Features

GRID Weekly Update: “And The Winner Is…”
2008-08-08 13:21:41
Lots of news this week, so let’s pull on the crash helmets, strap ourselves in and get cracking!

Firstly, this week sees the launch of the DS version of GRID. We know some of you out there have been waiting for this for a while, and we’re happy to finally have it available to you! To mark the release, we’ve released a new video for the game showing off the game’s track editor. If you were familiar with the previous game in the series, Race Driver: Create and Race, then you’ll probably be excited to see the new track pieces and options that you can use in creating your tracks. You can download the video here.

Speaking of track design, it’s a seamless move from talking about GRID DS, so showcasing the winners of our “Design a Circuit” competition. It’s taken a while to go through these, but these are the three entries that really stood out to us – there’s no first, second, or third place here, all three are equal winners – and it was a hard job choosing them!

First up, Micheal Filer’s entry for a track around Denver!

Micheal provided lots of description of the track, and the area around it, as well as images and this layout map. The layout looks nicely balanced between speed and challenge, and has a tunnel, and tunnels make racing circuits much cooler!

Secondly, Matthias Achtelik’s Circuit around the town of Heilbronn. Matthias submitted his entry in the form of a powerpoint presentation, which you can download in English and German. This is another nice balanced layout.

Finally, we have Topi Kauppinen’s Helsinki circuit, presented in this Youtube video. A great layout, fantastically presented.



Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who entered, we hope you had fun making your entries, we certainly enjoyed judging them.

To wrap up this week, it just remains to announce the winner of the Livery Design competition: Pierre-Yves Coulombe, well done!
For legal reasons we can’t show the winning entry just yet, but when the artwork is ready, It’ll be posted up here.
GRID Community Update: The weight of judgement.
2008-08-01 12:42:00
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been running a couple of competitions where the GRID Community has been able to flex its creative muscles. These competitions ended last week, and we’ve been deep in thought judging them.

We’ll announce the winners in next weeks’ update, but it’s been a fun, though taxing job choosing winners from so many entries, and we’d like to thank everyone who entered.

In other news this week, I’d like to draw your attention, in case you’d missed it, to the Codemasters community team’s blog, www.maycontaingamers.com. It’s been running for a few weeks and has all sorts of articles, with both light-hearted comment and some proper analysis and discussion of various issues relating to the industry – and as always we’re keen to hear your comments on the articles.

Finally, there will be another Community Race day next week, on Thursday afternoon (UK time).

Oh, and in some late-breaking news, the DS version of the game will be released next Tuesday! Stand by for a video next week showing off the awesome track editor.

Keep checking the forum for more info!
GRID Community Update: The weight of judgement.
2008-08-01 12:42:00
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been running a couple of competitions where the GRID Community has been able to flex its creative muscles. These competitions ended last week, and we’ve been deep in thought judging them.

We’ll announce the winners in next weeks’ update, but it’s been a fun, though taxing job choosing winners from so many entries, and we’d like to thank everyone who entered.

In other news this week, I’d like to draw your attention, in case you’d missed it, to the Codemasters community team’s blog, www.maycontaingamers.com. It’s been running for a few weeks and has all sorts of articles, with both light-hearted comment and some proper analysis and discussion of various issues relating to the industry – and as always we’re keen to hear your comments on the articles.

Finally, there will be another Community Race day next week, on Thursday afternoon.

Oh, and in some late-breaking news, the DS version of the game will be released next Friday! Stand by for a video next week showing off the awesome track editor.

Keep checking the forum for more info!
GRID Weekly Update: 25/7/08 – Round-Up!
2008-07-25 11:00:00


With two of the cars from the upcoming DLC pack confirmed and described, things are little quiet, but we have a few snippets of news that we’d like to share, and we also wanted to showcase some of the great screenshots people have been taking.

At the top of the article is the winner of the most recent screenshot competition, MagicAAA. Congratulations!

Secondly, if you’re still not a GRID owner, or want an extra one for backup (or indeed you have a family or friend’s birthday approaching), click this link to find the chance to win a copy of the game.

image by "katana"

Thirdly, yesterday afternoon was another of our community race days! Some good hard-fought races were had, and it was a lot of fun. More community race days are planned in future, so keep your eyes out.


image by "John Malkovich"

Finally, the Design a Livery, and Design a Track competitions finish at midnight UK time today! So there’s still a little time to get those entries in!
GRID DLC Car Focus: Volkswagen W12 Nardò
2008-07-18 14:33:15
The Volkswagen-Audi Group (VAG) expanded greatly in the 1990s, acquiring many premium brands, most notably Bentley and Bugatti.

In addition to this, there was a desire to take the VW brand itself upmarket with a new luxury model called the Phaeton. All these projects required new engines, larger and more powerful than VW had previously built, in order for the cars to be desirable in the marketplaces in which they were intending to compete.

Since the early 1990s, VW had been manufacturing a family of engines known as “VR”, being “narrow-angle” V-configuration engines. “Narrow angle” refers to the 15-degree angle between the two banks of cylinders, making for a very compact layout compared to a “traditional” V-configuration engine where the two banks of cylinders are often 60 or 90 degrees. This compact layout allowed the engine to be fitted into cars that were originally designed to accept engines no bigger than 4 cylinders inline.

So the W12, as you might expect, is two V6s combined. It’s slightly more involved than that might sound, but essentially the engine is two pairs of cylinder banks connected to the same crankshaft. The result is an extremely compact engine for a 12-cylinder, being not much larger than a traditional V8, with the advantage of being smoother than an 8-cylinder as well.

To showcase this new engine, VW contracted famed design house Italdesign to design and build a show car to showcase the engine. The concept first broke cover in 1997 as a coupe, and in 1998 a drop head version was shown. In street guise, the design is elegant, and undoubtedly a supercar while still retaining VW styling cues. One of the most notable features of the design was the unbroken glass area running from the base of the windscreen, over the roof, to the rear window / engine cover.

Aside from looking very pretty, the car had a second purpose- because VW had not before sold an engine as complex as the W12, there existed a wish to demonstrate the power and reliability of the engine. So, in February 2002 a car was taken to the Nardò test track in southern Italy for a world-record run. The engine in the car was essentially stock, though the car it was mounted differed a little from the W12 show cars, having racing wheels, an extended tail for improved aerodynamics, and an air scoop on the roof. It was also presented in a very purposeful flat-black livery, which, while looking awesome, makes the car an ideal candidate for our Design a Codemasters Livery Contest, which closes next week! So if you want a chance to get your design in GRID, get drawing!

When the dust settled, the car had set 12 outright world and international endurance records. Had the car ever gone into production, it could have been a formidable GT race car. When the DLC pack for GRID launches, you’ll be able to find out just how formidable.