Race Driver: GRID Comments by Tom Bramwell

Theres nothing wrong with the handling from an arcade racer point of view. I think some people were expecting to load up the demo and straight away drive around the course and be really full on power etc. Like the review on EG, when i first played the game I crashed ALOT... then after about 30 mins/1hour i got to a point where i knew where i could be full on and where i would have to ease off.

Now i can pretty much get 1st in single player modes on the first 2 or 3, then the top two levels i got into the top 8-10. So that pretty sums it up to me.

"DjWhizzkidd: review scores? Check out the top and right banners on most these sites ... Grid ads everywhere! Explains the scores and reviews that barely mention the handling."

Good point. I forgot that every game which uses advertisement also pays every single game site to give them good reviews. How foolish of me.

Perhaps they dont mention the handling because there's nothing wrong with it?

Uncle Lou, sorry I used review scores to back up my argument. "Epic fail". Nice quote, not geeky.

@ ozallez - DjWhizzkidd: review scores? Check out the top and right banners on most these sites ... Grid ads everywhere! Explains the scores and reviews that barely mention the handling.

So, how does that explain the review score for Ninja Gaiden 2 then? They advertise here too, or is that not worth pointing out because it doesn't help your point of view?

I found the cars handled better for me once i'd switched to bonnet cam, which may be a bit of a placebo effect, so don't know if anyone else would feel this way. When you have the chase cam the cars really do feel too light, almost to the point you feel like you are driving on ice.
One funny thing happened during an online race yesterday though, one of the people I was racing against took a corner too fast, flipped his car and landed on top of a tyre wall and was stuck there for the remainder of the race lol!
Overall it is a good game though, probably a 7, maybe an 8.

Ive got stuck on a few tyre walls... funny :D.

Im loving this game, its hard to begin with, but turning down the difficultly is a good place to start. I certainly dont think this game is a 7, I am happy with it being an 8.5 to 9. Most sites ive seen are giving it inbetween that (just read PC Format which gave it a 90%).

I'm playing it on PC with a 360 pad and I'm really enjoying it. The most fun I've had playing a racing game in ages. Awesome graphics and driving.

Perhaps the Codies would be better off making an Ice Skating game rather than a Formula One game seeing as they have a fixation with "slidey" things.

Whats the betting Ferrari will pull the plug on Codemasters F1 game just as they have with GRID.Cant say that I will blame them if they do.

Well looks like most reviews dont agree with the handling situation, I dont agree with the ice rink analogy.

You do know that getting a F1 license means giving the FIA alot of money, i somehow dont think Ferrari will pull the plug for the handling cause its a computer game... Ok so you dont like the handling of the cars, but i dont think you need to live up to your name making stupid comments ;)

I'm encouraged that loads of people are loving this game. I'm definitely one of them!!!

I've read quite a few forums and some people (I think sim-heads mainly) seem to be negative about the handling. I personally don't see the problem with games having different handling to each other - they're all a challenge in differing ways (which is what makes life interesting, you know). You have to learn to master the nuances of each one to get the fastest times. Learn to love them all for what they are :)

I personally found GRID's handling to be fun. The handling feels different from car to car so you have to learn the cars: the slower cars can be chucked aggressively round the corners, the powerful cars have to be treated with a little respect when putting the power down.

makeamazing - you said you got stuck on tyre walls. I noticed you can reset the car back onto the track by going into the pause menu - just look at the options at the bottom of the screen. Hope that helps, I know it helped me out a few times already :)

I really enjoyed Dirt and made a Grid purchase in the hope demo physics weren't final.

What I found was a mixed bag....as if the different departments within Codemasters couldn't agree on what they wanted it to be.
The car interaction and damage is great making GT look dull. But overall it just feels speeded up cartoon-like with no weight to cars and unrealistic grip.

Very disappointed.

I agree

I think Codemasters aimed to recreate the thrill of racing rather than driving and in this they have succeeded. I find the handling perfectly acceptable (in car view), but it’s the excellent AI that really makes this game.

Game is superb in my opinion, really enjoying it, lots of variety and the gameplay is top notch.

Great fun takes a bit of getting into but once there it's very addictive, challenging, fun and rewarding. The rewind your crash feature is excellent and helps take out frustration but the actual racing is exciting I've had some cracking finishes battling with the AI, you can crash into them and the car damage is awesome. It reminds me a bit of Colin Mcrae, PGR and Dirt all mixed together. and the variety in tracks and racing keeps it interesting. Not tried it on-line yet but it looks good. Awesome graphics and the cars are really fun to drive and look amazing. Finally a decent racer for the PS3!

Awesome game best racer evar!

And on PC!

Right now going through DIRT. Tried GRID - worthless waste of hard disk space.
Good: awesome cars, great graphics, pleasant driver interface
Bad: compared to DIRT car moves & keep-to-the-road don't seem real + overlook out of driver's cockpit isn't as informative as in DIRT.
This game is kind of a graet attempt to obtain the NFS niche, removing it out of the market. But it has few realism to concur with either TOCA Race driver 3 or Colin McRae DIRT.
Like dealing with spiolers, moldings, paints & stuff? - enjoy GRID.
Wanna play hard and reach the champion's high? - dive in Toca or DIRT.

When I first picked up the controller and started playing, I thought wow this is pretty damned good but after several hours play the whole experience started to grate. I'm not saying the game is bad overall, there's perhaps too many half baked ideas and poorly implemented gameplay issues.

My main gripes are:

Career mode is fairly rudimentary and not at all as deep as many reviewers have stated.

A number of racing disciplines are under-developed, others are just plain crap...Drift anyone?

There is an over reliance on narrow street courses. While fun and chaotic at first, really begins to try your patience when you've been shunted in to a tire wall for the umpteeth time by the overly suicidal AI.


It just seems to me that the developers were aiming to create a respectable sim experience but were told by Codemasters during development that they had to reach a wider audience. The result is a game thats unsure of itself and rather left in limbo.

Shame really, worth playing though.