Still waiting on GRID 2.

[shortylickens]

MAY 28th KICK ASS!!!


http://store.steampowered.com/app/44350

 

[Dankk]

Steam?

Yup. Three days.

 

[Barfo]

So how is it?

 

[Dankk]

It's fun. Really fun. I'm not a racing game aficionado or anything, but it feels like GRID 2 has the same great vehicle handling that made the first one so good. It's a well-struck balance between arcade and realism.

I gotta hand it to Codies; their racing titles always feel extremely polished. This one's no exception. I've yet to encounter any bugs or glitches. Not a single stutter, not a single missed beat anywhere, except for maybe the loading screens. I've played a dozen multiplayer matches already and everything works the way it should.

I'm running the game nearly maxed-out and my 7870 handles it with ease. I'm talking over 100fps at almost all times. It's very pretty, too. The EGO 3.0 engine is optimized as hell.

Shitty compressed Steam screenshots don't really do it justice. It looks far better in motion.

 

[Arkaign]

Looks sweet. I do have to LOL @ their excuses regarding the in-cockpit view. Just total silliness. But it doesn't matter to me anyway. I usually mess around looking through the cockpit once or twice before swapping views until I'm way out back and can see the car. It's how I roll, yo.

Is the destruction derby still there? That was crazy fun in the first one, at least with a wheel.

 

[Anteaus]

Put in about 20 minutes this morning. At first glance I don't like that I can't separate driving aids and AI driver strength. Basically we get a difficulty slider with no feedback as to what changes. Perhaps I was just looking in the wrong place. Anyone have any information on this?

 

[felang]

Put in about 20 minutes this morning. At first glance I don't like that I can't separate driving aids and AI driver strength. Basically we get a difficulty slider with no feedback as to what changes. Perhaps I was just looking in the wrong place. Anyone have any information on this?

+1

I only played for about half an hour last night but that was one of the first things I noticed. I would love to be able to disable traction control and still have ABS for example but I don´t know if this is possible. Does increased difficulty get you higher rewards (fans in this case)?

 

[JamesV]

I miss the pre-race showing of your car or an opponent in the grid, and the milestones like average place finished are kind of stupid, being shown on a screen that makes it look like it's loading while it's showing you this, but only pauses the game until it shows the info.

But the racing is tight, and it is quite beautiful to behold, when you are racing along at 140 through a tight city with crowds everywhere.

 

[felang]

Apparently it´s mostly the single player Career Mode that sucks with all the fake Social Media integration and whatnot, multiplayer seems to be pretty good according to some people I´ve talked to. I´m hoping it´ll have a decent sized online community.

 

[moonbogg]

Will buy this tonight. First one was great.

 

[dpodblood]

Played for about 5 hours so far today as I had the day off. I have to say it's exactly what you would want from a Grid sequel. Handling feels fantastic, maybe a little more realistic compared to the first game, but still far from a sim. The game looks and feels fantastic. I have been playing on the hard difficulty and it provides a pretty good challenge, but I am still able to come in 1st-3rd place most of the time. I've tried out MP a little bit as well, and it's fun, but as in GRID one there is still alot of people who will just pile up and crash at the beginning of the race. Personally I indent to play with friends, and not engage in public lobbys too much.

 

[Via]

I just can't see buying this without a cockpit view until it's heavily discounted.

 

[Anteaus]

Lack of cockpit mode doesn't bug me because it's never been done right. I've yet to find a cockpit view that wasn't horribly off perspective. Most of them have the viewpoint set way too far back in order to let you see the gauges yet the consequence you can't see as much. In a real car when you are staring out the front of the windshield, you can't see the gauges. You have to lower your viewpoint and look away from the road, therefore there is a compromise.

I'd rather just pretend I'm glancing down now and then and just get my cues from the hud. If they did a proper cockpit, most of it would be out of view anyway at least in the sense of where you eyes would be looking.

 

[Via]

I started using cockpit view exclusively in Need for Speed:High Stakes. I thought it was pretty well done, and imo a lot of games have a decent one.

There are some games where it is horribly done. The absolute cockpit view in the latest F1 games from codemasters is atrocious. The only was to play those games effectively is with the "behind-the-helmet" cam.

 

[CuriousMike]

The absolute cockpit view in the latest F1 games from codemasters is atrocious.

I must have atrocious tastes as this is how I play F1 2011 and 2012.

 

[Barfo]

I must have atrocious tastes as this is how I play F1 2011 and 2012.

You do.

 

[Via]

I must have atrocious tastes as this is how I play F1 2011 and 2012.

How do you see anything? I've been playing F1 games in the cockpit view for a long time, and I can't stand it. It's WAY too restrictive.

 

[moonbogg]

I just can't see buying this without a cockpit view until it's heavily discounted.

I never use that anyway. Can't see where the hell i'm going.

 

[Dankk]

How do you see anything? I've been playing F1 games in the cockpit view for a long time, and I can't stand it. It's WAY too restrictive.

I'm inclined to agree. Cockpit view is extremely restrictive.

Like someone mentioned above, the POV is always set too far back and the interior of your car takes up too much of the screen.

It's funny because people supposedly use cockpit view for "realism". When I drive my car in real life, the dashboard is barely in my field of vision.

 

[JamesV]

I prefer the 'hood' view myself. It gives the best forward sight, and you have the visual reference of the hood to get a feel for how the car is handling. Out of all the views, my braking is always better in 'hood' view also.

 

[Anteaus]

In regards to F1, in real life it is restrictive. In order to get CG low, they are sitting literally inches from the ground with their feet higher up. They can barely see over the front of the car, unlike other 4-wheel action where your view point is much higher. F1 2012 is the only game were I found the cockpit view to be somewhat authentic. Note that I didn't say realistic!

 

[JamesV]

I'm liking it the more I play. The driving is really responsive, and more arcade than sim, but that doesn't mean you won't spin out often.

The detail is just fantastic also. Take a look at this shot at ultra settings (which is butter smooth btw).



Look at the people; pretty cool effect, and they are everywhere. Camera flashes, papers flying in the wind from a passing car, and even a cameraman that almost dropped his camera when I smashed into a fence by him... and he said "Whoa! Watch out!".

For some reason Photobucket resizes these down, gotta follow the link and click the magnifying glass if you want to see it 1920x1080.

 

[Aikouka]

Lack of cockpit mode doesn't bug me because it's never been done right. I've yet to find a cockpit view that wasn't horribly off perspective. Most of them have the viewpoint set way too far back in order to let you see the gauges yet the consequence you can't see as much. In a real car when you are staring out the front of the windshield, you can't see the gauges. You have to lower your viewpoint and look away from the road, therefore there is a compromise.

I was thinking of the Occulus Rift at first However, the only problem is that the Rift tracks your head movement, and I would assume that most people simply shift their line of sight around to look at the dash or the rear-view mirror. Although, can't the new Kinect track your eyes or is it just your head? That would be pretty sweet if the newer Kinect let you look at the upper-right to see the rear-view mirror or down to see the gauge.

Shitty compressed Steam screenshots don't really do it justice. It looks far better in motion.

Is that why the decals in that screenshot look terrible, or is that what they normally look like?

 

[Dankk]

Is that why the decals in that screenshot look terrible, or is that what they normally look like?

That may be part of it; I should also mention that apparently there was a patch released today, and they added "Ultra" settings to many of the graphics options in-game, whereas last night they only went up to "High". So I guess those screenshots weren't really at max settings. :hmm:

 

[JamesV]

First thing I did, after the first race or two when I could, was look at the graphics options, and set it to ultra.

So that wasn't something added, I did that about 12:30 day of release.