Tag: codemasters

DiRT 5 Review – Let’s Get Dirty, Baby

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With Codemasters being bought by Take-Two for a substantial £750-million ( a deal due to the be finalised in Q1 of 2021) it looks like we can expect more annual DiRT, GRID and F1 games since that’s a major part of Take-Two’s business plan. It should provide Codemaster’s with more financial security, but will it possibly lock them into doing nothing more than annualised franchises? Which is what they do now, really, so I guess nothing will change. The point is, DIRT 5 will likely be the last game to come from Codemaster’s without also being under the considerable shadow of Take-Two, so is DIRT 5 a suitable goodbye to Codies in their current form?

DiRT 5 Hands-On Preview Of The New Playgrounds Mode

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The Dirt series has had a bit of trouble settling on an identity, with DiRT 2.0 being the pure rally sim and then DiRT 4 trying to juggle rallying and a bunch of other stuff on the side. But now it seems like Codemasters might be settling into a rhythm because DiRT 5 is on the opposite end of the spectrum from DiRT 2.0. The colours are vibrant, the music is loud and the focus is on jumps, bumps and wheel-to-wheel racing. We don’t even know if there will be any regular rally stages. With around a month until launch, Codemasters offered me a preview build of their newest mode: Playgrounds, a place where you can make your own events and share them with the world.

F1 2020 Review – The Reigning Champion?

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Obviously the world has been a bit of a crazy place lately, so it’s hardly Codemasters’ fault that F1 2020 isn’t as authentic as last year’s game. A day one update will remove the Rokit sponsorship from the Williams car, but Mercedez sexy black livery is going to take a bit longer. And owing to the Formula 1 season starting four months late brand new tracks Zandvoort and Hanoi are in the game but won’t get seen in real-life until the 2021 season. Meanwhile, last minute changes to the calender mean circuits such as Mugello and Imola could potentially get used, neither of which are in the game. Exactly how Codemasters intend on handling all of this remains to be seen, but I think we can forgive the lack of authenticity this year, eh?

GRID Review – Barebones But Fun

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What the hell is it with companies and their confusing naming systems? We kicked off back in 2008 with Racer Driver: Grid, then the Race Driver part was cut out for GRID 2, then came GRID: Autosport and now finally after a six-year hiatus we have GRID. Just GRID, all capitals like someone is yelling it you. Confusingly this is also technically the 10th game in the long-running TOCA franchise. On top of that, GRID (2019) is a reboot for the GRID series, not that you can really tell. Yeesh. But weird naming conventions aside, it’s good to series the GRID series back again and I’m delighted to say that this latest entry is a solid racing game, albeit with a few key issues.

F1 2018 Review – Halo My Old Friend

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Another year, another F1 game from Codemasters. With such limited development time between each new release hamstringing what Codemasters can do with the franchise what we’ve seen over the years is a steady iteration, each new release tweaking the formula in various little ways with maybe one or two larger changes or features getting shoved in as well. F1 2018 doesn’t break this tradition, offering up just a few changes here and there and a coupe of new features.

F1 2017 Review – It’s A Goodyear

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The problem with creating a new game every year that’s based on a real sport is that eventually each game starts to feel a bit similar. Without any huge shake-ups in the sport the developers are left to twiddle their thumbs. To their credit, Codemasters have at least attempted to do a few new things, but their efforts have been inconsistent over the years. Now, though, they’ve gone and done it. They’ve made their best F1 game to date.

DiRT 4 Review – Mmmm, DiRTY Girl

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Screaming round a dirt bend at speeds no mortal should ever consider while nursing a punctured tire is when DiRT 4 is at its very best, the frantic desire to be the fastest having to be weighed against the need to just finish the stage and get a chance to repair your limping car. But as we’ll find out there are a few problems holding DiRT 4 back from being as good as it could be.