Race Driver One is renamed GRID @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on November 29, 2007

News: Codemasters' next racing game is coming to the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Codemasters has announced the next title in the Race Driver series, codenamed Race Driver One, will be officially known as GRID. They were, however, less forthcoming about what GRID is supposed to stand for. The racing game will be coming to the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in mid 2008.

According to Codemasters, GRID will use an enhanced version of the DIRT engine and take gamers across the world in the search for high speed racing events:

Gamers will compete on Europe's greatest official race tracks in prestige Marques including Aston Martin, Koenigsegg and Pagani. Iconic cities across the U.S, including San Francisco, Washington DC and Detroit - each with their own atmosphere and events - will play host to diverse street races, where high-performance V8 muscle cars set the pace in aggressive, closely fought pack competitions. And in the Far East, Japanese racing culture sets the tone where night races, including Drift racing, takes drivers through neon illuminated cities and to outlying mountain roads. There's also the opportunity to compete in races that operate on the fringes of legality in the back streets and industrial areas of Yokohama.

And after a glut of racing games based on the tuner culture, the developers at Codemasters promise that GRID will be something different and return the fun to the racing genre:

"GRID is all about the race," said Gavin Raeburn, Executive Producer, Codemasters Studios. "The next iteration of our DiRT engine combined with a decade of experience in developing driving games enables us to put players at the center of the action like never before. Damage, packed grids, intelligent opposition and unprecedented race day atmosphere will combine to deliver an experience like no other."

"GRID is set to capture every single racing moment, right from the starting grid to the checkered flag, and concentrates these moments into an intense and dramatic race experience," said Ralph Fulton, Chief Game Designer, Codemasters Studios. "The drama, the rivalries, the aggression and the crashes; this is not a game about collecting cars or spending all of your time in the front-end tuning suspension settings or designing liveries. We want to make racing exciting again."

Finally, if you want to see GRID in action, we have the first six screenshots here.

We'll have more on GRID soon.