Race Driver: GRID (PC)

Race Driver is changing and it's looking great

Codemasters has been working on sim racers for years. Back on the original PlayStation the TOCA Touring Car Championship series was up there with the best, delivering competitive racing action that even the mighty Gran Turismo couldn't beat. Fast forward to the current generation of systems and the competition is pretty fierce. On the sim front we've got Forza 2 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and the PGR series has the flashier end of the genre pretty much sewn up. So where can Codemasters' Race Driver: GRID fit in? After a recent hands-on it seems it could be neck and neck with the Microsoft owned Kudos-fuelled racer.

This might come as somewhat of a shock to long-time Race Driver fans, but GRID definitely has an arcade slant to the car handling. It's far from Ridge Racer-like fantasy physics, but you can certainly perform some satisfying powerslides as you throw your car around corners at high speeds. What was clear, even from this work in progress version of the Xbox 360 game, is that there's a real sense of connection to the track. Despite the willingness of your car's rear-end to spin out it never felt too much, and I always felt in control.

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What's also obvious is the level of competition amongst the AI drivers. From the off the other racers are going at each other, to the extent that during one race there was a mass pile-up, all caused by one guy trying to take a racing line that he clearly shouldn't have. You could say it's bad AI, but it came across as an entirely realistic occurrence and not a group of brain-dead robots blindly driving without a thought for the opposition.

Built on the EGO engine, an advanced version of the Neon engine used for last year's Colin McRae DiRT, GRID is looking great. It's certainly a little rough in places (the game is still a few months away from retail), but there's no denying that Codemasters is giving the big boys a run for their money. A combination of incredible car models, exquisite lighting and some brilliant motion blur make for a highly realistic appearance. The game isn't yet running at a smooth 30fps, but with that locked down gamers will be in for a real treat.

We certainly got a PGR vibe from our hands-on time with the game

With a combination of city and track-based circuits there won't be a lack of variety either. The more built up locations will certainly have the edge visually, and there are definitely echoes of Project Gotham Racing, but the more traditional racing tracks come to life with the high number of other cars on track at once. Presentation throughout seems to be living up to the high standard set by DiRT, with the pre and post-race stats once again making an appearance to help disguise the load screens.

Something we're yet to see in action fully is the damage model. Despite repeatedly crashing head-first into walls, our sports car didn't crumple in a way we expected, especially after the brilliant damage modelling in DiRT, but hopefully this will be more evident next time we go hands on with the game. We're also yet to see the game's extensive multiplayer features, an area of the game that is essential if GRID is going to prise gamers away from PGR4.

Codemasters' racers don't really get the attention they often deserve, often overshadowed by the Forzas, PGRs and Gran Turismos of this world, but GRID could well be the arcade/sim racing game of the year. Without any sign of any great racers in this sub genre coming from any of the big boys, there's every chance GRID will manage to clean up on release this summer. Look for more on GRID as the release date approaches, as well as a demo in May.