Your thoughts on GRID II

Just got this game...

And it is... ADDICTIVE!

I'm a pure sim guy just so you know, and I don't mind the simplified physics one bit.

Not while the racing is so immersive, and the audio visual appeal of the game just draws you in.. you want to go on and on..

Your thoughts on GRID II, whether you're a simhead or not?
 
There's an 80 page thread about it here : https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/board/grid.312/

I bought GRiD 2 in the steam sale around Christmas and found the wheel support to be less awful than initial reviews mentioned (I.e. Perfectly playable), plus I understand that the community patch added more "weight" to cars and made drifting less compulsory. It's quite a bit of fun in the same manner as DiRT 2/3 now, direct non-floaty steering, unrealistic too fast speeds and brakes, graphically very good on the PC, quite fun really.

My only problem is that Assetto Corsa is so awesome that I can't find time to also play GRiD 2 much :)
 
Never been a big fan or the first one and the second grid isn't any better in my eyes.
 
There's an 80 page thread about it here : https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/board/grid.312/

I bought GRiD 2 in the steam sale around Christmas and found the wheel support to be less awful than initial reviews mentioned (I.e. Perfectly playable), plus I understand that the community patch added more "weight" to cars and made drifting less compulsory. It's quite a bit of fun in the same manner as DiRT 2/3 now, direct non-floaty steering, unrealistic too fast speeds and brakes, graphically very good on the PC, quite fun really.

My only problem is that Assetto Corsa is so awesome that I can't find time to also play GRiD 2 much :)

Err... ah, yes I realized that just minutes later when I stumbled upon that thread!

Well, for a moment if we don't compare GRID II to sims at all (Assetto Corsa included), I think it holds out pretty well on it's own. "Accessible" physics is what I like to call them, much like Dirt 3.

What community patch are you referring to? I have the X360 version, and I think the handling is OK, the braking's fine too. I just wish the camera would dip and rise more with braking/acceleration. Other than that, top-notch fun. The kind where you'd go through the game once, happy with your progress and performance and put it down.

Now Forza this isn't, because that's something you find yourself going back to again and again! :D
 
Never been a big fan or the first one and the second grid isn't any better in my eyes.

I got the first one long time back. Thought it sucked so much, returned it within hours.

Part 2 on the other hand is a pretty decent "racing experience". Feels like Dirt 3 on tarmac - physics, audio and graphics-wise. The game's audio and graphics really shine at times. Puts Horizon to shame! :boggled:
 
I have to say I didn't like it at all. I enjoyed the first game many years back, I played GRID 2 a month or so ago (PS3 version) and I honestly thought it was a big pile of turd. I was playing it with a mate, a few beers on a friday night and we got pretty far into it. Same old **** over and over, same old tracks with the good stuff hidden behind DLC and pre-order bonuses.

Aside from the lack of tracks and the massive cheesyness of the whole storyline thing I didn't like that going faster meant powersliding around every corner, and the cars being so unrealistically fast was just like... oh come on... really...

I get that it's an arcade racer (more so than the first game), but even with that considered I just didn't think it was very good.
 
I got it for free with PSN+ and even that was overpriced. The tracks and environments are fantastic and beyond beautiful but almost everything else (handling, game design, AI, collisions, rubberbanding, "story") is pure, unadulterated crap.
 
Yeah, not a big fan of stories in driving games/sims. Don't know why they're there. I don't believe I'm familiar with the term rubberbanding, although I do come across it every now and then in forums.

As for me, let's see. Waiting to unlock the supercars.. to see if the experience changes. I wish they had worked on the camera movement a little more.

Also, had Codemasters stuck to their sim roots, they might have been far more successful today. Problem is, they felt they had to compete with devs like EA.
 
Yeah, not a big fan of stories in driving games/sims. Don't know why they're there. I don't believe I'm familiar with the term rubberbanding, although I do come across it every now and then in forums.

Rubber banding is when the a.i slow down or speed up to match your speed.
 
Just got this game...

And it is... ADDICTIVE!

I'm a pure sim guy just so you know, and I don't mind the simplified physics one bit.

Not while the racing is so immersive, and the audio visual appeal of the game just draws you in.. you want to go on and on..

Your thoughts on GRID II, whether you're a simhead or not?
Having the same feelings with shift 2 as most of you already know :D, just a fun challenging racing game where you don't mind that it's not on the same physics level as a GT or FM. I did hear grid 2 doesn't have cockpit views is that true? Would be a deal breaker for me sadly.
 
Having the same feelings with shift 2 as most of you already know :D, just a fun challenging racing game where you don't mind that it's not on the same physics level as a GT or FM. I did hear grid 2 doesn't have cockpit views is that true? Would be a deal breaker for me sadly.

Yes, they got rid of the cockpit view for obvious reasons. But the bumper and hood cam are simply brilliant.

Switch to bumper cam (and it truly is a bumper cam - you can practically kiss the tarmac, unlike some driving games/sims *hint*), kill the lights and loose yourself in the sense of speed. The absence of a cockpit view doesn't affect the game one bit.

Besides, how many racing games or sims can you name off the top of your head that do cockpit simulation and animation properly? You just don't have proper steering wheel and gear shift animation and feedback. There is one game though - Ferrari Challenge - that simulates proper wheel animation in the dash view.
 
As I recall, they cut the cockpit view because their metrics said nobody used it in the first Grid. As someone who almost always plays from cockpit view, I never use it in Grid or Dirt 3 because the wacky steering wheel animation is so damn distracting it's unbearable. I guess their data proves I'm not alone.

I don't mind "wrong" animations as long as they effectively communicate what's going on at the front wheels.
 
Exactly my point. A shame why this portion of the sim or driving experience always gets left behind.

"I don't mind "wrong" animations as long as they effectively communicate what's going on at the front wheels."

^^ They usually get them wrong and casually wave it off as a game glitch or not enough processing horsepower where in most cases, it is simply an oversight and/or an acute case of laziness.
 
I love GRID, I hate GRID 2. It started on the wrong foot and simply dove into the tarmac from there. Online is actually a bit better than career mode, but both are like driving nails into the wall with your head for every race. Perhaps I get bad groupings, but I get tired of constantly being surrounded by idiots.
 
Well, what's your take on the career portion on a whole? Are you not satisfied with the racing itself? The cars?

I'd very much like an opinion or two! :)
 
E-brake so far seems the way to go, AI seem rubberband based and hard to beat so either overtake very quickly or let first few cars bunch up to before attempting overtaking manoeuvres. A different kind of fun to say GT but it still can be fun attacking the track hoping the car sticks through the corner. So far barely started game though, will see how I find it later on. I guess faster cars will make online easier and career though. I did a few events online with first car they give in the game, could make up the time in the corners against opponents which helped me take first for few corners in my first online race but was left behind on straights by a big margin.
 
I've understood how the physics work and now stick to precision driving mostly. Here's the thing about Grid 2 - since it is mostly on the arcade side of things, your car will oversteer when you get aggressive with the turn angles and throttle, rather than understeer first. So manage your throttle and downshifts while giving minimum steering input to get through corners.

This approach works best for me as I would take precision driving over drifting any day!

Cheers!
 
As a huge fan of the original GRID I was really anticipating GRID 2 but ultimately I'm disappointed. I'm not sure exactly what it is but I find the game boring, the races aren't as exciting as the original, the cars don't feel as good and I'm not a fan of the career mode "style" at all.

I can't complain though as I got it for free from PS+.
 
Well, what's your take on the career portion on a whole? Are you not satisfied with the racing itself? The cars?

I'd very much like an opinion or two! :)

Give me a bit, gotta go find my review...

Hadn't played in months, had to jog my memory. I'll take things in order.
  1. The physics engine changing from GRID. GRID had a simu-cade combo that, in defiance to tradition, actually worked for it. Drifting would have been better had they just put a big red 'DRIFT' button on the controller, and the fluctuating assist means you can't race the same way twice simply because the game thinks you need more of a challenge. I'll decide when I want more of a challenge, back off.
  2. The cars and tracks don't compliment each other. The cars are either too light or too sluggish, and the handling descriptions don't help here. About the only thing that changes from car to car is tire smoke and how far you have to rotate the things to get them to finally turn. The tracks have a bad tendency to launch the car up, and the fall out from under you, and early on you won't know where these spots are so they cause you to use your flashbacks
  3. Speaking of, the flashbacks are stupid. Before, you could move the replay back and forth at will, finding a place to jump back in that wouldn't cause you to use another one. GRID 2 has them rewind automatically, and you have to either guess when you want to jump in, or get ready for the automatic jump in, wherever it is.
  4. Did you call this a story? It isn't. Oh, it starts off well enough, you listen to an investor wanting to found a World Series of Racing, something I would get behind if it were to be made in real life, but while seeing your name integrated into some of the cut scenes is nice, it's not a story. It's not even a motivating factor once he and your crew chief, though I don't remember their ever being a crew to chief, start grating on your nerves. Good thing here, turning them off won't affect important stuff or the cut scenes.
  5. Rubber-banding. Any game with actual rubber-banding will always get an earful from me, so imagine how I felt when I was racing a guy, both of us in Atoms, and he flips and lands on the roof half-way through, then while still going at full, the same guy comes flying up and rear-ends me and the 3/4 mark not 40 seconds later. I'm still pissed, and that was in September! It starts early, but Season 3 on almost feature it.
  6. Liveroutes on city streets are a good idea, but when the possibility exist that you can come up on a tiered section of roads at full blast, and now you have a hairpin turn to make that you couldn't see before, you learn to loathe them.
  7. The AI is worse in GRID 2. It has no self-preservation, no player acknowledgement, and when the Raptors are out for Overtake events, an event I would rather take a gunshot instead of running it, all of your neighbors will hear you cursing. Oh, the leaders are also perfect.
  8. The Superlights. Firstly the only one I'd actually want to drive in reality is the Caterham/Lola thing, but despite these being in Class 4 stuff like the McMerc 722 Racer, they leave the racers in the dust. The KTM is the worst as it has no rear grip, what I imagine driving on a polished ice rink with slicks feels like.
  9. We want to moan about PD taking 5 years to make GT5, and we do for good reason, but in five years they made GT5 AND GT (PSP), Codemasters did make three DiRT series games in that time, but this doesn't share almost anything with any of them, aside from a couple of Miami layouts in that other crap-tastic game DiRT Showdown.
That about covers it.
 
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GRID1 was an amazing beast. I remember first playing it in 2008 and being disgusted by how it handled, I had dipped my hand into GT5:Prologue(anxiously awaiting the full game) and the change was one I refused to accept. Not because I don’t like Arcade racers, I love arcade racers, but because it was so modestly set between simulation and arcade in the way the game was played I passed it off as a failed attempt and never looked at it for months.

Just as equally, I remember taking it out, having a game hiatus half-way through my PS3 ‘career’ and decided to play again. It was then, I fell in love with GRID. The handling…made sense eventually, the online community drew me in, dreams and memories of TOCA flooded back as I swept a Chevy Lacetti through the turns of Istanbul. It clicked.

Now, fast foward to May 31st 2013. A date I have been eagerly awaiting since the sequel to one of my fondest games was announced in the first place. GRID2 arrived on my door-step. I was ready to get lost in the world of GRID again. The Race had returned.

But it didn’t really.

I turned on GRID2 and was met with something completely different. The one intrinsic confusingly unique handling that made the cars so flamboyant and floaty in GRID1 had been replaced and changed with a more dynamic drift-centric motif, that wanted me to take corners faster than I should, and create more smoke than I should. The game wanted me to dwell into a world of ‘extreme’ motor-racing and leave behind McKane and Ravenwest and it’s racing of old, for the sports-center generation of today. Where at a click of the mouse, Fans from all around the world would watch my clips on Youtube…not tune in to watch me race on sundays. I was distraught, it seemed like GRID…was gone. There was no ‘Race’…just a imitation of the Dirt series that so harshly left Colin McCrae behind. I nearly gave up and simply left it behind. I couldn’t do it though, if not for the fact I had spent £38, but also that I had been waiting so long for the title. Surely there was a game worth playing in there?

In my opinion. I’m correct. GRID2 is a fantastic arcade racer that is exhilarating, yet underwhelming. As I speed through Paris, overtaking my competitors…just seconds later I am bumper first into a wall because I merely touched a piece of traffic on the road. As I admire the scenes of Tokyo at night, I also bemoan the horrible glare of the Dubai sun on the un-aliased buildings that pierce the sky(PS3 version, I understand the PC game is much better looking). Oddly enough, I’m not deterred from GRID2. I’m playing the hell out of it, for every bad thing, I can find 2 positives, and because there are a lot of negatives, there’s also a lot of positives. The soundtrack is as OTT as ever and the car selection is pretty damn good and well balanced. As is the track selection for the most part, albeit pretty random, the tracks here are great fun to race on and provide nailbiting situations in the Tier 4 beasts or accuracy battles in the Tier 1 hatches. I find myself constantly going back to GRID2, to learn the new handling, to hit that corner perfect, to earn more fans…to leave behind Ravenwest and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

There’s not much in common between GRID1 and GRID2 and it’s not something you gradually notice. It’s something you see from the title screen at very beginning, when you are greeted by: #grid2

GRID2 is a bewildering beast. It’s one which will immediately disgust and put off a lot of people, purely because of it’s radical change in direction but if you stick it out and leave behind the GRID of old, there is a great racer hidden underneath, one that will twist and pull at your opinions to judge it. I couldn’t review GRID2 because - because it’s easily the most subjective title I’ve had the pleasure of playing.

Now, time to earn some more fans and get crashed out at every bloody corner.

If you wanted an opinion @Speedster911, I actually wrote a small piece on it showing mines. :D
 
Hey, those are very insightful reviews and stories! Enjoyed going through them. :)

Well then, it's a good thing I haven't experienced the original GRID.

On a related note though, I wanted to break away from FM4, so I popped in FM3. I can't tell you how happy I was to see the lively tracks again. Everything is FM3 is just so much more colorful and lively. I think you get the idea. And the engine sounds are practically as good. Only gripe - I race stock or race cars only as modded/tuned cars don't have that engine exhaust note change after making upgrades.. sucks!

Almost forgot how brilliant a title FM3 was! :D
 
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