''Grid'' (stylised as ''GRID'') is a 2019

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

developed and published by

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...

for Microsoft Windows,

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

, and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

in October 2019, and for Stadia and

Amazon Luna Amazon Luna is a cloud gaming platform developed and operated by Amazon. Luna was announced on September 24, 2020, with early access available to subscribers by invitation beginning on October 20, 2020. In its early access state, Amazon Luna ...

in November 2019 and October 2020 as a launch title for each system, respectively. It is the fourth title in the '' ''Grid'''' series. A sequel, '' Grid Legends'', was released on February 25, 2022.

Gameplay

''Grid'' emphasises the concept of racing disciplines, making them into the new event categories. There are six main categories: Touring, Stock, Tuner, GT, FA Racing and invitational. During Career mode, the player picks a particular event in one of these categories, with each event (a string of races) making up a championship. Each discipline features markedly different cars and race types. The latter include standard Races,

Time Attack Time attack is a type of motorsport in which the racers compete for the best lap time. Each vehicle is timed through numerous circuits of the track. The racers make a preliminary circuit, then run the timed laps, and then finish with a cool-down ...

events, Time Trials, and point-to-point Sprint races. These features included the in-game commentary from Alex from the United States as a play-by-play, along with former 2-time World Time Attack Champion and a regular top level touring car driver from Australia, named Kristen as an analyst during the race.

Grid World Series

The Grid World Series is a highly competitive racing event that races on various tracks on various continents around the globe. It features race types including Race and Time Attack. Winning races against drivers in established teams in the entire disciplines gains more money for the series, and the achievement of which earns extra experience points (XP) for the players besides those received for their results. Once completed, the player is welcomed to the Grid World Series, and must either complete the main objective when the players entered an event, or earn a gold, silver or bronze medal to earn money, and unlock player's teammates, banner and panel images, as well as custom liveries and accolades.

Nemesis System

One of the key mechanics is the Nemesis System where AI drivers will become aggressive towards the player if they hit them too hard or too often, as part of this there are 400 unique AI drivers, each with their own racing style.

Fernando Alonso Fernando Alonso Díaz (; born 29 July 1981) is a Spanish racing driver currently competing for Alpine in Formula One. He won the series' World Drivers' Championship in and with Renault, and has also driven for McLaren, Ferrari, and M ...

appears in this game as a "Racing Consultant", with the player facing him in the single-player campaign's final event, as well as a spotter.

Cars

The cars in the disciplines of the game are further divided into tiers and classes of various strength. Some of the highlights of the vehicles on offer are the contemporary

TCR TCR may stand for: Arts and entertainment * ''TCR'', the musical project of Robin Moulder and TC Smith * "TCR", a single by Prolapse * The Comic Reader, a comics news-fanzine 1961–1984 Businesses and organizations * TCR (record label), or Thur ...

(TC-2),

Supercars A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

(Super Tourers) and

Group 5 Group 5 may refer to: *Group 5 element, chemical element classification *Group 5 (racing), FIA classification for cars in auto racing See also * G5 (disambiguation) G5, G.V, G.5 or G-5 may refer to: Businesses and companies * G5 Entertainment, a ...

cars (TC-1 Specials) of the Touring discipline, as well as the American modified

muscle car Muscle car is a description according to ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'' that came to use in 1966 for "a group of American-made two-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." The '' Britannica Dictionary'' ...

s, fictional Dumont Type 37 and a customized Oval Stock Jupiter San Marino representing the Stock discipline, the GT4,

GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing fur ...

and DPi cars of the GT discipline, JDM modified tuning and World Time Attack cars representing the Tuner discipline, and the classic cars from the 1960s until 2000s representing the Invitational discipline. This is the first in the series not to feature Mercedes-Benz & McLaren cars, except the McLaren M8D.

Tracks

In the case of the tracks, the main emphasis is on real-world permanent circuits which make up the majority of the courses in the game. These range from classics, such as

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hos ...

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

, Indianapolis, to more modern facilities, like the

Sydney Motorsport Park Sydney Motorsport Park (known until May 2012 as Eastern Creek International Raceway) is a motorsport circuit located on Brabham Drive, Eastern Creek (40-kilometres west of the Sydney CBD), New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to the Wester ...

Sepang Pekan Sepang is a small border town and also a mukim in Sepang District, Selangor, Malaysia. The Sepang International Circuit in the western part of the town, where the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix was and Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix is held. Ma ...

and

Zhejiang International Circuit The Zhejiang Circuit is a motorsport circuit in Shaoxing Shaoxing (; ) is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. It was formerly known as Kuaiji and Shanyin and abbreviated i ...

. City locations with fictionally lined, but mostly real-world streets of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, and the fictional point-to-point tracks in authentic settings complete the picture (Okutama only), and — as DLCs — including the

Red Bull Ring The Red Bull Ring is a motorsport race track in Spielberg, Austria, Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race circuit was founded as Österreichring (translation: Austrian Circuit) and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from t ...

, Paris and

Suzuka International Racing Course The , more famously known as the , is a long motorsport race track located in Ino, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by Honda Mobilityland, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co, Ltd. It has a capacity of 155,000. Introduction Soichi ...

Development

''GRID'' was originally announced on 21 May 2019. It was initially scheduled for release on 13 September 2019, but it was decided by the creators to delay the game's original release date to give it “added exposure” for when it released. The game was later released on 11 October 2019. Versions for cloud-based streaming services

Google Stadia Stadia is a cloud gaming service developed and operated by Google. Known in development as Project Stream, the service debuted through a closed beta in October 2018, and publicly launched in November 2019. The service was to compete with Sony ...

and

were released on 19 November 2019 and 20 October 2020, respectively. The sound design team recorded over 69 cars for the game, capturing intake, exhaust, transmission, and cabin sounds to properly characterize each car. *

Reception

''Grid'' received "mixed or average" and "generally favorable" reviews, according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

Awards

References

External links