[review] Racedriver GRiD.

[MrLlamaLlama]

This is a review for Racedriver: Grid. One of the few games i've recently played that deserves one. Here goes.

I picked up this game for £30 at my local games store at the beginning of this week, which i was very pleased to see, after not being able to get a PC copy on release date... which was disappointing. The price was a nice surprise though, only £30, whereas games such as Call of Duty, Bioshock, Crysis, And Assassin's creed are still hovering around the £35 price mark and even beyond.

When i first installed the game (a lengthy 12.5 gig process) i was met with the traditional Codemasters way of giving me 20 or so exclusive artworks to look at whilst my HDD and DVD drive churned away... it's nice to get some eye candy to set a positive impression before you play. While i waited, i contemplated how similar this game would be to DiRT, it's rally racing predecessor. This game was absolutely brilliant, a more than worthy tribute to the late and great Colin McRae, legendary rally driver. I hoped this game would match up to it's Daddy, which was visually, stunningly gorgeous, huge fun, and had massive replay value. The game, though, was somewhat inaccessible to those not accustomed to driving on gravel (or, more like ice) in games. Hopefully, the revelation Codemasters brought to the racing genre on the muck, it could bring back to the asphalt.

As i started up the game for the first time, it loaded nice and quickly, and as per usual gave me the usual, beautiful game intro video, showcasing various disciplines on various tracks, which does a great job of hyping you for getting behind the wheel.

I proceeded to the main menu, where i typed in my first and second name, nationality, etc. Then, the first taste of brilliance. Another name selection screen. What? Turns out, you select your audio name, that they actually use to refer to you throughout the game! There are huge lists of both male and female names, as well as a massive array of nicknames for you to choose from. Wow. However, with my name not on the list (Which I blame the unpopularity of my name in America for) I went for 'Crash', given my reputation for not returning cars in their preferred condition after racing them.

Finally, the main menu. It's in full 3D, text, navigation, all of it. The way you select races, view videos, all in full three dimensional view. After a nice slice of this, you're swiftly given your first race. This is a massive step up from comparatively static, uninteresting menu screens.

You start off racing for other teams, who employ you to guest race for them. This is how you earn money at the the start of the game, before creating your own international racing team (more on which later) and dominating the known universe.

An 8.5 Liter V10 Dodge Viper. Anthracite Grey, Black Stripes. And my god does it look gorgeous. Sunlight shimmering and bouncing from surfaces, a fully modelled and active crowd, full of literally thousands of people, rubber scorched track, blackened apex's, and scratched up sponsor signs. Rolling landscapes, trees blowing in the wind, flags in the crowd. Oh yes.

The handling is real to the point of laughter, the car will spin if you apply to much power whilst steering, it will go through realistic G, which can carry it brilliantly through corners. No real improvement on the systems of similar modern racing games, but at least it's far from a step down. Wheels spin frantically, pouring thick smoke,, body panels fly off, paint is gouged from your car, windscreen smashes where it was hit, and is sized according to the impact you took. Weak zones crumple, your chassis, axle, steering column bends, and affects the way your car drives. As your car becomes deformed, wind resistance becomes greater, slowing you, and throwing you off balance through bends. The best part is, though... it happens to them too.

Gone are they days that a government super - cyborg is driving in those enemy cars, with their perfect racing lines, strange ability to prevent spinning, and masterful use of brakes. Oh no. They mess up on chicanes, leaving fender littered across the racetrack, permanently scarring the setting. They steer too wide, hit the grass, and frantically floor it to scrabble off the infield, they put too much power into their starts, going off in a flurry of burnt rubber and tyre smoke. This is truly brilliant AI. AI that presents what the industry have been striving for for years. Realism.

Should you mess up yourself, there is the flashback feature, which will play you the last ten or so seconds of your driving, and, at any point in which, you can choose to start from there. Brake a bit sooner, don't go for the overtaking manoeuvre, push a bit harder, you name it, you can go back and do it. Though unrealistic, it is an awesome feature, and saves many irritating last - lap restarts.

[back hurts, will edit, continue later]

[WRX22B1998]

^ hehe sound pretty cool

what is the sys req for that? I suppose its only on pc, ps3, 360 ?

*hopes for psp port*

[MrLlamaLlama]

Sys req's are as follows:

XP / Vista

3.0 Ghz processor

1Gb RAM

12.5 Gig HD free

Nvidia GeForce 6800 / Ati Radeon X1300

DVD ROM Drive

Keyboard / mouse, yadda yadda yadda...

[Chris]

I have this for 360, it's a great game. Yeah it has a few flaws, but some great unique features too. I think I still prefer Forza and PGR (360) and GT (PS3) to the race driver series (despite owning every race driver game to date!) because of their realism, but GRID is still a great game, and one I'm going to be playing for a while.

[Kitsune Inferno]

I've only played the demo, but the game kicks ass. I just love taking the muscle cars and ramming my competitors into oblivion!

[MrLlamaLlama]

^ The full version has an (albeit mildly bollocks) destruction derby mode.

Shame your car handles like an ironing board on crack, though.

[Chris]

OMG has anyone tried driving with the stability assist on? Jesus Christ it's fucking impossible, the cars oversteer like fuck. I personally don't like driving with assists on anyway as they annoy me so I turned them all off straight away, with the exception of Traction Control - otherwise the grip sucks

[Kitsune Inferno]

I may have driven with the stability assist on. Is it on by default? I've never checked.

[MrLlamaLlama]

^ I went outright and bough the SOOPA POWAR RX-7 drift car

It slides around like fuck, one you get out of the 98 million degree spin you just did you can rack up some serious points (6 million pts in 4 laps is my PB), then i tried it with the traction control off, and it's like driving a rocket propelled, greased up metal sheet across Arctic tundra. Fun.

My favourite discipline has to be the midnight touge. Especially the uber one you unlock after the stage 1 jap challenges, against the classic 'bad guy' racing team.

[Chris]

Yes ALL the assists are turned on by default for some reason.

Oh yeah Midnight Touge is awesome.

Also, I love the fact that Ravenwest are a genuinely awesome in-game team, as in they're sometimes actually quite hard to beat and are a lot better than they other in-game teams. It's kinda cool that them and a couple of other teams stand out.

[MrLlamaLlama]

^ Yeah, one the subject of hard to beat people's... the team mate i signed.. what an ass.

I hired him for like, 500,000 or whatever, and all he ever does is fucking own ass at races. And he pisses me off when he says 'I won, i won, i won!' like a 4 year old with a superiority complex.

He's Japanese, they were all pretty balanced, so i chose the one with the funniest name.

Anway, i have work / menial labour / 3 hours of abuse / stick it out and get paid in like, 9 hours. And i have to sleep, eat twice and cycle there in between. Fun.

Peace.