Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]

[wreckedcarzz]

(Sorry about the full size images, but ImageShack wasn't linking correctly for some reason so I had like 2 little images and 2 big ones... so best be consistent)

EDIT: The right side of the images got cut off on my screen, higher resolutions might not have this problem (I'm @ 1280x1024). Sorry. Stupid imageshack. You can use the scroll bar at the very bottom of this post to see the right side of the pictures.

Alright, this one takes the cake. If you like racing games at all you have to try GRID. It is the main rival game to Gran Turismo 5, and I am EXTREMELY impressed at the entire game.

Pros:

• No crashes, glitches, or problems at all.
• No lag, consistent framerate
• Auto-tunes options to your PC
• Great Sound Blaster X-Fi support
• Good array of game modes
• Nice selection of cars
• Detailed maps and cars, to the point of "whoa"
• Fast loading
• Great replay system, easy controls, smooth movement
• "Flashbacks" enable quick replaying of a part of a race (ex: I am leading a race, and hit a wall and total out: one key, I use the replay controls to select my flashback location, and another keypress and I am back in business)
• Smart, quality AI
• Damage is just incredible, and parts come off of all cars (yours and opponents)
• Menus are logical and fast
• Multiplayer is kick*** - I mean it, it is flatout ... kick*** (LAN and Online, private and non private, ranked and non ranked, and every track and car you can touch is at your fingertips)
• Awesome cutscenes
• Cool AI speech, even says your name*! ("Hello Brandon, your car is all ready to go" is just freaking insanely cool)
• Alt-tabbing in and out is seamless
• No lag going into or out of pause menu
• Automatic driving (AI controlled) when chatting or in pause menu online
• Full XFire support
• No in-game "garbage" cleanup - if a car loses a bumper, it stays there. Pile of tires in the road? Stays there. Everything stays put and physics are enabled for every little thing (I have hit lots of bumpers... lots of sparks come out).
• Nice, normal AI speech. No robot babble. Actually sounds like normal people (I believe that it is generated on the fly, but I could be wrong. Who cares, it is nice to hear a human being in a game for once).

Cons:

• 10.1GB installed
• Some races are overly difficult (even in Basic difficulty (my favorite))
• Some complain keyboard control is too sensitive (I feel it is awesome, but that is an opinion)
• $50 pricetag
• Lengthy install (you drool over the preview pictures and time seems to crawl)
• High system requirements may leave people out (only 2 out of 7 computers in my house can run it)

Overall:
Amazing game. I am in love with it. Kills Trackmania, Project Torque, Racer and even Stunts with its physics and just pure sense of awe. I hit 258 MPH on LeMans. Who else has done that? Plus, the menus have the "urban" feel that Need for Speed Most Wanted had, and teens (myself) LOVE that. I don't suppose that applies to most here but it adds a plus for those who are into that.

Personal screenshots:

Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]

Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]

Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]

Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]

[CWuestefeld]

That looks very cool. I've been playing Forza on my (old) XBox, which is an excellent simulation. This has the looks, at least.

But... how about a link to it? With such a generic name, I didn't bother searching.

[Shades]

I truly loved NFS: Most Wanted, a very good racer with good level of difficulty and being a graphical treat on my Radeon 9800 XT.   

Guess my P4, 3GHz and 1GByte RAM will not be sufficient for this Race Driver: Grid...

[cthorpe]

http://www.codemasters.com/grid/

[wreckedcarzz]

cthorpe beat me to it - and actually, you may be able to run GRID, Shades... your graphics card is a bit below the requirements if I remember correctly, but you could give the demo a run. I have fallen below System Requirements several times before on games and have had no problems.

Also, an image of my totally insane Drift Battle score (I think it is called Drift Battle - it is a hybrid of racing and drifting, whoever has the most drift points wins, but your drift points are multiplied more as you lead the pack) - it is notable that the second best racer, my Teammate, had a mere 32,000 points or something in this race, to give you an idea of how crazy this score is (I also placed first and was passed 2x, but quickly re-overtook my opponents):

Race Driver: GRID [LARGE IMAGES]

[Shades]

I would love to download the demo...however I am trying now for two weeks already to download the installer from Project Torque and can tell you that it is becomes rather hopeless to see that after three days(!) of downloading it just stops for no apparent reason (yes, internet is that slow for 50 us dollars monthly over here).

Having tried multiple download managers (NetTransport 1.87, DownThemAll! and GetRight) and different file hosters did not help one bit either.

The same happened with TrackMania Forever as well.

So you see there is a serious "cold turkey" effect going on here regarding racing games.

[Deozaan]

Shades: Have you tried a bitTorrent?

[Shades]

Shades: Have you tried a bitTorrent?

-Deozaan (August 03, 2008, 09:59 PM)

You have heard about the issue between the FCC and Comcast (about "traffic shaping")?

Here in Paraguay there is no such body as the FCC because the one and only telecom company (Copaco) is owned by the state. That company controls the internet backbone to this country.

From very reliable sources I heard that bittorent and any other p2p traffic is practically "shaped" out of existence. They use the fiber for VOIP lines to the outside world because that is more profitable.

There are several GSM carriers here that offer internet through their own lines but they have ridiculously low download limits (2Gbyte for 40 USD monthly). Unfortunately I don't know anyone with cable internet from the one and only cable company MultiCanal, so I can't say anything about their rules of engagement.

HTTP and FTP traffic is reasonably fast and is not capped by (my) provider Copaco.

[Deozaan]

Tell me the demos you want and the max file size and I can make a split archive for you (with WinRAR) and put it somewhere you can download it in small doable chunks.

EDIT: By the way, this sounds like a great idea for a webservice! Give it a link for a large file, it automatically downloads, splits into chunks, then hosts the files while you download them!

[wreckedcarzz]

BUMP!

FYI, I have all my game images available @ http://picasaweb.google.com/wreckedcarzz - just click the album of the game (in this case, "GRID Images") to see all my screenshots.

(By "all my screenshots", I mean every last one - I upload them on a weekly basis and delete them from my computer afterwards. If it isn't there, you can be 100% sure I don't have it).