Product Description

GRID is all about 40 of the most incredible race cars ever created with the finest AI.  GRID is about revolutionary damage to vehicles and environments that affect your race and blow your mind.  GRID is about the most complete replay packages, letting you relive the moments of your glory or destruction in jaw-dropping hi-res slow-motion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3577 in Video Games
• Brand: Codemasters
• Model: SGRIDX3US00
• Published on: 2008-06
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .54" h x 5.42" w x 7.57" l, .33 pounds

Features

• Contains 3 distinct regions featuring US, Japan and Europe
• 3 distinct racing styles that include Muscle cars, city racing, drift racing, traditional circuit racing
• Progress and create your own race team, hire co-drivers, and attract real-life big sponsors
• 20 car grids, bigger than any other racing game, fully licensed cars and tracks, all fully damageable
• Slicker, sexier, presentation similar to a Hollywood film

Amazon.com

GRID™ Is all about the race- that period from lights to flag; full of tension, pressure, noise, and action.

GRID will take players to beautifully realised and dramatic race locations over three continents to compete in an unprecedented variety of racing events. Packed with the most powerful race cars – new and classic, circuit and drift – players will compete to conquer the most prestigious official race tracks and championships and then go beyond to compete in challenging city-based competitions, through to road events and urban street races.

In Europe, race gamers will compete on the greatest official tracks in prestige Marques including Aston Martin, Koenigsegg and Pagani. Iconic cities across the U.S. – including San Francisco, Washington DC and Detroit and each with their own atmosphere and events – play hosts to diverse street races. Here, high-performance V8 muscle cars set the pace in aggressive closely fought pack competitions.

In the Far East, Japanese racing culture sets the tone where night races, including Drift racing, take drivers through neon illuminated cities and to outlying mountain roads. There is also the opportunity to compete in races that operate on the fringes of legality in the back streets and industrial areas of Yokohama.

Key Features IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RACE: Codemasters Studios' history of creating stellar racing titles, combined with AI and the ability of the EGO engine allow them to deliver GRID - a pure and cinematic race experience A GREATER, MORE DIVERSE, WORLD OF RACING: New and classic, track and street – conquer the greatest racetracks and then go beyond with road races and urban street competitions JUMP BEHIND THE WHEEL OF SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING CARS: Exotics, imports and beefy muscle cars are all available to race in hugely varied events with grids of up to twenty cars aggressively competing for the lead THREE DISTINCT RACING REGIONS: Europe, US and Japan are all beautifully designed, each with their own individual takes on racing: U.S.A – In thunderous V8 muscle cars, race diverse courses on city streets in flat out, door banging racing action; Japan – Reject traditional Western racing and drift over to Japan for action the fringes of legality in industrial areas and back streets from dusk 'till dawn; Europe – Race the famous tracks dominated by Le Mans in some of the most technologically advanced cars ever created such as the Ferrari F430 GT, Lamborghini Murcielago GTR, Aston Martin DBR9, Koenigsegg CCXR and Porsche 911 GT3-RSR EVERYTHING THAT COULD HAPPEN IN A RACE PROBABLY WILL: A GRID race tests a driver's skills at every turn -- crammed with high-impact moments such as, engine fires, tire blow outs, bump and runs, wild crashes involving flipping, spinning, and collisions with other cars and trackside objects ENHANCED EGO ENGINE DRIVES ALL NEW HIGH IMPACT CRASH DAMAGE AND SEQUENCES: Physics models will ensure that collisions and crashes yield the kind of spectacle that a Hollywood movie director would ask for. Slow motion will be used extensively to give replays the blockbuster treatment ONLINE RACING: Race your cars online in high-adrenaline multiplayer, multiple car events

Highly Detailed Vehicles View Image Race Online with Your Friends View Image

Customer Reviews

All drivers to your cars...
There are racing simulators, and then there are racing GAMES. I read a preview and an interview in two issues of Edge magazine discussing the new direction Codemasters was taking in this game, and by the time I finished the preview I was so exited I knew I had to preorder the game and make the first full-price purchase I've ever made of a 360 game. The reason is simple. As one of the game's creators said, the racing genre has become a collect-a-thon with very little to do with the joy of racing. We've come to invest massive amounts of time into things like Forza and Gran Turismo without actually enjoying the races, just trying to win enough money to buy that next car or rank high enough to unlock that next track. The Race Driver series, like the Colin McRae Rally series, has been trying to gain a foothold in the west for some time. Personally I have no problem with TOCA or Rally (I love every Colin McRae game I've played except, strangely, Dirt), but everyone else seems to need some convincing. Codemasters have been trying to do this for years by throwing all kinds of crazy modes at you in the Race Driver series. With Grid maybe they'll finally get your attention.

The first thing you will probably notice is the graphics engine that powers this game (the same one from Dirt). These are next next NEXT generation graphics. Flags wave in the breeze, crowds cheer and jump up and down, and huge clouds of smoke shoot from your tires when you spin your tires. At the starting line, there is a fog of exhaust from the idling cars. But when you start racing, you realize that everything is also faster than greased lightning, giving you that sense of speed previously only seen in the movies.

When I first played the demo, the impression I got was that the developers watched The Fast and the Furious, Gone in 60 Seconds, and bunch more like them, and said "We need our game to look, move, and feel like THAT." Just before the race starts the camera does a lightning-fast zoom to the cars from an overhead view. On the replays, the camera shakes and rattles like it's a helicopter shot tracking your car, and your car is itself has the shake and blur of an object rocketing along at incredible speed. Nothing like the Sunday driver replays we've all become accustomed to. The sense of speed is really fantastic, and the game's controls will at first take some getting used to, because the cars are far more controllable than you are probably used to (resulting in a lot of spin-outs and wall-slams because you aren't expecting to turn so sharp). What this translates to is that when you get used the feel of this game it's a non-stop thrill ride as your car flies around corners and takes off from a stop like something out of a forth of July blockbuster.

And let's not forget about the car deformation and physics engine. While I don't think it's possible to land upside down, I have wedged my car on top of wals, flipped end over end, spun my car 360 degrees in the air, and smashed my car till all that remained of the front was the engine (and I can't count the times I've seen my wheels fly off). Yes, this game has damage, and it's way better than the damage in any other game I know of. It's not realistic, but it is TOUGH. If you have a head-on collision at top speed, that's it. Your car is wrecked. Fortunately the new Rewind feature makes it possible to stop time and rewind to before the crash (ala Prince of Persia's innovative time-control system). Is it a cheap gimmick? No. It's a really cool feature and an absolute lifesaver. But of course, it also demishes your score, can only be used a certain number of times, and in higher difficulty settings and record score making can't be used at all. Think of it like the ideal line in Forza. It may be cheating, but it's a game, not real life. And there's no point in playing a game if you can't have fun. And a whole lot of fun Grid is.

The A.I. in the game is also quite good, and not just because cars keep slamming into you and trying to force you off the road (in a couple of races one or two of the leaders kept trying to block the road to keep me from passing and when I got ahead harassed me continually from behind). The other drivers will actually fight each other, spin out, and crash all on their own. This makes everything enormously exciting because it stops feeling like you're racing a computer that never makes mistakes and instead feels like you're racing a wild pack of drivers jockeying for position (thankfully more Speed Racer and Nascar). Realism freaks will cry foul, but people like me who are TIRED of realism getting in the way of having fun will love the atmosphere of the races, where you feel rivalry and desperation in every race, and know that you could go from last to first or vice versa at any time (making every race feel like one of the greastest you've ever seen on TV, because crazy comebacks and smash-ups at the finish line do ocassionally happen in real-life).

While most racing games stick with one mode, Grid has you doing all kind of crazy races, from destruction derby to drift challenges, to one-on-one mountain racing. You'll drive Formula 3, Super cars, and muscle cars. You'll drive everywhere from Long Beach to Le Mans. While I wish there were more tracks (I loved the destruction derby and wish there were a few more of my favorite European tracks), the limited car selection doesn't bother me at all, because all the cars are fast and fun and very usable. Similarly I'm GLAD there's no car tweaking and tuning because in the end it just distracts from RACING. Leave that adjustment stuff to my mechanic, thank you very much.

The sound in this game is roaring, from tire screeches to the turbine-engine whine of your formula 3 at high rpms. The crashes and crunches come perfectly and the music is upbeat and heart-racing. There's also a manager and Crew Chief who talk to you through the game offering advice, and even address you by name (when you create your profile, you select what they should call you from a list).

The only real snag I've hit so far is the unbalanced difficultly in the events. I can pretty much always hit a podium finished in the United States races, but the European track courses are REALLY hard, as is getting anything other than last place in Le Mans 24 hour (which in a really cool move is 24 minutes long). If playing on Easy meant I could always get at least 10th place I would have no complaints.

There you have it. This is the game everyone's been waiting for. There's fast and furious racing action with the best replays in history. Glorious graphics at lightning speed, roaring sound with good music (for the first time in a racing game since I can remember), cool commentary as you race that addresses you by name (how cool is that!?), awesome physics and A.I. that results in cars trying to push you off the road and crazy smash-up crashes, and fun, fun, FUN racing events with lots of variety. If you love racing games you need to buy this one.

Best Graphics to date
Been on this game for a few days and I must say the graphics is superb. I am not sure what equipment some people are using when they complain about freezes and dropped frame rates. I patched my 360 to a 24 inch monitor with the "Way too expensive" Microsoft HDMI cable running at 1080i and the picture is great.
The game itself is not too different from most of the other racing games like PGR, dirt etc; definitely not on the same tech level as Forza.
The physics is subtle, and there is hardly any real driving difference between most cars, regardless if they are front/ rear/ mid engined. Cars can do seemingly impossible stunts without crashing. There seems to be little steering effect from throttle and braking other than hanging the tail out whereas in Forza, the effect would be significantly different from car to car.
Other than that, the game play is great; lots of variety and choices. The competition is tough though, even in Rokie/ novice mode, it is never easy to keep up with the fast and furious traffic or to keep from being lapped in Lemans.


Solid 4 stars

Best racer I've played in a long time.
Racing games are tricky to rate...Some people like arcade style, while others prefer the ultra realism of a sim. Grid straddles the line between the two. It's much more forgiving than Forza, but much more responsive and technical that, say, Burnout. Grid is all about the racing. It doesn't have hundreds of licensed cars, nor does it allow (or force) you to endlessly customize and tweak your vehicle. Personally, I don't mind this at all. In fact, I prefer it. I want a racing game that I can put my time into behind the wheel, not under the hood. That's where Grid delivers. Gorgeous locales (rendered using a highly modified version of the Dirt engine), great tracks, a wide (and not overwhelming)selection of cars and a solid driving model. Then, of course, there's the damage. During your career in Grid, you will be privy to a host of absolutely spectacular crashes, both on your part and on the part of the AI drivers, jockeying for position. Parts fly off, windows shatter and performance is compromised. Should you find yourself in a particularly nasty pileup, you can use the new replay feature to back up to a position before the crash and try again. It's a cool feature that has gotten some flack from the purists. So guess what, if it bothers you that much, don't use it. If you are even the smallest fan of racing games on the 360, Grid will not disappoint...it's gorgeous, challenging, provides enough different styles of racing (muscle cars, open wheel, drift, euro tuners) for die hard fans of the genre, and most of all it's FUN!