I know Grid isn't the greatest arcade racing game ever but, goddamn, I love it so much. It has the perfect blend of a career mode where I can make money, buy cars, hire teammates and then merges that with a with a more arcade-like set of racing mechanics. The game has a great sense of speed and an absurdly good damage model that makes events like the Demolition Derby -- an event I haven't played since Destruction Derby for the Playstation -- an absolute blast to play. One of the game's bullet points is an instant replay system which allows players a number of attempts to go back in time in the game (a la Prince of Persia: Sands of Time) and undo whatever mistake was made the first try; this is a mechanic that, at first, I was annoyed by due to the unnecessary menu-work that was required to use the feature but, after some time with the game, it's a fantastic addition to avoid the video game racing gamer's urge to restart a rice a few dozen times to perfect a given event.


Story time:

I got my first team driver yesterday. His name was Seth Brown. He didn't even finish the first of our two races in an event. I want to not only fire him, but tie him to a tree in the middle of the forest and make him pay me back for the event winnings he took. The fact that I couldn't is clearly evidence of lazy development but, anyway, I fired him and then replaced him with a much better teammate and then I got an achievement for it.

Tonight that new teammate and I fucking annihilated the Europe rookie cup and took Team Kitten to the top in every race. At one point I was in second and then I got too aggressive on the final turn and flipped over, did a complete 360 in the air, and managed to make it over the railing onto the other side of the turn, beat out the first place guy, and zoomed to a first-place finish. Then I went back to finish the last (sixth) race of the America Rookie cup, finished that, and then beat some jerk that challenged me in head-to-head and got a million dollars.

Then I drove a Lamborghini for another team and failed to finish 24 Heures Du Mans (a twenty-four minute race) since I got impatient and overly-aggressive and, with no flashbacks left, ran head first into a wall which was surprisingly well-built.