Since the beginning of time developers have taken the formula of “Cars + Fast = Fun” and put it to good effect. As the genre has developed it has become increasingly niched, with each franchise finding its own little space within the wider spectrum of games. Codemasters, after making their stamp on the current-gen rally scene with DIRT and slipping an F1 license under their belt, have thrown caution to the wind and reproached the genre with Race Driver: GRID.

I won’t lie; I’m not a petrol head by any means. I like my driving games thoroughly sober and restrained, daredevil that I am. This puts me on a pretty much strict diet of Gran Turismo. I decided to approach GRID with open eyes and arms and see if it couldn’t wean me off the teat of driving simulation and onto something a little more heart pounding.

Codemasters seem to have tried to create a best of both worlds game in GRID. Positioning it right between the sober and understated driving of Gran Turismo and the petrol-headed brutality of Burnout Paradise and Co.