GRID (Xbox 360/PS3/PC

Race Driver: GRID, for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC (with a different DS version) is the new part simulation part arcade driver game from Codemasters Racing Studios, the developers behind 2007's rally racer DiRT. Apparently they like the capital letters.

I'm going to get straight down to this and say that GRID is actually a pretty good game. It was certainly a pleasant surprise, as I was expecting it to be another Need for Speed: Prostreet, but it's actually a lot like DiRT, but on streets, instead of dirt tracks.
You start off by creating a character, before being dumped into a race as a freelance driver with an appetite for success and a goal to earn $60,000 to pay for his (or her) first car. A few races in, you'll accumulate enough cash to set up your own team, and this is where GRID gets interesting. You can choose a teammate to support you appropriately, as well as choosing colour schemes for all the cars you acquire. If you've played Forza 2, you will be underwhelmed by the customization aspects in GRID. In fact, all the changes which you can make are purely cosmetic: there is no tweaking the cars performance like in most other car games, which is a blow for me, and certainly cheapens the game a little. I think that putting in car customization never makes a game too complicated- it can always be skipped, but without it, the simulation aspects of GRID seem less developed.

Fortunately though, the gameplay here is excellent. It cuts a fine line between simulation depth and arcade fun and it does it very well. It comes across somewhere between the TOCA games, DiRT and the PGR games. It has a steep learning curve, but, fortunately, its a short one, as you can be off and pulling off drifts in not-very-long. And really this is GRID's best aspect- it seems to maintain the best of both worlds, being both fairly deep and realistic, as well as fun and forgiving. The gameplay is the best part of GRID, and it is very good- while not challenging a Gran Turismo, it makes for a good distraction while you wait for the next one.



GRID does what so many car games don't do: it innovates. It has a rewind feature so that if you total yourself on a wall, the game allows you to rewind and restart from several seconds back. This is a superb feature and is superbly implemented- don't be surprise if every Tom, Dick and Harry of the racing world copies it unashamedly- it's that good. Not only does it relieve frustration which can so often occur with car games (to crash out having spent ages finishing a race....) but it encourages you to be daring, attempting outrageous drifts without fear of losing the race. It's also a great way to view the excellent crash animations if you like, without having to load up a race just for this purpose. Don't worry though, the feature can be completely ignored if you like, and both online and in pro-mode (the only way to upload lap records) it is left out, thus not cheapening the gameplay. If I had to make a complaint, it would be that the replay mode doesn't trigger when your crash isn't quite disastrous enough, so when your car isn't totaled, but you're still as good as out of the race, it can be frustrating- it needs to give the player the ability to trigger the feature when he sees fit. Don't get the wrong idea though, this is a superb feature which distinguishes GRID from the competition in a big way.
Multiplayer is also pretty streamlined. The quick match option chucks you into a suitable lobby, while custom match allows you to filter your search for matches. Arriving in the lobby and waiting for the current race to end can be a little annoying, and the game doesn't give you any way to relieve the boredom- when spectating there is no option to return to the lobby. The game seems to run fairly lag-free... as long as you don' t see any other cars. The other player's cars will seem to jerk backwards and forwards uncontrollably. While this doesn't affect gameplay in a major way, it is pretty annoying, especially when you go to ram another car just to find out that it's actually five metres ahead. It's not in every game, but it was frequent enough to be worth writing about, especially on the pc version of the game.
Indeed the console versions seem better in always every respect (believe me, it pains me to say that). The graphics, while superb (and probably the best in a racing game until GT5), are horribly optimized for the pc version, while the console counter-parts run smooth. I actually couldn't run the game on full graphics on my laptop (which can run World in Conflict on highest- a much better looking game). Just to go back to the graphics, they are very nice- the cars look great, the cities shimmer and sparkle, and the crowd actually doesn't look that robotic- the team at Codemasters Racing Studios have done a fantastic job again graphically, and GRID's graphics do surpass those of DiRT.

In the end, this is a great racing game, which is accessible while deep, and features some of the best graphics in a car game ever. The rewind feature is incredible, and the career mode does just enough in terms of team management to keep you interested in more than just the racing. The multiplayer is fine, featuring a persistent ranking system, although there are some problems. To be perfectly honest, this game surprised me, and while the lack of any real Forza-style customization hurts, this is the racer to be playing in the build up to Gran Turismo 5.

Presentation :8
Fairly long load times, but the game shows you interesting facts about your racing pedigree to keep yu occupied.

Graphics :9
Top-notch

Sound :7.5
The car noises are nice, as is the music in the menus, but the team-talk is repetitive and grates after a while.

Gameplay :8.5
Some of the best racing in a while.

Value :8
The single player is long enough, but it's a shame that the multiplayer doesn't really shine- missed potential.

8.2