DiRTy Gossip Thread

[gfRally 138]

RallyDriven said:

'Getting builds ready' would suggest that they are getting something ready to show, either to press or for play testing. It seems a bit too soon for a Grid announcement for me, as codemasters tend to have games in development for much longer than a year before they make any announcements.

Yeah, I think there would be a lynching if they would announce another GRID this soon before DiRT4.

[MastaVonBlasta 2]

gfRally said:

RallyDriven said:

'Getting builds ready' would suggest that they are getting something ready to show, either to press or for play testing. It seems a bit too soon for a Grid announcement for me, as codemasters tend to have games in development for much longer than a year before they make any announcements.

Yeah, I think there would be a lynching if they would announce another GRID this soon before DiRT4.

I would like to think so too :) However, Codemasters had both rally and touring car drivers come in for playtests and hints on CMR or TOCA inspired direction are coming through from both DiRT and GRID camps.

I can't call it anymore... :)

[dotmartin 0]

MastaVonBlasta said:

I would like to think so too :) However, Codemasters had both rally and touring car drivers come in for playtests and hints on CMR or TOCA inspired direction are coming through from both DiRT and GRID camps.

I can't call it anymore... :)

This might suggest... 

What if they have merged the two series. One big useless World Series of Racing with gymkhana, rally, touring cars, touge, le mans, horseback riding and (god forbid) drift. All vehicles mixed up into one big stinkin stew called GRiT..

[Azoresst 6]

Why they want so many donuts?

https://twitter.com/justbiglee/status/456732646434177024

[MBKF1 74]

Because they'll be doing donuts on the next DiRT game!

[MastaVonBlasta 2]

dotmartin said:

MastaVonBlasta said:

I would like to think so too :) However, Codemasters had both rally and touring car drivers come in for playtests and hints on CMR or TOCA inspired direction are coming through from both DiRT and GRID camps.

I can't call it anymore... :)

This might suggest... 

What if they have merged the two series. One big useless World Series of Racing with gymkhana, rally, touring cars, touge, le mans, horseback riding and (god forbid) drift. All vehicles mixed up into one big stinkin stew called GRiT..

Stop it. You've got an impressive imagination :)

Azoresst said:

Why they want so many donuts?

https://twitter.com/justbiglee/status/456732646434177024

Maybe they're brewing up some big news next week and they need the brain fuel?

Poor @justbiglee can only watch them stuff their faces with doughnuts...

[RallyDriven 232]

We will have to see what the next weekly update brings, but from the last one it would seem like something is definitely around the corner.

They have had professionals coming in and testing for a long time, but it seems that they've had rally drivers in a long time before the touring car drivers.

[MastaVonBlasta 2]

Okay so this one may be a bit of a stretch in interpretation, but... this tweet to me suggests that the DiRT team just got approval or licence for VW Polo WRC. Too hopeful?

https://twitter.com/jontucker1/status/456542372407422977

[RallyDriven 232]

Very interesting! Possibly a private joke, but Lee responds with 'its the best kind of news'. There's always hope, but I would have thought they would have secured this earlier in development. But still, I don't know much about game development and licensing, so I could be wrong!

[MastaVonBlasta 2]

RallyDriven said:

Very interesting! Possibly a private joke, but Lee responds with 'its the best kind of news'. There's always hope, but I would have thought they would have secured this earlier in development. But still, I don't know much about game development and licensing, so I could be wrong!

I remember from some old @KickUp interview that often the team models and develops cars for the game with hope that the approval will come through later. Because it takes a long time to 3D model the car and then tweak its handling they have to start before they get the manufacturer/livery approval.

Maybe in the past the DiRT team modelled and developed cars, which they couldn't put into the final game because of licencing issues. 

That tweet may be a joke between work buds or a deliberate hint? :D

[Britpoint 0]

dotmartin said:

MastaVonBlasta said:

I would like to think so too :) However, Codemasters had both rally and touring car drivers come in for playtests and hints on CMR or TOCA inspired direction are coming through from both DiRT and GRID camps.

I can't call it anymore... :)

This might suggest... 

What if they have merged the two series. One big useless World Series of Racing with gymkhana, rally, touring cars, touge, le mans, horseback riding and (god forbid) drift. All vehicles mixed up into one big stinkin stew called GRiT..

The name actually sounds really cool there. I wonder what kind of game would be appropriate to slap that label on. Drag racing on the salt flats maybe? 

[couger1981 66]

MastaVonBlasta said:

RallyDriven said:

Very interesting! Possibly a private joke, but Lee responds with 'its the best kind of news'. There's always hope, but I would have thought they would have secured this earlier in development. But still, I don't know much about game development and licensing, so I could be wrong!

I remember from some old @KickUp interview that often the team models and develops cars for the game with hope that the approval will come through later. Because it takes a long time to 3D model the car and then tweak its handling they have to start before they get the manufacturer/livery approval.

Maybe in the past the DiRT team modelled and developed cars, which they couldn't put into the final game because of licencing issues. 

That tweet may be a joke between work buds or a deliberate hint? :D

The DiRT 3 team had a number of cars already on the list to be put in but couldn't get permission to use them.

[SkiddyMcCrash 242]

justbiglee said:

SkiddyMcCrash said:

To me, implies DiRT 4 announcement next week.

Now gimme a cookie
:D

No cookie?
:-S

[MastaVonBlasta 2]

Britpoint said:

The name actually sounds really cool there. I wonder what kind of game would be appropriate to slap that label on. Drag racing on the salt flats maybe? 

Truck Driver: GRiT?

[RallyDriven 232]

Didn't TOCA 3 have rally in it, even if it was only a little? It definitely had off road circuits, which was great fun. It's still one of my all time favorite games

[couger1981 66]

RallyDriven said:

Didn't TOCA 3 have rally in it, even if it was only a little? It definitely had off road circuits, which was great fun. It's still one of my all time favorite games

It had some but not much, mostly Dirt mixed with Tarmac.

[tbtstt 906]

couger1981 said:

MastaVonBlasta said:

RallyDriven said:

Very interesting! Possibly a private joke, but Lee responds with 'its the best kind of news'. There's always hope, but I would have thought they would have secured this earlier in development. But still, I don't know much about game development and licensing, so I could be wrong!

I remember from some old @KickUp interview that often the team models and develops cars for the game with hope that the approval will come through later. Because it takes a long time to 3D model the car and then tweak its handling they have to start before they get the manufacturer/livery approval.

Maybe in the past the DiRT team modelled and developed cars, which they couldn't put into the final game because of licencing issues. 

That tweet may be a joke between work buds or a deliberate hint? :D

The DiRT 3 team had a number of cars already on the list to be put in but couldn't get permission to use them.

Yeah. I remember the Skoda Fabia being one of the cars that disappeared after it was mentioned in some of the very early DiRT 3 previews.

[RallyDriven 232]

That's a shame, I always wanted some more S2000's in D3. Hopefully they can get the DS3 license this time, along with VW and Hyundai.

[RallyDriven 232]

Also, this has just been put onto the GRID youtube page, so it looks like we will be seeing another GRID before DiRT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtmH9bldhmE

[MastaVonBlasta 2]

RallyDriven said:

Also, this has just been put onto the GRID youtube page, so it looks like we will be seeing another GRID before DiRT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtmH9bldhmE

The above is now not gossip, but a fact :)

So @Loore 's tweet with final countdown was a 7 day mark.

https://twitter.com/BenWalke/status/455991706119602176

Well at least there's some news on the way :) I'm hoping the next GRID game will be a re-write of GRID 2 handling and will go back a bit too its roots in TOCA.

GRID news in a way means that DiRT news won't appear anytime soon as I suspect Codies won't want each other to steal PR thunder :(

[RallyDriven 232]

I loved the first GRID, but the second one lacked the things which made the first great. I do hope the handling has been improved.

But yes, I we may have to wait a little while until we see a DiRT announcement now, as they wouldn't release them a the same time, and they would be stealing each other's limelight in the press

[dotmartin 0]

RallyDriven said:

Also, this has just been put onto the GRID youtube page, so it looks like we will be seeing another GRID before DiRT!

That second car sounds like a rally car, and I can hear hooves in the background. GRiT is comming! o_0

[MastaVonBlasta 2]

The signs are that the next GRID game will be to my liking (unfortunately Numero Duo wasn't) so in a way this is good news.

However, GRID game announcement not only makes DiRT game news less likely to appear in the near future; it also makes the summer release window rather tightly packed for Codemasters.

Let's assume that on 22nd April Codies announce 'GRID 2.5' or 'GRID 3' or 'GRID TOCA' will release 2-3 months from now. That would take it to roughly when GRID 2 was released in 2013, which was end of May/beginning of June or even later into the summer.

That leaves a gap between beginning of June to end of September (next F1 game) for a DiRT game to slot it. Historically Codies never released 3 big titles in the same year (let alone 4 month period) and it kind of makes sense, because that would saturate the market for them in a way...

So my worry is that next DiRT game will not slot into the summer release period and that's a bummer because I'm hungry for a next one :(

Looks like 2015...

[RallyDriven 232]

Codemasters normally tend to leave a longer period between announcement and release than that. My guess for GRID 3 would be November time, but then again, I've been consistently wrong so far in my guesses! ;)

[MastaVonBlasta 2]

RallyDriven said:

Codemasters normally tend to leave a longer period between announcement and release than that. My guess for GRID 3 would be November time, but then again, I've been consistently wrong so far in my guesses! ;)

I think November would have been too close to next F1 game.

F1 2013 release date was announced at the end of July last year - leaving almost 2.5 months between date announcement and release date.

I think Codemasters aimed at 1 year development cycle to:

- overhaul the handling model (GRID 2 handling was intentional, if the intention is different so will be the handling)

- make a couple more tracks

- optimise graphics engine further to make room for memory to include cockpit views

- focus on racing (less drift, less over the top narrative, less strange challenges)

My guess it will be a current gen game released in May or June.

But I can't shake off the feeling that new GRID pushes the DiRT game further away...