Race Driver: GRID Hands-on Preview

Codemasters has now established itself as one of the leading developers of racing games. DiRT proved to be an extremely competent next-gen debut and Race Driver: GRID is looking every bit like the stunning follow-up we expected it to be. After our engines were well and truly revved following a brief hands-on at the Play.com Live event last month, Codemasters finally allowed us to sample a more extensive portion of the game ahead of its expected summer release.

From the off it’s clear that you’ll be treated to the same high level of presentation as seen in DiRT. The loading screens display stats while you wait and the main menu is completely 3D, with a similar grid arrangement of events as seen in DiRT. Sadly the game’s core game career mode wasn’t available for us to test (it was cruelly visible but completely locked), but a selection of tracks and cars were – along with the Flashback rewinding time feature that looks to set the game apart from similar racers.

While DiRT was a rally game, it wasn’t limited to just the racing we see on TV from time to time, with a load of other sub-genres of the motor sport being included. GRID takes the same approach, mixing numerous car types and racing events.

In the preview build we had access to a lightning fast street race in an Aston Martin DB9 on a track in Milan; a Need for Speed Underground-like tuned car race in Shibuya, Japan, in the wet at night; a traditional Touring Car event in a BMW 320si racing around the Jarama GP circuit in Spain; a street race around Washington in a Pagani Zonda R; a spin around San Francisco in a Mustang GT-R; and a drift race around Yokohama Docks in Japan.

This is just a small sample of what will be on offer in the final game, yet the variety is already abundantly clear. The difference between a race in a Touring Car and a drift event is huge, and it seems that anyone with a taste for speed will be able to find something they like. We can’t claim to be big fans of the combo-based drift event, but the rest offer some excellent racing action. The huge mix of event types is a slight concern, but hopefully the career mode will offer enough of each so none feel like token gestures.

After spending a fair amount of time recently with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue it took some time to get to grips with GRID’s more arcade-style handling. At first it felt far too twitchy, with the road-side barriers constantly ending our races early, but after a few races things settled down. We’re sure Codemasters is still hard at work tuning the handling, but at the moment it feels slightly odd, being neither the sim perfection of Gran Turismo or the more forgiving cool of PGR. It feels like the right balance is remarkably close, but not quite there yet.

One thing that no serious racing game has offered before is the ability to rewind time. We saw a similar feature in SEGA’s Full Auto games, and here the so called Flashback feature lets you have a second chance at taking a nasty corner or avoiding a pile up. You can’t use it whenever you like though as you’re limited to a set number of uses per race, and you’ll gain cash bonuses for not using them at all. It’s certainly a nice addition, but the need to enter a replay menu by pressing Back (not just hold down a button to rewind time instantly) currently feels a little clunky.

With some time still to go on the game’s development (the preview build is reported to be 80% complete) GRID is already looking superb and the AI incredibly aggressive. Even on lower difficulty settings the AI drivers jostle for position and attempt to outbreak each other on corners. Even though we’ve been told that the damage modelling isn’t complete, crashing into cars is often spectacular. One crash saw my BMW spin 360 degrees through the air numerous times, its doors flying off on impact with the ground, before crashing into a tyre barrier, sending the tyres careering onto the track. We can’t wait to see what the damage will be like in the final game.

Despite a few niggles, which will hopefully be cleaned up in the final release, Race Driver: GRID has got us pretty excited. We’ve sampled the action, but can’t wait to get stuck into the career mode and all the events on offer – as well as the online functionality. Look out for our full verdict on whether GRID lives up to the Race Driver heritage ahead of the game’s summer release.