GRID - Playstation 3

An absolutely awesome racing game! I started out playing the demo and what a "tease" it was. I couldn't wait to get the full version. Now that I have it and have played into the second tier of races; WOW!This game is about racing! It also has a significant business aspect to it.You start out immediately in a race to earn your rookie license. You don't have to win or place you just have to finish. Once complete you get your rookie license for all three regions, US, Europe and Japan. With license in hand can now drive for other owners/teams. You are presented with a single driver offers from one team in each of the three regions. I've been choosing the one that offers the most coin because once you earn the target $80,000 you can start your own team.With your own team you can start earning big bucks and higher reputation points.You'll have a spotter/crew cheif and a business manager. The spotter keeps you advised of what's going on in the race. He's slow on accidents ahead of you but helpful telling you what place you are in. The manager keeps you advised and instructs you on the buisness end of racing. She's knows what's going on. Follow her lead. Your team is only you until you get to the second tier, then you can hire and fire drivers to race on your team. With your first hire you only have a choice of three drivers. I would recommend firing the one you hire immeditely because then you can search for a driver that has the skills you want and can "afford". Where talking drivers who want a bonus to sign with you and a percentage of their winnings. You determine the parameters and are presented with drivers who match what you're willing to pay. You're also presented with the skill set each driver that matches your search has. Is he aggresive, consistent, what his specialty is, etc...You can race in three different regions US, Europe and Japan. You earn reputation points based on your position in races and the level of difficulty you've chosen for a particular race. You need 80,000 pts in a region to get to the tier two races and 250,000 to get to tier 3. Also if you win the championship in each of the six "disciplines" in a particular tier and region you get a special head to head challenge race against the #1 team at the time, in which you can win substantial dollars for your organization.Disciplines are types of racing and each has a set of cars you can choose from. Some of the disciplines are GT, Pro Muscle, Pro Tune, Drift, Demolition, Togue, Pro Tougue. there are about a nine differnt disciplines. You have to purchase cars to drive in each discipline. You can also sell cars you don't need on ebay. My personal favorites are Pro Tune, Pro Muscle and Touring. However, the racing gets more difficult as you get into the higher tiers because now you're talking top-performance cars (higher speeds).What makes the game great is that the racing can be intense. As noted by others the AI wants to win. You find yourself battling the last half lap for the lead that's when you're more prone to make a mistake. I've had those YES, moments when I've won by a nose. It is defintely challenging and tons of fun! If you find yourself winning too easily your manager will let you know and you can change the level of difficulty at the start of each race from Basic, Normal, Serious, Savage and Extreme. I start each new race in normal mode. If I can win in normal the next time I'll bump it up to Serious. Lets say you race U.S. Pro Muscle Tier 1. You'll have two races on two different tracks. The next time you choose that discipline the tracks will be modified and even different. How many times this occurs I don't know. It keeps it interesting. I've started over and begun tracking the tracks in each discipline and tier. I've even started recording how many seconds I finish ahead or behind in each race/track and the current difficulty setting. That way I konw when I can bump it up.At the end of each season you have the option of the 24hrs of Lemans race. I recommend it each time because it adds to your "Global" reputation. Reputation is the key to moving up the driver board. It is a slow go up the board as a driver. I've gone through 7 seasons and have gone from about 430 to 320 as a ranked driver and I'm on tier two in all three regions.To me grid is the New GOLD standard for racing games. Can't wait for Codemasters to continue to improve it.Update: Alright. Have played all the way through and won the championship in each race. Can't get enough of this game. Even tried other demo's and hands down Grid is it. Have purchased the prestige pack add on. Like that Australian track alot. Am continuing racing the same save but this time around am steadily increasing the level of difficulty. The Prestige pack adds the "Ninja" difficulty level. Will try to win all the races all the way up through Ninja. The races are much easier now. I've been able to get through most this time around without using the flashback most of the time. Have also fallen in love with drifting. It's incredibly hard at first. If you need help/pointers learning to drift contact me. I go by Flsurffisher on the PSN.

My first car racing game. I love the game-play for its realistic content, however the graphics are being pushed to the point of being borderline. This also includes the color hue and lack of crisp sharp vividness in said color rendering. It's kind of dingy looking which makes it hard to make out the road from others obstacles at the point of the disappearing horizon which you need to see when it's coming at you fast. Otherwise it's racing at realistic world tracks with cool sounds too.

Having grown tired of waiting for GT-5, I started to investigate other sims. So far - Grid gets my vote for design, graphics, car dynamics, value and variety. The attention to realism is nothing short of astonishing. For instance, the 24 hours of Le Mans is compressed into 12 minutes - which includes sunset, night driving and daybreak. The street courses are gorgeous. I find myself wanting to slow down just to look around. And unlike other sims, the various cars have distinct properties accurate to that model. The old Mustang has the body roll you'd expect. The Audi R10 with it's low RPM and massive torque literally jerks the force feedback wheel in your hands when you shift - and the force feedback is adjustable to a very high level. I doesn't get much more real.I could go on - but for this 58 year old track rat with a lot of real seat time in real racing cars - I can't recommend this game highly enough.

I got this one over Shift because of the reviews and now that I have seen them both, the reviews are correct. This one is much more enjoyable. The graphics are excellent. Makes me want to (finally) spring for a HDTV.Drift Mode is really hard, but clearly something you have to get the hang of, which is great.Demo Derby allows you to race with a car that has a terrible suspension, which is change of pace.Overall this is a well rounded game which has enough variety to keep things interesting.

This game blows any other racing game out of the water. No game can match the damage, sensation of speed, and fun online play.PROS-Cool cars to choose from (even the new Camero/Challenger and F1 cars)-Great if you like a challenge-Great set of tracks-Online gives this game 5 stars-Damage is forgiving enough so u dont have to worry about destroying your car when you have a simple accident-Damage can be done to the steering, suspension, transmission, and engine which is coolCONS-Career mode actually sucks, you just rake in cash and thats about it (spotter is annoying)-People that want super realistic crashes/damage will be mad-If you play online with collisions fully on you might be angered at the people that go around the track backwards (just put collisions on forward)-Internet makes or breaks this game for me honestly-No 2 player or multiplayer for friends to play-Flashbacks (rewind if you crash) will either be loved or hated depending on who you areThis game would be improved by adding more cars, more tracks, and a non-internet multiplayer mode.It isnt perfect but with the best competition being Gran Turismo 5 (which still isnt out) id buy this game every time i got the chance.UPDATE:Now that PS3 no longer supports Multiplayer I have to knock down my love for this game. Also the fact that Ninja mode is the only competitive mode for me ruins the replay-ability of the game in Career mode because it is only available in non-career modes. Id now say rent it and begin the Career mode immediately since there is no other mode to play now.