GRID 2

[Oreo]

Who's playing ?

I wasn't a massive fan out the original GRID but I've been following the development of the 2nd one so was pretty excited once I could finally play it. It was worth the wait, in my opinion.

All I was concerned about were handling and graphics, rest is a bonus to me. And those are the two best aspects. I absolutely understand there half arcade half sim analogy. You can tell there is a great physics engine running beneath it all, you can feel every bump in the road, and the cars handle as you would expect that kind of car to expect. It's not true sim level difficulty, but it's not super easy arcade either.

I was pretty aprehensive about the drift heavy focus of the game, but surprisingly I really enjoy it. It takes a bit of skill to do and feels natural. The cars all handle as I would expect. The graphics are awesome, the tracks have been very lovingly created indeed.. and those smoke effects ? top notch.

9/10 from me. I'm running it through a US VPN at the moment as it's not released in the EU yet, so I havn't been able to try MP out. It would work in theory but my ping would be way too high, so I look forward to trying that out once it's released over here.

 

[PP Mguire]

I find it to be a terrible rehash. I played the **** out of the first one, and even though they slightly improved the graphics aspect I think they killed what they had going for them after the first. The cars act too spontaneous. And I hate how on any difficulty your opponents get a jump on you. Normally, the same exact car standard or automatic in a game will accelerate at the same speed. Instead, at the line everybody pulls away no matter what you do. Sadly, I may just drop this game and try playing Last Light on low.

 

[Oreo]

They don't get a jump on you if you're in a 4WD drive car. I don't mind anyway, It's easy to catch up in 100 to 200 meters.

I'm not sure what you mean by spontaneous. They all handle really differently. Some cars are big, heavy, lumbering and chuck their tale out every turn. Some are very grippy and extremely sharp.

 

[PP Mguire]

The classics are always predictable in any game, especially the Mustang in the first GRID. In this game, you can do the slightest thing and it'll toss you (not literally). Reviews are saying the same thing. The cars and handling is just too spontaneous, more so on some than others.

On the other hand, I have other slight nitpicks with the game. Mainly, just being a rehash with some different SP characteristics and messing with the handling some more. I haven't touched MP yet, but from what I'm reading it's widely different. I was hoping for a much more updated graphics experience, or at least some different weather patterns for this fictional racing.

Another gripe of mine which is shared by reviews is that the difficulty is just as spontaneous as the handling. The useless classes and car performance measure system doesn't help either.

 

[Oreo]

Hmm...

I dunno. Seems fine for me - my most driven car is the Ford Mustang Mach 1 and it feels exactly like i'd imagine, big and heavy and likes to kick its ass out on quick corners. Subaru BRZ is really tail happy like IRL. 4WD Golf R can not drift to save it's life and understeers if you go too fast. The only cars whos performance I have thought is bad so far is the Alpha 4C - it's very responsive and grippy but if you do push it to hard and drift it, it's very difficult to pull it back.

You do have to be pretty quick and accurate to catch a drift, but that's fairly realistic, and it's nothing like as hard to drift as it is in real sims. It took me a couple hours to get used to the handling but now I can do nice long drifts closely clipping the Apex 9/10 times.

The game is a bit too easy as well. I play racing games quite a lot but I am by no means the best driver, I don't get a podium result too often in most race sims online like rFactor 2. But anyway, I am playing on hard and have won every race by a 5 second margin so far.

 

[PP Mguire]

The only car I've come across so far that I've been fine with is the Golf actually, and yes I feel it's too easy.

The game seriously lacks.

 

[Oreo]

I don't think it lacks, we just prefer different styles of racing game. I really like it. When I get home tonight I will undoubtedly spend another 4 or 5 hours on it.

We had the same discussion over Project CARS. I used to hate the handling model in that while you liked it. Although funnily enough, I find that much improved lately (especially damper physics) and quite enjoy the handling model.

 

[PP Mguire]

It's not a case of preferring different styles of racing because I fully enjoyed the first GRID, I fully enjoy Shift (**** Shift 2), I fully enjoy PCARS, I fully enjoy Forza, and fully enjoy playing one of my favorite racing games Sports Car GT. All very different games, all different graphics, all vastly different handling styles vs arcade/sim. The game just lacks. I had fun playing GRID, GRID 2 is just a bore. I normally don't agree with mass reviews but this time I do 100%.

Yea, I told you it would change. The game was supposed to be released earlier this year and it's still in alpha state. They are taking their time developing it which means there are a lot of changes to be made yet.

Edit: I think a retarded thing they did was require a specific CPU instruction set for certain visual add ons. Like seriously, who the hell does that :|
I will give them one thing though. The sound is pretty good.

 

[Oreo]

Well obviously it would change it's still alpha

Its funny. Look at metacritic user reviews and people either love the physics like me or hate it like you. Read User Reviews and Submit your own for GRID 2 on PC - Metacritic

All the haters say it's all about drifting, which is true. But they also say you can't brake hard without spinning out or crashing :s this confuses me. If I brake hard without steering I stay in a straight line and come to a stop, no matter what car I am in. I really have no issues with controlling the vehicles, the only time I spin out is the same as any other race sim, and thats applying to much gas when coming out of corners, or too much speed into them.

 

[PP Mguire]

5.9 out of 10 says something, but that site is a joke even though what I'm looking at is pretty much in agreeal of me.

It is about drifting, which is outright stupid. I don't have that problem with braking, but what I do have a problem with is the crash system, and the fact that if an AI touches you you're pretty much wall bound but if you purposely hit their rear quarter they have super glue for tires. It's ridiculous. Their rear end doesn't even swing out or anything.

My major complaints with this game is the fact that it's worse than the first, only a slight graphical touch up with no major improvements, fans as currency which is retarded, an underground feel of a campaign while trying to make you out to be a world class driver, stupid crash handling, come on as a sim (in game) but requires drifting to get more speed, AI is stupid, and the sponsor system is all messed up compared to the last one.