Grid Autosport
Nintendo
Switch owners are finally able to get a racing and simulation game with an
orientation towards realism. The British company Codemasters, in cooperation
with the Feral Interactive development team, is filling a gap in the Nintendo
Hybrid game library and presenting the favorite racing game from the company
Grid in a version that combines home and mobile, how was the result?
Codemasters
has a very long history in racing games and it is not hidden from anyone, and
the company has specialized in producing this type of game. The company was
founded in 1986, but it found great success that put it on the map with the
release of the wonderful game Micro Machines, with which we have many beautiful
memories. The company began to specialize more and more in racing games when it
started issuing series such as the TOCA racing series and the Colin McRae Rally
series.
The
company maintained this legacy when it launched two great series in the past
generation, the first is the Grid racing series, which is a racing game that
mixes realistic simulation with unrealistic arcade gameplay, and the second is
the Dirt racing series, both of which achieved commercial success and audience
admiration. Grid got a second part that was not up to the expectations of the
fans of the first part because of its exaggeration in the arcade gameplay and
its abandonment of the realistic driving elements that were present in the
first part, so that Codemasters returned to planning again and returned the
series to the roots through Grid Autosport. The game was released on the home
devices of the last generation in 2014, and the personal computer, and it was
transferred to smart phones as well, and here it finds its way to the Nintendo
Switch platform.
Since
this game is not entirely new, we will start by talking about the features of
this version of the game. The Feral Interactive development team has made a
great effort to ensure that this version of the game meets the expectations and
aspirations of racing game fans. The game supports many control options,
including motion control, button control and increasing the speed with the ZR
button, or even using the right analog to gradually increase or decrease the
speed, because the ZR and ZL buttons in the Pro Controller for the Switch are
not gradual like the rest of the devices The game also allows the use of the GameCube
controller, which contains progressive shoulder buttons, for whoever chooses to
do so. Of course, there are also a range of driving assistance options that can
be turned off or their intensity changed.
Even
in terms of graphics, the development team took care to provide many options to
satisfy all players. The game runs at 1080p resolution in home mode and 720p
resolution in mobile mode, and there is a 3GB package available on the store
for free to improve the models of all cars in the game. You can choose the
performance mode in the game, which makes it run at 60 frames to provide a
truly wonderful and smooth driving experience, although the frame rate drops
below this number when crowded and there are many other cars. And you can
choose the graphics mode that enhances the level of visual experience, such as
improving shadows and light reflections in exchange for reducing the frame rate
to 30 frames, and there is even a battery saving mode, which reduces graphics a
lot to extend battery life to the longest possible degree.
Most
of the game times we went through the performance phase with 60 frames, and the
graphical difference was not significant or significantly noticeable compared
to the phase that offers better graphics and fewer frames, and in general we
salute the development team for making all these efforts for this version of
the game, and even that The game menus are large in size in a way that is
completely compatible with the mobile version, unlike many other device games
with a small font, and even the game supports HD Rumble vibration technology,
where you can feel the car touching the ground and its movement in a very
wonderful way, and you can also increase or decrease this Vibrate as you see
fit.
For
those who are not familiar with the game, Grid Autosport offers a career mode,
individual races, the ability to create your own competition, and several other
types of races such as Drag and Time Trial. The career or career development in
Grid is somewhat different from other games, as it does not require you to
start with a slow car and then gradually compete and buy better cars, nor does
it even impose on you the type of races that you will play. Instead, the game
offers five different types of competitions, each type includes several seasons,
and you can finish any season and then move on to seasons of other types
directly. One such competition is Endurance, which puts you in night races over
long distances, or Street, which forces you to compete on city streets.
The
game is distinguished in artificial intelligence and there are many different
levels of challenge. Grid is a game characterized by various choices, and this
philosophy is evident in all aspects of the game design. Even the effects of
collisions and damages on the car, you can make it visible only, and you can
make it affect the performance of the car to make the experience more
realistic. The game is playable even for non-professionals, as there is an
option to Rewind, which takes you back in case you performed badly in driving
and wanted to try again. The game also contains a bar that appears on the floor
of the racetracks to guide you to the optimal path for driving, and its color
changes between green and red to help you speed up or down when cornering.
Well,
is the game flawless? of course no. We can say that the driving experience in
the game in terms of car physics and sounds is not comparable to masterpieces
such as the brilliant Forza from Microsoft, and the game lacks various weather
conditions such as rain and fog, and by mentioning weather conditions, we
mention one of the games that excelled a lot in this aspect and Project Gotham
Racing 4 on Xbox 360.
The
graphics of the game are some of the best on the Nintendo Switch platform so
far, the roads and buildings look very nice. The car models and lighting may
not look at the same amazing level that we have seen in some current home
device games such as Driveclub from Sony Interactive Entertainment, but it
matches and surpasses the best that was presented in this type of game on last
generation devices with higher display resolution in mode home, or looks
perfect in portable mode. This game is a beautiful technical demonstration of
the Nintendo Hybrid platform, which is only
Grid Autosport is a game that harnesses its resources and distributes them intelligently to create a gaming experience that can last hundreds of hours with the player. We regret that the game did not get the multiplayer mode over the network from the beginning, which the publisher promised to add through a later update, but even without that, it is the best realistic racing and driving game on the Nintendo Switch platform and perhaps on any mobile device so far.