Codies responds to GRID complaints

By Robert Purchese Published 7 July, 2008

"We'd rather it hadn't come to this..."

Codemasters has responded to irate Race Driver: GRID fans that were stripped of their hard earned ranks in the recent server-wide reset.

"Given the number of reports we've had of people abusing the ranking system to get unfair ranks, it was only fair that we did a reset," said Rich Tysoe, Codemasters' motorsports overseer, on the community forum.

"It's never an easy decision to make, and we'd rather it hadn't come to this, but changes in the patch should make gaining those ranking points back fairer.

"We'd like to think that people play online for the fun of it, not so much the amassing of points, but if you find yourself in this sort of situation, it's the fairest solution," he added.

Tysoe went on to clarify that the reset only applies to online ranking leaderboards on Xbox 360, all other stats and data, including fastest lap times, are unchanged.

Some players had been using the "brown screen" glitch to cheat their way into earning online experience points more quickly and increasing their rank.

However, not all did, and those are still likely to be left with a sour taste in their mouths.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bealsy #1 4 years ago

    Minority spoiling it for the majority again it seems....

  • KayJay #2 4 years ago

    I hope the PS3 trophies don't turn into this.

    This minority must be pretty Pathetic and Sad people to have to cheat like this.
    Where is the satisfaction in doing this?

  • SeesThroughAll #3 4 years ago

    I hope the PS3 trophies don't turn into this.

    You really don't have to worry, I think. Especially as far as GRID is concerned, at any rate. :p

  • menage #4 4 years ago

    Cheating for scores. Pretty pathetic and totally useless. Since nobody else really cares.

  • bad09 #5 4 years ago

    "Some players had been using the "brown screen" glitch to cheat their way into earning online experience points more quickly and increasing their rank."

    I still find it funny (and sad) that rankings are that important to some they feel they have to cheat :)

  • OllyJ #6 4 years ago

    I wish Team Ninja would reset the boards on Ninja Gaiden 2, people have cheated to the top, even if it meant I lost my score i'd like to have it evened out!

  • penhalion #7 4 years ago

    what is the brown screen glitch?

  • kangarootoo #8 4 years ago

    "We'd like to think that people play online for the fun of it, not so much the amassing of points"

    Yeah, you would think.... welcome to the internet.

  • Darren #9 4 years ago

    Well so long as my own lap times and stuff are still there for the offline game, which is all I play anyway, then I couldn't give a hoot about my online ones that are presumably uploaded after every race. I mean why get upset about the fact that no-one else can see their times... I doubt anyone else but them are even bothered about it! :?

  • kangarootoo #10 4 years ago

    From what I can glean, it sounds like the glitch wasn't somethign a player could trigger, but rather a bug that just occurred sometimes. Maybe my info is out of date however.

    Found a post here that explains things a little more clearly.

    [link url=http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread. php?t=293400
    ]http://co mmunity.codemasters.com/forum/s...[/link]

    Sounds like one of the things that was reset is the equivalent of achievements or trophies, which seems a little lame on the part of Codemasters. I agree that just playing for points is a bit weak, but unlocking achoevements is something many people have fun pursuing. My initial take is that Codemasters took the low effort route to "solving" this issue, but perhaps it was a mistake which they will regret.

    If anyone p[lays this a lot and can clarify what it is all about, I for one would be interested.

  • penhalion #11 4 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    Thanks for the info. Seems that people were falling through the track and then being given 3 achievements as well as a mega fast lap time or race win! Screen goes brown when this happens hence the name brown screen glitch. Not sure how people would have been intentionally triggering this to gain ranks though.

  • GamerAddict #12 4 years ago

    Looks like testing has really gone downhill since my days! We'd have tested the tracks to death to make sure there were no holes!!!

  • duthieboy #13 4 years ago

    grrrr, so that's what happened. I hit the online stuff on friday for the first time and spent the evening playing through a few ranks. Logged on the next day and discovered I'd lost them all.

    Honestly, who really cares if people cheat to get their ranking up? Does it really make a difference? Codies would have been better taking a little time to discover who had cheated and punished them rather than a worldwide reset. :|

  • monkie_king #14 4 years ago

    Yeah, but thanks to local storage and pervasive connectivity, you can just sling anything out and then patch it into shape later.

  • CreepinJesus #15 4 years ago

    If these people are as good as they say they are, then they can get their ranks back... Before the reset, I got all the way to Sr. Pro without even winning a race!

  • T4RG4 #16 4 years ago

    Is it really worth a reset? I mean for gods sake I'd be quite pissed if I'd earned some 'ranks' and then it was reset because some people had been cheating!

    Thankfully I don't have the game though :p

    Lap time cheating/reset is fine IMO, but ranks? Hmm.
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 12:04

  • chrisjm #17 4 years ago

    brown screen glitch is when your console crashes mid game and makes you do number 2

  • CosmicGypsy #18 4 years ago

    "Looks like testing has really gone downhill since my days! We'd have tested the tracks to death to make sure there were no holes!!!"

    Interesting point "GamerAddict". Weren't those the good old days where you would sell out your mates for a few quid Bunyard?

    I'd say the level of testing reached new highs the moment you left and stopped dragging us all down :)

    Quit posting rubbish about your former employers and get back to chasing chubby women on the internets!

  • HyperShadow #19 4 years ago

    'Brown Screen'? Isn't that the next gen realism filter?

  • homerramone #20 4 years ago

    Beijing 2008 has a similar problem. Somes recorded a high jump of 500M. (Theres other time based events with times that just arent not possible).

    Its quite possible of course that the height is a result of a bug, but why on earth doesnt the code just check the values before sending posting them to the leaderboard.
    Edited by 1 at 07/07/08 @ 13:44

  • markopoloman #21 4 years ago

    They should reset the PC online scores too - some stupidly high score there!

  • dirk_aircool #22 4 years ago

    Some legitimate people will be bothered . and quite rightly . they probably put a lot of time and effort into it . its important to some people . the game should not have been released with all the bugs in it .
    I would ( if I still had the game ) now be using the 60 day warranty to get a full refund for the still unpatched and broken 360 version . I traded it after 2 weeks . got £25-00 back from gamestation . It just didnt do what it said on the box and still don't .
    The've ( software publishers in general ) been releasing unfinnished games on the PC for years and now they are doing it on consoles .( with the advent of xbox live and others ) you pay your money and it should work as described from DAY ONE . we should stand up for ourselfs a bit more and start returning buggy unfinished games . we are all too damn busy gagging for the release date and the publishers know it . we are been taken advantage of . for a change .

  • Corben_Dallas #23 4 years ago

    Wheres teh Patch for the Collect all cars Codies!!!!!! GET THE FUCKING PATCH OUT ALREADY.

    Codies are really losing the support of gamers.

  • WangFu #24 4 years ago

    Erm... This is the patch which fixes that achievement... It's here. Now.

  • ozallez #25 4 years ago

    all they need now's a patch to fix the handling ;)