As in previous GRIDs you have a flashback feature, where you can rewind up to the last thirty seconds and retake the corner where your car was smashed off track. Either Bowser has left Mario Kart and started moonlighting as a street racer, or Codemasters felt that Vodka and red-bull swigging seventeen-year-old banger racer was the way to go. This can be infuriating in some key events, causing full-on smack the wheel/throw the controller/curse the AI programmer and all their family strops on multiple occasions. ![]() ![]() The AI can play incredibly dirty, smashing into you on the side on a corner and spinning you out, shunting you from behind or swerving right in front of you as you try to pass. Qualification is an optional but practically essential part of some disciplines and races, but not available on others, which can leave you starting a race in last place and finding it impossible to weave your way through the pack. You can spend whole races jostling for a mid-pack position, and it still feels like a triumph when you finish fourth. GRID Autosport isn’t afraid to push you out of your comfort zone, or reward old-fashioned efforts to master cars and learn the tracks. The AI, meanwhile, is surprisingly effective, driving fast, pushing you on the corners, and capitalising on every error or loss of nerve. That’s a big plus point over both Microsoft and Sony’s games. Damage also plays a genuine part, not just crumpling the bodywork, but affecting – even wrecking – the way your car drives. It doesn’t have the grit of Gran Turismo 6 or the dynamic feel of Forza 5, but it’s really not very far behind. The handling now feels tighter and more authentic than the peculiar arcade/sim hybrid style of GRID2, and if you play without the driving aids switched on you’ll find it demanding but not overly punishing. It’s all slightly lacking in personality, without the car collection vibe of a Forza or Gran Turismo, but it puts the emphasis on the racing, which is arguably where it belongs.Īnd when you do race, it’s mostly great. Love touring cars but not all that silly drift-racing nonsense? Well, you can keep doing the former and leave the latter until you want to unlock the GRID events. The good thing about this structure is that you can spend the early part of the game focusing on the stuff you like best. Endurance, meanwhile, is exactly what you’d expect, though with races topping out at eight minutes we’re hardly talking Le Mans. The Touring Car racing takes us right back to the days of TOCA, while the Open Wheel discipline leverages Codemaster’s experience with the official F1 games. Two of the disciplines – Tuner and Street – connect straight to the GRID2, with the former packing drift events and time trials, while the latter takes you straight to high-speed races through the avenues and boulevards of Paris, Barcelona, Dubai, Washington and more. Pick a discipline, a championship and a team – which defines your car or cars – and you’re away. There’s no hiring staff, buying cars or checking emails. In comes a simple grid of events, allowing you to choose one championship from one discipline each season, building XP and levelling up in order to unlock the locked GRID discipline and drive faster cars in new events. Out go slick, animated menus, dude-speak voiceovers and video intros. There’s less unnecessary flash about GRID Autosport. Like all of Codemasters’ best games, it feels like it was made for racing fans by racing fans. ![]() Sure, it has street racing, drift racing and other elements familiar from GRID2, but there’s a renewed focus on touring cars, open-wheel racing and endurance events. While an extension of GRID2, it’s closer in spirit to 2008’s Race Driver: GRID and 2006’s TOCA Race Driver 3. More than anything, GRID Autosport is Codemasters setting the clock back back to the dawn of the HD console era, when TOCA Race Driver and Colin McRae Rally were its key franchises, and before the obsession with X games, Travis Pastrana and cracking the American market took its hold. Available on Xbox 360, PS3, PC (version tested)
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