Grid/ Toca 3 review

So I've decided to include Grid and TOCA 3 in the same review seeing as they are both games from the Race Driver series by codemasters. TOCA 3 is the 7th game in the series from 2006 while GRID is the 8th from 2008.

TOCA3
First up TOCA Race Driver 3. TOCA stands for TOuring Cars Association. However there has not been touring car exclusive version in the series since the original TOCA back in 1997. For reviewing TOCA 3 I will be comparing it to the benchmark game of the time GranTurismo4
*gets bored of writing sentences*
*begins using dot points*

> Good things (Things it has which make it better than GT4):
-Damage
-More in depth racing classes (touring cars, multiple open wheelers, gt/lemans)
-Better selection of tracks
-Heaps of Aussie stuff (wanna go race in Wanneroo? YOU CAN)
-V8 Supercars. Bitches!
-Runs on Computer (as well as xbox and ps2)
-Has a 'campaign' where you do sets of 2-5 races in a single class or you can do an entire season in the other mode. Allows for more variety in cars, you unlock races and the cars are supplied.
-Burnouts/powerslides (GT4 sucks at these)


> Bad Things (where GT4 raeps it)
-Not as realistic physics (pretty good actually, but I am comparing it to GT4 :S)
-Rally and dirt modes are not very good (very disappointing from codemasters who make the colin mcrae series(now dirt2), this is something that could have been much better than GT4)
-In the campaign only three races offered at a time.
-Cutscenes? (they're ok, and there's a scottish guy and lots of random chicks... but I dunno)

All in all, TOCA3 is a very respectable driving simulator and is very comparable to GT4. The graphics on the computer are better than what you get on the PS2 which is also a bonus. I would say this is the best realistic driving sim you can get for computer (barring rally games which I have a reasonably sized soft spot for).


GRID
Now on to GRID. I will compare this game to TOCA 3 because quite frankly, I enjoyed TOCA3 more. Grid does have superior graphics, physics and ai but it has gone a bit NFS'ish. The physics have gone a bit soft, making driving.... EASIER. Sure its nowhere near nfs easy, but the brakes are OP, you can corner whilst braking and all cars can take quite a lot of cornering g's before losing grip. (in fact, the only way to lose grip is to go up on the rumble strip or pull the handbrake).

The main new features which have been added are:
>a Flashback system (where you can rewind time for about 5 seconds)
>Extra storyline
>Having a racing 'team' with additional features
>being able to paint your cars and add sponsors (part of the team thing)

The new features which have been added arguably add to the experience as a game(for nubs) but they detract from the realistic simulation and expectations of a TOCA game. I think codemasters must have been planning this so although its part of the racedriver series (for publicity probs) they called it GRID instead of TOCA4. This name change is probably designed to quell the bitchfest from people like me for ruining the series. I SHALL NOT BE QUELLED!

*cue bitching* (I shall try to concisely get all the things i dislike about this game said)

1. Having to spend your money on a teammate is shit.
2. Having a poor selection of cars and tracks is shit.
3. The flashbacks could potentially have been good... but they are shit
-3a. The combination of keys required to flashback, esc-downarrow-enter(you now have flashback selected)-f8(changes camera view)-f2(rewind)-f12(use flashback)
-3b. when you crash(totaled) an animation is triggered, so you cant flashback until you've stopped crashing by which time the flashback is not long enough to prevent the crash.
4. Need for Speed is not a respectable driving simulator.
5. Slip streaming is not that effective. You shouldn't be able to overtake in identical old mustangs using slip-streaming.
6. You should not be able to buy racing cars off ebay, it is blatant advertising.
7. cars do not get faster if you win races in them
please note: it anything in the list above doesn't make sense, its because many features of grid are bullshit. QED.

So now I have that off my back I would like to admit that some of the weaknesses of TOCA3 have been addressed in GRID.
>The campaign system of toca3 where you had three races available at a time has been changed to three pathways of 9 races each in GRID. This gives you more freedom to choose races.
>Also in TOCA3 the rallies were crap, in GRID they don't exist (I expect this is less to do with admitting it was bad and more to do with not taking sales away from dirt2 also by codemasters).

GRID did however have one highlight:
Drifting.
This new game mode was thoroughly enjoyable and helped me forget about the races that were through dockyards and cities without proper tracks. Actually now that I think about it, the drifting was shit too. Sometimes the drifts didn't register and the scoring was so based on 'combo drifts' that you could easily abuse the scoring using many small drifts.

So then why did I like the drifting?

because of the AE86


Oh AE86, how i love thee.

In summary GRID is a compromise between real racing games such as GranTurismo and the TOCA's of old and Need for Speed. As it goes with compromises, they tend to make everybody unhappy.

p.s. This ended up a lot longer than I intended, so sorry bout that.
p.s.s. R.I.P. TOCA