Over the weekend I decided to leave my filthy hovel and trek out into the wide world. I’m not sure if this is the place to say it, but this is the first time I’ve stepped outside the house this week. Oh right yeah, that bit wasn’t a joke. I know, I know, but there are reasons. Anyway, on my ventures I popped into to my local video game retailer and bought a shiny new copy of Race Driver: GRID. However, upon trying to open the game case I found something terribly wrong. No, it was nothing to do with the game (I’ll do a full review of that sometime soon), it was the game case.

Find out all the apocalyptic details inside.

Here’s the offender:

(Click for full size image)

Most 360 games nowadays have the same standard game case – the Flexbox Carthuplas. It’s well designed and closes with a satisfying click…sorry hang on, my pizza just finished cooking. I’ll be back in a bit…ok false alarm, it’s not quite done yet. Anyway, where were we. Oh yes, game cases. Now as I was saying, most 360 games come in a fairly easy to use case, but not my shiny new copy of GRID.

Upon trying to open GRID, I knew there would be problems. The side of the case was not the nice rounded indent we’ve all come to know and love from the Flexbox, but a harshly contoured vertical barrier that was both aesthetically and ergonomically displeasing. The box requires you to place one finger in the bordered compartment, and the other in the long stretch of shallow indent. This indent is so shallow that it is very hard to maintain a secure grip, and this resulted in several failed box opening attempts.

After managing to open the box, I had to peel back both sides of the case. This is easier said than done due to the extreme lack of a supple bending spine.

Well, eventually I managed to get the game case fully open and was met with the familiar sea of translucent green, but more problems were just around the corner. Innocently I tried to pop the disc out and start playing, but that would just be too easy. I began to depress the centre button, but my sensitive finger was confronted with a violation of basic human rights. The button, instead of being divided in half, had been split into a three quarter and 1 quarter share. The three quarter section proudly carrying the word ‘PUSH’.

The idea is that the three quarter section is depressed, while the one quarter section forms a secure barrier to prevent a finger slipping situation from arising. This works to some extent, but is limited by the one quarter section being in too close proximity to the three quarter section. This results in an awkward depress motion which I found quite distressing.

Around the disc is a raised beveled edge that provides a solid casing for the disc. However, this is where the worst problems arise. After depressing the centre button, the disc is marginally raised out of the surrounding levée, yet when I try to get the disc out I am faultered. In order to lift the reflective circular shape out of its casing you must maintain a firm grip on it, but this is hindered by no depression on the top of the beveled border. When removing a disc from its box I usually hold it, either between two fingers, or with one finger in the centre and the other supporting it gently from the perimeter. The case forces you to utilise the latter method and even this is occasionally hard to achieve due to insufficient depression depth on the edge of the angled border. The case even tries to trick you with a ‘depression look alike’ to the left of the disc which gives a false impressions of a bottom-left raising maneuver being possible.

After getting the disc out and placing it carefully into my ‘Xbox 360 Entertainment Unit with Online Capabilities and Media Functionality’ disc tray, I have to close the box. This is probably the worst part of the game case experience. The sections of the box that ‘clip in’ to the other side of the box to seal it are placed very near the top of the case. This results in me having to carefully caress the case looking for the area where the pressure should be applied to close it. This has caused me extreme distress and I may have shed a little tear on more than one occasion.

I am disgusted. What were they thinking when they made this case? It’s worse than the new Google favicon. This did not give an initial good impression of the game, but I remained open minded.

Expect a full review in the near future. Of the box…

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