The Autosport Network (styled as GRID Autosport ) is a racing video game developed by Codemasters and available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360, Linux, iOS and macOS. This is the ninth game in TOCA series. It aims to move the series back to a more authentic "racing game" after the release of Grid 2 , which according to Codemasters is not well received by the company's core fanbase as expected. Developers consequently introduced major modifications to the handling model and built a slim, racing oriented design for this title.
Many critics who praised the game cited how the Codemasters appeared to have "returned to its roots", with aspects of the game originally in the series.
Feral Interactive, who brought the game to MacOS and Linux, also took the game to iOS on November 27, 2017. The Android version, also from Feral, will be released in the first half of 2018.
Video Grid Autosport
Gameplay
At Grid Autosport , players act as drivers with opportunities to start and build their own racing career through single-player Career mode, entering competition with fellow players on the web through Online multiplayer mode, customizing their racing experience (vehicle , circuits, racing types, difficulties, etc.) according to their tastes through Custom Cup single-player mode, and play against each other through Splitscreen multiplayer mode. This is the first video game in the GRID series that does not feature Vehicle Customization this time in a single player career as it is only displayed in online mode.
Career Mode is divided into seasons before players have to choose between offers from game racing teams. The teams - including the best Ravenwest in the business world, back from Race Driver: Grid - each have different season goals and sponsorship goals, achievements that generate extra experience points (XP) for players other than those received for their results. The online race is done through RaceNet, the Codemasters own community hub, where players can form racing clubs, earn XP and cash as they race and meet sponsor destinations, then use their revenues to buy and upgrade vehicles. Immediately after the release of the game, they were also presented with a series of special challenges, called RaceNet Challenges, announced by Codemasters.
Grid Autosport emphasizes the concept of racing discipline, making it a new event category. There are five main categories: Touring, Endurance, Open Wheel, Tuner, and Street. During Career mode, players choose certain events in one of these categories, with each event (series of races) that make up a season. Each discipline features a car and a very different type of race. The latter includes standard Races, Endurance races with tire wear enabled, Time Attack events, Drift events, and - as downloadable content (DLC) - Time Trials, Drag and point-to-point Sprint races. These are all accessible in Custom Cup mode as well, where players can also choose to participate in certain special event types, such as Checkpoint, Eliminator and Demolition Derby.
Focusing on providing a more realistic driving experience, the studio changed its model of damage, adding new elements, such as wear and tear, meaning car parts lose performance through common usage, and suspension damage systems. It also introduces a new team radio philosophy in which the player itself can request information about car damage, gaps, rival positions and teammate positions. Players can also ask their engineers to instruct their teammates to attack, defend or maintain their positions. For the sake of popular demand, Codemasters retains its unique Flashback feature from previous Grid installs with which players can rewind their race for a few seconds and continue earlier, if necessary. The cockpit view also makes a return, after a hiatus, very disappointing core fanbase, in Grid 2 . Apart from these elements, developers generally decide to remove the game and get rid of everything on the racing road. These features include Grid 2 's narrator-driven career mode and excessive menu.
Car
The cars in the Grid Autosport discipline are subdivided into multiple levels and classes with various strengths. Some of the highlights of the vehicles offered are the contemporary BTCC (Class C), Brazilian Stock Car (Class A) and V8 Supercars (Super Tourers) from Touring disciplines (eg Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Civic, Holden VF Commodore), current and classic GT Cars from Endurance disciplines (such as the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (Category B) and Ford GT40 Mk I), Dallara DW12 chassis of the IndyCar series (Formula A) from the discipline of the Open Wheel, American Muscle Muscles (eg Ford Mustang Boss 302), between others, representing the Tuner's discipline and the likes of Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport and Koenigsegg Agera R (Hypercars) representing the discipline of the Road. In total, including DLC, this game has 103 cars. This is the second video game under the Grid series that does not feature Toyota cars.
Tracks
In terms of tracks, the main emphasis is on real-world permanent circuits that make up most of the in-game courses. Starting from the classics, such as Spa-Francorchamps, Brands Hatch, Mount Panorama and Indianapolis, to more modern facilities, such as Circuit of the Americas, Sepang, Red Bull Ring and Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The location of the city with fictitious streets, but most of the real world San Francisco, Paris, Dubai etc, and - as DLC - fictitious point-to-point tracks in the original settings complete the picture. Overall, players can race in 15 real-world permanent circuits, 2 fictitious permanent circuits, 7 street circuits, and 4 point-to-point channels, including additional content, for a total of 28 locations with over 130 configurations.
Maps Grid Autosport
Development
Grid Autosport was announced on April 22, 2014 through the official Blog Codemasters, less than a year after the release of its predecessor, Grid 2 . Producer Toby Evan-Jones revealed in an interview that the development of a new title begins as soon as the development of Grid 2 approaches the end. This happens in the spring of 2013. Evan-Jones says this on a short development cycle between two games and general intent with Grid Autosport :
Historically we have alternated between [Dirt and Grid series, but] when we enter [ Grid 2 ] out we stand up and take stock and there are many things that the development team wants. to be there in terms of optimization, new features and generally fix things. At the same time there is quite a lot of feedback from fans regarding what they want, so additional touring car content, the return of the cockpit cam, and more impetus to get back to the simulation than the arcade. We though [ sic ] (...) we will keep spinning.
Game removes so-called TrueFeel handling from Grid 2 , but it does not just return to Race Driver: Grid handling. Codemasters use a better new version of the previous model, better simulate how the grip falls, when the player approaches the slip angle of the tire. The decision to use the new model, which has been tested by magazine experts and racing drivers from Autosport , was made on January 23, 2014, followed by applying it to each chart of the car's hand falloff and reset the vehicle 'Characteristics of handling individual. According to the company, the shift caused the greatest difficulty in modeling the behavior of open-wheel vehicles and American muscle cars. It also requires re-doing the AI ​​benchmarking work, which runs well using the old model. This game is made using Codemasters's EGO 3.0 engine.
Graphically, Grid Autosport is greatly benefited by the optimization and refinement of existing engines to achieve better performance on low-end machines, while on the other hand, support for DirectX 11 features allows programmers to improve rendering, especially grass and light, from Grid 2 . On March 4, 2015, Feral Interactive announced that they would be porting games to OS X and Linux. The online multiplayer system is also one of the areas decided by Codemasters compared to Grid 2 , based on fan feedback. The XP earnings and cash earning framework to buy their own vehicles and garage slots is a result of public criticism of the previous framework in which players have stairs, laid out before the game, to unlock the car. Feedback thinks the old approach is too easy to complete. As for a very tight development schedule, involving less than twelve months, mainstream designer James Nicholls said:
Many developers will tell you that the hardest part of any game-making is the initial phase - getting technology and tools to the point where the whole team really moves through the gears and produces at full speed. (...) GRID Autosport already has a team and technology ready for use.
Release
Grid Autosport comes in two versions - the standard edition and a special edition, most recently called the Black Edition. It was announced on May 8, 2014 and it includes additional vehicles (Mercedes Benz SLS AMG Coupà ©  © Black Series), additional and additional sponsorships for offline and online mode. The pre-order for Grid Autosport by the retailer begins as soon as the first game announcement is made. The steam previews began online a week later than planned, on May 30, 2014, however, all of those who ordered titles via Steam received Black Edition at no additional cost compared to the standard edition. Those who have Grid 2 receive a 10% discount and a free copy of Dirt Showdown as well. Grid Autosport was officially released on June 24, 2014 in North America and June 27, 2014 in Europe on all three platforms currently-gen, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Port OS X and Linux was released on 10 December 2015 by Feral Interactive. Principal designer James Nicholls confirmed as early as the game announcement that the game will not go into the next-gen platform given the strict timeline that the team is working on during the development process.
Update & amp; downloadable content
The game receives downloadable content packages until November 2014, usually once every two weeks. The majority of these can be broken down into two main categories: mini expansions and car packages. Codemasters makes three mini expansions for this Grid title. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited one is the Touring Legends Pack as it features two real-world circuits - Donington Park and Silverstone - the five classic BTCC touring cars of the mid-1990s and a new single player championship (outside of the Career mode). Another mini expansion, called Sprint Pack, introduces Sprint's type of race into the game, in addition to featuring four point-to-point fiction paths and more extra championships. The third, Drag Pack, introduces the type of Drag race, three drag cars and nine single player championships.
The car package, which also has three, including the Best of British Pack, which contains three vehicles originating from the UK, e. g. McLaren F1 GTR, CoupÃÆ'  © Style Pack, which offers four new coupà ©, such as Hyundai Genesis CoupÃÆ' ©, and Road & amp; Track Pack, which added two road cars and two race cars to the game. There are a number of additional DLCs available for this game. For example, Season Tickets are created by which players practically subscribe to the top six packages at a discount. The High Resolution Texture Package improves game texture up to 4K resolution and is available for download with basic games at launch for free. A Premium Garage Pack was also released, adding five additional garage spots to play online, and Black Edition content was later sold as a stand-alone DLC package. In addition, the free DLC Demoman Derby was released on November 7, 2014, exclusively on PC, which includes two skins from Team Fortress 2 , and consists of different neighborhoods and billboards that are also based on Team Fortress 2 .
On July 15, 2014, the studio released the Boost Pack, a small code to improve career and online XP development, for the same price as the car package. The controversy followed when Codemasters Community Manager Ben Walke commented on the reasoning behind the criticized move was to "sell it". Continuous patch support of this game sees the developer team repeatedly tackle various game corruption issues that appear, playlist issues online, etc. They activate the Time Trial race type (which is missing from the basic game due to prolonged technical difficulties), added Oculus Rift support and virtual mirrored mirrors (though, in the latter case, only for PCs).
Reception
Games generally receive positive reviews. Metacritic gave it a 78/100 aggregate score for PC and 75/100 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Critics especially praised its more authentic handling model and its stripped down approach to racing and excellent damage systems.
Career mode gets widespread approval for "just about winning the race and mastering various driving styles" with the ability to switch between disciplines letting the player "go as far as the focus or as wide as he likes." GamesRadar feels that having a nominated opponent provides "a decent sense of competition (...) that gives the race more meaning (...) and richer experience because it has a clear competitor to beat." Eurogamer called Online mode "comprehensive suite", which "series of [car] mods and upgrades lend persistence" to. Game Informer says that it "offers a bit more freedom [than Career mode]" and its "varied" set. The experience of playing online is considered "smooth, without any experienced drop out or lag."
In terms of handling, reviewers emphasize that the game "still straddles the line between simulation and arcade," but "definitely leans a bit further on the side of realism [than most Codemasters games]" and "it's a significant improvement on Grid 2 awkward dynamics." Edge noted that it "offers considerable depth in" and "live feedback makes for a strong, and satisfying drive." Nonetheless, it is "approachable" and Luke Reilly of IGN finds a model for "forgiving enough."
The behavior of artificial intelligence (AI) game is said to be successful, at least in part. The computer-controlled defensive driving line, sudden braking to the hairpin, and a very clever cut-back "can make" the 8th (usually equally) disappointing (...) finish as a triumph. "As for their speed, it depends on the difficulty level, where the lowest allows the player to" thread through 16 positions for three laps with little resistance ", while at the most difficult" you can spend all 13 races and 14th position by car other. "
PC Advisors praised the "big" cars in this game, and the inclusion of "many classics". Kotaku added that "more experienced players will appreciate the subtle differences between their fleets." The title damage model is critically acclaimed because the above reviews highlight that "every car responds accurately to collisions" with collisions having "a big effect on performance." Edge considers the system a "victory." The introduction of tire wear (in the Endurance event) is also welcome - GamesRadar writes that "it becomes very integral to the driving process, you will find yourself looking for the percentage indicator [live tire] in another mode every time you hear the wheels slip." Grid Autosport has a "generous track option", in which "real world circuits are the focus" at the expense of "unforgiving (...) and tight" roads.
The general graphics quality of the game is hailed as "extraordinary" and "beautiful" with "incidental details [on the race tracks] that make for an exciting racing scene" to be very impressive. For the game interface, Edge praised the "pared-down (...) design with a simple, clean (and fast loading) menu." Like the graph, the most positive aspect of sound is the detail; "nice ambient effects" and "little touches like listening to the commentators on the track" that make the experience "more immersive." GamesRadar invented a new system to be able to request information on a useful pit channel, claiming "You can rely on aural feedback (...) for maximum authenticity."
By far the most criticized feature of the game is, ironically, the cockpit look back. This, while "is very welcome from the gameplay point of view, (...) visually they spoil the view, blur in an attempt to hide the lack of detail." IGN says that they "do not have a calling card or a working mirror."
Some reviews mention that they find AI, depending on discipline, too aggressive, so much so that "having AI takes you out at least once the race is (...) expected." Edge explains that "they do not always give up in the same way as human drivers may, sticking to the routes they choose even if you legitimately outrank them in a corner." Exiting the pit stop also made some confused criticisms. IGN says "it is a strange omission (...) that secretly undermines much of what Autosport is doing right", suggesting that suffering a prick leaves the player with no option to repair the damage.
Eurogamer warns that a good and thoughtful Career mode can feel "long and protracted" and that "progress in GRID Autosport is slow." GameTrailers added that "the whole experience feels a bit clinical." The demand-based team radio reception is also mixed with GamesRadar on the grounds that "audio pit repeats too fast and does not always make sense." Finally, some reviewers noted that many cars and tracks were reused material from previous Codemasters titles, which were "stale".
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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