Ok, I wasn't aware that this also was availible for the PC, so I downloaded the demo and tried it at home (with my 360 gamepad).

I also discovered that you could switch off all braking, steering and traction aids in the demo, so with that fixed, I set off...

...and what a bloody crock!

It doesn't feel at all the same like I remebered playing it for the first time on the PS3. The slides are bloody canned, and unless you go off into the grass, dirt or push too much gas, there's no way to skid off!

This is really odd. Why did it feel so much different on a PS3 than on my PC? (I have the new 8800GTS and a Core 2 Duo, so I get silky smooth graphics, so I mean, it looks the same...)

I'm rather confused now.

Quote from eobet :

<snip>
If so, I suspect you are too young to remember the first NFS game, which actually was a really good sim.
<snip>

You must still be living in 1996. For its day it wasn't bad but try it today and the nostalgia wears off really fast.

The only NFS release even remotely deserving of the term "semi-sim" was Porsche Unleashed. None of them were sims.

Quote from eobet :

I'm sorry to say that I didn't understand a word of that.

Are you a native English speaker?

If so, I suspect you are too young to remember the first NFS game, which actually was a really good sim. The rest of the NFS games bears no resemblance to either the original or GRID.

Well, as you can see from my flag I´m not native english speaker.
And when it comes to NFS it havent ever been a good "sim". Just a stupid arcade GAME that u can drive with 4 fingers.. oh sorry, 3
Of course I remember the NFS hot pursuit and wth there was. That was back in the last century, when I was a little kid and even NFS felt awesome. U were about 20yrs old and still think it was good sim..
Well, some people like those games, I can´t blame you for that.
Doesn´t work for me at all, rather not playing at all.

Quote from Technique :

Scawen should add the "go back in time" feature to LFS. Imagine... a grid of 30 drivers.. everyone manages to safely get through T1 and then some jerk forces everyone to goes back in time 4 seconds causing major carnage... that sounds like a fun feature to piss everyone off...

That was in SCAR. I guess it's quite a cool novelty in that. What's wrong with having total novelties if you can't be arsed to try for actual realism.

Quote from tonyonparas :

Of course I remember the NFS hot pursuit and wth there was.

No, no, no... Hot Pursuit was NFS 4 or 3, I think.

To really experience the best original NFS, you'd have to play it on the 3DO or the original Playstation, as both those versions were better (more features) than the PC version.

As I said, no other NFS game even resembles the original one.

But anyway, this thread is about GRID, and I've already conceeded that the PC version handles terribly, with a very canned feeling to it. I'm going to try to test drive the PS3 demo more to see if it really is that much different after all.

Quote from Victor :

As I'm sure you are well aware, we don't tolerate crack users on this forum. The common conclusion you can draw from that is that promoting other cracks will also not be tolerated.
So ... don't.

Hm thought crack users lived in crappy crack houses mostly in the black neighbourhoods in the US.
Guess you learn something new every day, they are also on the LFS forum.

Tried the demo... horrible.

I tried it and wow the graphics are good, but the physics are the worst I've ever seen. If you put all the aids on you can drive almost all out around the track, also the car never looks to slow down. Then when you turn the car it is as if the car is drifting, not to mention the world's worst oversteer.

Ok, so I caved and bought it, and sadly, when you race on recognizeable tracks (like Le Mans) the flaws shine through:

1. The cars are NOT being pushed by their engines. Rather, they are being pulled by invisible strings which try to "help" you even though all aids are turned off. Really weird and terribly annoying. They try to hide this in the replays by constantly having "action" shots and shaky cam instead of revealing angles like a heli cam.

2. The AI behaves like stupid movie villians, so the Die Hard analogy is still really fitting. They do extravagant moves which they don't seem to loose any time for, they brake at illogical places and they have very questionable corner exit speeds at times.

3. Corner exit speeds count for nothing in the game, only constant speed does.

So, I must admit that I was completely fooled by the visuals, sound and the immersion both together brought. I mean, the bloody steering wheel is amazingly bump mapped, the dirt of the windshield changes transparency depending on how the sun hits it, and the cockpit rocks back and forth really convincingly... I could go on and on about the details. The game also uses extremely clever fade-in of detail, so there is no pop, which fools you to believe that you have high quality graphics all the way to the distance. The game also uses a lot of bloom and anti-aliasing, which actually lowers the resolution a bit, but damn it adds a nice movie like quality to everything. The graphics doesn't feel like a PC game at all (especially since I get rock solid framerate with full detail and anti-aliasing... new PC games usually require one to buy a new PC). And the sound is also incredible, with the best tyre noises I've heard so far in a game.

But when you enter career mode, the game is full of wasted opportunities. You earn money, but you don't have to pay for damage to your car. Damage doesn't transfer between races, or causes you to miss a race. You can't permanently destroy one of your cars and you can't even tune them. There are "seasons", but you can't keep track of any times, the game just suddenly "ends" and sends you to the next level.

I've so far not used the pits even once, despite completing a 24 hour race of Le Mans (which lasted 3 laps, 24 minutes... nobody even lapped anyone).

The game is still fun when driving a V8 on a street course, because those cars have a really nice weight feeling to them, and the game helps you a lot with the 90 degree turns (canned powerslides), but for serious racing, the game just gets in the way of itself with all the puppeteering it does.

O RLY?

Codemasters made ONE decent car game: 1nsane. No one should be surprised when they make crap. It's what they do best.

Quote from Forbin :

O RLY?

Codemasters made ONE decent car game: 1nsane. No one should be surprised when they make crap. It's what they do best.

It was not Codemasters who made Insane decent, they just published it, Invictus made the game decent. I hope they'll make a game just as good as Insane in the near future.

Well, I tried the demo. After 10ish second, I realized that GRID is the worst game ever made. Not just the worst racing game. I would rather play Super 3d Noah's Ark. It's like wolfenstein, but instead of nazi's you fight goats.

ps i must play lfs for 10 straight hours to cleanse my soul

Quote from Forbin :

O RLY?

Codemasters made ONE decent car game: 1nsane. No one should be surprised when they make crap. It's what they do best.

wasn't 1nsane made by JowooD, the one who made rally trophy.

Quote from _--NZ--_[HUN] :

It was not Codemasters who made Insane decent, they just published it, Invictus made the game decent. I hope they'll make a game just as good as Insane in the near future.

I stand corrected. Codemasters has made ZERO even half-way decent games.

Well... they made Dizzy.

PS. I've come to loathe the Le Mans races now which pops up from time to time in the game. It's so bloody boring! The game completely disregards corner exits, consistent racing and pit stops. It's just pedal to the metal, bloody ****ing insane cornering at every bend, drunk bloody AI and ****ing ketchup effect all over the bloody place. So ****ing tedious!

I was hoping the full game would have some good stuff. Hows the destruction derby?

Quote from Electrik Kar :

I was hoping the full game would have some good stuff. Hows the destruction derby?

Oh, man... if that racing mode exists, that would rock! The game seems to be really made for that, what with all the beautiful collisions.

But I've stopped playing now. I need to cool off a bit before I tear my hair out. The constant bloody Le Mans stages are pissing me off so much because of the invisible strings always pulling at the car, and the ridiculusly ignorant bloody disregard for the importance of corner exit speeds.

Why, oh why did they include the Le Mans track in a game that has zero strategy in it, but rather is only made for quick adrenaline rushes?

I tried the 360 demo again yesterday, blame their extensive marketing for once And to be honest I get more fun out Prostreet now they've fixed most the bits I didn't like. GRID just feels empty, like your pulling strings on a puppet. It would be more belivable if they took the wheels off the models, stuck some futuristic 2039-esque neons under the car and said they were hovercrafts. Even the replays are done in such a way that lame driving and half assed attempts look snazzy, much prefer the replay style of Gran Turismo.

I never thought I'd be able to say it, but even Prostreet got the physics better - you feel connected to the car for an arcade game, you have to pay for car damage, you can fiddle with some settings that actually affect how it drives, there's a use for the money you earn etc.

No doubt GRID will sell well though, all the local gaming shops are plastered with posters for it, and it has telly adverts.

I just bought Mass Effect for PC which is an action-rpg and realised that game has better driving physics even though you only need to occasionally drive one car around planet surfaces.

Quote from eobet :

No, no, no... Hot Pursuit was NFS 4 or 3, I think.

To really experience the best original NFS, you'd have to play it on the 3DO or the original Playstation, as both those versions were better (more features) than the PC version.

As I said, no other NFS game even resembles the original one.

But anyway, this thread is about GRID, and I've already conceeded that the PC version handles terribly, with a very canned feeling to it. I'm going to try to test drive the PS3 demo more to see if it really is that much different after all.

More features than these?

Hot Pursuit was the 3rd

Well,about grid... I still have to try it

Quote from Crommi :

I just bought Mass Effect for PC which is an action-rpg and realised that game has better driving physics even though you only need to occasionally drive one car around planet surfaces.

:ices_rofl

I've been playing Mass Effect too and if the physics truly are worse in GRID, that's really saying something!

I hated GRID, the handling felt like arse.

Quote from Forbin :

:ices_rofl

I've been playing Mass Effect too and if the physics truly are worse in GRID, that's really saying something!

Unfortunately the physics really are that bad, possibly the worst physics I've ever seen in a racing game. The "cars" (magical hovercrafts with wheels would be more accurate) all feel exactly the same too. Even the slowest car in game probably has more grip than a real F1 car

Just to give you an idea, you can take eau rouge (at Spa) very easily flat out with any car. A Chevy Lacetti probably takes it at 130-140mph...and a F3 car takes it at 170-180mph (they cant even go that fast in a straight line).

The graphics weren't that great either, the HDR is way overdone so all the cars glow (maybe this glow gives them their magical grip), and the tracks didn't look very good either (esp the real ones)

Quote from travbrad :

The graphics weren't that great either, the HDR is way overdone so all the cars glow (maybe this glow gives them their magical grip)

Yeah, it kinda feels like driving in some magic dust especially on that US street circuit (Seattle?).
I think it's not actually HDR effect, just bloom.

Edit: One week to notice a typo, I'm getting even worse.

Just played it today....found it....again arcadish but I do wish that LFS's graphics can be next gen like GRID, then LFS would be god like.

Personally, I'd prefer rFactor over GRID and I'm sure many feels the same way