GRID 2 Unveils Multiplayer Plans

Due next month on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, GRID 2 has now revealed its multiplayer modes via a live stream.

First of all, they promise 12 racers at once in large clashes on the track, with the option to make custom races based on your preferences. Most of the game’s race types will be represented, including the Japanese mountain racing of Touge, Endurances for those who like to show off stamina, Time Attack for when you don’t want to deal with other racers, and simple races.

Players’ own car upgrades and customisations (which promise millions of livery parts) will carry into the multiplayer arena, allowing you to test your tuning against the rest of the world. They also mention a so-called “anti-griefing” technology, which in practice mainly involves just tries to categorise aggressive and clean players in such a way that they mainly encounter similar drivers to enable their multiplayer experience to be with like-minded folks. How well this will work remains to be seen, but I personally  prefer not knowing whether your opponent will swerve you out of an overtake or just let you through. GRID seemed to encourage clean driving, though, so I’m interested to see where this goes and if it works.

Their big reveal was RaceNet, which is ostensibly Codemasters’ interpretation of Autolog. It promises heavy stat tracking on your mobile device or in a browser, with companion apps on their way. As well as stats, it offers new objectives for players to complete, suggests rivals for them to take on and offers rewards for good driving and completion. It is also home to Global Challenges, which connect to a rivals system much in the same way Forza 4 did, offering a selection of tracks each week to race against ghosts of their rivals to earn XP and rewards. They’re also expanding the rivals system, offering automatic weekly rivals that match your current skill level, as well as the opportunity to set your own rivals through your circle of friends or by searching via a race discipline.

In essence, all of this seems quite derivative, but they have chopped and changed with what is already available in the online racing sphere to hopefully provide an up-to-date and smooth experience for all. One last thing to note is that multiplayer progress is completely seperate to single-player progress, in essence offering two campaigns of sorts.

There is also the ability to get ‘social’, with a followers system that acts as a fame meter, eventually meaning you could get noticed to be used in feature showcases. Essentially, though, it’s just another progress bar. Along with this is the ability to author short clips straight to YouTube, then share them directly to Facebook or Twitter.