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D4LE'S EXPERIENCE: RACE DRIVER: GRID
Let me tell you a story if you don't mind because this is pretty much sums up my childhood and my reason why did I bought this game on Steam.
*F L A S H B A C K S*
I was a big fan of the Toca racing games. I owned Toca world touring cars for the ps1, Toca racing driver, Toca racing driver 2 and also the 3rd one, all which are for the PS2. Jump to 2007 where I got the Xbox 360, I heard Toca racing driver is back but this time they changed the name to "Race driver Grid". Me and my dad went to a gaming store to buy the game and when I got home, I quickly went to my room, turn on my Xbox, put the disc in and play it. Aaaannnd, I barely touch it because my 7 years old brain told me "it was too complicated". I didn't touched the game until late 2015 (THAT LONG BOYS N GIRLS) and the disc was full with scratches. In other words, Rip in Porsches.
Hop to 2016 where I was messing around playing a game with my friend and he told me he wanted to play GRID. I was a bit shocked and asked him "Wait, u can play grid on steam?" and he replied with 1 word "Yes." I quit the game and checked to the store and to my surprise, the game had 80% discount. I bought the game, download it and play it for quite awhile. This is my experience and my opinion on Race Driver Grid.
* END OF F L A S H B A C K S*
First of all, I was surprised that my PC can run this game smoothly. My PC is categorized as a potato and it runs like in the Xbox with slightly better graphics. And if you're saying "Well d4le, this game is made in 2007. How come u find it surprising?" There are games made in that year where my potato is screaming for help and in this case, it wasn't screaming. Though there were times where the fps is dropping, I don't really mind because it's not really major. Speaking about the graphics, this game has some pretty nice graphics & visuals. At the time which I believe was the competitor for Forza, I liked this more because the color and you can see how well detailed if you had an accident on a corner or you rammed a car on purpose like when my brain was 7 years old.
Second, I fell in love with the gameplay. Yes, I do know this game can be frustrating and I know this game isn't really realistic (I see it as half arcade and half sim tbh), but when you get the hang of it, you feel this big sense of accomplishment like "YOU DID IT SON. I'M PROUD OF YOU". There was this one moment when I used an old mustang against a Honda NSX in a Touge race. The level was extreme and It was painfully hard but after couple of restarts and start to realize my mistakes, I did it. I felt like I was the king of the world and I literally screamed to my monitor saying "HAAHAHAH LOOK AT ME NOW, BOYS. I'M THE CHAMP". In short, I had a lot of fun with the gameplay and with all my seriousness, I can't wait playing it again.
Third, the cars and the track selection are awesome. There's actually a DLC for this game which I'm not mistaken, they added a Bugatti veyron and other cars and also other tracks that I might have forgotten, but even if you don't have money to buy it, it doesn't really matter. The thing I remembered is the San Francisco track and I also remembered every time I race against a Mustang GTR, he always fail at the corner before the last chicane. Even if I race or drift alone in that track, I will still remember it as the Mustang corner.

However, there are things sadly I have to nitpick.
Probably the only thing that is quite bothering me is the controls and physics. Every car controls differently which is great and understandable. But oh my lord, the default force feedback is so awful. If you don't know what I did, I spent just around the first 15 minutes of the game just to tune the force feedback (if you want to know what I truly did, I just put 10% more on it except the strength) and after that, it made the game like how I wanted to. Don't get me wrong though, I like the EGO engine and I enjoyed the first DiRT because it's a good mixture between arcade and simulation, but in some aspects there are parts where the car gets too twitchy to the point of frustration. On my right brain, I see it as a challenge. However with my left brain, I see it as the other way around.
If you want to know how I see it as a challenge and just plain throwing cuss words, welcome to my love/hate relationship with this game.
Now this is where it's located somewhere in between because I like it and I don't really like it for some reasons and so far, it's only these two.
Imo, Endurance and drift events are the love/hate relationship in GRID. Let's start with the endurance races. I love how they interpreted the 24 heures le mans and the day/night cycle is amazing.
However, it will becoming a some sort of an annoyance because the game starts to offer endurance races everytime in the end of the season but you can actually reject it if you don't want to. I mean, ya it's cool to get more de_moni but let me ask you this: are you gonna spend 24 minutes not including you complaining bout the AI crashing your sanity harder than Miley Cyrus's mixtape and the never ending restarts just to get a new set of wheels? It's a tough decision
Alright, the drift events are the true meaning of what I meant about the love/hate relationship. First of all, the cars that were designed for drifting looks outstanding. I mean, look at that s15, the supra and the rx7, and the.. 06 Pontiac GTO? Why yes. Oh and look at the tire smokes! It looks gorgeous at the time.
But my issue with the drift events are located on my nitpicks. First off, turning off the traction control is like removing your life vests while you're stranded somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Sure, you will look like an olympics athlete, but it takes some man out of you to get to your destination. However, turning on traction control is like the opposite of what I've said earlier. Your legs won't be bitten by jaws, your hands aren't going to be chopped by barracudas, your eyes won't be looking down for sunfishes (serious tho, those things are scary as hell), but where's the fun in that?
In short, I love the challenge turning down the TC, but you're probably gonna need a lot of time just to drift around a track. If you turning on TC, you will get the event down in no time, but no challenge. Again, it's a tough decision whether you will go for it or not.
In conclusion and even though the controls are a bit weird, this game is still an awesome racing game and I will recommend it for ones who adore racing games in general.