After coasting to the finish line with last year's off-road success DiRT, Codemasters is back on the racetrack with GRID. In the game, you'll learn the basics during a rookie race in San Francisco. From there, the GRID World opens up, providing you with numerous options for your racing career. It's a sweet blend of arcade action and simulation style realism, which ruthlessly tests your racing skills.
You're going to crash in GRID, so much so that you may need to restart several times until you get used to the game. It's rather easy to spin out, end your run by crashing into something or damage any number of car parts that affect your performance. For instance, if you slam into a wall too many times on a certain side, your vehicle swerves, with one of the wheels off-axis. If you take jumps to the point that you're scraping the underbelly of your car during every landing, you'll screw up your transmission. You'll pay a hefty price if you don't pay attention.
However, that's not to say it isn't fun, as the realism makes GRID's racing events more intense. For those intimidated by that realism, several in-car assistance systems such as a red light indicator lets you know the proper time to brake. Furthermore, if you do end up in a nasty race-ending wreck, you have the option of using Flashback. It's like Full Auto's "Unwreck" feature, letting you rewind several crucial seconds off your race and going back into it. However, unlike that arcade racer, GRID's system is limited. You can only use it so much during a race, and once it's gone, the only way to get it back is to restart, something you won't be able to do if you're on Pro difficulty.
GRID also features well-balanced difficulty. The in-game drivers react like real drivers with no regret about smashing into you and knocking parts off their own cars if it means keeping the lead.
Thankfully, you'll have plenty of support. Several sponsors step up to offer you racing opportunities, using vehicles ranging from Porsches to Vipers. Winning these events earns you money, which you can then turn around to create your own team, complete with drivers, exclusive sponsorship offers and the ability to buy new parts and cars. The customization tools are limited, but the vehicle selection is vast and you can even buy second-hand ones through Ebay Motors (instead of, say, Uncle Sal's Used Cars).
Racing events span three countries: Europe, the United States and Japan. The U.S. consists of mostly street races, with lots of tight-cornered turns and downtown areas. European races are straight-up circuit events, taking place in such spots as Nurburgring and Le Mans. As for Japan, it features lavish hillside courses with a hint of underground racing flavor. Out of the three, the Japan courses impressed us the most with a hint of danger that the other two countries lack.
Along with the numerous vehicles, tracks and career-boosting challenges, GRID also features multiple modes. You can smash opponents' cars in a demolition derby, try your luck in a 24 minute LeMans race (which you turn into a 24 hour driving experience) and several other events that test your racing skills. If you feel like going after competition, you can hop on PlayStation Network for 12-person online racing. For the most part, it works fine, but lacks off-line split-screen racing.
You'll need to keep up with the competition to avoid this from becoming a reality. Click here for more screenshots.
Codemasters has done its homework with the presentation. GRID features lifelike visuals that move at a frenetic racing thirty frames per second. Some of the background textures are blurry, but that's easy to forgive when you see individual bits and pieces chip off of your car. The crashes are delightful to watch (especially during the replays) and the cars look and react beautifully. Too bad the game doesn't have weather effects.
More could've been done with the audio, too. There's little background music, outside of the menus and post-race screens. There's also something likable about a game that asks your name and then calls you by it throughout your GRID career.
If you want a racer that lets you coast to the finish line without much of a struggle, you're better off skipping this. However, if you embrace the thrill of victory and seek just the right hybrid of technical and arcade racing, buy GRID. The presentation works moderately well, the driving is intense and tight and the numerous events, online and off, are worth your time.
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