‘GRID 2’ Turns Motorsports Into Mixed Martial Arts

GRID 2 is turning motorsports into mixed martial arts.

Codemasters, the developers behind GRID 2, are attempting something different with the racing title. It’s not quite a sequel to GRID as it is a re-imagining of what would happen if people from different racing disciplines came together to duke it out on the same raceway.

Need for Speed: Carbon tried doing something similar, putting drag racers, muscle car racers, and exotic tuners head to head, but the concept got lost in an attitude-ridden gang war of sorts. We noticed more of rival racers acting tough and laughing at us than we did competition against other types of cars. It was fun, but the concept got lost under the game’s personality.

Codemasters is keeping quiet about exactly what they’re going for, but speculation has us thinking that GRID 2 may be making a story-based game similar to Need for Speed: Carbon, but with more emphasis on learning the ropes of driving your particular type of ride against others. You will apparently switch between types of cars and see which one gets you the furthest with your racing style.

Chief game designer James Nicholls explains:

“It’s about capturing that conversation you’ve had with your friends, debating who’s best in the world. Think when Kimi Räikkönen tried Rally for a while. People lit up, they wanted to see how he’d stack up compared to everyone else. If you could extrapolate that, do the kinds of things we’ve seen in Mixed Martial Arts and other sports mash-ups, where people have been brought together to fight on each other’s territory – that’s when it gets really interesting.”

We could very well see races that mirror the one at the end of The Fast and the Furious between a muscle car with torque leaking out the tailpipe, and an import tuner with enough NOS to blow up the neighborhood.

Are you excited to see what GRID 2 is all about?