For all of you racing fanatics out there, the GRID demo is officially available on Xbox Live Marketplace.
I have always enjoyed the Race Driver series (with the exception of the first game) as they were very well balanced for hardcore petrolheads and casual gamers alike. With the trailer for the game showing some impressive in-game footage, we can only hope that the driving mechanics are going to feel good.
My Xbox is currently downloading the demo as I write this, so I will post my hands-on impressions as soon as I have had a decent session with it.
Last Updated: May 8, 2008
PillsburyDeeBoy
May 8, 2008 at 22:48
Another racing game? Yawn *. Someone wake me up when they make a walking/running simulator – being a professional pedestrian has led to my piqued interest in the genre. Can’t waiti for Mirror’s Edge:)…
j4nr1k
May 8, 2008 at 23:45
Played the demo a bit and it is to me the beautifull love child of dirt + pgr 4.
The racing is fun (19 AI cars on the 1st track!) and smooth.
Gfx is very very good.
Must say the Muscle car feels way to light, they need to tweak the physics on that a bitm IMHO.
All in all a looking to be a great looking racer, with a lot of play in it.
Fox1
May 9, 2008 at 07:46
Race Driver Grid is living up to the hype 😎
Just the steering of the cars seems to look unrealistic 😕
SlippyMadFrog
May 9, 2008 at 08:23
I noticed in DiRT that the cars also feel a bit light. They break way to easily and too fast. I hope they fix it.
doobiwan
May 9, 2008 at 10:19
Doodled with it a bit this morning, it’s awesome. I didn’t have enough time to crit the dynamics, but the diRT + PGR4 comment is pretty on the money at a glance. The environments are dense and alive.
The damage, ooh, the damage . . .
It’s probably the most revolutionary change to the genre. There’s no “mananged damage” so you can finish a lap. Glance a wall – if you lose a wheel, you total the car. Deformation is realistic, but that’s what the rewinds are for, they don’t have to do half measures.
The demo has 3 events and online multiplayer, the R50 the 800Mb download is going to cost in bandwidth is better value than GT5:p in my book 😉
darthdad
May 9, 2008 at 12:34
What are the physics like Doobiwan?
kay
May 9, 2008 at 14:34
Downloaded it last night, can’t wait to try it. Does it have an in-car view? If I could add just one thing to FM2, that would be it.
LOL @ GT5:p comment 😉
kay’s last blog post..Donald Knuth Interview
Nick
May 9, 2008 at 14:42
My full impressions will be up in a short while.
Milesh Bhana ZA
May 9, 2008 at 14:52
@kay, it does have a pretty decent in car view.
On thing that really annoyed me about Forza is that you didn’t really have a sense of speed (well on the bumper view anyway) in GRiD, when you’re going fast you feel like you’re going fast.
doobiwan
May 9, 2008 at 15:44
As I said, I haven’t really had a lot of time with the game.
From what I experienced, I understand why a lot of folks say it feels “light” but my response to that is: You’re driving a race mod, body kitted BMW touring car, it IS light.
Either way it was a lot of fun, I just have to get used to the in car view again after basically using an overhead view in GTA4 😳
doobiwan
May 9, 2008 at 15:46
Yes it does. The views are
2x external following
Bumper cam
Bonnet cam
In car with dash.