Gaming Review: GRID Autosport

OK it’s not a proper racing sim, more of a simulation meets arcade kind of thing and slightly poor graphics aside it isn`t half bad.

With improvements to the handling and plenty of car and track choices, Codemasters have really pushed the boat out on this one, and you get everything you would expect from the company that brought us such classics as TOCA, Dirt and Colin McCrae Rally.

GRID Autosport is the usual Codemasters game, with the incessant talking and endless menu`s but when you eventually get to the racing it is a full on experience.

Let’s face it if you are a Driving/racing sim fan you will know what you are in for, this isn`t for the purists amongst us, GRID Autosport is just a basic one up from an arcade type of game it hasn`t the complexity of say Forza or F1 but I don`t think it even pretends to be.

Gameplay is good you can set your car up (just like DIRT) and the racing is fast and furious and with a number of driver aids available you can at least finish on the podium fairly early on.

Take off the aids and this becomes a whole new ball game, GRID Autosport then becomes a real challenge, your opponents are aggressive and have no qualms about crashing into you at any opportunity, which gives the game some sense of urgency.

You can of course cause plenty of damage to both your opponents and your own car so unless you turn this function off, you will find driving a bit difficult after a while.

The force feedback on GRID Autosport isn`t great I found the wheel vibrated way too much and even though this can be adjusted it just never felt right, I eventually turned it off which did lessen my experience.

Frame rate froze on me quiet regularly which is off putting and the graphics (especially the cockpit view) I found to be poor and could have been better, even though it does redeem itself with some nice night driving.

Progression is divided across five different categories,touring,endurance,open wheel,tuner and street and if you want to compete in the GRID Grand Slam you will have to complete all these.

These categories are varied apart from street which seems to be a repeat of the GRID 2 street section, Open wheel is a simplified version of F1, endurance is what it says it is, tuner is just a sort of time trial the best one in my opinion is the touring.

GRID Autosport is like other Codemasters games when it comes down too it the better you perform the more offers you will receive from teams.

The flashback option via the Y button makes a return but I personally never used it because I didn`t really see the point.

One of the most frustrating parts of GRID Autosport is the lack of pit stops, why have punctures during a race when you can`t even stop and change the wheel? instead you are left driving around in last place with a car that can`t drive properly.

Multiplayer is good with plenty of things to do and some nice touches especially the ability to build your own collection of cars.

On-line is not too bad neither as well with up to 12 players, and this can get pretty hairy as there are plenty of serious drivers out there.

Summary

GRID Autosport is just a racing/driving sim that doesn`t push the boundaries of realism, if you are a fan of games like Ridge Racer or DIRT then this is for you, it’s fun and apart from a few glitches and some bad design choices( the cabin view is a joke) it does the job.

GRID Autosport is fun to play, especially the multiplayer and basically makes up for the disaster that was GRID 2

If you’re a fan of Codemasters games then you won`t be disappointed with this game.

GRID Autosport

Developers: codemasters

Publishers: codemasters

Xbox 360

Playsation 3

Genre: Racing

Release date: 27th June 2014

Gameplay: 4/5

Graphics: 3/5

Overall: 3.5/5