Wow, sucks youve ignored them, cause the three released were all fantastic. Dirt was an excellent Sim, Grid was a better raing sim then Forza 2, or at least it was more fun, and Pure, which I didn't play, got surprisingly awesome reviews. Also, part of the problem here is that you're wrong.

Dirt, Grid AND Fuel are ALL developed and published by Codemasters. So they might have tried to build up some brand identity by making the covers similar, with striking, short and easy to remember titles. Also, Grid and Dirt both sold very well. Pure was Disney interactive, and like I said, while I didn't play it, it looked fun. And as for Fuel, which is being developed by Asobo Studios, its being PUBLISHED by Codemasters, so this probably goes along with their motif in their own lineup of racing games. Sorry, and please don't be too offended by this post, but you basically just admitted to being ignorant.

Also, for the record, the British name for Grid is Race Driver: Grid, with Grid referring to the lineup of race cars in a race. Now, the racing genre isn't dying, it's just more of a niche genre. With the exception of PGR, are either simulations, or off road arcade-styled games. I wonder what the sales figures really are, and no amount of corporate/developer head speak will make me believe that the genre is dying. Im pretty sure Midnight Club: LA sold pretty well, despite the relative weak sales of Need For Speed: Undercover. Im also pretty sure Gran Turismo was just listed on the top 10 best selling games of all time. Forza 2 did great. Burnout Paradise is a great title and is constantly being lauded for it's innovations in both DLC, pricing structure and fanservice. I played Wipeout HD to death. Hell, even Mario Kart for the Wii is one of the best games on the system.

TL:DR - You didn't do your research, Codemasters is trying to build a psuedo-franchise, and your ignorance caused you to miss out on three, possibly four great games. Seriously, this could have been an interesting argument, instead, you judged a book by it's cover, and missed out on some amazing titles

You also, you know, read the back of the fucking box.

What a dumb complaint "Well the racing genre is dying cause the boxes are to similar", yea I'm sure TONS of people where pissed when they bought pure and expected a 2 fast 2 furious type game.

Dirt implies rally, PURE is an odd name but the box art means its ATV's, Grid has ton of sponsors on the car in the box ergo it must be a straight racing game.

It's pretty sad that three excellent games went unnoticed because of their rather terse titles. Personally, I hardly ever purchase racing games because they drop in value so quickly. Of the two racing games I own on the 360, both dropped to sub-$15 on the used market before I even had the time to play them. At $60 a piece, I basically tossed $90 out of the window.

There needs to be a game called RACE

Jesus Christ that was a long comment Artic Fox.

I'm not a huge racing game fan, but I do enjoy Project Gotham, Forza, and Gran Turismo now and again. I can say I'm guilty of ignoring these games because of their "budget-game" titles.

I understand that if you're really into the racing genre, you're not going to ignore a game based off of how it's marketed. If you're not, you likely will.

Basically, if these games all look so similar and so generic, why am I, not a diehard racing game fan, going to give a shit?

"Project Gotham had me thinking I'd be driving the Batmobile"
I thought the same thing o_o

I've been hankering for a good car game recently, then I saw Fast and Furious... now I'm hankering for a good car movie too.

@ArcticFox: I actually did notice that three were published by Codemasters, which is why I specifically said in the article "developed by three different studios." I don't disagree that I'm ignorant of the games themselves; the marketing idea of making all of their titles sound the same seemed to have an adverse effect on me. But I did do my research. I don't believe anything I said to be untrue.

I liked Pure. But yes, I agree, the title shenanigans that they're going with now is a bit silly.

Rallyking. 'nuff said.

Pure is awesome
thanks for reminding me about that
think I'll pop it in tonight...

I dunno, I think Burnout Paradise is doing all sorts of good things for the racing genre. I'm not into racing games that much, but I love the arcade-style, crash-based racing in the Burnout series a lot, and Paradise is a really fantastic game :)