There are a lot of options for those gamers who are interested in driving virtual vehicles on the digital tracks of current generation video game platforms.
Five years ago Codemasters Racing Studios released Grid, a touring car racing game for Microsoft PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game features several types of racing events including GT championships, drifting, touge, open wheel racing, and demolition derby.
Since the game released, many racing games have been launched including five Need for Speeds, three Forza Motorsports, and Gran Turismo 5.
In a recent interview with CVG, games designer Ross Gowing explains why the sequel has taken so long to materialize and what has changed in the racing game landscape since Grid's release.
"The studio started to think about what it wanted to do with a sequel almost immediately after finishing work on the original GRID," Gowing told CVG. "But as plans developed it became apparent that our ambitions outstripped what we were able to do with console hardware at that time."
Gowing says that the extra time between the two games has given the developer a better understanding of the current consoles and time to improve the original game's engine.
"Fast forward five years and we're now in a position to be able to do that vision justice given how much more we know about the platforms, and the improvements that have been made to the EGO engine," he said.
The game designer said that in the five years since the original Grid, there have been several racing games that have raised the bar for virtual racing.
"It's difficult to define this in 'cause and effect' terms of what we do differently; but obviously since the original we've seen the bar raised by a number of our competitors," Gowing said. "So we're well aware of the need for every one of our features to be absolutely first class or it simply isn't worth including - the entire notion of something being 'tacked on' these days is a non-starter."
Gowing says that online game play is one of the biggest differences in racing video games since the original released and that gamers want more variety than in the past.
"One easily quantifiable difference in the landscape though is what people expect from their online experience," Gowing told CVG. "Whereas previously players enjoyed simply being able to compete on track against others in any capacity; these days you need to offer so much more in terms of progression, longevity and asynchronous play."
Grid 2 is expected to release for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in 2013. You can check out the full interview with Gowing here on CVG.
Watch the game's announcement trailer below...
