We recently interviewed Iain Smith, Producer of GRID 2, and asked him several questions about the game mechanics and how the game will be different from the previous one. We also managed to ask him about his thoughts on next generation consoles and whether PlayStation 4’s 8GB GDDR5 RAM will help future racing games or not.
“I think with every big hardware improvement the industry goes through that line will continue to erode regardless of the game genre, but I don’t think the distinction will ever fully go away no matter how impressive the tech. You still need to ask the player to suspend their disbelief and come on a journey into the game world,” Smith told us.
“With a more mature audience than ever, perhaps that’s becoming a bigger ask, so the better the presentation of the product the better, but still – people know that what they’re playing. The question of immersion has been pivotal in GRID 2. We want to lock the player into the GRID racing world from the moment they turn the console on, keeping them in that world.
“That’s why the garages from GRID have come back. Nothing breaks the sense of involvement and sense of being within a world like flat UI screens and menus – so the player navigates the experience from inside their garage – which itself will evolve and change over the course of the career mode of the title. So you’re not only in that world in the race events themselves, but everything that goes between them.”
With the advent of next generation consoles later this year, we would love to see GRID 2 on them. The game has not been confirmed for the next-gen consoles and GRID was always known for its spectacular visuals. Smith did not confirm the existence of a next-gen version, which was expected, but he did say what makes the game give that next-gen feel.
“Of course we’re working hard in the background of GRID 2 to ensure we’re ready for next gen but have no specific titles to announce right now,” he said. “With GRID2 however, we already feel we are delivering on many of the promises of next-gen here and now. It’s our most social and connected ever title, with RaceNet delivering a persistent connection into your GRID2 world through web and mobile devices.
“We let gamers share their greatest moments through our YouTube upload feature direct from game replays and look also at the work we have been doing on PC, already supporting 4K TV technology for the ultimate in high-definition gaming,” he said.
He also revealed that they are doing tons of things on the current gen consoles and the next gen consoles will really allow them to do a lot more. On being asked about future racing games and how the PS4’s 8GB RAM will benefit them, he said: “As I mentioned before, with GRID 2, we really deconstructed the systems and looked at anything we could improve, so with the likes of the advancement we’ve made with speed we’re running our physics simulation at on this generation, the mind boggles at what is possible with the new tech. We will no doubt be taking the same approach to next gen – examining each area of a title and seeing what can be achieved.’
By next gen tech he obviously means the PS4, since that’s the only console that has been announced so far. The game comes out on May 28 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and the PC. It also does not contain any cockpit view, which is a bummer.
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