I like to think of myself as a racing game fan, its one of my favourite genres and I have played a fair few and like to get properly invested into them. Now whilst names like Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo fanny about with micro-transactions, hyper realism and doing their best to alienate their established fanbase; there is still a racing developer that likes to provide their fans with exactly what they want even if it means taking a few risks here and there, that developer is Codemasters.
Now the original GRID managed to drive itself into my heart and provide me with one of the most unique and thrilling racing experiences I have ever had with its mix of simulation structure but arcade handling physics, a game that was simply about the pure thrill of burning some rubber on the tarmac below. The 2nd iteration, GRID 2 was by no means a bad game but it failed to live up to the standards of the original due to a focus on street racing and drifty car physics.
Now on its third entry, GRID: Autosport serves as a love letter to fans of both games by taking the best tracks & cars from both and throwing in a physics engine that manages to cater for lovers of either previous titles physics and newcomers.
GRID: Autosport is what could be best described as a 'best of' title, though it has a lot of new gameplay additions and different ways to play so I'm going to break it down as best I can.
The biggest change to Autosport over the previous games is that it is split into five distinct gameplay styles or 'disciplines'. These are Touring, Endurance, Open Wheel, Tuner and Street. Each one plays differently to another and you'll be hard pressed to find one that doesn't cater to your personal tastes. I'll go more into depth about these in a bit so first I'll move onto major overall gameplay changes.
Firstly the way teams work have changed. In the last two games you set up your own racing team and manage it alongside racing for them, in Autosport this is no longer the case as instead you choose a contract at the beginning of the season and race for that team. Big name companies like Intel, Monster Energy and Razer are among the roster as well as the infamous fictitious Ravenwest team.
You are often given the choice of two or three teams with each one varying in objectives to complete, cars provided for races and team mate ability as well as how much you will get paid to race for them. Do well and higher paying teams will become interested in you and you can begin to climb the ranks to join the folks at Ravenwest themselves.
Difficulty is extremely customisable, ranging from standard A.I difficulty down to whether damage is simply cosmetic or gradually destroys your car, you can tweak how many flashbacks you can have and multiply the amount of laps a race normally has.
Cars can also be slightly tuned by making brakes harder or softer, or allowing wheels to have a more open turning or a narrower closed one and various other small tweaks that ultimately make your car more agile or more stable.
Cockpit view also makes a return though its not as good as you would hope it is, being perhaps one of the worst cockpit cameras in a racing game thanks to an excessive use of blur and general lack of detail.
So to start off on the disciplines is Touring. Touring cars are what made the original GRID so awesome because its arguably what the series does best thanks to its routes coming from the TOCA Race Driver series. This stands true in Autosport with a much more realistic and weighty physics system. No longer can you pelt round a tight corner at 80MPH and stick to the road like you're glued to it, now you must make use of braking and time your acceleration out of corners in order to get a good start out of it. The A.I takes a more aggressive stance in this mode with several close call crashes and sparks flying from car to car contact. Though these races take place on real life circuits, often with wide tracks, the racing is tight and extremely competitive. Clawing your way through the pack and then leading it is something that will take several laps and a lot of skill compared to most other games thanks to the smart A.I and the heavy physics.
