Milan cathedral, and racing through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a shopping center of sorts, with a massive, arched ceiling lined with panes of glass. And, like Dirt, Grid will run at a respectable 30 frames per second.

Despite some questions about the direction (no setups? Come on...), we're still anticipating the release of Grid later this year because, these days, serious racing games are the kind of thing to be savored when they do arrive. The game is due for release later this year, and we'll be bringing you more information all the way up to launch.