Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Absolute Asphalt Driving Experience


I have been playing PC games all my life and have tried most Racing/Driving games, from the legendary Outrun to the latest Need for Speed installments. I have to admit, Grid is the Best - by far!

The collection of cars is not vast but rather exotic and exclusive. The graphics are unbelievable, gorgeous and detailed. And the sounds (although will not accurately follow the engine revs) they greatly add to the total immersion. This is such a beautiful game that I have to tear myself from my screen not to keep playing.

There are three views (hood, cockpit and behind the car), all working as they should but what I really appreciated was the collection of available racing types: from closed circuits to demolition derbies, rest assured, you too will find your favorite.

This is not an easy game: deactivate the driver assists and you will find yourself fishtailing all over the place! And keep in mind that dragging is frowned upon in...LeMans-24. Not to mention riding a rattler! That's wright: Grid features totally realistic damages! Hit another car or the guard-rails and your fine tuned drive will get crashed and bumpers will fall off - and its handling will be affected accordingly!

Choose your name from the setup list and pit-bosses will call you by name (sadly, no...NeuroSplicer option though). Another nice touch is the random events that can occur in a race: from engines failing or bursting into flames to tires going flat or bouncing off, there is not a dull moment and the game keeps you constantly on the edge.

Now, CodeMasters seems to be able to learn from its mistakes. First of all, unlike DirtGrid does not require an...ubercomputer to run. The requirements are not "all invited" but not "next generation" either. I managed to run it fine on the 6 years old lab computer (a P4 3.2GHz with 2GB of RAM and a 7600GT nVidia).
Moreover, unlike Dirt which was damaged by StarFORCE, Grid harbors a... milder garden variety of SecuROM (without limited installations RootKits). There is clearly room for further listening to customers' dislike of DRM schemes (hence the star withheld), yet, in all fairness, this is an improvement.

So, if you are boycotting SecuROM you have been warned. Otherwise, recommended.

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