by John Gaudiosi

Codemasters has a rich history of racing games, most recently with the off-road racer, DiRT. That same team shifted gears for their latest racer, GRID, which allows players to experience the life of an American, Japanese or European racecar driver through a collection of over 50 licensed vehicles. In addition to said vehicles, players will compete against upwards of 600 computer-controlled drivers--all of whom bring unique personalities to the track. Ralph Fulton, chief designer of GRID, talks about this new take on racing excitement in this exclusive interview.

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What will gamers with the newest nVidia cards be able to see with GRID?
A lot! Take your pick from: real-time lighting and shadows (including an accelerated day/night cycle for Le Mans), real-time environment-mapped cars, dynamic ambient occlusion under the cars, dynamic wet track reflections, per-pixel, velocity-based motion blur, a range of post production effects including depth of field, bloom, tone mapping and vignette, tens of thousands of animated skinned crowd members at each track, and an advanced smoke renderer that can fill the screen with tire smoke with no drop in frame-rate.

What impact does new PC technology have on the racing genre?
For a start, it enables gamers to play at far higher frame-rates and resolutions than their console-playing friends. But it’s more than just faster and bigger–multiple cores allow us to process far more in parallel, which means more AI and physics to make the race experience more realistic.

What gets you excited about new video cards?
GRID requires lots of pixel-shading horsepower along with plenty of VRAM in order to run at those ultra high resolutions like 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 at 4x msaa. These new video cards deliver just that, enabling gamers to get really immersed in the action.

Can you talk about your goals going into this game?
Put really simply, we wanted to make the most beautiful racing game ever, and the most exciting racing game ever. I think we’ve succeeded in doing both.

How has this franchise evolved from a gameplay perspective?
The big innovation in GRID is our Flashback system. We’ve always had fantastic damage modeling in our racing games, allowing the player to completely wreck his car. The drawback of this is that when you do so, you’re out of the race and have to restart. Flashback changes that by allowing you complete control over an instant replay of the period leading up to your crash. Using the replay controls you can select a point from which you want to resume–just hit the Flashback button and you take over from that point, allowing you to avoid the accident and carry on with the race.

What are some of the key features of GRID?
GRID is a game about the world of motorsport, so one of the key hooks is the variety that it offers. You could be taking part in the Le Mans 24 Hour for Corvette Racing in one race, and be drifting down the side of a Japanese mountain the next. We let you choose your own career path, so it’s entirely up to you where you go and what you do next.


How does this racer differentiate itself from the field?
By focusing squarely on the racing experience itself–that’s the key for us. Lots of modern racing games have concentrated on other aspects–tuning, modding, street culture–to the cost of the race experience. We’ve bucked that trend and made sure that our race is the most exciting part of the game, as it should be.

Can you go into some detail on the career mode of GRID?
Sure–you start out (as so often happens) at the bottom of the career ladder. You’re a driver for hire trying to establish a reputation and earn some money. Once you’ve earned a few bucks racing for other teams, you get the opportunity to set up your own and this is an important aspect of the game. From this point on you’re not just a driver, but a team boss as well. From here, it’s about expanding and moving up. You choose where you race to earn money and reputation, and as you do you’ll get to do sponsorship deals and hire a teammate to race with you. Your goal is to become the top-ranked driver and the highest-earning team.

How do things you do in races and choices you make impact the other AI drivers?
All our AI drivers have skills and personalities and how you race can affect them a great deal. Someone could be the best technical driver in the world, but if his personality is such that he crumbles under pressure then you can use that against him in a race. This is an important thing to be able to tell when racing against other drivers, but it’s especially important when you’re hiring a driver for your own team.

What are some things you're really excited about with this game?
I love the sense of speed we’ve created in this game–the combination of great racecars and some fantastic locations means that there is huge scope for exciting racing.

Can you talk about the multiplayer options in GRID?
Yes, we have 12-player online racing with most of the career mode’s events available to race online. There’s a ranking system in the online mode, which means you’ll be able to constantly level up as you race with extra points available for beating players ranked higher than you.

What are some things that will give this game longevity?
We’ve designed the career mode to constantly change when you replay events within it. If you return to an event, you’ll sometimes see different teams competing and you’ll always get different tracks to race the event over. There are Legends Leaderboards for all events, so if you have a particular passion for (say) Destruction Derby, you can continue to race it and gain rewards for doing so.

And what about online racing?
The online mode will also be the thing that keeps the game fresh. With 11 other humans on the same track there are an infinite number of race experiences to be had. We’ll be releasing some downloadable content in the near future, which should refresh the game’s car list. Watch out for info on this soon.