NIDZUMI+

Last year Codemasters upped their game by releasing DiRT. Technically it was fantastic, it was amazingly fun to play and the graphics were stunning. Although its slightly cutting these games short to make quick comparisons, I’m not going to beat around the bush because GRID is an improved version of DiRT but on tarmac. The simple reason for this is that its (GRID – Ego) running on an improved version of the engine in DiRT (Neon) but that’s not a bad thing because what was great last year is even better this. Considering that DiRT was a brilliant game, GRID should provide something truly special.

The games career is spilt into three different areas European, American & Japanese and you might think that these are more cosmetic differences but that’s only skin deep. The European events are more on-track racing whether it be touring cars or Formula 1-esque events. These require a lot of concentration and time but when you finally win that first Formula 3000 race without crashing into everyone one, it’s a good sense of satisfaction. Meanwhile the American races offer up more of a street racing vibe normally with a whole bunch of muscle cars. Finally Japanese side of things serve up a double whammy of drift racing and events called touge. Touge events are basically the scene from the end of Toyko Drift but they have one where you have to go back up the mountain. These are great fun because they encourage clean driving by penalising you if you knock into another driver.

Unlike DiRT, GRID has a rough career path set out for you that isn’t just race up a pyramid. You start off as a unknown driver who basically acts as a mercenary for other teams in an attempt to earn money. When the bankroll hits the a high enough figure you can set up your own team you then have to build up your teams reputation from scratch. The more races you win the more sponsors, respect & most importantly money you earn. You’ll then get to hire a team mate to earn even more money. There is also quite a bit of unexpected customization along the way, from your team name to sponsors and from decal placement to car colour and pattern, GRID really allows you to make the team yours.

Another aspect to the team dynamic is that you are always getting information from your team. It could be a simple word of encouragement for overtaking someone or it could be your team mate telling you that he just spun out. Sometimes these are a bit to late as you get told to avoid a crash ahead that you’ve just passed but normally they do a good job of informing and encouraging you. My only gripe is that I wish you could talk back, ask how far ahead the next car is or how many laps are left. If you include this you could have a hud-less look as well. I guess its the Rainbow Six player in me coming out but a talk back feature for your co-driver would make the game more immersive. That’s if it worked well.

At the end of every season, which lasts roughly 5 to 8 events, you’ll get invited to the Le Mans 24 hours.  Calm down it doesn’t last 24 real hours although you can set it to be that long if you wish but the default is 24 minutes. This is as atmospheric as a racing game is ever going to get. After say 20 minutes constant racing some high intense pressure music kicks in adding this big suspense and build up to the end of the race. It really spurs you on to improve your position or do all you can to hold your position and it feels epic while your doing it.

This is a career mode that has depth and isn’t afraid to show it and although it might be a bit daunting when you set up your first team and in turn get mullered with stats, the game does a fairly good job of easing you into the process. This creates a highly accessible career mode considering the amount of information that is thrown at you and when you do start to win races it really starts to pay off.

But GRID is much more than just a well planned out career mode and obviously none of this would be rewarding if the game played terrible. Luckily this is similar to DiRT although this time the cars have more weight to them and start to feel like a more forgiving PGR after a while. The thing that will keep you coming back to GRID is that every vehicle class feels remotely different from the last and its this that makes every event and race unique.

The weird thing about GRID is that winning isn’t everything. Now you I know what your thinking, it’s a racing game, winning is the game but here it’s not so important. If you win great, you’ve won but if you start at the back and manage to get near the podium you’ve done a good job. There was one race where I started off in 7th place and managed to finish in 5th. While most games would punish you for this by making you do the race again, GRID doesn’t and oddly this race was never boring. Sure I only gained 2 positions but it was fun trying to overtake the guy in 4th, its a weird feeling when you are pleased that you finished 5th but in normal motor racing that’s a respectable position so Codemasters have done a great job in taking the emphasis away from winning and making it more about racing. It makes a nice change from get into 1st then just coasting there until the race is over.

The game does a good job of being action packed, there is always some one to overtake and always someone trying to get their position back. This combined with the brilliant AI that actually crashes and spins out from time to time. I can’t recall the last time I saw this in a driving game but the drivers finally have realistic intelligence. These elements combined with the sense of speed the game provides are all you need to create a great racing experience.

Visually this game is superb, again akin to DiRT, GRID offers up a colourful pallet with some brilliant distance and blur effects. This gives each city its own unique feel and instead of simply a different look, it actually feels like the environment makes a difference even though most of the time it doesn’t. The game even now holds its own on the frame rate side of things and the crashes look even more stunning making you feel better for ramming that muscle car straight into a wall at 150mph. especially when you can view it again in slow motion, the only fault here is that you can’t save your replays.

Talking of replays from here you get access to the ‘fuels of time’ (they don’t call them that) that allow you to rewind time. This essentially undoes the damage from that massive multi-car pile up you just created although be warned you are limited to the number of times you can do this in a race, depending on difficulty. GRID is definitely a game that requires all of your attention and that’s why the feature works.

One of the missing holes in DiRT was the lack of good online play but again that has been fixed in GRID with 12 player on track racing. Unfortunately this doesn’t provide the thrills and spills that the singleplayer offers. Real players are more likely to just try and take you down and while you attempt to race cleanly and although this isn’t always the case, it just lacks the adrenaline fuelled events you encounter throughout the games career mode. You have to applaud Codemasters for improving the online side but the lack of team racing, replay saving & custom modes provide a fairly shallow experience compared to the singleplayer. GRID also lacks split screen multiplayer and due to the arcade nature of the game this would be a highly welcomed featured but no cigar on this one I’m afraid.

RaceDriver is also a let down for your ears as the musical representation might as well not be included. Despite the odd epic tune playing at the end of the Le Mans event, you might as well turn the music off. It really needed a fast paced Drum & Bass or Electro soundtrack to complement the edge of your seat racing that GRID delivers.

GRID is a truly brilliant game that at first appears to only offer up the standard racing essentials and although this is true it does such a great job on each element. Stunning graphics, high octane racing and an ever evolving and involving career mode add up to create one of the best driving games out there.