''Grid Legends'' is a 2022

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...

and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

. It is the fifth instalment in the ''

Grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News g ...

'' franchise. The game was released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, t ...

on February 25, 2022. On January 12, 2023, the game was released for

Meta Quest 2 Meta Quest 2 (initially sold as Oculus Quest 2) is a virtual reality (VR) headset developed by Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.). It was unveiled on September 16, 2020 and released on October 13. As with its predecessor, the Oculus Que ...

Gameplay

''Grid Legends'' contains more than 130 tracks to race on, ranging from real-life circuits like

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United State ...

Suzuka International Racing Course The , more famously known as the , is a long motorsport race track located in Ino, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by Honda Mobilityland, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co, Ltd. It has a capacity of 155,000. Introduction Soichir ...

and the return of

Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama (Wahluu) and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race held each October, and the Bathurst 12 Hour ...

, to

street circuit A street circuit is a motorsport racing circuit composed of temporarily closed-off public roads of a city, town or village, used in motor races. Airport runways and taxiways are also sometimes part of street circuits. Facilities such as the p ...

s in various cities such as

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. The game features more than 100 vehicles, including

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move ...

, tractor unit truck,

open-wheel car An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

, stadium trucks, drift cars, and even

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

s, to compete in arena ovals, on street circuits, or off-road tracks. For the first time in the series, players have the ability to create their own races, including custom routes, obstacles, vehicle restrictions, and rules. Inspired by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

documentary series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

'' Formula 1: Drive to Survive'', the game includes a story-focused career mode for the first time in the series, entitled "Driven to Glory". Codemasters had previously opted to include a plot-focused career mode in '' F1 2021'' with ''Braking Point''. In ''Grid Legends'', however, the mode is much more narrative-focused, with the story in particular focusing on an unnamed racing driver referred to only as "Driver 22" (named after the driver's race number and the fact that the game supports for up to 22 players). A number of professional actors have been hired to portray different characters in the game, utilizing the same virtual set technology used in the American Space Western television series ''

The Mandalorian ''The Mandalorian'' is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, beginning five years after the events of ''Retur ...

'' to insert the actors into virtual backgrounds. The cast includes actor

Ncuti Gatwa Mizero Ncuti Gatwa ( ; born 15 October 1992) is a Rwandan-Scottish actor. He rose to prominence as Eric Effiong on the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Sex Education'' (2019–present), which earned him a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in Te ...

, who portrays Valentin Manzi, number one driver for Voltz Racing. ''Grid Legends'' also marks the first physical appearance of Nathan McKane, who has been a staple character throughout the GRID series, portrayed by Callum McGowan and reprising his role of number one driver for Ravenwest Motorsport. Other major characters include: Ryan McKane (Ravenwest Motorsport's owner and Nathan's uncle, portrayed by

Joseph Millson Joseph Millson (born 27 April 1974) is an English actor and singer. He trained at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Sidcup, London. Personal life Millson married singer and actress Caroline Fitzgerald in the summer of 1999. The ...

; he previously appeared in ''

TOCA Race Driver ''TOCA Race Driver'' (''DTM Race Driver'' in Germany, ''Pro Race Driver'' in North America and ''V8 Supercars: Race Driver'' in Australia) is a 2002 racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows a ...

''), Lara Carvalho (Ravenwest number two driver, portrayed by Nicole Castillo-Mavromatis), Marcus Ado (Seneca Racing's principal, portrayed by Miles Yekinni), Ajeet Singh (Seneca lead engineer, portrayed by Devesh Kishore), Yume Tanaka (Seneca number one driver and Driver 22's teammate, portrayed by Natsumi Kuroda) and Claire Webb (Grid TV's announcer, portrayed by

Sara Vickers Sara Louise Vickers (born 1985) is a Scottish theatre, television and film actress best known for playing List of Endeavour characters#Thursday's Family, Joan Thursday in the British television detective drama series ''Endeavour (TV series), End ...

Development and release

''Grid Legends'' was announced at

EA Play EA Play (formerly EA Access and Origin Access) is a subscription-based video game service from Electronic Arts for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows platforms, offering access to selected games pu ...

Live 2021. It is the fifth video game of the ''

'' series developed by

and the first instalment published by

, making this the series' debut on EA's

Origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * Origin (comics), ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * The Origin (Buffy comic), ''The Origin'' (Bu ...

as their main platform, which is also playable on the EA desktop app. Previous entries in the series were only on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. In addition to be released on

and

platforms, the game is also set to come to the

ninth generation of video game consoles The ninth generation of video game consoles began in November 2020 with the releases of Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Series S console family and Sony's PlayStation 5. The consoles represent significant performance upgrades from the prior Xbox ...

and

for the first time in the franchise. The game was released on February 25, 2022. On January 12, 2023, the game was released for the

Updates and downloadable content

The game received a downloadable content pack, as Electronic Arts and Codemasters put out an expansion for this Grid title, including Classic Car-Nage story mode, as it featured Demolition Derby cars and tracks, as well as the new Demolition Derby mode and the Valentin Manzi's presentation cutscenes. The second downloadable content, named Enduring Sprint, was released on October 25, 2022. It features a new track,

Fuji Speedway is a motorsport race track standing in the foothills of Mount Fuji, in Oyama, Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was built in the early 1960s. In the 1980s, Fuji Speedway was used for the FIA World Sportscar Championship and nati ...

, the new Endurance mode and its cutscenes that include Lara Carvalho and Yume Tanaka's new teamwork with Seneca Racing, as well as four new cars, such as

Autozam AZ-1 The Autozam AZ-1, known by the framecode PG6SA, is a mid-engined kei-class sports car, designed and manufactured by Mazda under its Autozam brand. Suzuki provided the engine as well as the inspiration for the design. Manufactured from October ...

, Bentley Continental GT3,

Bentley Speed 8 The Bentley Speed 8 (developed from the Bentley EXP Speed 8) was an Autosport Award Winning Le Mans Prototype race car that was designed by Peter Elleray. The EXP Speed 8 debuted in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2001 and won the race in 2003. I ...

, and

BMW V12 LMR The BMW V12 LMR is a Le Mans Prototype built for sports car racing from 1999 to 2000. The car was built through an alliance between BMW Motorsport and Williams F1, and was the successor to the failed BMW V12 LM of 1998. It is famous for earnin ...

. The third downloadable content, The Rise of Ravenwest was released on November 17, 2022, as it featured a new track, the

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

circuit from ''

Grid 2 ''Grid 2'' is a 2013 racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360. It is the second game in the ''Grid'' series. Feral Interactive released the ''Reloaded Edition'' for OS X in Septemb ...

'' and its cutscenes that include a tell-all interview on the McKane's family in Grid history, as well as new cars, including BMW 320 Turbo Group 5,

Plymouth GTX Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth' ...

and Corvette C2. The fourth and final downloadable content, Winter Bash was released on January 27, 2023. It features new Okutama point-to-point drift courses and three new cars, such as

Bugatti Bolide The Bugatti Bolide is a track-day-focused sportscar developed by Bugatti Engineering GmbH in Wolfsburg, Germany and manufactured in Molsheim, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S., revealed online on October 28, 2020. Acc ...

BMW 2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

and a custom drift-tuned SRT Viper GTS, as well as the Ajeet Singh's presentation cutscenes with occasional help from Manzi.

Reception

''Grid Legends'' received "generally favorable" reviews for Windows and PlayStation 5, and "mixed or average" reviews for the Xbox Series X/S version. ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' gave the game a 7 out of 10, stating, "It's not obvious at first glance, but ''Grid Legends'' is a definite step up from ''Grid'' 2019, with a bigger collection of circuits, more race types, and some extremely clever hop-in multiplayer. It’s not a dramatic leap, though, particularly as the reused car roster grows stale and the customisation options tread water." ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

'' wrote, "There's significant duplication from 2019's series reboot, but the few additions are at least wilder and more specialised than that game's slightly more conservative platter," and praised the multiplayer, story mode, race creator mode, and atmosphere. Both outlets also heavily praised the game's newly unpredictable AI. ''

Push Square Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other ...

'' gave the game 7 stars out of 10 and praised the core gameplay, number of cars and tracks, accessibility, and well-executed adaptive trigger usage while criticizing the story mode's narrative, unremarkable visuals, and repetitive music. ''

GamesRadar+ ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and '' Computer ...

'' gave it 4 stars out of 5 and lauded the tight controls and

simcade Simulated racing or racing simulation, commonly known as simply sim racing, are the collective terms for racing game software that attempts to accurately simulate auto racing, complete with real-world variables such as fuel usage, damage, tir ...

-style racing while criticizing the "dodgy" AI and disappointing story.

References

External links