Let's Do the Time Warp Again
While racing, players can choose between several points of view, including dashboard, first-person (in-car), headlight, and two third person perspectives that show off your car and all its glory. You can also up the stakes during race setup by locking yourself to the in-car camera, turning off driver assists like traction control and automatic transmission, or increasing the difficulty level.
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As far as the speed in concerned, the developers at Codemasters made sure players felt every bit of the 150+ MPH that the game's cars are capable of reaching. In a nutshell, the racing in GRID is frantic, fast paced, and above all fun. As enjoyable as the racing is, crashing is equally satisfying as the game sports a full crash engine, allowing cars to take on "realistic" damage. Coupled with the game's physics engine, players will experience splintering fibers, impressive spark trails, shattered glass fragments, and mangled steel, all in breathtaking real-time.
Crashing is almost unavoidable, with rather aggressive AI opponents, and if you leave the track you can forget about maintaining speed or steering. When that happens, your best course of action may be to consult the instant replay. Codemasters provides an intuitive instant replay feature that allows you to survey the damage, as well as rewind the action and replay the impact from multiple viewpoints. The following video shows off this feature, as well as the brilliant audio sampling that makes the action come to life.
Coupled with the instant replay feature is what golfers refer to as a mulligan. During each race, players are given the opportunity to correct mistakes that may otherwise end a race prematurely. This feature is called Flashback. After a deadly crash or loss of control, players can choose to rewind the action and restart shortly before things went south. This is useful as even moderate damage can hinder your ability to control your car properly - for example, damage to your car's steering column after a wreck that doesn't necessarily take you out of a race may cause your car to pull to the right or left, thus killing your chances of winning the race or the desire to simply continue on.
Flashback is designed to keeps players in the game after an unfortunate spill on the race track. While this may be seen as a helpful feature to some, others may view it as a means to cheat their way to victory. For those whose opinions represent the latter, GRID offers a Pro difficulty mode that disables the Flashback feature. Players may also choose to limit the number of Flashbacks on standard diffuculty.
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EddieTurner - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
Yeah, I was not nearly as impressed with GTP. Too bland in my opinion. Anyway, it ran as smooth as a baby's butt without a single hiccup. Very nice at 1680x1250.V3ctorPT - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
I bought this game on Steam, and it's great... I love this game, it's perfect... And as far as I saw, it doesn't have any bugs... i think that the only bug it ever had was something about locking (sometimes) in multiplayer, but since update 1.1 it's rock on!! I already finished it this weekend, its a fun and long game I strongly recomend it to anyone who loves racing games and wants something that lasts more than the NFS series... at least I was never bored playing GRID... good game Codemasters... do another one please... I'm addicted ;)AnnihilatorX - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
There seems to be a lot of problems with X-Fi soundcards and Nvidia drivers locking up in official forum.I have the Auzentech Prelude and the old 8800 GTS and I am getting black screen lockups (sound not looping though so I am thinking it's more about Nvidia drivers) between every 5-10 mins of play though. It is not a BSOD and it does not register on windows error reports so I can't judge what's wrong.
V3ctorPT - Sunday, August 17, 2008 - link
I played the game with a HD2900XT, 7800GTX and a HD4870 and no problems whatsoever... all in Vista, and in XP too. About the sound, i use the mobo's sound... no Creative for a long time (drivers problems sucks)sinisterDei - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
Just a note, I have an 8800GT and a Creative X-Fi running Windows XP and I have no problems to report. I've played about 2/3 of the way through the singleplayer career and haven't run into any problems.Souka - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
As a FYI.. Creative released updated drivers for X-Fi on July 30th...both Vista and XP.My $.02
Egglick - Thursday, August 7, 2008 - link
Excellent review Eddie. I was already interested in this game, but I think I'll go ahead and pick it up now.One quick question: Were you playing the Steam version, or a retail copy?? I think it's worth mentioning if retail copies use irritating protections such as Starforce. It would make the Steam variant more appealing in my eyes.
BZDTemp - Friday, August 8, 2008 - link
Do make sure and try a demo first.I had GRID way up on my most wanted list but there is something off with regards to the driving sensation!
drebo - Saturday, August 9, 2008 - link
Yeah, it pretty much sucks. For a game that advocates realism, the driving is pretty terrible.For example, I know that my (real) car begins turning far sooner than 2 seconds after I tell it to start turning, and even my 2006 Chevy Malibu is capable of taking a turn at 70mph without my back tires slipping out from under me.
Sure, the crashes are fun the first time, but when barely clipping a wall at 40mph send you flying...you can only handle that so many times.
Least fun racing game I've ever played.
FlukeRogi - Sunday, August 10, 2008 - link
Advocates realism? Codemasters have never said it's realistic, or a sim (unlike the F1 game they're working on which they have said will be a sim).It's an arcade racer, and as far as arcade racers go, it's spot in in every department - fast, fun, and just generally in your face!