Platform: PS3
Release Year: 2008
IGN Score: 8.7
I am not going to spend too much time talking about Grid. I got the game for $5 from Amazon using a gift card. With the racing seasons starting and all of this talk about Gran Turismo 5, I was getting anxious to play a racing game. I really liked the Grid demo on the PSN so I decided to give it a try. It is the first racing game I have played since Gran Turismo 4 with the exception of Race '07, a PC game with some of the best AI drivers I have ever experienced.
Grid is a fun game until you get to the upper levels. It is divided into American, European, and Japanese racing series. The race tracks in the American series I didn't like at all. The race events in the Japanese series I didn't care for (too much drift racing and not enough real, traditional racing). That basically leaves the European series. They have some great tracks in this series, including Spa, Nurburgring, and Circuit de la Sarthe. There really is a limited number of cars and tracks throughout the entire game, and the lack of variety makes the game feel quite competitive quickly. The announcing sucks too, but I can get over that. What really makes the game fall is its arcade driving. There basically is no difference in handling between any of the cars. They slide around the track quite unrealistically. And what is frustrating about this handling is that there is no difference between a slower car and a Dodge Viper, so the handling is quite difficult on the upper levels when you are driving faster cars. Overall, the game is just ok. It is fun to play but looses its appeal rather quickly. It was a good filler while I await the great GT5.
There are some things that I liked about Grid and hope to see in the new Gran Turismo. Most of this stuff has been lacking in the GT series for quite some time.
Number one is damage, which has been confirmed for the new Gran Turismo. The fact that you can run into anything and spin people out without any consequence is ridiculous.
Number two is more than 6 cars on the track at a time. Grid can do up to 24, and I have seen other games that can do much more than 6 (like the NASCAR games). Racing against just 5 other drivers is lame.
Number three is smarter AI. The computer drivers in the Gran Turismo series have never been very smart. Race '07 had amazing drivers - they would block, hit you back if you hit them, etc. It is really time for Gran Turismo to step up to the plate in this aspect.
Number four is a more involved career mode. Grid had this cool feature where you start a team that you name, fight for sponsors, hire co-drivers, etc. The feature was a little underdeveloped, but I like the idea. I could imagine a situation where you could play something similar to a franchise mode in Madden on Gran Turismo.
On a side note, while we are talking about racing games, I just read a preview for the F1 2010 coming out on PS3 later this year. It looks promising and I am also looking forward to this game, even though it is made by the same company that made F1 2009 for the Wii that sucked to bad. This year is supposed to be a big gaming year - I am still waiting for the greatness.
I've long since grown tired of the GT5 saga. They've cockteased us for so long with that game that there's no way the payoff will be worth it. Which is not to say the game itself won't be good, but the expectations have been set unrealistically high with the way they have been dragging this out.
ReplyDeleteI guess the number one thing that I want from GT5 is for it to be released, lol.
ReplyDeleteIt really hasn't been much of a saga to me. I have only had expectations of owning it since last November, and in that time it has only been delayed once.
I still think the game is going to be great. Maybe its because it is from a great series and none of the games have been bad. Or maybe I am just extremely naive because neither Prologue or the downloaded Time Trial really blew me away.