Grid

Blasting through the apexes of an S-turn, it’s hard to tell what’s chattering faster: our wheels or our heartbeat. Somehow we cling to the line with a tiny countersteer, barely avoiding a spin, and miraculously exit with enough speed to flash past the leader. That’s just a taste of the exhilarating moments that Grid delivers again and again. Like Dirt before it, Codemasters’ latest is another fine showcase for its long-simmering genius for racing. It’s official — PGR has been dethroned.

Codemasters’ hypey tagline for the game proclaims that “It’s all about the race,” but actually, Grid soars because of its accomplishments in graphics, A.I., handling, career mode, and even in its instant replays, which is a good place to start. You know how when you blow it in a racing game, you grouchily restart the event and try again? Grid doesn’t mind at all — in fact, it streamlines the whole process by allowing you to watch the instant replay of your crash and pick a moment to respawn back into the action. You get only a few of these “flashbacks” (the number depends on the difficulty level), so you can’t go crazy, but we dug how much Codemasters respected the way most people actually play its games.

But those are small potatoes compared to what else the game accomplishes. As always with a Codemasters racing game, the handling is grade-A butter — from open-wheel speed demons to hulking Detroit muscle cars, these rides are a treat to drive. Only the drifting is a bit tricky, requiring a featherlight touch on the triggers.

The on-track action is far from Need for Speed–type brainless, but you can survive knocks and bumps as long as you’re crafty about taking good lines and braking hard when you should. Like you, the very human-feeling A.I. opponents will make a mess of things sometimes, and it’s damn cool to see the car in front of you spin away into the sand. Or to hear a metallic shriek behind you, and notice that whoever was dogging your heels suddenly isn’t.

And it’s all so pretty! This whole game is gorgeous: everything from small moments like fog lingering over hills to ruined parts exploding off your wrecked car to the lightning-fast sense of speed is built to dazzle — and does.

Everything gels beautifully in the well-constructed career mode. The usual arc from rookie to legend is followed, but that’s where the “usuals” end. Grid expertly mixes demolition derbies with touring cars, building a team with freelancing, famous tracks with fun fantasy courses, and dreamy high-end machines like the Audi R10 with brawny beasts like a ’70 Mustang. Good 12-player battles on Live make a tasty whipped cream and cherry on top, but there’s nothing innovative there — just pick a car and track, then try to run your friends into the wall.

Of course, every relationship has room for improvement, and our love for Grid is not blind. In a disappointing departure from Travis Pastrana’s sharp performance in Dirt, the two not-famous voices who act as your business manager and coach are sometimes shrill, often obvious, and occasionally even creepy. Sure, it’s a small thing…but doing it better would’ve been a small thing, too.

Same with our other main complaint — as you’re racing along through events, suddenly your season will end, and you can race Le Mans as the finale if you like. Like us, you’ll probably go, “Wait…where did seasons come from?” The game makes no mention of them beforehand or in any of the stat screens, so it’s an odd but ultimately irrelevant surprise that the game should’ve taken a moment to establish.

The other potential downside depends on your preferences. We loved how Grid ditches sacred cows like tuning, pit stops, and qualifying, and just cuts you loose on the track. Purists can howl about heresy and return to Forza 2 because, yes, realism is not Grid’s forte — entertainment is. This game isn’t about simulating racing; it’s about creating fun out of it. And it succeeds beautifully, one thrilling white knuckle at a time.