Grid (360, PS3, PC)

[TheForce]

played the demo for about 45min , but my first impressions are not so great...
Graphics look nice but nothing special,
Handling is too arcady for me, there seems to be no weight to the cars, feels like you don't have total control of the cars (like you do have in PGR and Forza)

So far this is a no go for, I was really hoping to get that TOCA feeling again, but just like what they did to DIRT they did now to TOCA, I'm sure a lot of people will gonna love this, but I will pass...

Will give it another go this evening, and will try the online mode as well, maybe that can change my mind a little..

but so far some serious racing I will stick to Forza and for something less serious to PGR4, and for some crazy arcade racing will take Motorstorm...

[Nembot]

I haven`t loved a driving game since Ridge Racer and Daytona, but I think I could love driving again with GRID.

FORZA bored me to death, but I still appreciated its quality. GRID on the other hand seems to be part sim and part arcade racer, you really get that sense of speed that seems to be lacking from sims.

I have preordered mine from shopto, ?32.00.

[Uli]

i am a little disappointed with what i got to play here, especially coming from Forza 2. the cars i drove (BMW 320 and Mustang GT) seem to have no weight and the steering feels very loose. the Mustang kept frequently spinning in turns with no prior notice at all - very annoying. maybe it's just an early build and the handling is likely to change. hopefully!

[Leon Retro]

( I played the 360 version ) Has anyone else noticed the strange motion the game has? ... You know when you watch a film and fast forward, everything looks stupid, well.... they've done something with the GRID engine, which makes it look fast, but you can see that lots of frames are missing, like it's in fast forward, rather than real time.

PGR3 had that ridiculous motion blur to compensate for the frame rate - and now we have GRID doing some trick to make things look fast.

I think it's quite disorientating - and off putting. It's a shame, because it does look nice enough( very PGR ) .... with well made vehicles, but with the weird motion, and overall slippy lightweight feel to the cars, it makes for a very strange experience.

[saturn-gamer]

I like it. Its arcadey, but still pretty hard to control at times (try it without driving assists). I like the intensity of this game, the Mustang race in cockpit view is pure enjoyment for me. You'll get smacked from all sides and you'll notice big time. AI is aggressive, and makes screwups too, this is much more fun than GT5P.

I thought I would hate that rewind ****e, but in long races as this its pretty handy. Better than restarting a whole race over and over again anyway.

There are a few gripes I have with this game; framerate and screen tearing. Maybe its ironed out in the full version. DiRT Ps3 ran slightly better than this, but this one's got much more going on onscreen.

[Silvergun X]

I very, very much like this game.

I played all 3 of the game modes offline and initially I wasn't impressed, I didn't think much of it at all. I spent about 30 minutes playing the drift course and I finally managed to crack the handbrake control at high speed, which was VERY satisfying nailing a chain of corners, seeing 5x combo appearing at the top and hitting almost all perfect flags.

Huge grin on my face after that.

Then I went online with it and... my god it's superb online.

The damage being on means it deters people from all just piling into each other on the first corner. Of course people still do it but those that do end up with wrecked cars and come in last. Serves them right. I had about 3 hours worth of 12 player sessions both racing the BMW's and the Ford Mustang and I have to say this is where the game completely comes into it's own. The handling is arcadey enough to be fun, and sim enough to have some very, very tight races.

Out of a 12 player race, there were only 4 of us left. Catch up was off, and the first two were miles ahead of me and fourth place. Suddenly you hear down the headset a huge 'OH ****' and they've both messed up a corner, bringing us all into view of each other...

Final corner / chicane, slip along the inside and force him to brake, overtake into first just before the finish line.

For the love of god play this online before you dismiss it.

[superstarbeejay]

I agree, the online I found just brilliant fun. Absolute chaos and totally changes your approach. I found that in most cases the dirty drivers got their deserves.

The handling is still a bit broken but the 'fun' factor more than makes up for it. Every second of every race online you are on the edge of your seat knowing that 1 mistake could blow/win everything.

[Malc]

I managed to play this an hour or so ago. And it's bloody brilliant!

When using the in-car view; 20 opponents; seeing a car spin onto the gravel and is hidden by the cloud of dust recently risen by the amazingly real artificial intelligence and you've just slammed into a wall due to locking up the brakes; the game is sublime.

I can't wait untill release when we get to drive the Aston Martin DBR9 - the best car in the world - and experience some of the other racing disciplines on offer. The handling feels a hybrid of arcade racing and simulation handling - Just like Dirt did Wich I loved. And just in case you couldn't tell; i'm hyped!

Where's Holliss when you need him [to start a time trial thread]?

[Silvergun X]

I'm glad other people are enjoying this as much as I am!

In-car view is where it's at.

[saturn-gamer]

It might topple PGR4 as my best racer from this generation so far. Compared to this, even PGR actually feels kind of sober. This damage models are absolutely brill, and the sounds are darned amazing. Hell, I'm pretty sure the sound of the engine changes when the front window gets smacked out

The more I play it, the more I like it. Why couldn't Polyphony add this kind of detail and AI?

[Silvergun X]

I agree with the level of detail comment, this really did remind me of a very, very good PGR4.

It's just great. It's a really damn good game. I didn't like DiRT very much either but this is a must buy for me.

[saturn-gamer]

Only issue is the slight screen tearing in cockpit view, on my Ps3 demo at least.

[fahrenheit]

You know theres also a page of generic nicknames if you scroll to the right?

Completely missed it. Thanks for the tip.

[Malc]

Anyone fancy starting a time trial thread for this?

[VR46]

Go on then