![]() If race tracks are the real stars of the show, then these two are the stars of the stars. Real-world Brands Hatch (home of the British Touring Car Championship and GT Championship) returns in Grid Legends, and is complemented by the fictional Alpina Strada, with four and six layouts each. Codemasters has always paid scrupulous attention to getting engine notes right well, with electric cars, you can hear individual spectator chatter as you’re crossing the starting line. But the most notable difference in racing electric vehicles is the sound. AI drivers use the boost, too, so the CPU’s decision-making - and capacity for mistakes - is really on display in the electric events. E-vehicles can also fill up a three-charge boost meter by hitting two gates placed well outside the standard racing line. This makes the supple handling of the Lotus Evija and the (fictional) Beltra Icon Mark 3 stand out. Grid Legends’ electric events place a premium on aggressive cornering and capitalizing on other drivers’ mistakes, since, in terms of engine power, the cars behave the same. I didn’t expect this to be as much of a hit as it is. The easy presentation of stock car racing in Grid Legends makes me understand how needlessly complicated it has been in other games over the past decade.Įlectric car racing. ![]() ![]() The ease of handling the game’s Oval Stock and Retro Stock classes made me more than eager to try longer, 20-lap events in other modes. ![]() Grid Legends takes the challenge away from the hair-splitting management of holding my racing line and puts emphasis back on staying within a pack and choosing the right moment to slingshot past the leader.ĭriven to Glory introduces players to three-lap stock car events at the fictional Crescent Valley and real-life Indianapolis Motor Speedway ovals. But God, was it nice to actually pick up a stock-car racing game and not understeer into every corner or oversteer down to the apron. It helps that Grid Legends is using a fictional vehicle, and the setup is fixed for aerodynamics and the tire’s contact with the road. Grid Legends nailed, in the first lap of my first event on an oval, the two most essential gameplay details of stock car racing: chassis balance and drafting. What separates this game is the introduction that Driven to Glory provides, which does a splendid job spotlighting the kind of racing you’ll find in Grid Legends and nowhere else. Every race had at least one high-speed sequence where I marveled at my ability to break into the open, unscathed.īut with Codemasters’ last arcade racer ( Dirt 5) barely a year old, and the F1 series fresh off a documentary-style narrative mode, Grid Legends’ best parts have already been addressed by earlier, outstanding games. It’s thrilling and very accessible, in that I always felt pressured to drive at my car’s limits, but never felt like I was out of control. That isn’t to suggest that Grid Legends’ racing action is boring or thinly presented. I recommend that every player finish this story, if only for its depth and much-needed player motivation, in an action-racing series that otherwise doesn’t have an obvious reason for a sequel, two years after its predecessor. Driven to Glory’s 36 chapters are the story of the season preceding Grid Legends’ larger, and more open-ended career mode. The genre is at its best when a game openly indulges the idea that all these created players and fictitious teams actually exist in an alternate continuum. I gleaned all of this from Grid Legends’ narrative mode, “Driven to Glory.” The story may not be particularly groundbreaking, but its believable, matter-of-fact presentation of supporting details is catnip to a sports video game fan, thanks to a mixed-reality set, some enjoyable acting, and a lot of well chosen props. Winning a championship can make a driver’s career, but a bigger accomplishment is simply staying competitive for four or five seasons. A racing team’s year-to-year survival in the Grid World Series is even more tenuous than it is in F1. In the world of Codemasters’ latest driving title, there’s a multidisciplinary racing series with events, rivalries, and public interest - its own over-the-top TV channel, even - on par with Formula One and North America’s NASCAR. Grid Legends’ premise is so appealing to a racing fan, I find myself wondering why there’s nothing analogous to it in real life.
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