GRID (2019) GRID (2019)

[Paul Jeffrey]

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.

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 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 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.

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[Paulo Ribeiro]

After 2 hours around Grid 2019 controlers, I quit.

Everything assigned to keyboard and G27 wheel is working fine.
Setting up Fanatec pedals works fine also.
Now when I go racing, the car just stuck there parked with the revs at the top without moving, change gears from 1st to 2nd and even reverse, however it stays parked.

Any help please?

Cheers,
Paulo

 

[Andy Kettler]

Sounds like throttle is double assigned to something else.

 

[graham123]

Yep this happend to me dont know why but after resetting and calibrating all ok now

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

We are looking to crown the 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game - get your votes in now for our next game on the list... GRID (2019)!

Our dear RaceDepartment community. You folks are the most mighty fans of sim racing, often displaying an immense amount of understanding and depth of knowledge when it comes to our favourite hobby.

With sim racing and eSports in such a wonderful boom period of late. Gamers looking to have some fun with their virtual racing machines have never before had such a wide and robust variety of software to enjoy.

Now occasionally I've been in a position to rate new racing titles that have come my way, and almost every time I've received a wide variety of folks agreeing, or strongly disagreeing with my own opinions.

Opinions are great, but sometimes the opinion of one person, with their own likes and dislikes taken into account, can often give a bit of a skewed picture (intentional or not) to the greater cause in which said person is trying to explain.

As such, rather than doing one myself, and in the spirit of engaging some interesting community discussion, I thought it could be fun to let our own community rate each of the key sim racing / racing games available today.

As always with these things, please do try and respect each other and their opinions, and let's try to see if we can give a fun, but fair shake of the stick to each of the games included in this poll.

For transparency, I'm going to be featuring the following racing games over the next weeks:

• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Automobilista (AMS)
• DiRT 2.0
• F1 2019
• GT Sport
• GRID
• iRacing
• NASCAR Heat 4
• PCARS 2
• RaceRoom Racing Experience
• rFactor 2
• WRC 8

I'm going to launch the article each Monday evening, and keep the poll running for a full week until the next new article is pushed live. So get your votes in quick!

Once I've completed the full list of games, I'll publish a final results feature, and we can award the winning developer the lofty title of 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite'!

Have fun, stay sensible and let the voting commence!

 

[RikusPRF]

Perhaps this week this series should have been named "Rate the games", Grid is definitely not a sim. As for the game itself, I'm really hoping that future DLC may improve the experience, I've just reinstalled the original Grid recently to compare both games, and while the handling in the reboot is definitely less arcade-y than the first one, the original game is still FUN. The new one... well, I gave it a 5.

 

[Koen Verlinde]

GRID as successor to Toca 2 and 3 was a game of the same allure, but with more smoke, blur and weird physics. Still gave me easily 50 hours of playfun, so good no. I'd rate it a solid 7.

Oh you're talking about the new one?
Too late, already voted.

Pro Tip: Name your (sim)games better so people don't get confused.

PS: Grid 2 was terrible.

 

[Patrik Marek]

6 from me, good and somewhat interesting content. Quite good visuals too
but what it marks down for me are these things

driving - it just doesn't feel like what it should, even for arcade. For example new NFS -while still being aracade has a better feel to what cars are doing
another things that marks it down for me is the career system, don't really like how it's structured

it would be better for me if it was bit more serious about the racing structure, right the first one tried to be - create your own race team, get a race car and run a championship

not a 3 laps in one car, then 3 laps in another one and after you have enough points you unlock new series

 

[Slapped]

Which GRID are we talking about? It's not really clear from the title even though it's been placed in the GRID (2019 video game) section

I've no experience of the original GRID, and I refuse to buy into GRID 2019 at the moment, so I can't rate either of those

If it's Autosport then I rate it pretty good as a racing game. If it's GRID 2 then it's pretty crap really.

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Its GRID (the new one) - exceptionally interesting tactic for Codies to name it GRID, which is, well the same as the original GRID name!

Why they couldn't just call is GRID 2019 / GRID 19 / GRID 3 (or 4 or whatever) / GRID SUPER BRAND NEW RACING FUN or something similar, I'll never know...

 

[Haris82]

Original one was named ..Race Driver Grid.. = 9 points
Grid 2019 = 6 points

 

[Jugulador]

If those threads were called "Rate The Games", not "Rate the Sims" I could give it something between a 6/10 or a 7/10 because it's a very fine game that gave me more than a dozen hours of fun (before I just forget it exists)... but it is no simulator, so unless you put Mario Kart, Sonic Race, Horizon Chase Turbo, Need for Speed, Forza Horizon and Midnight Club I will give it a 3/10... should give a 0/10, but it's not available, so I just pick a random bad rate below 5/10 and it is what it is.

 

[Boby Kim]

If GRID is a sim....well, RD is not taking it serious anymore. Please add NFS to the list.

 

[Patrik Marek]

oh common, the Game vs Sim debate, seriously ??? how can't you just rate how good the game/sim is for you ?

having a arcade being 7/10 and some sim having 5/10, it doesn't mean that arcade game is more realistic
we are not rating how realistic these are, but how much joy they bring us playing them , aren't we?

 

[Jugulador]

oh common, the Game vs Sim debate, seriously ??? how can't you just rate how good the game/sim is for you ?

having a arcade being 7/10 and some sim having 5/10, it doesn't mean that arcade game is more realistic
we are not rating how realistic these are, but how much joy they bring us playing them , aren't we?

I think it's all about consistence.

To tell the utmost truth, the pool is just an excuse for people discuss about games they like and have some fun (and, of course, have an idea about what is the favorite simulator on this community... what we don't need a pool to know, but it's fun to do anyway, so...).

Independent of it all... if you don't want people to "Game vs Sim debate" just take the "Sim" out of the pool's name and let do some straight talk about the favorite race game, not just simulators... I surely don't mind them to say that I prefer Horizon Chase, Mario Kart 8, Forza Horizon 4 and Midnight Club LA over ACC. By the way... if we are talking about non simulation racing games, GRID is kinda irrelevant to me (and I don't see people really hyping it)... just not as irrelevant as a new NFS.

 

[melanieuk]

oh common, the Game vs Sim debate, seriously ??? how can't you just rate how good the game/sim is for you ?

having a arcade being 7/10 and some sim having 5/10, it doesn't mean that arcade game is more realistic
we are not rating how realistic these are, but how much joy they bring us playing them , aren't we?

Exactly, Paul said that none of the sims feel like the real thing and I'd agree.
While driving to work, going about my life driving, none of the so called racing sims even feel like driving your average street cars, dont you just love how brain washed and deluded some people are to think sitting in from a single or triple screen playing a computer game feels like driving a real car.

 

[randomcallsign]

The first one was better. this one is average.

 

[Jugulador]

Exactly, Paul said that none of the sims feel like the real thing and I'd agree.
While driving to work, going about my life driving, none of the so called racing sims even feel like driving your average street cars, dont you just love how brain washed and deluded some people are to think sitting in from a single or triple screen playing a computer game feels like driving a real car.

This argument got invalid at the moment that NASCAR's drivers started to use iRacing to practice for real racing.

 

[Ruy Horta]

4/10 from me.
Compared to the other Grid titles it delivers very little, specifically a lack of RL tracks.Not crazy about the FFB either. The psychotic AI is the icing on the cake.

 

[Dave Thayer]

I dont have Grid 2019, but have the other Grid games so cant give a rating. I like them for something different than the normal SIM games. Seems many of the GRID tracks are being ported to Assetto Corsa and maybe other games. So we have the best of both games far as the GRID tracks. Not sure if I would get GRID 2019 cause it is the same type of tracks and no VR.

 

[MarkR]

Being generous and just treating it as an arcade racer 6/10. I shared the career playthrough with the kids and even then it was a grind.

There are a few positives for an arcade racer like being able to qualify rather than have to start at the back, which given the AI behaviour is average is a good thing. Some of the cars are good, others are awful, tuning is simplified but works well. Graphics and performance are good.

Why they included the team mechanics but then did nothing with them is beyond me.

Truth is though it's an out of date style of game, like something from 15 years ago in a new skin. I see mentions of NFS Heat and that is similar - a load of old ideas pushed out again to create a huge grind of an experience.

GT Sport and Forza 7 (which didn't make this weekly poll) are both much better racing games.

For pure arcade racing fun, I enjoyed Horizon Chase Turbo more.