The game seems pretty good - racing is solid though a bit more drifty than the first Grid, feels a bit more like Dirt than Grid (not necessarily a bad thing). I've played one season so far, I like the Championship Series style more than a 24 Hours of Le Mans event to end the season. Sponsorships seem to be handled smartly, where you have a bonus you can achieve once per season, instead of getting paid hand over fist in every single race. I haven't seen any team creation, like there was in the first Grid. If it's not in there, that's going to be a big disappointment for me. Hiring a driver to cover areas of weakness and provide assistance during races was a real nice feature of the first.

Overall, pretty pleased with the game. Loading screens get a bit framey when loading other cars, but it seems to settle itself down after a few seconds (playing on PC). What are your thoughts?

What? I'm FCD, there are no other FCDs, how dare you use my acronym for something!?

I was really looking forward to the game but no cockpit view means a no go for me.

I have heard this a lot, but I have also never heard of anyone playing a driving game exclusively in cockpit view prior to its announced omission from this game.

My first impression is the game doesn't look as good as GRID 1. There's something about the way the light streaks hit certain tracks, maybe there's a film grain. But the overall look of GRID 2 is a lot cleaner and more polished. Especially after re-playing the original all weekend on Steam, there's a noticeable difference. The game still looks great, but I prefer the aesthetic of the original.

Anyway, I played through the first season so far. Driving seems solid. I think it feels just like Grid 1 but with more emphasis on drifting. Nearly every car I've acquired seems to be a RWD/Drift car. That's fine, I grew to love the drifting in the original. I'm not a fan of the random tracks though. It feels cheap to me and completely breaks the immersion of the world. One day I'm racing under the trains in Chicago, the next I'm racing a 5 minute endurance on a track that magically never ends.

I'm glad the game still calls me by my real name. It's kind of silly, but was always a cool feature of the original. The ESPN integration that I've seen so far was kinda cheesy and made me laugh.

I'll try some online racing tonight.

Probably because we don't go around telling everyone how to play their racing games.

I play any semi-realistic to realistic driving games purely in cockpit (just burnout-level arcadey-racers where I pull the camera out). I just find I have a better sense of where my car is in every turn, and the surroundings help keep me more grounded than bumer / hood cams.

As for the game, I quite like the feel of the driving. The visuals have been a bit underwhelming considering what I usually expect of Codemasters' racers, but I'm enjoying my time thus far otherwise. SweetFX doesn't work with it, also =/

Does anyone do that?

I play in cockpit view in Gran Turismo and Forza. For whatever reason the Dirt games always felt better in 3rd person... I guess since it's more arcade. I imagine I'd feel the same about Grid 2.

Kinda getting lower reviews than I expected tho but I'm kinda looking for a racing game to play... feels like it's been awhile since a good one came out. I never played the original Grid but really liked Dirt 2/3.

Codemasters?

I'm loving the online demolition derby...er...I mean...tarmac racing. Also, the super-broke physics of drifting a front wheel drive car is pretty fun.

I really like the online mode. Using the "rewind" eliminates most of the crashing problems and players who are not in the same lap as you are being ghosted, eliminating most of the problems with people driving the wrong way. The only thing that is annoying so far is that the pre-order Nissan GT-R is stupidly overpowered for its class before you earn the ability to unlock other cars in that class. And that pre-order wasn't available in my country :/