Race Driver: GRID unveiled

Codemasters has announced that Race Driver One will from now on forever and ever be known as Race Driver: GRID (or just GRID if you're American).

Due out in the middle of 2008 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, GRID features races set in various cities around the world, including San Francisco, Washington DC and Detroit in the US.

You'll get to race V8 muscle cars around those, but things get a bit different in Europe and of course Japan, where drift racing is also addressed. In addition to street circuits, expect some proper race-tracks too. They're not a monster, Tim.

Ralph Fulton, the game's chief designer, says that Codies wants "to make racing exciting again". "This is not a game about collecting cars or spending all of your time in the front-end tuning suspension settings or designing liveries."

So what's it about then? "GRID focuses on everything that happens between the start grid and the chequered flag: the drama, the rivalries, the aggression and the crashes."

Executive producer Gavin Raeburn chimes in thus: "The next iteration of our DiRT engine combined with a decade of experience in developing driving games enables us to put the player at the centre of the action like never before.

"Damage, packed grids, intelligent opposition and unprecedented race day atmosphere will combine to deliver an experience like no other."

We shall see. In mid 2008. In the meantime, you shall we some quite splendid-looking Race Driver: GRID screenshots.