Let's start with a quiz: are you a car nut, dear reader? Are you the sort of person who worries about torque and centre-of-mass and how many valves it has and all sorts of other weird phrases that I'm probably using wrong?

There's a long corner arching through a part of Grid 2's sun- drenched Californian track where a squirrel dashes across the road. It's always at precisely the same point, and always just as your car lurches into the basin of a gentle drop and rise.

Sometimes it just pays not know your bread and butter, and for Codemasters, the perennial British development house, their bread is tires on track and their butter is pure unadulterated speed.

All bells and whistles aside, GRID 2 is a pretty fun game. It delivers on the promise of a solid, balanced racing experience. Though the tracks get repetitive, the multiplayer is a grind, and you'll be forced to race with an in-front-of or behind-your-car viewpoint, these flaws are insignificant...

First off, this is NOT for the simulation racer... Way too many people have given this bad reviews because they're used to simulation. This game meets the fine line between simulation and arcade. Graphically, awesome game. Every car seems to have it's own feel.

If you're looking for an extension of the original Grid, one that has the same feel and gameplay, stay away from this title. I say this because most good sequels have a familiar feel (along with additions) to the original title. This is where Grid 2 falls on it's face.

Codemasters original Race Driver: GRiD set the tongues of petrol heads and casual speedsters wagging when it shipped almost five years ago, so it's quite surprising that it's taken this long for the last bastion of home grown Brit developers to deliver a sequel.

Pure console port and only connected to GRiD in name alone. This is a Need For Speed wannabe, total 100% arcade racer. All the good parts of GRiD have been stripped out, such as the official circuits, cockpit cam, decent handling.

[gameinfo title="Game Info" game_name="GRID 2" developers="Codemasters South" publishers="Codemasters" platforms="360 / PS3 / PC" genres="Racing" release_date="Out Now" version_played="PS3"] In the year 2008 Codemasters released the original GRID.

This is one incredible racing game. I wasn't so sure about it at first, but once I played it, I knew it would be better than the Need for Speed Series. Didn't have high hopes on the graphics, but it seems as though I thought wrong. The graphics are superb, and the gameplay is just really well done.