Paul Jeffrey

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Surprise! A new GRID game is heading our way this September 13th.

Having been heavily focussed on their rally and Formula One games since 2014’s GRID Autosport released, Codemasters have today made the surprise announcement that the popular franchise will be making a return to console and PC this year – confirming GRID 4 is set to release this September on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Featuring the usual mix of real world and fantasy tracks located across four continents, plus plenty of racing content from low power machines to Grand Prix cars, GRID should offer plenty of variety for players of all skill levels when it drops later this year.

GRID_SanFran_Muscle_4.jpg

GRID_Ferrari_Brands_Hatch_1.jpg


Although exact details regarding the depth of content set to ship within the game has yet to be revealed by Codemasters, the British development team have confirmed the inclusion of Formula One machinery, in the form of at the least the 2006 Renault RS06.

With the new title having been developed in conjunction with Fernando Alonso and his eSport racing team, players will have the opportunity to race against the former double World Champion and 2018 Le Mans winner in game, as part of the structured career mode the title is so famous for in previous iterations of the franchise.

“We are also delighted to work alongside Fernando Alonso who is arguably one of the world’s greatest ever drivers” said Chris Smith, GRID Game Director at Codemasters. “His experience and knowledge has enabled us to make improvements to both the performance and handling of our cars. We could not be more proud to have signed him both in-game and as a Race Consultant. We can’t wait for our players to experience the final version when it comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC this September.”

As well as the inclusion of Alonso, images revealed from the game also reveal Brands Hatch will be included in the base version of the title, as well as a selection of tin top machines such as a TCR spec VW Golf and various American muscle cars.

GRID_VW_Brands_Hatch_2.jpg


GRID is well known as a ‘simcade’ style game, and it looks like the latest release will continue that trend, but with leanings towards simulation in order to appease a wide variety of driving tastes.

“GRID as a racing franchise is revered by our community and we are delighted to bring it to the current generation of consoles,” continued Smith. “The game offers so much variety and depth, from the number of modern and classic cars through to the locations and race options. Renowned for its handling, the game will appeal to all types of player, from casual drivers who want a lean-in challenge, to sim drivers who want some serious fun”

The game is already available to pre-order, and it looks like Codemasters will be adopting the DiRT 2.0 approach to post release DLC, with space set aside for 3 ‘seasons’ of additional purchasable content confirmed during the initial announcement.

More news will follow, as and when it becomes available.

GRID_Shanghai_Muscle_Shot_4.jpg


GRID will release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC September 13th 2019.

Stay tuned to the upcoming GRID 4 sun forum here at RaceDepartment for all the latest news and discussions about this exciting new game.

Like what we do at RaceDepartment? Follow us on Social Media!

 
 
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Hi,

my 5 Cents are...

first of all the negatives:
- why did this game into the pool? I don`t own all of the but i think it`s the most arcadish of all listed.
When GRID is listed why not Forza Motorsports ? which is better by far in any discipline.

The game is designed like for 12years old kids.
-Whats about the fireworks and confetti after every hotlap/race??
-Some comments from your "CrewChief;)" are just horrible fe.: "This is the last round, try to stay in front" eeeeh what should i try to do something else:D ?? Or my favorite one: "It`s a night race, do not crash your headlights ..... :geek: just no comment...
-What about all those cartoon logos of your opposing teams ??

Furthermore your Teammate and all commands you can give are pretty senseless.
The game offers short unrealistic arcade races..... at least the gamepad physics are not ass bad as expected., but there are far better "joypad-racers" how i call those games like of course - dirt 2.0 or forza m7
Whis a wheel its horrible....
- The balance is not good. At "hard" difficulty, 3/4 of the time there is no problem getting into the first 3. But some races are just impossible to compete. On other side when its raining the AI is way too slow.

Now the positives:

- There is something like a career. Not realy but..
- The game can look pretty good when blur and blooming are disabled in the ini
- When you want just few quick races using your joypad, it `still makes fun sometimes because the AI can be challanging and fun.

Therefor i give a solid 4/10
 
This argument got invalid at the moment that NASCAR's drivers started to use iRacing to practice for real racing.
You can practice racing with simulations, you can learn tracks today pretty accurately, you can learn to predict some behaviour in a sim, BUT: you will not be able to feel the real deal in a sim, even with VR and motion rig, there is no possibility you can reproduce the physical and the overall feel, smell and impression of danger in a real car, or even kart.

You can make a pretty good experience, close to reality in terms of driving pleasure, but you will not be able to get the recreation of a machine, working with several parts, assembled together to withstand crazy forces, while having explosions in a combustion engine, pulling you forward more and more and feeling it full scale. ;)

GRID is not a sim...not by any means, so "rate the sims" is maybe pretty off, indeed for this pick. But as a springboard into some "deeper" things, the Race Driver series is a pretty legit thing. I used to play A LOT of DTM/TOCA Race Driver 2 back in the days besides F1 Challenge 99-02 and GTR series, when it was released and it also was one of the titles, that brought me closer, to try, being more consistent and involved in the "deeper" stuff. It was great, to "fall back" into an easier approach, to get the basics right, also having a single player mode, which took me by the hand a bit, to progress naturally through some cars and tracks, getting increasingly more challenging and becoming more clean with racecraft.
 
You can practice racing with simulations, you can learn tracks today pretty accurately, you can learn to predict some behaviour in a sim, BUT: you will not be able to feel the real deal in a sim, even with VR and motion rig, there is no possibility you can reproduce the physical and the overall feel, smell and impression of danger in a real car, or even kart.

You can make a pretty good experience, close to reality in terms of driving pleasure, but you will not be able to get the recreation of a machine, working with several parts, assembled together to withstand crazy forces, while having explosions in a combustion engine, pulling you forward more and more and feeling it full scale. ;)

GRID is not a sim...not by any means, so "rate the sims" is maybe pretty off, indeed for this pick. But as a springboard into some "deeper" things, the Race Driver series is a pretty legit thing. I used to play A LOT of DTM/TOCA Race Driver 2 back in the days besides F1 Challenge 99-02 and GTR series, when it was released and it also was one of the titles, that brought me closer, to try, being more consistent and involved in the "deeper" stuff. It was great, to "fall back" into an easier approach, to get the basics right, also having a single player mode, which took me by the hand a bit, to progress naturally through some cars and tracks, getting increasingly more challenging and becoming more clean with racecraft.
Yes, mate... you can't experience the real deal on a simulator... that's why it's called "simulator", not "The Matrix".

Simulators can be far from reality, but they still are great learning instruments. And they become PRECISE learning tools. You have examples, such as Greg Huttu and Jimmy Broadbent, that both started in simulation (Huttu had never drive a car in this life until got to rl Laguna Seca) and did pretty decent laps on their first real life experiences. And didn't even used pro simulators, like the million dollar ones used by F1 big teams, just a lot of iRacing and Assetto Corsa.

I'm just waiting for the real life rookies that learned how to drive on GRID.
 
Yes, mate... you can't experience the real deal on a simulator... that's why it's called "simulator", not "The Matrix".

Simulators can be far from reality, but they still are great learning instruments. And they become PRECISE learning tools. You have examples, such as Greg Huttu and Jimmy Broadbent, that both started in simulation (Huttu had never drive a car in this life until got to rl Laguna Seca) and did pretty decent laps on their first real life experiences. And didn't even used pro simulators, like the million dollar ones used by F1 big teams, just a lot of iRacing and Assetto Corsa.

I'm just waiting for the real life rookies that learned how to drive on GRID.
Learning basics, how to drive in anger on a track, is possible with a sim.

The point you were answering to, was about, that sim doesn't feel like the real thing and this is correct and i agree, that simulations for consumer use aren't feeling like the real thing at all. You can do a great comparison in AMS with the rental karts. They drive pretty similar to the real thing, you can push them pretty similar, they have similar performance and you can learn for the real thing, to have a good foundation and prediction, but you will not have the impression of sitting in a real kart at all, for example.
I'm just waiting for the real life rookies that learned how to drive on GRID.
You can be sure, that some aliens were playing NFS, Gran Turismo and others, before they started deeper sim racing, maybe then even up to some real life stuff, because it gives you basics...
 
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The point you were answering to, was about, that sim doesn't feel like the real thing and this is correct and i agree, that simulations for consumer use aren't feeling like the real thing at all. You can do a great comparison in AMS with the rental karts. They drive pretty similar to the real thing, you can push them pretty similar, they have similar performance and you can learn for the real thing, to have a good foundation and prediction, but you will not have the impression of sitting in a real kart at all, for example.
But this don't mean that by loosing the feeling all the rest is invalidated. In an arcade game, such as GRID, you don't have the feeling, the physics behavior nor racing procedures and ethics.

You can be sure, that some aliens were playing NFS, Gran Turismo and others, before they started deeper sim racing, maybe then even up to some real life stuff, because it gives you basics...
That's the point I discord... arcade games (and simcades) don't give the driver any basics. Memorize a track or anything else simply don't add to the knowledge needed to drive on a real circuit. I even can say that it's will give the player some very wrong ideas about driving and track behavior.

Anyway, I don't work with assumption... I've seen (videos and articles about) virtual drivers with null track experience doing relatively very well on real life with just simulation experience. I never saw a GRID or NFS driver getting even close to that.
 
But this don't mean that by loosing the feeling all the rest is invalidated. In an arcade game, such as GRID, you don't have the feeling, the physics behavior nor racing procedures and ethics.
You learn basics there, like memorizing tracks, searching the fastest and smoothest way possible, how to race, without being taken out and of course also there you can encounter effects, following overdriving and so on. AND of course it doesn't have to do something with real car behaviour, that's why it's just a stepping stone to something "deeper".

But again: you were saying, that the argument isn't correct, that racing sims not feel the way, reality does, because stock car drivers use them to practice, but this doesn't make the argument of lack in feel of the real deal invalid. That's all, i wanted to say.

For the topic preparation for realistic physics:

I even can say that it's will give the player some very wrong ideas about driving and track behavior.
This can be the case with sims aswell...it just has to be wet or your tyres aren't properly warmed up. Even ACC, which makes some good approaches there, can't reproduce completely.^^

I've seen (videos and articles about) virtual drivers with null track experience doing relatively very well on real life with just simulation experience. I never saw a GRID or NFS driver getting even close to that.
What do you think, these sim racers were starting with? Do you think, the faster guys were starting with iRacing, rF or similar things or more like some fun racer stuff? ;)

Of course, you need a full blown sim, to prepare for some realistic behaviour of car and track. But to get into the sim world itself, there are the arcade-ish titles, mostly the stepping stone for many people.

Aww Paul Jeffrey you lovely devil, you must love to see some controversy around that topic, generating full article threads :D :D
 
That's the point I discord... arcade games (and simcades) don't give the driver any basics. Memorize a track or anything else simply don't add to the knowledge needed to drive on a real circuit.

haha, not quite

yes simulator teaches you more about how to drive car, so when you are on real track, you get used to it quicker, becasue you have some expectations of what the car will be doing

but I don't agree with negating anything about learning of the track. If the track you are going to race on is only available on PS3 arcade game, you can still get a sense of the flow of track, while you get understaning of car behaviour from more realistic sim
and therefore both are still pretty valid learning tools!

when I driven a race car on Autodrom Most, driving for the first time ever on that track, and actually first time in that race car too, but I have driven few fast cars before so that wasn't that much of a big deal,

It helped me a lot to have understaning of the track from R3E, or even the one I'm making for AC, .. and if this was GRID or Need For Speed, or the track alone I think this would be absolutelly fine

you could argue that knowing the track flow is less important ( coming from arcade) , then learning about car dynamics ( coming from sim) , which is certainly true to a degree

but driving on something like Nordschliefe or Macau, just knowing what car does withtout any knowing of the track - even if it comes form arcade game , would certainly hurt you more, then having great understanding of the car you drive

to put it into somewhat short sentences

BOTH are pretty valid

it's easy to crash unknown car on known track
it's easy to crash known car on unknown track
 
You can be sure, that some aliens were playing NFS, Gran Turismo and others, before they started deeper sim racing, maybe then even up to some real life stuff, because it gives you basics...

Lucas Odonez - established rear life racer , comes from Gran Turismo, and I don't know if he ever did any more serious sim, so yeah, I don't think sims really matter all that much

when you understand how you should drive the car, and can translate that into real world, you will be fast and it doesn't matter where or how you started
 
You learn basics there, like memorizing tracks, searching the fastest and smoothest way possible, how to race, without being taken out and of course also there you can encounter effects, following overdriving and so on. AND of course it doesn't have to do something with real car behaviour, that's why it's just a stepping stone to something "deeper".

But again: you were saying, that the argument isn't correct, that racing sims not feel the way, reality does, because stock car drivers use them to practice, but this doesn't make the argument of lack in feel of the real deal invalid. That's all, i wanted to say.

For the topic preparation for realistic physics:


This can be the case with sims aswell...it just has to be wet or your tyres aren't properly warmed up. Even ACC, which makes some good approaches there, can't reproduce completely.^^


What do you think, these sim racers were starting with? Do you think, the faster guys were starting with iRacing, rF or similar things or more like some fun racer stuff? ;)

Of course, you need a full blown sim, to prepare for some realistic behaviour of car and track. But to get into the sim world itself, there are the arcade-ish titles, mostly the stepping stone for many people.

Aww Paul Jeffrey you lovely devil, you must love to see some controversy around that topic, generating full article threads :D :D
My first racing game was Excite Bike. It introduced me to racing game genre? No doubt of it... but that is it. If we folow your logic I will have to say that River Raid (the first videogame I liked) is the same thing as iRacing. But a gamer can begin with iRacing without ever play any arcade game. BTW, my uncle never get into videogames... but he is an auto racing enthusiast and at the moment he experienced Assetto Corsa with the GT Legends mod (he grew with those cars) he decided to start in race sims and is doing very fine.

Arcade racing games and race sims are two completely different things, made for completely different experiences. Personally I love them all... my complain is that GRID is not even the best arcade racer and have nothing to do with the rest of the pool (as Codemaster's F1)

haha, not quite

yes simulator teaches you more about how to drive car, so when you are on real track, you get used to it quicker, becasue you have some expectations of what the car will be doing

but I don't agree with negating anything about learning of the track. If the track you are going to race on is only available on PS3 arcade game, you can still get a sense of the flow of track, while you get understaning of car behaviour from more realistic sim
and therefore both are still pretty valid learning tools!

when I driven a race car on Autodrom Most, driving for the first time ever on that track, and actually first time in that race car too, but I have driven few fast cars before so that wasn't that much of a big deal,

It helped me a lot to have understaning of the track from R3E, or even the one I'm making for AC, .. and if this was GRID or Need For Speed, or the track alone I think this would be absolutelly fine

you could argue that knowing the track flow is less important ( coming from arcade) , then learning about car dynamics ( coming from sim) , which is certainly true to a degree

but driving on something like Nordschliefe or Macau, just knowing what car does withtout any knowing of the track - even if it comes form arcade game , would certainly hurt you more, then having great understanding of the car you drive

to put it into somewhat short sentences

BOTH are pretty valid

it's easy to crash unknown car on known track
it's easy to crash known car on unknown track
When I get into a new track the first thing I try to do is lap it with a bicycle... ... ... or search for a laser scanned version (or one made by Reiza). Track layout is easy and usually all tracks that I knew (even very small ones) have maps. The problem is to know the bumps around it and overall grip (that is a point that no sims can tell you, because it use to vary). The good thing about sims is that they let you push very realistic physic models to the limits to understand how a car can work in different situations and you can put a lot of trust in this knowledge.

Arcade racing is fun, but I can't trust it not even to tell me the real track proportion (damn, I can't even trust Forza Motorsport, that tries to be a little realistic... imagine GRID). Anyway... add Mario Kart 8 and Horizon Chase Turbo to the pool and I'll give a straight 10/10 to booth and will stop complain about GRID being in the pool.
 
You don't follow my logic here. You're assuming something, i've never said.

I'm not going to repeat myself again...so from here, you could re-read again the last posts by Patrik Marek and me, to understand, what has been meant.
I"m not assuming nothing, this phrase was just sarcasm. You were pretty clear in your opinion, that is that there is no meaningful difference between arcade and sims for this pool because in the actual sims we don't have all the reality (the feeling).

And I am disagreeing (saying that the lack of those feelings make no impediment for home simulators do "their job"), but despite assumptions I'm using very factual examples, as two virtual drivers that used their experience with sims to easy a lot their adaptation to the real deal and pro-drivers that use some of these domestic sims to train for their real racing. And I'm questioning if there is any example of people transitioning DIRECT FROM arcade racers to real cars and how was the process (I can bring you the videos and articles, but I believe that you, as Race Department user, already know all of these). No assumptions here, can you? Don't ask me to read again your posts, because I did it and assumptions are all I found there, no offense (I can't demand you to do anymore than you already did in this discussion, and I'm really glad for all the attention you people gave to this thread). Just gave me some real examples if you could, because I'm really curious.
 
Not the best game, but Grid is the first of a few games (ridge racer) that got me hooked on cars in general and "sim" racing. The amount of fun I have had with this game is abismal. So I suppose than loving more than the actual game, I love the Franchise.

Hope they bring hill climbs and more "street racing" to this years game.

Also, it's the only thing slightly similar to the PGR (Project Gotham Racing) that we hace right now...

I completely agree that Forza(s) should also be on the list if this is here. Another "blast" of a game, even though not the "best sim"
 

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