In fact, the narrator will even spout lines more suitable to a completely different event, such as telling you to get ahead of the pack when you’re the only one in a time trial race. In the next race as I drove my vehicle like a bumper car against guard rails, he was mysteriously silent until he spouted a generic line about getting ahead of the pack early. In one race, he told me more than three times that my front wheel was damaged and thus I would have performance issues, even as I crossed the finish line in first. The biggest issue with this new narrator is that he is implemented sloppily - he’s inconsistent and unhelpful throughout. Your narrator relishes in taking credit for your wins, talks creepily about how he can’t wait to get into your new car, and admonishes you for a ‘mistake’ even when it has actually helped you out in your race. Instead of having the game narrated by managers who give constructive criticism and generally have a positive vibe, you’re left with a middle manager of your promoter, the mysterious Patrick Callahan, who might as well be the Illusive Man for all of his underling’s dickishness.

The first thing one has to understand about this game is that it follows more closely in the footsteps of Dirt 3 - or even the series spin-off Dirt Showdown - with all pomp and circumstance, and then notches up the douchiness just a bit more to really get on any gamer’s nerves. Ignoring the glaring issue of a complete lack of cockpit view for the time being, there are many other smaller problems with Grid 2 that surmount to something that falls way short of what the first game even aspired to be. Unfortunately, beyond these surface details, the actual game suffers deeply from sequel-itis. On the surface, Grid 2 is still a beautiful race for the finish line with hot cars and plenty of thrilling matches against aggressive AI opponents that will give as good as they take. Unfortunately, the cries for a true champion seem to have gotten loss in the noise for a quick and dirty ‘sequel’ that barely gives a nod to its predecessor. Races were fantastic and exciting, but you needed some real skill to truly progress through the game’s lengthy main campaign.įast forward to present day, and Codemasters has finally heard the clamor of fans like myself and responded with a sequel to its shining star.

Back when it was released in 2008, I spent literally hundreds of hours with the game trying to rack up cars, medals, sponsors, and good teammates.įrom its excellent utilization of a very real cockpit view to the smart implementation of teammates that you could choose to hire or fire, the game took on sim racing with a slightly more arcade approach. Codemasters’ original Race Driver: Grid was - and still is - a pinnacle of automobile racing games.

Grid 2 car list