grid posts

A GRID 1.1 demo has been released, perfect for those who are curious as to what the new Codemasters racer brings to the genre. The behemoth download includes fixes for issues such as wheels turning properly for players in Spectator mode, support for Xinput wheel and Logitech Rumblepad 2 hardware, a several compatibility tweaks.

Download the GRID 1.1 demo at Big Download.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	SimCity Societies demo released Strategy fans interested in management rather than supreme ruling are encouraged to try the SimCity Societies demo, which is now available on Big Download. The full version of Tilted Mill Entertainment's SimCity Societies was released on November 13, 2007.
	Supreme Ruler 2020 demo released Battlegoat Studios has released a demo for Supreme Ruler 2020, the strategy sequel to their critically acclaimed Supreme Ruler 2010. Multiplayer and Campaign modes have been disabled in the demo, but two single-player scenarios -- "Italy Votes" and "Preemptive Strike" -- are available for play.
	Camp Fatal1ty: A lot better than rowing classes Kids are out for the summer so their parents will likely push them against their will to go to summer camp. All that awful clean air, sun and "activities" are dreaded by their children. If you really want your kids to be happy to go to camp this summer, why not go to "Camp Fatal1ty"? Yes, your children can learn how to shoot each other via playing Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 3.
	GRID gets its tires patched Codemasters just dropped a patch (1.01, which takes the game to version 1.1) onto the Information Super Highway for their gorgeous racing game, GRID. The patch squashes several bugs on the windshield (i.e., other player's progress/positions are now correctly updated when you enter the race results screen; track and route options no longer change when host gets back to lobby in private/LAN) and fills the tank with numerous game-play enhancements (i.e., you can now look left and right while in bonnet camera; fix for missing Force feedback on Vista).

Codemasters just dropped a patch, which takes the game to version 1.1, onto the Information Super Highway for their gorgeous racing game, GRID. The patch squashes several bugs on the windshield (i.e., other player's progress/positions are now correctly updated when you enter the race results screen; track and route options no longer change when host gets back to lobby in private/LAN) and fills the tank with numerous game-play enhancements (i.e., you can now look left and right while in bonnet camera; fix for missing Force feedback on Vista). There's plenty more still under the hood, so be sure to download the GRID 1.1 patch from Big Download now!

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Spore system requirements revealed EA has published the system requirements for both Spore (due out September 7) and the Spore Creature Creator, which will be released on Tuesday, June 17. A precursor to the release of Spore, the Creature Creator aims to let players release their creativity with "228 drag-and-drop, flexible parts."
	Belief & Betrayal demo released Big Download is nothing if not diverse. Within the last few hours, we've give you racing, and we've given you shooting -- now we offer adventure, mystery, and intrigue all wrapped up in the Belief & Betrayal demo.
	Interview: Vic Davis of Armageddon Empires There's a new strategy game taking the internet by storm, and it's called Armageddon Empires. Fusing turn-based strategy, traditional board game methodology, and collectible card games, it's an extremely deep and amazingly fun game. Vic Davis recently sat down with Big Download to discuss his game and what it is like being an indie developer making a living off his work.

Last week, Codemasters held a launch event for their new GRID racing title. The event, which was co-sponsored by eBay Motors, brought five racers from around the world who had recorded the fastest times for the original GRID demo. Each racer could use only one vehicle, a custom eBay Motors rig, to record the fastest lap time on a specific track. Their prize: a brand new Ford Mustang GT-R.

This week sees the debut of a new GRID demo featuring the eBay Motors vehicle from the official competition. There isn't a Mustang GT-R to be won, but if you want to live vicariously through Timothy B., the winner of Codemasters' competition, you should give this demo's tires a spin.

Download the GRID eBay Motors Demo from Big Download.

While last week saw the team spending time in Mass Effect, this week finds the team split between the standby favorite of Team Fortress 2 and the new hotness that is GRID. With awesome action like GRID has, nobody can really blame them, though. Coming up hot on their heels was Armageddon Empires.

Our resident indie fiend, James Murff said he'll be spending this weekend playing Armageddon Empires, Team Fortress 2, and checking out Zombie Panic! Source. Kyle Horner is taking a chunk of his weekend off from PC gaming to dive into Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition -- but he assures us that he'll be planning everything on his laptop. When not rolling the bones, Kyle said he'll be relaxing in TF2 as well. Both David Craddock and Stephen Wong plan to spend most of their time tearing it up in GRID. Stephen noted that he'll probably also spend some time in Armageddon Empires, EverQuest II and will probably give Devil May Cry 4 another whirl if time allows. I'm on the road this weekend, so I'm limited to gaming on my laptop. Thus, I'll be spending time in EVE Online when I do actually manage some gaming. For this weekend, given all the great games out recently, What aRe yoU Playing?

Last night saw the official launch of GRID, Codemasters' new muscle-car racer. Held at the swank and historic Hotel Vitale in San Francisco, the launch event featured beautiful women, a full spread of delicious food, martinis -- and five racers competing to win a Ford Mustang GT-R worth approximately $90,000.00.

For Timothy B., winning the event was a dream come true, as well as an ironic (and terrifying) twist of fate for parents everywhere: Timothy is only 16 years old, but by earning a lap time of 1:40:32, the Mustang GT-R became his very first vehicle. Timothy was accompanied to the event by his father, who, it seems, will be the one begging for the car keys every Saturday night.

Big Download was in attendance to witness every virtual screeching turn and eat every grilled shrimp. Peruse our gallery to live vicariously through savvy executives, bustling bartenders, and, of course, Timothy, whose car is probably better than yours.

Codemasters and Valve have sent along word that GRID is now available for purchase over Steam for $39.99. GRID puts racing enthusiasts in the driver's seat of a variety of muscle cars as they race through "Detroit, San Francisco, Milan, Tokyo, Yokohama, Spa, Le Mans and many more."

Gamers interested in playing GRID on their PC should take note of the title's system requirements:

OS: Windows Vista/XP
Processor: Athlon-64, Pentium 4 3.0GHz
Memory: 1GB RAM
Graphics: ATI Radeon X1300, NVIDIA GeForce 6800
DirectX Version: 9
Hard Drive: 12.5GB Hard drive space

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	In-Depth: GRID GRID sets up a great mood for racing from the moment you set up your profile and put in an audio name. From that point on, the game greets you by name each time you load it up and refers to you personally with race updates. It seems like a minor addition, but it provides a strong sense of engagement with the game world as you build up your racing reputation, rake in the prize money, and race go on racing tours across the USA, Europe and Japan. The PC version sports great performance and fantastic graphics, but it's worthwhile to purchase a gamepad to play this one in order to get the best experience. More after the jump.
	Big Versus: GRID This week in Big Versus we're tackling Codemasters' latest entry in the Race Driver series, GRID, which hits retail for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 today. Shying away from its more realistic racers like other TOCA racing games and the recently released Dirt, Codemasters hopes to capture some of the underground scene with their latest arcade style racing title.
	Two very different Alone in the Dark trailers emerge We have two new trailers for Eden Games and Atari's upcoming reboot of the Alone in the Dark franchise. The videos couldn't be more different. One features gameplay footage and commentary by producer Nora Paloni about the various enemies, weapons, and combat strategies in the game. It's a continuation of an earlier video that focused on fire.
	LEGO Indiana Jones now available in stores As of today, you can go out, buy LEGO Indiana Jones, and re-experience the original trilogy, thereby pushing Crystal Skull's awfulness out of your mind. According to a LucasArts press release Big Download received earlier today via email, "LEGO Indiana Jones presents a tongue-in-cheek take on the first three cinematic adventures of pop culture's most iconic archaeologist."
	Unreal Tournament III 1.3 patch details The 1.3 patch for Unreal Tournament III hasn't been released quite yet, but that didn't stop PlanetUnreal from digging for concrete details. Among the substantial list of fixes and additions are numerous bot improvements, several mod-specific collision detection issues, increased Aegia support, and cut/copy/paste functionality for the game's console.
	Fallout 3 Collector's Edition finally visualized We have reported in the past on Bethesda Softworks' plans to release a collector's edition of their highly anticipated RPG Fallout 3 but today the developer's official blog site has finally given us a visual of what that special edition of the game will actually look like. As promised the Collector's Edition will be housed in a metal Vault TEC lunch box with some great looking artwork (we would love to see the reaction if a kid took that lunch box to school).