I can say my opinion loud and proud now: GRID is the (second) most iconic racing game by Codemasters (at least for now). I want to say this without brackets and explanations, but I should keep in mind CMR 2.0, which is also well-known and great in its genre.
For some reasons PC market of racing games is not the same as console: we always have a deficit of good games, and GRID was like a saviour back in the day. It wasn't about very precise simulations. It wasn't about streetracing or anything illegal. It was about the world of autosport. Like, in general. Some things were cleaned to make everything simple - tournaments have only a few races, three career routes represent everything notable from USA, Europe and Japan. List of cars and tracks isn't large, but it has something for everybody: Le Mans, Tōge, touring, supercars-on-the-streets, dorifto, destruction derby, etc, etc. You jump from one discipline to another like in TOCA and can skip something if you really don't like it. There's also a team management - a cosmetic, but intriguing feature. Buy cars, make your livery, find a good teammate (after a few mediocre ones I found a guy who had really great characteristics and actually was good. I know it's a small thing, but if you have a free time, you can spend it on finding a good driver who can do everything.
About races: they're perfect. I'm serious again. This is a rare kind of game where AI is humanized - drivers can make mistakes, are moderately aggressive and don't overuse one trajectory. If you feel confindent enough, you raise the difficulty level again. You'll probably retry some races with it - it's just entertaining. It was even more entertaining back in the 2008, but, well, that's life. GRID wasn't the first game that have "flashbacks" - a rewind time feature, but Codemasters managed to make it one of their trademarks. It's neat but works dual to your emotions and adrenaline - sometimes it's a pure anti-frustration thing, but other time you'll find yourself doing reckless overtakes just because you have second chance. Not like it's bad, but sometimes you'll just need to be more serious - in multiplayer, for example. I spend many hours in it and it's awesome too. Some people turn every race into destruction derby, but you can't blame developers for that.
To be honest, TOCA 3 gives you a better view on autosport, but GRID is more spectacular. Apples and oranges. To make this game even more attractive Codemasters used their EGO engine, technology that worked good in DiRT, but fully revealed here. Add appropriate music (very good composed soundtrack) - and that's all. Not everything is perfect and overall it's a little more arcade than you wanted to, but gameplay and emotions make every minute of this game worthwile.
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4.5-5 stars.
Current rating (3.52) is a travesty.
