Grid 2 achievements, trophies to be designed by Achievement bloggers

Developer Codemasters is enlisting the help of the Xbox 360 Achievements and PS3 Trophies websites to create the achievement and trophy list for the upcoming racing game, Grid 2. The websites will be working hand-in-hand with the designers at Codemasters’ racing studio to create an achievement and trophy list that will, hopefully, compliment the game and play to its strengths. “If anyone knows the achievement and trophy crowd, it’s us,” said the editor-in-chief of Xbox360Achievements.org and PS3Trophies.org, Dan Webb, “For years we’ve been criticising lacklustre Achievement & Trophy lists, and now, we finally get the chance to put our money where our mouth is. Codemasters have put their faith in us to work with them on creating  the ultimate list, and we’re looking forward to repaying that trust to design Achievements and Trophies with unique objectives that will put a smile on players’ faces with each and every unlock.” The achievements will be designed by achievement tracking websites “Xbox 360 Achievements and PS3 Trophies are the recognised ‘go to’ sites for anyone interested in getting the most from their game’s Achievements and Trophies,” said Clive Moody, Executive Producer, Codemasters Racing Studio. “Their extensive knowledge coupled with our studio talent will make for a uniquely crafted list with insight from the experts, offering gamers real challenge and reasons to chase every possible reward. It’s a new approach, but we think it will be a lot of fun and a great way to give player’s an insight into this increasingly important element of game design.” Codemasters has generally been pretty quiet about the development of Grid 2. Back in October, the company released a trailer that showcased the LiveRoutes system for the game. It will be an optional feature in the game used to change the routes on race courses on a lap-by-lap basis. During the demo of the game at this year's Eurogamer Expo, the system was shown off on the Chicago race circuit. Over two laps, one of the sections had changed in the second lap – a straight road was replaced by a left-right switchback. Back in August, Codemasters had released an announcement trailer for the game. The trailer had shown off some bits of the new Ego Engine 3.0. The original game, Grid is still counted as one of the best arcade racing games ever. Many racing games have tried to attain the fine balance between arcade and simulation, but none of them did it as well as Grid. It was one of the first games outside the Dirt franchise to employ the Ego engine, showcasing stunning visuals and bone crunching crashes in urban and circuit environments. The factor that sets Grid apart from other racers right from its conceptualization was the ‘flashback’ feature. This game mechanic allows you to rewind time (much like Prince of Persia – Sands of Time) in case you make a horrid turn and total your car. The mechanic sounds like a complete gimmick on paper, but the flashback feature does an amazing job by helping players correct errors and cope with the extremely high speeds, while acting like a buffer between the blurring speed and detailed damage mechanics of the game. In a game like Grid where ramming your car into the railing can actually break a wheel, Codemasters has managed to cut us ‘not-so-talented-racers’ some slack by allowing us to move back in time every time we screw up.