written by owen on 2026-Mar-30.

Play through

I am not sure why I started playing this game right as I got it but I did. The game is pretty but not in a unique way. It is very linear. Super linear in career and cars are given to you or simply become unlocked into using a particular vehicle. Lots of rear wheel drive muscle cars which swing out of control easily on certain roads. It is a ok game so far but the tracks seem limited.

The loading times are long asf. Loading to race, loading the fancy menu - it feels almost as long as Skyrim. GRIDS2 has more realistic graphics than PGR4 but it is not as varied and there are no weather effects. In the first season of GRID2 you are stuck playing the same level multiple times. You eventually get shipped to Paris in Season 2 of the career mode but the repeating levels and linear career mode is very in your face.

The game feels good and fast in the city levels. Though when in the forest and coastal tracks it is easy to fly off the track or hit a solid road sign that will destroy your speed. The game has a limited rewind feature which can be used to cheat your way out of bad situations.

20 races in and I think I finally have a handle on the cars. The levels get better as well. The city levels in general are very pretty, especially in the later game - too bad no screenshot option. Loading times stay consistently bad. The graphics definitely make up for the long loading times. I will say that this is the best looking racing game I have played so far on the 360. There is not shortage on great racing games on the 360.

I had to change my camera view to "bonnet" because the 3rd person view swings too wildly causing me to under/over steer into every corner. Once I changed the view I was better able to handle the car around corners.

I think the issue with the game "seasons" is that you spend a few races on the same tracks until the end of the season. Once the season ends you get to get fresh new tracks and the circle repeats. The later tracks look good so its worth the temporary slog to see whats next. It is a lovely game and the night levels are really dark.

There are no weather effects which would have been cool but I figure that weather would be too much for this game engine and the 360. I am in the later part of the game now and everything is starting to come together. There are no more new tracks to see but I have quite a few vehicle challenges to complete. Vehicle challenges seem to be the best way to play because you are not interrupted by the NPC cars.

How it ended

Fun right up until it ended. Not a long racing game but there are extra things you can do to extend the playtime if you want to.

Conclusion

My rating 8.5/10. Definitely in my top 5 racing games on the 360. Lovely graphics, lovely night racing. No much weather but the sense of speed in the edge game cars is great. The announcer is a little annoying but you get accustomed to his random input. A nice arcade racing game to add to anyones collection. I would recommend it over Forza 4. No in game screenshot feature.

Strategy

I had to change the camera view because the 3rd person view made me crash "alot". Do all the promo events to ensure that you see all the special track locations. Though in the end you wont miss out on much by doing the bare minimum to unlock the next event. When the game ends it locks you off from the career mode so if you want to do and get everything the first time make sure you enter every challenge before you complete the season finals.

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