Comments on: The 12 Games Of Christmas: GRID

By: Hypocee

Hypocee — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:55:45 +0000

GRID’s awesome. In general I do not like Codemasters games – I don’t bear any ill will, try most of them, but there’s something at Codies that makes soulless games for me. This is bursting with soul and personality. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned much is that it’s the first videogame since Road Rash to make AI drivers truly feel fallible to me. Burnout comes close when you block opponents into traffic, but this actually reaches the same Nelson-laugh threshold as those golden Road Rash moments where a guy winding up to kick you got twatted by a truck you’d seen approaching for three seconds. I’m sure the field is still rubber-banded, but the distribution and execution of mistakes on your competitors’ parts is uncannily immersive.

I wonder how many people complaining about the steering have the misimplemented traction control computer aid turned on (as it is by default). I’m sure there are still holes in the physics and it’s a legitimate failure of communication with the user, but if the cars feel twitchy/railed and boatlike it may be the interface’s fault rather than the car’s or its world’s.

There is at least one entire screen of joystick sensitivity settings on the PC – it’s full of exciting curves and exponents and zones and profiles. Sadly, at least OOTB there are controls you aren’t allowed to map to joystick buttons so you have to use a keyboard emulator if you want to sit back with a pad.

By: Nitre

Nitre — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:14:39 +0000

Personally, i really enjoyed the game. Not stupidly physicsy, but not idiotic like the recent games in the NFS series. Plus, for £15 i can’t complain.

By: V

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:40:06 +0000

Bleh, GRID was crap compared to DiRT (even with all the bugs) and the CMR series that came before. Rally racing is far more fun than street racing, especially when it comes to retarded AI (or other players) who just ram into you. The multiplayer in GRID was simply horrendous.

I’m really glad that they decided on making DiRT 2 as opposed to GRID 2.

By: Nallen

Nallen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:47:59 +0000

GRID is great. Something neither of you mentioned was the replays. The thumping music is too much for every race of a session and the requirement that you must have 2Gb free on your C: drive is annoying, but at their best the replays in GRID are genuinely exciting.

PS Rewind is cheating ;)

By: Everquest Platinum

Everquest Platinum — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:52:26 +0000

I’ll give midnight club a miss.

By: silencer

silencer — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:59:14 +0000

I want a hybrid of GRID’s pretty graphics engine (minus the bloom) with GTR Evolution’s physics/track modelling.

Iain is right. The Nürburgring Nordschleife in GTR Evolution is peach, even though I can’t seem to get the carousels right.

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:59:19 +0000

The game has a demo, everyone should try it. Keyboard controls are hand cramp inducing but a 360 pad or a cheap wheel produces much better results both in rsi testing and on the track

By: The Sombrero Kid

The Sombrero Kid — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:04:22 +0000

@malkav11
you should definatly give grid a go, bt i’d give midnight club a miss :/

By: DigitalSignalX

DigitalSignalX — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:50:21 +0000

What I remember from crysis warhead was that you did not end up aiming the front end of the vehicle so much as you ended up turning the front tires left and right, and the physics took over and did the rest, creating realistic under or over-steer based on speed, terrain, etc. It had a much more.. visceral feel then most driving games I’ve tried. Yet it was just a tiny stupid part actual game.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:44:49 +0000

I have only ever liked the Burnout games, racing-wise, of the ones I’ve tried. So I never know if I should bother trying things like GRID. Or Tom Chick’s latest favorite, Midnight Club LA. (Though the latter seems like a good bet if only because I’ve yet to not like a Rockstar game.)

By: shout

shout — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:48:18 +0000

Not trying to manipulate anyone, just want to be able to go “I knew it!” 11 times. Is it wrong to want to make a game out of a site about games?

Love your sense of humour! That was sarcasm by the way.

By: Chris R

Chris R — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:09:49 +0000

Crysis.. 2? Zuh??

Do you mean Crysis: Warhead? I wasn’t too impressed with the driving in that game, but i wasn’t paying attention… what made it so great?