GAMEPLAY RACE DRIVER GRID UPDATE

There's also a range of challenges and race types to keep you entertained. But GRID proves that it's far from lazy with some fantastically diverse tracks in each region – from the neon split-street racing of Shibuya to the rolling hills of Ireland, the scenery and track variation are exceptional. A more cynical developer would have given us pretty much the same old grey roads only with a few bits of trackside scenery to distinguish them. Of course, this would be a bit of a Jenson Button if good control and handling were all it could offer, but when you consider the multiplayer options, a massive Career mode and the ability to create your own tracks in an editing suite, then Race Driver: GRID really delivers a world championship winning package.Ĭareer mode takes you to three regions: Europe, USA and Japan. Add to this the superbly conveyed skittishness of wet tyres during a downpour at Donington and you have a racing title that delivers bountifully on three counts: precision, control and subtlety. And sorry if we bang on about this but no other racing game on DS comes even close to GRID in terms of communicating the grip, road holding, speed and steering of vehicles as diverse as a Pagani Zonda and a Toyota Supra. It asks that you drive skilfully but doesn't strip the fun away by punishing every tiny mistake.īut that's not all: the nuance of handling between each vehicle is incredible given the technology that underpins it. But don't be put off by thinking this is some kind of hardcore Driving Standards Agency simulation as Race Driver: GRID achieves a beautiful balance between sim and pedal to the metal arcade racer. Mangle your entry into corners in this game and you will be severely punished – while it won't end in disaster, it can be galling to see your rivals fly past because they've taken a smoother racing line. But Race Driver: GRID demands that you respect the general laws of racing, including the skill of braking smoothly into a turn, then allowing momentum take over as you steadily increase the throttle out of the apex. Indeed, you can always tell when a racing game developer has taken shortcuts in terms of handling: you can cheat outrageously when it comes to cornering.

Yet there's so much wily subtlety and precision to the handling model that you often forget that you're playing on a humble DS.

GAMEPLAY RACE DRIVER GRID UPDATE

Pitched somewhere between simulation and arcade racer, this update of last year's excellent Race Driver: Create & Race is a tour de force on hardware that simply struggles to do fast frame rates and swish 3D graphics. While the track editing suite is the games crowning glory (and more on that later) we will deal with the racing side of things first, as that's the engine that powers everything else. Many times before the DS has shown that racing simulations are not its strong point, so it's credit to the developer that it's produced something so extraordinarily robust and clever. Developing Race Driver: GRID on DS is the equivalent of tobogganing on a tea tray or playing a Mozart violin concerto on an old saw: audacious but not impossible.

Gameplay race driver grid