The bright sun shines off the bonnet of my dodge viper, the engine roars as the car tears down a long straight. Coming up to a corner I touch the brake, tyres squeal and I crash straight into the barrier on the last lap sending tyres and body panels in all directions. Frustrating? Of course but I’m not out of the race. I’m playing Racedriver GRID, the latest instalment by Codemasters the clever clogs behind the Toca series. Thanks to their handy feature called Flashback I can rewind to a moment when I still had all my tyres on and pointing in the same direction and try the corner again.
I’ve played this game extensively and although not perfect this is probably the best racing game on the market to date. The realism of the tracks and cars rivals Project Gotham Racing and Gran Turismo 5:Prologue, the car damage is parallel to anything in the Burnout series and the adrenaline rush of driving is a peg above the rest.
You start as a rookie, a nobody in the racing world with a battered old banger in the garage and no money to fix it. After racing for other teams you have enough money to fix your car and begin to build your empire and dominate the competition. Design your cars paint job and choose the decals than go for pole. Wining races will have sponsors begging for you to put their logo on your car, early in your career you’ll earn hardly anything as your sponsors will pay just because you didn’t die on a hairpin. Until you’ve earned your stripes and the big sponsors are taking an interest and pay hundreds of thousands for being on the podium.
You can even hire a team-mate to increase your earning potential some will ask for a lot of money to join you but paying out is worth it as the best team-mates soon pay for themselves with the extra winnings you’ll receive.
As you work through your career, you’ll need to beat the competition in American muscle championships through the streets of San Francisco, European touring cars round the Nurburgring and Japanese Drift races down Mount Haruna. Until the end of the season when your nerves are pushed to their limits during the world famous Le Mans 24 Heures at the prestigious Circuit de la Sarthe. Thankfully it’s not a 24 hour race although you can have one if you set it up as a custom race but the day does darken and turn to night making corners that were not a problem during the day, into a lethal wall invisible until it emerges from the dark as you approach at 260mph.
As I said the game is not perfect though, the flashback feature as useful as it is sometimes feels completely necessary as 16 cars all head to the first corner in a tight bundle on a road that’s claustrophobically narrow its an accident waiting to happen and more frequently than not does. The AI does not stick to a racing line and follow it religiously like other racing games, their aggressive and actively seek to win, blocking you as you try to overtake and nudging your rear bumper as you break for a corner sending you too close to the tire wall for comfort. Also GRID lacks a split screen, you can still play against your friends online but you can’t invite them round and play together.
These faults are minor and are soon lost in the enjoyment of the rest of the game and if Prologue was anything to go by this game will stay above the rest even when Gran Turismo 5 does come out in the following months. I rate this game very highly and urge you to pick up a copy whether you have an Xbox 360, PS3 or a high spec Windows PC and start burning rubber.
