For Codemasters, it's been a funny couple of years. After a scintillating start to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation with Dirt and Grid, two smart console distillations of the studio's automotive expertise, a more erratic rhythm has set in. A couple of superb Dirt sequels were followed up by the slightly less stellar Showdown, a quick-fire sequel whose knockabout racing couldn't quite sustain standalone status, while Grid 2 took a lunge for the mainstream that left many of Codemasters' more traditional fans wanting.
"I think we ended up in a bit of a no-man's land," says Clive Moody, a producer at the studio since the days of TOCA. "Both those games were very much outside of that comfort zone we've got. For us it was feeling our way a little bit, and despite doing as much focus testing as we could possibly do on those titles, clearly we hit in some areas and missed in others. We're completely honest about that - there are certain things that we didn't get right on Grid 2."
What exactly those things were depends on your perspective, and the complaints were many and varied: there was a de-emphasising of the motorsport upon which the series' name was once built, a new, thick American twang that sat awkwardly with that same heritage and a handling model that, in its pursuit of a bigger audience, left people like myself confused and frustrated. And, lest anyone could forget, there was the jettisoning of the cockpit cam.
from Eurogamer.net http://ift.tt/1hbESjT
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