Codies Racing Line – January 23, 2020
Chris Groves
January is all about doing something different, right? Trying out this, cutting that out of your diet, doing more of this, less of that… we all seem to be kicking off the year by being intent on making changes. Ugh.
What if you like what you're doing right now? What if, say, you were supposed to write a fortnightly round-up of Codemasters news and other fun stuff that's happened over the past two weeks, and you suddenly felt pressured into changing all that? Well, we're having none of it. We're not going dry on the Racing Line, we're not cutting down our intake of gaming goodness, and we're certainly not stopping our crusade to bring people the news, Karen!
Ahem, sorry about that. This January certainly isn't about change for the Codies team – it's about maintaining momentum and giving us all some big news to talk about. Such as…
Hello everyone, it's time to get some DiRTy updates on everything that's been happening recently:
• The DiRT Rally 2.0 World Series has reached its grand conclusion and we have two new champions. Killian Dall'olmo dominated the Rallycross event at Autosport International and DiRT 4 World Champion Joona Pankkonen narrowly edged out the competition to take another Rally title. We've got the lowdown on the Grand Finals right here, and all of the action's on YouTube to re-watch.
• The 2020 rally season gets underway this weekend with the traditional opener at Monte Carlo, and one driver to keep an eye on is Oliver Solberg, the young sensation following in his father's footsteps on the world stage. Speaking of his father, the Petter Solberg Livery Challenge (which he and Oliver exclusively revealed on Tuesday) kicks off on January 24, and you'll get his 2019 Ferewell Tour design as a reward. On January 31 you'll be able to get Oliver's livery from the same event. Personally, I think they're the two best livery designs on the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 so you don't want to miss out. All the details are here.
• Next week sees the end of DiRT Rally 2.0 Season 4, with the final few 2019 FIA World Rallycross Championship cars heading your way. Keep an eye for out for early gameplay footage on our YouTube and drive them in-game from January 28.
• Speaking of YouTube, you may have seen that "Something is coming…". We can hear it in the distance and it's rapidly approaching, will be here sooner than you think.
• Finally, story time. Back in July I started building a home studio, with a full Fanatec setup and Playseat cockpit. I've been rather busy since then to the point where I'm only starting to use it now. The kicker? I've never used a wheel before, despite playing racing games for over 20 years.
If you want to see how somebody with this level of experience handles a new way of playing DiRT Rally 2.0, head on over to the Forums where I'll be posting updates.
That's it from me this week – see you in a few days.
– PJ
Welcome to this week's edition of the Racing Line! It's been a great fortnight for F1 2019 – we've been nominated for Racing Game of the Year at the D.I.C.E Awards. We are honoured to be nominated, and you can find out more about this right here!
Over the last few weeks, we've been posting guides to help you get your teeth into F1 2019, ranging from the dos and doughnuts of tyres to getting to grips with wet weather driving, and you can check out all of them here.
If though, you're like us, and you're impatiently waiting for the start of the new F1 season, you can also try out F1 2019 for free on both PS4 and Xbox – and handily for you, we've got the links to both right here:
PS4: https://bit.ly/36b7TsA
Xbox: https://bit.ly/37gpeSk
– Jenny
Strap yourselves in, team. Big GRID wrap-up, coming your way.
Let's quickly look back over a fun week in the world of GRID, much of which centred around a brilliant weekend at the Autosport International show, with a GRID stand in Hall 1 kitted out by Playseat and Thrustmaster. Afer that, we rolled into the new week with a free update, adding public lobbies to Multiplayer in the form of Session Search – a big community request that we're pleased to bring to GRID. We're seeing positive feedback from players and plenty of action-packed race lobbies, so jump into Session Search and tell us what you think, yeah?
Next up, we once again teamed up with Google and IGN to pit two stars against each other on the racetrack, in the #IGNStadiaFaceOff. Voice actress supremo Elspeth Eastman and American soccer star Emily Sonnett went head to head on multiple devices, using the power of Stadia. Check it out here.
Now, let's talk Season 2. We know you've been waiting patiently for more news on GRID's next batch of post-launch goodies, and we've been busy finalising content and getting things in perfect order. Next week, we'll reveal everything you need to know about Season 2, including new cars, a new circuit, and more content for all players. On top of all that, we're always looking to make fixes and additions that the community are asking for, and that continues in Season 2. As announced this week, from the new update, all players on all platforms will have the option to adjust the length of races in Career mode. Full details on the new feature are over on the Forums.
Wait, hang on, something's just dropped into my inbox…
It's been a busy fortnight for our free-to-play F1 title – beginning with some fiercely competitive action in our first ever F1 Esports Mobile Qualifier! Early in January we confirmed the top ten fastest drivers from the event, which dropped with Update 10 over the festive period. Those ten drivers now move on to the official 2020 F1 Esports Time Trial, where they'll compete against console F1 players for a spot in this year's Pro Draft! Congratulations to our top ten, and best of luck in the Time Trial.
As always, we're looking to stay engaged with the F1 Mobile Racing community, and use your feedback and requests to shape the future of the game. At the end of 2018, we created a survey to help us track the key talking points of players – and we're doing the same for 2020. We invite all players to fill out the 2020 F1 Mobile Racing survey, give us your thoughts, and contribute to the direction of the game through this year. That all starts with Update 11, which is already coming into view. Look out for more information on the new update very soon…
Oh, and keep up to date with Update 11 and news everything else F1 Mobile Racing by joining our new Facebook group, as part of the F1 Games By Codemasters Facebook page. Read the headlines first and chat about the game with other players in our new group!
ANY OTHER BUSINESS?
Codemasters is proud to support the Get Smart About P.L.A.Y campaign, recently launched by the UK Interactive Entertainment Association (Ukie). In association with askaboutgames, the campaign encourages parents and carers of children to make use of tools that manage the behaviour of youngsters when it comes to video games, including managing screen time and in-game purchases. The initiative is all about ensuring parents and carers make use of P.L.A.Y – Play with your kids, Learn about family controls, Ask what your kids thing, and You are in control. Head here for more details.
We are hugely honoured to have two games nominated for Racing Game of the Year in the prestigious D.I.C.E Awards! The industry's premier peer-juried awards ceremony has recognised both DiRT Rally 2.0 and F1 2019 for this year's show, which takes place on February 13th in Las Vegas. Here are the full list of awards and nominees.
Picked up the latest copy of MCV/DEVELOP magazine? Issue 953 of the acclaimed gaming industry analysis publication has some Codies representation, with Meg Daintith and Simon Barlow featuring. As part of a focus on 'Silicon Spa' and the continued surge of games development studios in the Leamington Spa and wider Warwickshire area, Meg and Simon chat about how Codemasters is leading from the front and driving the racing genre forward.
About Chris Groves
Community Manager for Codemasters, primarily working on DIRT 5! Keen enthusiast of corners, kerbs and key lime pie.
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