Grid Autosport

Grid Autosport
Grid Autosport cover artwork
Developer(s)	Codemasters
Publisher(s)	Codemasters
Engine	EGO 3.0
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Xbox 360
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Grid Autosport (styled as GRID Autosport) is a racing video game released by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on June 24, 2014 in North America and June 27, 2014 in Europe. It is the sequel to 2008's Race Driver: Grid and 2013's Grid 2. The game aims to move the series back towards the "more authentic racing games" following the release of Grid 2, which Codemasters felt was not as well-received by the core fanbase as it was hoped for. The developers consequently introduced major modifications to the handling model and built a lean, race-first oriented design for this title.

Grid Autosport has been strongly likened to previous Codemasters titles from the popular TOCA Touring Car series, and is said to be one of the best racing video titles for PC in 2014.

Gameplay

In Grid Autosport, the player acts as a racing driver with opportunities to start and build their own racing career via the single-player Career mode, enter competitions with fellow players on the web via the multiplayer Online mode, greatly customise their racing experience (vehicle, circuit, race type, difficulty, etc.) via the single-player Custom Cup mode, and play on one screen via the multiplayer Splitscreen mode.

The Career mode is divided into seasons before which the player each time has to choose between offers from the game's racing teams. The teams, including the best-in-the-business Ravenwest, making a return from Race Driver: Grid, each have different season objectives and sponsor objectives, the achievement of which earns extra experience points (XP) for the player besides those received for his or her results. Online racing is conducted via RaceNet, Codemasters' own community hub, on which players can form racing clubs, earn XP and cash as they race and fulfill sponsor objectives, then use their earnings to purchase and upgrade vehicles. They are also often presented with sets of specific challenges, announced by Codemasters.

Grid Autosport introduces the concept of racing disciplines, Touring, Endurance, Open Wheel, Tuner and Street, and during Career mode, the player can start seasons in any of them while also being able to switch between them at will between seasons. Each discipline features markedly different cars and race types. The latter include Endurance races with tyre wear enabled, Time Attack events, Drift events, and - as downloadable content (DLC) - Time Trials, Drag and point-to-point Sprint races besides the standard Races. These are accessible in Custom Cup mode as well, in which the player can also choose to participate in less serious events, such as Checkpoint, Eliminator and Demolition Derby.

The cars in the disciplines of Grid Autosport are further divided into tiers and classes of various strength. Some of the highlights of the vehicles on offer are the contemporary WTCC, BTCC and V8 Supercars of the Touring discipline (e. g. Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Civic, Holden VF Commodore), the present-day and classic GT cars of the Endurance discipline, like the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 and the Ford GT40 Mk I, the Dallara DW12 chassis of the IndyCar series from the Open Wheel discipline, American muscle cars (e. g. the Ford Mustang Boss 302), among others, representing the Tuner discipline and the likes of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport and the Koenigsegg Agera R hypercars representing the Street discipline. In total, including DLCs, the game features 103 cars.

In the case of the tracks, the main emphasis is on real-world circuits which make up the majority of the courses in the game. These range from classics, such as Spa, Brands Hatch, Mount Panorama and Indianapolis, to more modern facilities, like the Circuit of the Americas, Sepang and the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. City locations with fictionally lined, but mostly real-world streets of San Francisco, Paris, Dubai etc., and - as DLCs - fictional point-to-point tracks complete the picture. In all, players are able to race on 15 real-world circuits, 2 fictional circuits, 7 city courses, and 4 point-to-point tracks, including additional content, for a total of 28 locations with over 130 configurations.

Focusing on providing a more realistic driving experience, the studio added new damage elements to its roster, such as a wear and tear system, which means car parts lose performance through general use, and a suspension damage system. It also introduced a new team radio system in which the player him or hersel can request information on car damage, gaps, rival position and teammate position. The player can also ask his engineer to instruct his or her teammate to attack, defend or hold his or her position. By popular demand, Codemasters retained its unique Flashback feature from previous Grid installments with which the player can rewind his or her race a few seconds and resume it earlier, if needed.

Aside from such elements, the developers generally decided to strip the game down and do away with everything that standed in the way of raw racing. These features included Grid 2’s narrator-driven career mode and superfluous menus. The latter received a more simplistic look.

Development

Grid Autosport was announced on 22 April, 2014 via the official Codemasters Blog, less than a year after the release of its predecessor, Grid 2. Producer Toby Evan-Jones revealed in an interview that the development of the new title actually began when patch and content support for Grid 2 came close to a finish. This occurred at the end of 2013. Evan-Jones had this to say on the short development cycle between the two games and the general intent with Grid Autosport:

Historically we've kind of alternated between [the Dirt and the Grid series, but] when we put [Grid 2] out we stood back and took stock and there was a lot of stuff the dev team wanted to have in there in terms of optimisation, new features and generally improving things. At the same time there was a fair amount of feedback from the fans with regards to what they wanted, so additional touring care content, the return of cockpit cam and more of a nudge back to simulation rather than arcade. We though [sic] (…) we'd keep it rolling.

— Codemasters Producer Toby Evan-Jones

The game eliminated the so-called TrueFeel handling of Grid 2, but it did not simply return to the handling of Race Driver: Grid. Codemasters used a new, improved version of its previous model, better simulating how grip falls away, when the player approaches the slip angle of the tyres. Decision to use the new model, which was tested by Autosport magazine experts and racing drivers, was made on 23 January, 2014, which was followed by applying it to each car’s grip falloff graph and re-tuning the vehicles' individual handling characteristics. According to the company, the shift caused the most difficulties in modeling the behaviour of open wheelers and American muscle cars. It also necessitated re-doing the AI benchmarking work, which was well-underway by then using the old model. The game was built using Codemasters’ in-house EGO 3.0 engine.

Graphically, Grid Autosport benefitted heavily from optimisation and fine-tuning of said long-standing engine to achieve better performance on low-end machines, while on the other end, support for DirectX 11 features enabled the programmers to improve renderings, especially grass and light, from Grid 2.

The online multiplayer system was also among the areas that Codemasters decided to overhaul compared to Grid 2, based on fan feedback. The framework of earning XP and cash to purchase own vehicles and garage slots was a result of community criticism to the previous framework in which the player had a ladder, laid out in advance by the game, to complete to unlock cars. Feedback deemed the old approach too easy to 'complete.'

As for the extremely tight development schedule, involving less than six months, lead designer James Nicholls said:

Many developers will tell you that the toughest bit of making any game is that initial phase – getting the technology and the tools to the point where a whole team are really moving through the gears and producing at full speed. (…) GRID Autosport already had the team and the technology ready to go.

— Codemasters Lead Designer James Nicholls

Release

Grid Autosport comes in two versions – a standard edition and a special edition, the latter of which is called Limited Black Edition. It was announced on 8 May, 2014 and it includes an extra vehicle (a Mercedes Benz SLS AMG Coupé Black Series), extra sponsors and extra liveries for both offline and online modes.

Pre-orders for Grid Autosport by retailers began as soon as the initial game announcement was made. Steam pre-orders went online a week later than planned, on 30 May, 2014, however, those who pre-ordered the title via Steam received the Black Edition at no extra cost compared to the standard edition. Those who owned Grid 2 received a 10% discount and a free copy of Dirt Showdown as well.

Grid Autosport was officially released on 24 June 2014 in North America and 27 June 2014 in Europe across all three current-gen platforms, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The game received downloadable content packs until October, 2014, usually once in every two weeks.

The first one, a High Res Texture Pack, which boosted game textures up to 4K resolution, was made available to download with the base game at the launch for free. Additionally, the company announced a Season Pass as well, with which the player practically subscribed to content packs at a discount rate.

Controversy followed almost immediately after launch week, when, on 15 July, 2014, the studio released Boost Pack DLC, a small piece of code to boost career and online XP progression, for the same price as future car packs, and Codemasters Community Manager Ben Walke commented the reason behind the move was that “it sells.”

Codemasters put out three mini expansions for this Grid title. Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated of these, the Touring Legends Pack, made it onto the servers on 16 September, 2014, and featured two new real-world circuits – Donington Park and Silverstone –, five classic BTCC touring cars from the mid-1990s and new single player championships (outside Career mode). Another mini expansion, called Sprint Pack, introduced the Sprint race type to the game, besides featuring four fictional point-to-point tracks and more extra championships. The third one, the Drag Pack, introduced the Drag race type, three drag cars and nine single player championships.

Car packs included the Best of British Pack, which contained three British-originated vehicles, e. g. the McLaren F1 GTR, the Coupé Style Pack, that offered four new coupés, such as the Hyundai Genesis Coupé, and a Road & Track Pack, which added two road-going cars and two racing cars to the game.

Alongside the two main lines of downloadable content, a Premium Garage Pack was also released, adding five additional garage spots for online play, and the Black Edition content was made available as DLC as well.

Continued patch support of the game repeatedly addressed various emerging save game corruption issues, online playlist issues, etc. It enabled Time Trial race type (which was missing from the base game due to prolonged technical difficulties), added Oculus Rift support and a virtual rear-view mirror.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	78/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Edge	9/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	7/10
Eurogamer	70%
Game Informer	78%
GamesTM	70%
GameTrailers	7.9/10
IGN	8.3/10
Play	67%

The game received generally positive reviews.

IGN noted its handling model improved from Grid 2, saying "it still straddles the line between simulation and arcade, but it does ask us to take things a little more seriously than Grid 2 ever did." GameTrailers said that it "definitely leans a little further on the side of realism."

On the other hand, GamesTM magazine complained about the length of the game. EGM said that "it’s a just shame that the promising on-track action is hampered by less-than-capable AI." IGN criticised the graphics, and said that the lack of pit stops was "a bizarre omission". Game Informer said of the career mode: "the all-encompassing structure of sponsorships gives the player no control over choosing cars and prevents the creation of liveries. These kinds of restrictions give the game a closed-off feel."

It made number 7 in the UK sales charts, and had fallen out of the top ten by the following week.

External links

• Official Grid Autosport website