GRID hit the stores on Wednesday. I still haven’t had a chance to check it out, though I know Mr. Angry liked it. Have you tried it yet? Let us know what you think!

For us gamers out there choosing the right racing game can be a true PITA. You have Forza Motorsports 2, Gran Turismo, Burnout, etc., etc. Well, now there’s a new kid in town and he’s coming out with guns blazing. GRID is the newest offering from Codemasters, the same people that brought you Colin Mcrae’s DIRT. I recently had the opportunity to play a demo of the game and came away thoroughly impressed. First off let me say that this is a RACING GAME. If you want to put decals, wings and funky wheels on your car then look elsewhere.

The beauty of GRID is the games physics engine. Car control is precise, and a nice compromise between on a full on simulator and arcade-like control. Veteran gamers as well as beginners will be impressed with this. The cars react very well to the gamer’s input and let you have a blast with car without driving you crazy. GRID also offers a really cool new twist on damage that is very "real world." For example, if a car loses a part on the racetrack due to a collision, that part will stay there. That part will also do damage to your car if you decide to run into it and or over it later in the game. I mention this because in most all other racing games when there is debris on the track, you can simply hit it and push it out of the way. Not so in GRID–run over a piece of a bumper or fender and you’d better be prepared to have your car adversely affected by the collision. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Mr. Angry Reviews GRID" »

A few weeks back I asked you guys to submit questions to forward to the developers at Codemasters about their new game GRID. Well, they just got back to me with some answers–from Ralph Fulton, Chief Game Designer, no less. Take a look:

CarDomain: How long did it take to develop this game?

Ralph Fulton: GRID has taken just over 2 years to develop.

CarDomain: How many people we involved in creating the game?

Ralph Fulton: We’ve had a team of 50-60 development staff working on it in the UK plus we have a an art studio in Malaysia that has contributed to it as well – it’s a multi-million dollar, AAA project that requires a lot of talent and big investment.

CarDomain: How much of it is based on what you developed for DIRT?

Ralph Fulton: GRID has been created using a heavily upgraded version of the Neon engine from DiRT called the EGO engine. The engine features upgraded environmental detail, the ability to display over 20 cars and can now handle night racing, which was not present in DiRT. The upgrades are not just visual, but are present in the overall presentation of GRID from the physics to controls to the menu system.

More Q & A after the jump!

CarDomain: In a previous interview you stated that Codemasters have over a decade of research on damage characteristics. To what lengths have they gone to make the physics of the game realistic and to what extent have they researched the damage characteristics in the game.  I.E. if you hit a wall in the passenger front fender is your alignment going to pull in that direction?  Can you blow a tire out?  Can the car be damaged to the point it can’t run?

Ralph Fulton: Damage in GRID is more than just visual damage. On the bottom right-hand corner of the screen there is a meter that keeps track of damage accrued for vehicle systems: Steering, Tires, Engine, and more. If you damage your steering or tires, depending on location, the car will gently or severely start pulling to one direction and the driver will have to compensate. Sometimes the damage to the car can be so severe that the car will become virtually undriveable. In other instances, crashing at extreme velocity or in a weakened state will cause the racer to retire from the race, use the Flashback feature, or restart the event.

CarDomain: How is the physics engine created?  How much of the development of it is pure math, and how much of it is trial and error?  Also, how is the difficulty of the game balanced using the physics engine to keep it from being too difficult or too easy?  Along the same lines, how is the computer artificial intelligence created?

Ralph Fulton: There is a lot of very hard math going on, and our physics guys do a lot of seriously clever stuff to make sure the results the physics engine puts out are correct. However, as designers, we have to make sure that there is a balance between realism and playability and a good example of this is in the damage system – if you drive a race car into a tire wall at 60MPH in real life, the car will be destroyed. However, to ensure the game remains accessible and not overly punishing, we have to scale the amount of damage which the in-game car can withstand. In general, our physics engine simulates as accurately as possible, and then we scale things back to make the game playable.

CarDomain: How are the cars modeled in the game?  Is a "full-body scan" of the car conducted?  Do they take a ton of pictures of the car?  Or is it a little of both?

Ralph Fulton: We take whatever reference we can get, and it varies from car to car. Some manufacturers and teams are brilliant for providing access to vehicles and the best thing we can get is CAD data. However, with certain cars, manufacturers are understandably reluctant to give away that kind of information, so we’ll just send a photographer who will photograph the car from every conceivable angle, and from this reference material we’ll have a technical artist produce detailed schematics. Our 3D artists will then use this and the photo reference to build the car.

CarDomain: Will the Honda RSX-R in the line up?

Ralph Fulton: No, but we do have the Honda NSX-R.

CarDomain: Do you really drive the cars on real tracks to know how they handle and then put that info in the game? If so, how do you do this?

Ralph Fulton: Our Car Handling designers have a lot of track experience, and where possible we arrange for them to experience as much as possible, but it’s just not possible to get them behind the wheel of all the cars they’re creating handling for – the number of people in the world who will ever, for example, drive an Audi R10 is always going to be small. What we can do is make sure our guys are as knowledgeable as possible about the cars they’re working on, and we also use motorsport consultants to ensure authenticity. We’ve worked with Creation AIM and their drivers on GRID for instance, to really nail the experience of racing Le Mans, since they’re one of a handful of people to actually have that experience. The other thing which our car handling designers have to have, though, is a real understanding of what makes good car handling from a gameplay point of view – realism is not the only goal in games, and GRID certainly doesn’t pretend to be a simulation in that sense. This game is much more about providing an exciting experience, than providing a complete simulation of racing.

CarDomain: Are there going to be trucks in this game like PGR2 and Gran Turismo?

Ralph Fulton: No, this game is just about racing cars. If they’re not racing cars, they’re not in GRID.

CarDomain: Will Grid suffer from "Rubber band AI"?

Ralph Fulton: Rubber band AI is the probably the #1 beef that hardcore racing fans have with most titles, so we took this very seriously in development. The AI feels very human yet competitive, with no “rubber banding”. If you establish a lead and compete intelligently, you will keep that lead.

CarDomain: Can players accumulate/modify their own cars, then decide what to drive in competition?

Ralph Fulton: Absolutely – the game is about building a race team to compete at the highest level, and part of that will require you to buy the correct car to enter into each event. However, we’re at pains to stress that this game isn’t about just collecting cars and admiring them in your garage – the car is a means to an end. This game is about getting on the track and beating the competition in any way you can.

CarDomain: Will GRID really be the "most visually impressive"? How will it compare to Polyphony Digital and Gran Turismo 5?

Ralph Fulton: Well ultimately that’s for you to decide. Personally I think GRID is the best looking racing game ever, because our art team has worked hard to give every shot a cinematic quality. Polyphony Digital make beautiful car models – there’s no question about that – but I’d argue that our world is far more beautiful. The comparison is interesting though because GRID and Gran Turismo clearly have very different ideas about what makes a beautiful racing game, and which you prefer is probably a matter of taste.

CarDomain: Thanks for taking the time to answer all of our questions!

When the Codemasters guys wanted to make sure the drifting in GRID was as realistic as possible, they went to European Drift Championship judge and Team Orange Manager "Sleepy" Hiroki Furuse. Here’s his take on the new game, which comes out in June.

Oh, and we sent in all your questions to the developers at Codemasters. They are heads down getting the game out, so it may be another week or two before we hear back, but stay tuned…

Ever wanted to ask a video game developer what went into making a game? Here’s your chance. Below, Chief Game Designer Ralph Fulton talks about the making of GRID, the cool new racing game from Codemasters which launches in June. Cool, right? But we know you guys have some questions of your own. So post ‘em below and I’ll get them to the developers. They’re busy guys, so it may take a week or two to hear back, but we’ll get your questions answered.

Codemasters, the guys who brought you DiRT, have a new game up their sleeves: GRID. I’ll be working with their dev team to bring you some behind-the-scenes info on the game over the next few weeks. The game arrives in the US in June for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION3, Games for Windows, and Nintendo DS (I don’t have the exact date yet–I’ll let you know when it’s official). If you haven’t heard about the game yet, GRID is all about racing. The action take place in Europe, Asia, and North America, and each region will feature different tracks and different cars. European events include Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans Sarthe, while Asian events will have downhill mountain racing and drift events. North American racing takes place in urban centers like Washington D.C., San Francisco, Long Beach, and Detroit, with a focus on muscle cars. And the Codemaster guys are aiming to make it the most visually impressive racing game ever developed. Here’s a sneak preview–a BMW 320Si at Jarama in Spain. We also a video of the replay cam.