It seems that the switch to the new generation of consoles has heralded a major redesign to some of Codemasters' top money making vehicles. First, the latest edition of the Colin McRae Rally games saw its name changed to DiRT, to fit in with the widening of the series focus to include multiple forms of off-road racing. Now the company's other driving franchise, TOCA Race Driver, has been re-branded as GRID, to announce its shift from the motor sport selection box that was its last iteration to a new geographical basis.

The action in GRID is split into three territories - USA, Europe and Japan - each of which has its own very distinct style of racing. In America the focus is on native muscle cars competing on street circuits such as San Francisco and Long Beach. Europe is home to its natural blend of Touring Cars and open-wheeled contests, including Formula 3 and the historic Le Mans 24-hour event. Finally, GRID's arrival in the land of the rising sun heralds a new dawn for the series, as it introduces the increasingly popular drift racing.

Codemasters are putting great emphasis on the fact that they want GRID to be a racing game. As such, what you won't find are the intricate tuning options or the Pimp-my-Ride style obsession with customisation that has been present in other recent motor sport titles. Instead the focus continues to be on the intense, wheel-to-wheel racing that TOCA has always been famous for, with the developers stating that their Ego game engine (a suped-up version of the Neon one used to power DiRT) will provide even more realistic vehicle and environment damage, as well as computer opponents with individualistic driving personalities.

The potentially enveloping career mode will see you given the freedom to decide how to build your own reputation across the trio of countries and along the way you'll have opportunities to obtain sponsorship and set up your own racing team. A new feature set to spark discussion is the flashback system, which enables you to instantaneously undo a major mistake by rewinding time back ten seconds to have another go. It's an idea that would seem most at home in an arcade racer, but one that could be a stroke of genius, as it has the potential to remove much of the frustration of having to repeat an entire race simply because of one error.

Online, Codemasters has moved away from the underwhelming and strangely lonely experience that was DiRT's multiplayer to provide twelve-player drama that's available across all of the game's thirty-two racing events and eighty circuits. There's even a ranking system whose options will see you not only striving to work your way to the top but also defend your position from those beneath you.

With Codemasters putting plenty of effort into making their game a contender in a field that already includes great titles such as Forza Motorspot 2, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Gran Turismo, from the looks of things so far, Race Driver GRID definitely has a run at challenging for pole position.

Race Driver GRID is scheduled for release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in Europe on 30 May 2008 and in the USA on 03 June. There is also a different version planned for the Nintendo DS.

Previewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).