GRID

The following post is going to be somewhat banal. This is, somewhat unfortunately, due to the fact that I have been drinking a little bit.

I decided to pick myself up a copy of GRID the other day. This is a game that I had intended to play some time ago because I actually quite like the racing games that Codemasters has put out.

I have played the Colin McCrae series for many years; I credit this game for making me a fan of racing games. The first year I played a Colin McCrae game was back in 2002. Since then the series changed a fair amount from year to year, but always seemed to maintain the basic feel of their racing model. With the release of DiRT, I felt as if all of that came to a head... with the exclusion of the minor amounts of vehicle customising that I had become used to (eg. picking the right tires for the terrain, etc.). 

GRID is the second game in the Pro Race Driver series that I have tried, and it is definitely my favorite. This game has a sense of speed and immediacy like no other racing game that I have played. The Burnout series has always been very fast, but the racing model has always been somewhat loose. GRID is a game that has an immense sense of speed, but also requires a great deal more accuracy out of the player than you might expect. The result is a game that has you sitting on the edge of your seat from start to finish... especially if you want to play with a wheel!

There haven't been that many racing games released in 2008... and some of them have been pretty good. Thus far GRID is my pick for racing game of the year. If you are a fan of racing games, than I highly recommend that you pick this up. It is a difficult game, but very rewarding if you stick with it, and learn how to race like a pro.