Somewhere between your run-of-the-mill brain dead arcade racer and that gearhead fetishists wet dream known as Gran Turismo, there is a magical place.  A place where people like you and me can learn to appreciate, and yes, even love automotive racing.  That place is Grid.

Welcome to the game Grid

Codemasters is no stranger to racing game and in Grid, the latest effort in their Racer Driver series. They have referenced every trick in their well worn book and written a few new pages to boot. Grid strikes a beautiful balance.  There’s challenge, but little frustration.  There’s a logical progression mixed with lots of variety.  It can be simple or it can be hardcore.  Go ahead and choose your poison.  The game doesn’t care as long as you’re having a good time.

The meat of the game is in the single-player “Grid World” where you enter various races from all over the world, collect cash, entertain sponsors, buy more cars, and hire a teammate.  The obvious end-goal here is to win each of the 50 events.  What keeps Grid fresh throughout is the variety of event types.  One minute you’re tooling through the streets of San Francisco (a Quinn Martin Production!) in your muscle car, the next you’re in an open wheel event in Germany, and the next you’re doing some drift tournament in Japan.

The Fast and the Furious

I’m not crazy about drift events, but if those don’t float your boat, there are plenty of other things to do including several grip racing styles like touring, GT, and pro muscle.  There are also several white knuckle Touge events, some awesome awesome awesome demolition derbies (wh