pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Think the handling model compares to PGR4 quite well.
I never played PGR4 that much though and cannot remember now (much prefered PGR3).
In other news... SHIPPED FROM SHOPTO! Open Wheelers tomorrow - get in!
GRID (PS3/360/PC)
- Thread starter DJ Doc45
- Start date
Think the handling model compares to PGR4 quite well.
I never played PGR4 that much though and cannot remember now (much prefered PGR3).
In other news... SHIPPED FROM SHOPTO! Open Wheelers tomorrow - get in!
cowden_harley
MOANING PRICK
get braking assist off and stick it on to serious difficulty and it shines
PB - can you let me know if your able to save your replays when you get it.
It's not a deal breaker for me but I've tried looking around for info on this and all i find are posts about being unable to save online races. So it makes me think you can save off line AI race replays.
I'm just really into capping my cool moments and putting together movies like the fifa one in my sig and this flatout 2 one which is one of my faves
http://www.gametrailers. com/player/usermovies/77451.html
I can't seem to get this to embed and play so you'll have to delete the space before the com
It's not a deal breaker for me but I've tried looking around for info on this and all i find are posts about being unable to save online races. So it makes me think you can save off line AI race replays.
I'm just really into capping my cool moments and putting together movies like the fifa one in my sig and this flatout 2 one which is one of my faves
http://www.gametrailers. com/player/usermovies/77451.html
I can't seem to get this to embed and play so you'll have to delete the space before the com
Last edited:
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Yea,I will do - but I dont think its in - but I know what you mean! I was playing it yesterday and watching some replays and thinking - this game needs saveable (and uploadable) replays...
tonnyrat
League 2
- 21 March 2006
are there any turds online who drive backwards and crash into people?
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Yea, but they're actually ok! If you drive backwards, you are automatically ghosted out so you cannot hit anyone.
The idiots are the ones that when you try to overtake them, they swerve and put themselves, you and anyone else around into the barrier... you can vote to kick people though, so idiots are normally sorted out after a while.
At least the full game has private lobbies so you can race friends.
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Got it!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm working from home, so only had a very quick blast (too honest!).
Chucked the Open Wheelers around Jamara as I know the circuit inside out by now! First race finished last as the handling was so different to the Tourers and I kept spinning out of corners.
Second race, 1st place! Got the hang of the handling (didnt have time to set up wheel, so on pad) and WOW! What fun!? Those cars are superb and I drove 2 about perfect laps as I could, didnt spin the wheels, hit the apexes etc!
Got a 1:18... and it says 'Uploading' - wonder if there is a laptime leaderboard? If not, then there should be!
I'm working from home, so only had a very quick blast (too honest!).
Chucked the Open Wheelers around Jamara as I know the circuit inside out by now! First race finished last as the handling was so different to the Tourers and I kept spinning out of corners.
Second race, 1st place! Got the hang of the handling (didnt have time to set up wheel, so on pad) and WOW! What fun!? Those cars are superb and I drove 2 about perfect laps as I could, didnt spin the wheels, hit the apexes etc!
Got a 1:18... and it says 'Uploading' - wonder if there is a laptime leaderboard? If not, then there should be!
JayD
Premiership
- 27 April 2002
- Arsenal
Ordered yesterday evening and it's arrived this morning. I have the week off work, so I guess it's time to pop it in.
Does six axis work with this? Only just downloaded the demo and couldn't find an option to turn it on. Just jumping on here quick while in work so don't have time to search through thread. I think I read before it's not available but if somebody could confirm either way, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks.
Thanks.
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Nah, dont think it is actually - shame as I think the sixaxis works well as a wheel (used it for F1).
- Thread starter
- #161
DJ Doc45
Banned
- 14 April 2005
I thought it was too sensitive for F1 Paul. I couldnt get on with it at all!
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Nope, no saveables
shame...That said, game IS superb! Playing the GRID WORLD mode now with my wheel... gonna sneak in a 24-hour (12 minute) Le Mans before I'm due back!
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Yea, you have 2 options - 12 mins or 24 hours! So much fun on the 12 mins though and I predict this will be really popular online. The change from day to night is handled really well. One thing I would have liked though is an actual simulated clock onscreen so you know the time of day (you do get a timer counting down from 24hrs though) - and the spotter lets you know certain milestones "Well done PAAAAAAUL, you've completed 12 hours - keep going" etc...
- Thread starter
- #167
DJ Doc45
Banned
- 14 April 2005
If Mr Boreham thinks it will be good its time to get this for PS3....
winston
Champions League
- 7 August 2005
pboreham, can you give us a few more details, please?
Can you race one-off custom races? ie. pick a car, pick a track, choose how many laps you want to do, choose your AI opposition?
Can you do custom championships? A bit like above but you can choose how many races will comprise the championship, at which tracks, in which cars, and the number of laps per race?
How many cars and tracks in the game?
The 12 mins or 24 hours option seems a bit stark. Nothing in between? 24 mins? or a %age slider of 24 hours?
Thanks,
Can you race one-off custom races? ie. pick a car, pick a track, choose how many laps you want to do, choose your AI opposition?
Can you do custom championships? A bit like above but you can choose how many races will comprise the championship, at which tracks, in which cars, and the number of laps per race?
How many cars and tracks in the game?
The 12 mins or 24 hours option seems a bit stark. Nothing in between? 24 mins? or a %age slider of 24 hours?
Thanks,
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Yes! I KNOW its good
Played it for an hour so far in between 'working' 
Yes, one-off races (called "Race Day") and you can customise the race apart from AI opposition (though you can set their level of skill).
Not that I've seen so far and I dont think its in...
Loads and loads
Some of the tracks - Long Beach, Jarama, San Fran, Washington, Hockenheim, Le Mans, Spa, Donnington and some Asian ones. All tracks have multiple versions too (like, GP, sprint 1, sprint 2, street etc). Lots of cars too, tourers, single seaters, tuned, stock cars, demolition cars, drifters etc. They have different liveries (think you can unlock more - and also create your own in the career mode). All cars are licensed too - like Porsche, BMW etc and handle differently - making each race with each car very different!Nope, just 12 mins or 24 hours. 12 mins is really good though... bit of a lonely track/race, so I dont think you'd want much more.
Pleasure
Last edited:
winston
Champions League
- 7 August 2005
Yes! I KNOW its good
I need to apply for this home working lark. I could do with a few extra days holiday a year.Thanks for the info. I'm still undecided. I've actually had a few decent races against the AI in the demo, albeit it's the trademark Codies AI with it's inherent annoyances.
Surprisingly, because I usually find city tracks boring, it's the Muscle Cars in the USA city track that was the most fun, particularly the latter stretches of the track, at high speed through the chicane type sections.
I think it was taking your approach of turning assists off (except gear change) and just racing it as a pure arcade racer, and stopping analysing flaws in the physics and the lack of realism and "sim" qualities", that helps the fun to start to shine through.
I'm just not convinced that such simplistic driving has long-term appeal. I'll maybe need to play the demo for a week and then see if I'm still getting anything out of it.
Let us know how you get on with the on-line racing, in particular, with regard to finding "mature" and fair racers.
- Thread starter
- #172
DJ Doc45
Banned
- 14 April 2005
Ok im all but persuaded to buy this on Friday...
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Online is still a bit scarce at the mo, but dont worry about the 'samey' arcade physics - every car handles very differently, making each race quite unique...
Thanks for the info. I'm still undecided. I've actually had a few decent races against the AI in the demo, albeit it's the trademark Codies AI with it's inherent annoyances.
Surprisingly, because I usually find city tracks boring, it's the Muscle Cars in the USA city track that was the most fun, particularly the latter stretches of the track, at high speed through the chicane type sections.
I think it was taking your approach of turning assists off (except gear change) and just racing it as a pure arcade racer, and stopping analysing flaws in the physics and the lack of realism and "sim" qualities", that helps the fun to start to shine through.
I'm just not convinced that such simplistic driving has long-term appeal. I'll maybe need to play the demo for a week and then see if I'm still getting anything out of it.
Let us know how you get on with the on-line racing, in particular, with regard to finding "mature" and fair racers.
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
After my Sky decided to pack up last night before the England game, I was left a free evening to hammer Grid - so heres some more thoughts on it.
I'm not going to go into too much detail on the handling as its been well documented and anyone who has played the demo will know what to expect. I will say however that every car handles differently - meaning new braking points, turning points etc for all the tracks, meaning each track plays very differently in each class!
I have played a fair bit into the Grid World mode and so far, its superb. You start off freelancing for teams in one off races. Each 'job' carries a salary and also a bonus amount attached to a condition (finish 3rd or above, beat a rival etc) and also a number of reputation points - again, depending on the conditions and skill level and assists you choose to race with. At this stage for me, it was a bit 'seen it, done it', but I plowed on.
At the start of your career, you are granted a basic license for each region - USA, Europe and Japan. This basic license allows you to enter the first tier (i.e. 'Easy' level events) and also allows you to take on the team jobs. The goal in the first part of the World mode is to earn £80,000 by driving for other teams - after reaching that amount, you unlock your own car and can start your own team... this is where the fun begins!
Once you are granted your own team car, you then get to create your team. Initially, this means choosing a name and livery for your car. Whilst not on the scale of Forza's paint system by any means, there are a wealth of skin choices to choose from - and then the option to change the base, primary and secondary colours for that skin. The colour choices are from a large pallette too, so you actually have a lot of freedom to be unique with your livery (which can be changed at any point during the future too).
After finally choosing a racing number (I choose '5' in a homage to my hero Nigel Mansell!) you are ready to race. The car you are granted is a basic stock car, but it will do for now!
You are then presented with the World overview screen. The whole front-end to Grid is very nice and well presented, but the overview in particular catches the eye. Showing the 3 regions, your overview is displayed as shiny glass shelves, each housing the 9 class choices that make up each regions licensed events.
You can compete in any event for which you have an eligable car - and also enter an event as often as you like. Luckily, this isnt as dull as it sounds, as the events are randomised - i.e. enter an Open Wheel 2 race event and one time you may be racing Istanbul and Milan, the next, Jarama and Spa, so its always interesting and a challenge.
The number of cars present in an event varies from 12-20 cars on track. The single seaters for example allow the full field of 20 to wizz around the circuits, which is superb to see - barely a frame is dropped, even with 10 cars on screen, smoke, car parts falling off, animated crowds etc. Very impressive I must say, although some tracks still suffer from a big of slow-down, particular the SanFran track which was in the demo (Codemasters have assured a patch is coming soon to address this), but its rarely a problem overall.
As you only have your initial stock car, there is only 1 event in each region you can enter, the other events remaining locked until you have a car of that class in your garage. Cars can be brought either brand new, or 2nd hand from 'Ebay Cars'. The second hand cars are displayed with a driver history - showing who is selling, how many miles are on the clock, races entered, winnings etc. This is designed to help you choose one of the 3 cars put on display.
Whilst a nice idea, the 'Ebay' feature is little more than a gimmick as in reality, the difference in price between new and used cars is so negligable, that it doesnt give you an incentive to risk the used-motor. You may as well pay the £1000 more and get a showroom model... its a shame and hopefully as more and more expensive cars are required, this may change - though as you climb the ladder requiring cars worth millions, are you going to bother with 2nd hand? Its small teams starting out (like you do), that would want bargains in the early days. This feels like a missed opportunity.
Its a minor niggle and as it feels nothing more than a bit of bold advertising for Ebay anyway, then it can largely be ignored.
Once you get the required money to buy other cars, then the game opens further. Jumping between different classes is a real challenge - the difference between the flightly JRC100 Open Wheel and the heavy stock cars for example, is enough to present the need to rapidly change your driving style, even on the same tracks. You will find the change causes plenty of problems, especially in the first few corners of a new race as you adjust the force of your braking foot (or trigger finger!).
Though as I said I wouldnt delve too much into the ins and outs of GRIDS physics model (or 'lack of it' as some say), I will say that once you get adjusted, the model is very fun and at times as demanding as GT5, yet I'd say it lacks some consistancy as other times you can throw cars around like Burnout's crash mode. One example is the braking power of the aformentioned JRC100 single seaters. A reasonably hard press on the brake pedal will bring the car to an almost immediate stop with no wheel locking (assists off), which is a bit off-putting when you are flying down the home straight into a hairpin bend and within a second of braking you are stood still on the track.
Like I say, some adjustment is required and also a mentality to not take the handling model too seriously!
Each race brings its own financial and reputation rewards. Your finances allow the freedom to buy more cars and hence enter more events - whilst reputation will act as your XP points - striving to reach reputation targets unlocks the next level license for that region.
After an undetermined point in your career, the season is declared at an end and you get the chance to race the 24-hour Le Mans race (initially for another team until you can afford the big bucks to buy your own GT racer). This is the 12 minute Le Mans, complete with day/night transition - which is handled superbly and its very eerie to enter the early hours of the morning in the dark of night - losing your bearings of a once fairly simple track layout! You can choose to pass on the Le Mans race though if you want to jump straight into the next season.
At the end of the season, you are shown the season standings. This is also a really nice touch with will add longevity to the game - their are 500 drivers in the leaderboard (some real, most fake) and 250 teams. Your overall task is to gain enough reputation for yourself to top the drivers leaderboard and enough money to top the team leaderboard. The leaderboards also provide in game stats - some loading screens will tell you the top European driver, best team, overall leaders etc and again, in races, your spotter may point out one of the field is a driver you should respect due to their leaderboard placing. These leaderboards are available to view at any time from your menu too.
As you gain driver reputation, more activities become unlocked. The first of which is sponsors. Sponsors will present themselves to you with conditions for payments (again things like, "Finish 1st", "Complete Race" etc). What I liked about the sponsors though is the ability to place their logos (in differing varieties too) on your car. Once you get more and more sponsors, you really begin to personalise your car and make it unique, a nice touch!
Once you unlock the 2nd tier license, you then gain the ability to employ a 2nd driver for your team. 2nd drivers will enter the same races as you and help your team earn more money. You will have to pay your driver a percentage of their winnings though (percentage is based on that drivers ability - the better drivers will demand a higher cut).
And thats about as far as I've got at the moment! I've stuck mainly to Euro style races in my career, with only fleeting visits to the US and Japan, but thats the beauty of the career mode, you can focus on what you like, but still have the choice of variety.
I've also dabbled with the multiplayer modes which are handled very well. Aside from Ranked and Non-Ranked races, you can also set up a Private room and configure your own settings (assists off for all drivers for example).
A nice touch on the multiplayer is the ranking system, similar to COD4. Each race earns you XP points and these are applied to named ranks next to drivers - so eventually you will be able to instantly tell the Lewis Hamiltons from the Driving Miss Daisy's! Each driver online also have a fairly comprehensive stat page applied to them, which is an excellent feature. Clicking on a driver will show their time online, wins etc in both this session and lifetime - and also other stats like disconnects, preferred races/cars etc etc. This makes the online more like an in-depth mode and not just something that is tacked on - kudos to CM for that!
I'm not going to go into too much detail on the handling as its been well documented and anyone who has played the demo will know what to expect. I will say however that every car handles differently - meaning new braking points, turning points etc for all the tracks, meaning each track plays very differently in each class!
I have played a fair bit into the Grid World mode and so far, its superb. You start off freelancing for teams in one off races. Each 'job' carries a salary and also a bonus amount attached to a condition (finish 3rd or above, beat a rival etc) and also a number of reputation points - again, depending on the conditions and skill level and assists you choose to race with. At this stage for me, it was a bit 'seen it, done it', but I plowed on.
At the start of your career, you are granted a basic license for each region - USA, Europe and Japan. This basic license allows you to enter the first tier (i.e. 'Easy' level events) and also allows you to take on the team jobs. The goal in the first part of the World mode is to earn £80,000 by driving for other teams - after reaching that amount, you unlock your own car and can start your own team... this is where the fun begins!
Once you are granted your own team car, you then get to create your team. Initially, this means choosing a name and livery for your car. Whilst not on the scale of Forza's paint system by any means, there are a wealth of skin choices to choose from - and then the option to change the base, primary and secondary colours for that skin. The colour choices are from a large pallette too, so you actually have a lot of freedom to be unique with your livery (which can be changed at any point during the future too).
After finally choosing a racing number (I choose '5' in a homage to my hero Nigel Mansell!) you are ready to race. The car you are granted is a basic stock car, but it will do for now!
You are then presented with the World overview screen. The whole front-end to Grid is very nice and well presented, but the overview in particular catches the eye. Showing the 3 regions, your overview is displayed as shiny glass shelves, each housing the 9 class choices that make up each regions licensed events.
You can compete in any event for which you have an eligable car - and also enter an event as often as you like. Luckily, this isnt as dull as it sounds, as the events are randomised - i.e. enter an Open Wheel 2 race event and one time you may be racing Istanbul and Milan, the next, Jarama and Spa, so its always interesting and a challenge.
The number of cars present in an event varies from 12-20 cars on track. The single seaters for example allow the full field of 20 to wizz around the circuits, which is superb to see - barely a frame is dropped, even with 10 cars on screen, smoke, car parts falling off, animated crowds etc. Very impressive I must say, although some tracks still suffer from a big of slow-down, particular the SanFran track which was in the demo (Codemasters have assured a patch is coming soon to address this), but its rarely a problem overall.
As you only have your initial stock car, there is only 1 event in each region you can enter, the other events remaining locked until you have a car of that class in your garage. Cars can be brought either brand new, or 2nd hand from 'Ebay Cars'. The second hand cars are displayed with a driver history - showing who is selling, how many miles are on the clock, races entered, winnings etc. This is designed to help you choose one of the 3 cars put on display.
Whilst a nice idea, the 'Ebay' feature is little more than a gimmick as in reality, the difference in price between new and used cars is so negligable, that it doesnt give you an incentive to risk the used-motor. You may as well pay the £1000 more and get a showroom model... its a shame and hopefully as more and more expensive cars are required, this may change - though as you climb the ladder requiring cars worth millions, are you going to bother with 2nd hand? Its small teams starting out (like you do), that would want bargains in the early days. This feels like a missed opportunity.
Its a minor niggle and as it feels nothing more than a bit of bold advertising for Ebay anyway, then it can largely be ignored.
Once you get the required money to buy other cars, then the game opens further. Jumping between different classes is a real challenge - the difference between the flightly JRC100 Open Wheel and the heavy stock cars for example, is enough to present the need to rapidly change your driving style, even on the same tracks. You will find the change causes plenty of problems, especially in the first few corners of a new race as you adjust the force of your braking foot (or trigger finger!).
Though as I said I wouldnt delve too much into the ins and outs of GRIDS physics model (or 'lack of it' as some say), I will say that once you get adjusted, the model is very fun and at times as demanding as GT5, yet I'd say it lacks some consistancy as other times you can throw cars around like Burnout's crash mode. One example is the braking power of the aformentioned JRC100 single seaters. A reasonably hard press on the brake pedal will bring the car to an almost immediate stop with no wheel locking (assists off), which is a bit off-putting when you are flying down the home straight into a hairpin bend and within a second of braking you are stood still on the track.
Like I say, some adjustment is required and also a mentality to not take the handling model too seriously!
Each race brings its own financial and reputation rewards. Your finances allow the freedom to buy more cars and hence enter more events - whilst reputation will act as your XP points - striving to reach reputation targets unlocks the next level license for that region.
After an undetermined point in your career, the season is declared at an end and you get the chance to race the 24-hour Le Mans race (initially for another team until you can afford the big bucks to buy your own GT racer). This is the 12 minute Le Mans, complete with day/night transition - which is handled superbly and its very eerie to enter the early hours of the morning in the dark of night - losing your bearings of a once fairly simple track layout! You can choose to pass on the Le Mans race though if you want to jump straight into the next season.
At the end of the season, you are shown the season standings. This is also a really nice touch with will add longevity to the game - their are 500 drivers in the leaderboard (some real, most fake) and 250 teams. Your overall task is to gain enough reputation for yourself to top the drivers leaderboard and enough money to top the team leaderboard. The leaderboards also provide in game stats - some loading screens will tell you the top European driver, best team, overall leaders etc and again, in races, your spotter may point out one of the field is a driver you should respect due to their leaderboard placing. These leaderboards are available to view at any time from your menu too.
As you gain driver reputation, more activities become unlocked. The first of which is sponsors. Sponsors will present themselves to you with conditions for payments (again things like, "Finish 1st", "Complete Race" etc). What I liked about the sponsors though is the ability to place their logos (in differing varieties too) on your car. Once you get more and more sponsors, you really begin to personalise your car and make it unique, a nice touch!
Once you unlock the 2nd tier license, you then gain the ability to employ a 2nd driver for your team. 2nd drivers will enter the same races as you and help your team earn more money. You will have to pay your driver a percentage of their winnings though (percentage is based on that drivers ability - the better drivers will demand a higher cut).
And thats about as far as I've got at the moment! I've stuck mainly to Euro style races in my career, with only fleeting visits to the US and Japan, but thats the beauty of the career mode, you can focus on what you like, but still have the choice of variety.
I've also dabbled with the multiplayer modes which are handled very well. Aside from Ranked and Non-Ranked races, you can also set up a Private room and configure your own settings (assists off for all drivers for example).
A nice touch on the multiplayer is the ranking system, similar to COD4. Each race earns you XP points and these are applied to named ranks next to drivers - so eventually you will be able to instantly tell the Lewis Hamiltons from the Driving Miss Daisy's! Each driver online also have a fairly comprehensive stat page applied to them, which is an excellent feature. Clicking on a driver will show their time online, wins etc in both this session and lifetime - and also other stats like disconnects, preferred races/cars etc etc. This makes the online more like an in-depth mode and not just something that is tacked on - kudos to CM for that!
- Thread starter
- #175
DJ Doc45
Banned
- 14 April 2005
Paul, will you be online on this much? if so ill get the PS3 version mate.
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Yea looks like it! I played the demo online solid for the last few weeks and I'm loving the full game (really like the rank system as thats what keeps COD4 interesting online).
Not flame baiting here either, but the 360 version has a major bug at the moment where it locks up - and the fix is to move your XBL profile from the HD to a memory card!?
Sure they'll fix that, but something to consider...
JayD
Premiership
- 27 April 2002
- Arsenal
As for the 'bug' I haven't experienced it once yet, and it's not a lock up rather a pause in the action for a split second, secondly it seems if you use maintenance trick on your hard drive it sorts it out. I'm not flame baiting either just stating my 360 experience has been great on Grid. It really is a great game and the AI needs a mention as they are prone to erros at any time which makes the racing experience truely gripping.
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Ah ok, furry muff - just posting what I heard, I've not got the 360 version! Thanks for clearing that up
- Thread starter
- #179
DJ Doc45
Banned
- 14 April 2005
DJ will get this game.... What to get it on though? If I get it on 360 I get good live play and my Official MS Racing Wheel.... PS3 = DS3 (which I love) and Paul Boreham..... hmmmmm
pboreham
Kick. Snare. Hat. Ride.
Dont base it on my, I only run at 576p, am liable to lag and my online play is unreliable at best. That said, I am good looking and stylish Seriously, if you've got the choice of playing with a wheel, then go for that...