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CVG had the following to report about GRID 2. Seems that after many years a sequel is in the making.
Race Driver: GRID released way back in 2008 and people liked it. A lot. So where the bloody hell's the sequel? It's coming, according to the Official Xbox Magazine UK.

The rumours page of the latest issue of OXM gives GRID fans a new reason to be excited. "The GRID team at Codemasters is actively working on GRID 2," says the magazine. "It's likely to arrive after the release of F1 2012."

F1 2012 is expected to hit shops in September, so it's possible Codies could be eyeing a late 2012 release for the currently unannounced sequel.
There have been whispers of a GRID 2 stretching back to 2010, so an announcement is overdue. But with Codemasters having recently made the shift to a dedicated racing development studio, we wouldn't be surprised to hear something more concrete soon.
Source: CVG
 
General information

Release date: May 28th (US) and May 31st (UK)
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
Game engine: EGO v2.0 (updated version)

Requirements

- Steam account
- A full list of minimum system specs will be posted when available.

Gameplay features

GRID 2 will feature one handling model that has been fine tuned for each individual car so that it is accessible yet challenging and fun for all players. There are no assists present such as traction control, auto-braking and a dynamic racing line, though you will be able to choose between using automatic and manual gearing.
GRID 2's physics engine runs at 1000 samples per second, twice as many as Forza 4 and Gran Turismo 5.
The game will feature a tire deformation system which, whilst taking into account the tread of the tyres being simulated in 3D, calculates what forces are being played on the tyres and thus determining the grip of the car.
The car damage system in GRID 2 is a similar but much more developed version than the one seen in the original GRID. Every car has around 30 different impact zones with realistic behaviour based on crash test data which allows for nearly every aspect of the car to be deformed. Damage will affect the performance of your car based on the state it is in. Every bit of the car that breaks off remains on the track for the entirety of the race and can influence the player's car when hit.
The game will not feature a cockpit view. The main reason for this is that a highly detailed in-car view has a too big impact on the performance. According to Codemasters, the number of people not using the cockpit view greatly outweighed the players who do, therefore they opted to use the available processing power for other purposes. A statement regarding the cockpit cam has been released, read the post below
GRID 2 has Single-player (including an expansive career mode), split-screen and multiplayer. The multiplayer mode, using Codemasters' integrated RaceNet, will be seperated from the single-player career, meaning you can't bring your career cars to an online event. The multiplayer will instead have its own campaign in which you have to set up your own goals to progress.
The AI has been vastly improved and has now become a dynamic feature. Your behaviour towards your rivals will have an effect on how they behave towards you.
A big aim for GRID 2 is ''Total Race Day Immersion''. Street circuits and tracks will see larger number of spectators, sponsors and spectacle as you progress and rivalries will develop between you and the other drivers depending on your and their actions.
Potential features include wet-weather racing, car upgrades/tuning options and more expensive licenses of well-known brands like Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. All were hinted at, but have not yet been confirmed through official statements.
GRID 2 will feature a new dynamic LiveRoutestrack changing system that allows the layouts of Street racing tracks to be changed in real-time. This feature is optional and will work in singleplayer as well as multiplayer. This feature can be seen in the GRID 2 Eurogamer Expo developer session video that is listed below. It starts at the 35 minute mark. For an article on the LiveRoutesSystem, scroll down this post.
Car upgrades have been confirmed for GRID 2, along with a ''shop'' to buy them in. Most likely the currency for these items will be in-game money.
The selection of cars will span a total of four decades. Cars are devided in 4 seperate tiers which are not based on horsepower, but on a car's overall performance.

Environment

GRID 2 is spread over 3 continents: America, Europe and Asia.
There are 3 main race types: Street, Track and Road racing. Street racing entails racing through the streets of Chicago, Miami and Paris, much like racing through the streets of San Francisco in the original GRID. Track racing focuses on racing at real world circuits such as the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi and other to be announced venues. The latter of the three, Road racing, has you racing on windy and dangerous mountain (based in California) and forest roads, derived from the Touge mode as seen in the original game.

Official articles

- GRID 2: The LiveRoutes™ System
- GRID 2: The Lighting
- GRID 2: Handling and the TrueFeel process
- GRID 2: Four Months Gone
- GRID 2: Release Date, Pre-Order Details and More!

Community articles

- GRID 2 Interview - Multiplayer, Customization, Career Mode, AI and more!
 
Statement regarding the cockpit cam:

We've heard a lot of your thoughts and opinions regarding the lack of cockpit view in GRID 2. To better explain our decision Executive Producer Clive Moody has this to say.

"First of all, it's important to say that every design decision we make is done with a lot of careful consideration and not taken lightly. We're acutely aware of the love there is for GRID in our community and we want to deliver the best possible experience for everyone.

There seems to be some confusion about where we get our data from to help us make these decisions. While we do use research and focus groups, the most important data source for us is the enormous amount of telemetry data we can obtain from our servers that tells us exactly how and what our players are doing across all our games. So it's not a case of just a sample of people we've spoken to in research, it's a fact that only 5% of Codemasters Racing game players ever used the in-car view.

We certainly don't want to alienate any of our fans we want to deliver truly exciting features that 100% of our players will enjoy. Videogame development is always about trade-offs and in this case, taking the hard decision to lose the in-car views for 5% of our players (and remember we still have bonnet cam and bumper cam, which many people with racing wheels use), is something we felt was more beneficial to everyone. 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).

What this means in practice is that the benefit to our vehicle models, environment models and the hundreds of other things in the environment sapping memory, is huge. By making this educated call, we can use the extra available memory to make the on-track racing a truly mind-blowingly immersive experience.

For example, we can author and run higher resolution vehicle models with more detailed geometry. We can feature higher resolution external vehicle textures and work further detail into our environment textures. We can dedicate more processing power to our improved physics systems, integral to the GRID 2 experience, and push other systems to the next level, such as particles and real-time lighting. And there are many more benefits.

One final point to make is that we’re at the tail-end of the current console generation. We’re now incredibly familiar with the current hardware and have reached the point that we’re getting EVERYTHING possible from it. We’re dedicated to pushing GRID 2 to the next level, making it the definitive racing game on this generation of hardware. Dropping a lesser-used feature such as interior cam frees up the memory and processing power to push the more prominent systems to the next level is a tough decision but it's one we felt had to be made, for the benefit of the majority of players.

If you’re still not convinced, all I ask is that you wait and see what we've got to show you. We've only scratched the surface of what we've got to show you on GRID 2 - there's lots more to coming in the months to follow and I genuinely think that you'll really enjoy it. Come and see for yourself at Eurogamer Expo.

Executive Producer Clive Moody"

Source
 
I am curious where they get those numbers from. They say from extensive data analyzing from their previous game where 5% ever used cockpit view.

Not saying its not try as the more arcade style games seems to have a higher number of swingman drivers but it seems very low. If the numbers are correct i think the made a wise decision as it saves them tons of dev time.
 
I too find it hard to believe that only 5% of players use cockpit view, clearly their must be a some form of misinterpretation of their data. Their released statement about the matter (see the Centralised news and information thread) is a very professional response towards the community and I do understand their decision. At first I felt a little uncomfortable not having the option to drive using cockpit cam, but its exclusion is not going to take away the fun I'll
have with GRID 2 :) A lot of people are saying they won't buy GRID 2 if there is no cockpit view (you should see the outcry at the Codemasters forums, for one) but I'm certain that at a fair number of these people will still end up buying the game. The videos and information to come are only going to make people more excited and I do genuinely hope that these people will be able to experience the game. Cockpit or not, I'm sure that it's going to be great fun to play!
 
I definitely did not use cockpit view in the first one, or in the Shift games. Didn't really work for me at all.

With their multiplayer kerfuffle in the original game, I'm surprised there's this much interest in this to be honest. I sure as hell won't go anywhere near it.
 
I think this is a timely reminder of how small the sim racing numbers are in proportion to the entire gaming community.
Four years ago it was even smaller, games like Forza plus F1 2010/11not forgetting GT5 have encouraged more mainstream gamers to try more sim like games. So their figures may be pretty accurate for the time. I couldn't drive the damn thing anyway inside or out so it makes no difference to me,:redface: if it works with a wheel I'll buy it for the career mode.
 
The multiplayer was okay as long as you drove with people you know. As with any racing game the public racing was a nightmare with people driving more off than on the track :)
 
After the release of the announcement trailer of GRID 2 yesterday the community has been in a huge debate about the removal of the cockpit view from Codemasters' most expensive game to date that will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2013.

Today John Papadopoulos of DSOGaming reacts in an editorial with bold claims that Codemasters has been lying to its fans in one of the worst attempts at damage control. He refutes the statements of Clive Moody and emphasizes on the limitation of the current consoles compared to the more powerful PC's, DLC's and more.

Read the full article here and tell us in the comments below or in the GRID 2 forums what you think. Do you agree or disagree?

Grid-2-620x279.jpg
View the Post on the Blog
 
Getting rid of cockpit view is fine by me. It's one of the most useless things in racing games/sims.

Unless you have a triple monitor setup, you're pretty limited on screen area...and having most of that area devoted to displaying the inside of your car is just silly. Your focus in a real car is on the road - and in a racing game/sim I prefer to focus on the road & my surroundings as well.

I mean, I guess I could slide my seat waaaaay back and drive with my fingertips so I can take in the glory of the interior of my Ford, but...
 
I think this is a timely reminder of how small the sim racing numbers are in proportion to the entire gaming community.

Dont you mean:
how small the sim racing numbers are...playing Grid in cockpit view online...in proportion to the entire gaming community....?

Sounds like they got stats from the previous game, not the entire community.
Anyway, I quite enjoyed a blast on Grid in cockpit view but never online.

Grid is not exactly the first port of call for 'sim racers' anyway is it?
So apart from sim racers getting a bit bent out if shape with the notion that a 'driving game' is excluding cockpit view on principal, its probably not a game a sim racer would be paying out for anyway. And even if they did, it wouldnt be for realism, it would be for fun, which consoles are aimed at, rather than high end PC gaming rigs.
 
True but in a controlled environment such as a racing club its a lot of fun. Have always massively enjoyed the Race Driver series online.

On topic: some mega bold claims about the cockpit discussion posted at a DSOGaming today http://www.racedepartment.com/2012/08/grid-2-codemasters-is-lying-to-its-fans/

Could all be a bit of guerilla marketing. CM engineer some controversy, get people talking about it, getting front page space on forums, spreading the word, and then they shark in with cockpit view in the release and come back all 'we listened to the community' and all that sort of stuff.

Or maybe they will release it as a £3.99 DLC a day after Grid 2 drops.....
:D
 

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