• Posted June 6th, 2008 at 20:46 EDT by
• 23 Comments

Welcome David, your car is ready in your garage. This is what I was treated to every single time I loaded up Codemasters' latest racing title, GRID. Whether your vehicle is one of the new Audis fresh off the lot or just a low-end Lacetti, GRID will welcome you into its world and prepare you for what it has in store – the race.

One of the first things you’ll immediately take notice of within GRID is the beautiful presentation style that it has to offer. The menu navigation is very user-friendly and actually helps pull you into the hype of racing. With a crisp and sleek menu, you’ll have the opportunity to enter the GRID World, take on Race Events and hop into a lag-free multiplayer experience.

I decided to jump right into the GRID World and in doing so, was thrown directly behind the wheel of a Viper with no warning beforehand. Once in the driver’s seat, my crew chief informed me that this race was how I would earn my Rookie License, and that all I had to do was finish the event without totaling my vehicle. It sounded easy enough and I revved my engine and peeled out into the start of my racing career.

 

Throughout your career, your crew chief will act as your spotter. He’ll let you know who is upfront, what’s going on behind you and if there has been a wreck somewhere on the track. Unfortunately, you can’t always trust your spotter to be 100% reliable and you’ll sometimes notice he spots things a little too late as you’re barrel rolling down the stretch after colliding into a spun out vehicle in front of you. While the dialogue does become repetitive, you’ll still enjoy the way it brings the atmosphere around you to life.

Your Rookie License will give you passage into the three regions of the global series which include Japan, Europe and North America. Each region has three tiers of licenses and comes with predetermined respect amounts you must earn before graduating to the next license. Before doing so, you’ll be given the chance to create your own racing team. GRID will allow you to customize your team name and up to three different team colors. Codemasters has also included the option of picking out a pattern design for your team’s vehicles, thought admittedly the options are limited.

Each region has six Championship events that will not only give you the opportunity to make some cash for new team vehicles, but to snag some paid sponsorships along the way as well. Getting the larger sponsors are pertinent if you’re planning on one day purchasing a multimillion dollar car. The direction in which you take your career from this point is entirely up to you.

 

The events that you'll be able to partake in range from touring to drifting, Le Mans 24-hour series to demolition derbies and so on. There are several different styles of racing you can choose to be a part of and there is definitely a little something for everyone. Unfortunately, while there may be a variety of styles to take part in, Codemasters didn’t provide vehicular variety in order to enjoy these events to their fullest. GRID features less than 50 total cars and each event style is limited to roughly two to five different vehicles. This may sound like it wouldn’t truly affect the gameplay itself, but that's only partially true. After a while of racing in the same car, a sense of repetitiveness begins to sink in.

I’m sure you’re all ready to hear about the filet of the title, the racing. For the last couple of months, Codemasters has fed gamers the ideal belief that GRID is not about collecting cars, completing objectives or being ranked #1 – it’s about the race. Truth be told, GRID delivers on that ideology 110%. The racing elements that you’ll find while enjoying the game are hard to compare to games before it. While the game offers the ability to take semi-simulation corners and both impart and receive highly-realistic damage, it also offers up the opportunity to go blazing speeds and drift around corners in an unrealistic fashion as well. GRID is truly the perfect ... (continued on next page)