Demo: TOCA - The Grid

I haven't played any other TOCA Race Driver games and I've now seen the reason why I haven't.

The newest TOCA racer, The Grid, is like more like how I think I dream about racing cars at night: everything is sped, the cars feel like their being controlled by a broken VCR motor, and the graphics are super glossy and suspended in a morning mist.

The one feature I do think is neat are the instant replay continues. If got tapped by a driver going into a turn and crashed because of it, the game will let you "flashback" to a previous point where you could better avoid the turn. Gimicky? A helpful tutor? Who knows.

The full on body damage is pretty nice, albeit a bit on the arcade side. This is no Gran Tursimo/Forza simulation game.

I tried all three sections of the demo: tuner racing, competition drifting, and muscle car race. I did the best at the muscle car race because my car was so much more powerful that the rest of the grid. I loved hearing the crowd lining the streets clap an avoiding a crash or "awww!!" and slamming into the walls. They fade in and out quickly as you drive by.

You could probably have a lot of fun racing a game like this. It's easy. It's made for twitchy trigger fingers and "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!" kind of simul-action.