GRID

Now I am not a big racing game fan but the hubby is and this is his new toy. We recently watched Speed Racer at the movies and this has gotten him back in the kick of wanting to play these types of games. Gary (hubby's name) used to play alot of the old school games like Wipeout and moved on to PC based games like Need For Speed, but hasn't played a racing game in a long time. And then GRID came out. He first noticed it from a YouTube video that he found here which is actually quite entertaining. It compares GRID with GT5.
Well back to the game. It looks beautiful. The graphics are well done and clean for the most part. The AI is pretty good too. Instead of the noraml static figures that make up the spectator crowd these guys will actually have reactions to what is happening For instance, when you run into the wall the specatators behind the wall will actually turn away and try to shield themselves from the collision. Pretty cool.
You have a pit crew that will talk to you during the race to let you know what is happening. They give you info like who the leader is, how far away from him you are, how close you are to at least making a podium stand, how badly you have damaged your car during wrecks and collisions, etc.
One of the bad things that Gary is having trouble with though is the controls. they seem to be quite touchy. We are unsure at this time if it is the game or just the controller he has but he is unable to control his speed. It seems to be go or no go with the gas pedal. The realistic yet annoying thing with the controls is that as you damage your car it will translate into how well your car handles. If you bend that wheel axle at all while driving then you will have a hell of time trying to finish the race and place.
GRID does have a pretty good physics engine though. Gary at one point when playing around with the game was doing donuts on the sandy part of the track and kicked a regular dust storm! Fun times. Also part of the physics engine would be the damage caused by crashes and collisions. There is no bouncing off and getting back into the game. Crashes and collisions cause real damage to your car, the track around you and the other cars that you are racing against. It makes the replay of the race look like you are almost watching the real thing.
Overall it is a real nice game. Like previous racing games you get a garage with cars to choose from for each race. With placing on the podium at each race that you participate in you earn access to upgrades to your vehicles. You will not find cutesy cars here either. These are real muscle machine type cars that have serious racing in mind. Gary is enjoying it and a happy husband makes me happy too! :)