The replay system deserves a mention as well. You can choose to watch your race from any of the 5 camera views available (including cockpit view), with full control over the speed the video is played.

Graphically GRID is a very pretty game. There’s some nice HDR lighting and the cars reflect their surroundings well. The damage modeling is also nice with plenty of detail in the paint scratches. The game is built on an improved version of the graphics engine used in DIRT and you can see the similarities. My only complaint with the graphics is the frame rate. As is a common problem with games nowadays, the frame rate can get a little choppy when a lot of things are on screen. GRID’s frame rate problems take a different form. While driving the game will just freeze frame for up to a second, then continue. This spoils the replays and in the in-game experience. Codemasters have recognized the error over at the official GRID forums and put it down to the 360 hard drive. They recommend deleting the demo (though I don’t see how that could affect anything) and clearing your 360′s cache, but hopefully they’re working on a patch.

Sound wise GRID good, but there are a few annoying points. The cars rev and roar accordingly, but there is no music during the races. I know some people like this so they can concentrate on the driving, but I would have liked the option to be there. Luckily there is music in the replays. The other annoying thing is the persons who speaks to you during the race. Its all very well using a preset name, but he has a very limited collection of clips that he can say. Some stuff he tells you is pretty useful such as there being a crash up ahead or something, but I do not need him to tell me my car is ‘a bit banged up, but it’ll be ok’, when there is a damage indicator on the HUD. He also insists on telling you the opponent drivers’ names who have spun out, crashed or are leading the race. Telling me Rick Brown is in first place is neither useful nor necessary and may start to grate.

The game features 50 achievements worth 1000 points and vary from buring your first car to being involved in a 10 car pile up. After 4 or 5 hours play, I found myself with 230 points, without going for any achievements in particular.

GRID also has a multiplayer component (I love that phrase), that boasts 12 player online in a variety of modes. The games I’ve played seem to run fairly lag free and are great fun. There’s nothing quite seeing another person skidding along the track on his roof after nudging him on a jump in a destruction derby.

So there you have it, Race Driver: GRID. If you’re looking for a new racing game on the 360, PS3 or PC, then GRID is may just be what you’re looking for.

Bottom line: Buy it.

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