May 8, 2008 - Since Codemasters announced its new racing game late last year, we've only gotten a few brief looks at the title -- once during a developer demo and again in a hands-on with a select number of tracks and cars. And although we've liked what we've seen so far, the meat of the game has been locked away from our prying eyes.

That all changed this week when the British studio popped the bonnet on the U.S. portion of Grid's career mode for us, giving IGN free reign to create a racing team, earn some money and rep and make our way toward racing stardom.

Grid is being developed by the Codemasters racing team that created 2007's DiRT, a sexed-up off-road racer with slick presentation, lush graphics and detailed damage modeling. Rather than crank out an immediate sequel, the team chose to blend elements of DiRT with the soul of its TOCA/Pro Race Driver series to create a new racing experience.

The result is Grid, powered by the upgraded DiRT engine (now dubbed Ego) and designed to straddle the starting line between arcade and simulation. Its career mode isn't about collecting cars (there are only 50 in the game), tuning up your vehicle specs or painting Princess Peach on your hood. It's, according to Codies, "all about the race," and we've run plenty in our time with Grid so far.



After choosing your driver's name, origins and driving style, Grid slams you onto the track. There's no tutorial, no hand-holding -- just you, a car and the track. Finishing your first race nets you a rookie license, which instantly opens up the lower-tier events in all three racing regions – Japan, Euro and U.S.

Then the racing starts. Your first goal as a newbie racer is to raise €60,000 (the build we're playing is still Euro-focused) to fix up your first car, which for us was a Ford Mustang Boss 302. To raise the necessary scratch, you'll need to freelance for a few racing teams first. Each time you finish a freelance race, you'll make varying amounts of money and rep, depending on how you've set up your driving preferences.

If you like to take things slow, you can use an automatic transmission, enable driver assists like traction control, bump down your difficulty setting and gradually make your way through the ranks. Or you can be aggressive and build rep quicker by turning everything up to insane difficulty levels. If you can stay on the track under stricter settings, you'll see the benefits quickly.

In our first freelance race, we nabbed third place, met our bonus objective (finish higher than fifth place) and made some cash and rep points. Our second race came with both good news and bad. On the minus side, we barely finished and didn't meet our objective. On the plus side, we totaled our car, and scored an achievement for our efforts. Wreck your car completely in a Grid race and you're out, but you can choose to restart the race as many times as you like. You can also retire from any race or event, but your hard-earned reputation will take a hit.



Grid definitely has some arcade elements but it's also a serious racing game that stops just short of being a simulation. As a result, it can be a surprisingly unforgiving game at times. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it takes some getting used to. Bang up your car too much or take a turn too hard and that retaining wall will put you out of the race with a sickening crunch and a rain of fiberglass. That's where the Flashback system comes in.

Let's say you're having a particularly good race. You're out in front, it's the last lap, and you're already counting the money you'll earn from your podium showing. Then you hit a stray piece of debris and sail into a wall. Good night, right? Not so fast. Grid's Flashback system allows you to hit pause, go to the instant replay, rewind to a point shortly before you lost control, hit a button and essentially take a do-over.