We don't seem to have had a thread for this. Odd.

First impressions were not good because Outrun has made me forget that cars come with a slow-down pedal. I slept on it and am playing it now and really liking it. I like these things:

• Voice commentary that addresses me by name
• A really good mix of arcade and sim with a side order of business management to follow
• Really, really lovely presentation values (the replay engine and cockpit views are particularly good)
• Innovative gameplay mechanism (the ability to rewind the last few seconds and un-make mistakes)
• The ability to select Welsh as a nationality
• Lots of race types, from touring cars, muscle cars, drift racing, open wheelers, etc etc

How? Do you chose from a list of names, or something?

Does it have "Matt"?

Does it have Owen? I'm fed up of games with a list of names making me choose a nickname.

# Innovative gameplay mechanism (the ability to rewind the last few seconds and un-make mistakes)

where it fitted the game a hell of a lot better, it's a silly mechanic for a "sim leaning" game.

I played the demos of both Dirt and Grid and found them to be disappointingly arcadey. I remember when the Colin McRae and ToCA games used to be a lot more simmy.

If I want to play arcade racers, I'll play Burnout or Midnight Club. If I want a sim, I'll play Forza or Race Pro (soon, markg, soon!). The halfway houses that Codemasters put out these days just don't seem to be one or the other, and suffer because of it.

Fuel isn't really doing much for me, from the previews I've read.

I played the demos of both Dirt and Grid and found them to be disappointingly arcadey. I remember when the Colin McRae and ToCA games used to be a lot more simmy.

As seen in Full Auto™.

It does take a while to find the settings that work for you, particularly with all the adjustments that you can do to the way the car handles and the way the wheel controls it, but once you do, I found it a very satisfying racer.

For the record I found/find the rewind function to be "not very good" unless you're on the last lap as unless you rewind before the accident happens it rarely winds back far enough to be of much use.

If I want to play arcade racers, I'll play Burnout or Midnight Club. If I want a sim, I'll play Forza or Race Pro (soon, markg, soon!). The halfway houses that Codemasters put out these days just don't seem to be one or the other, and suffer because of it.

I believe if you play it on the hardest difficulty setting it doesn't give you the time rewind option.

How are you finding the wheel then? I struggled especially in the drift races with it but pretty much sailed through as soon as I tried it with the pad.

Uh... No. Only Matthew (it didn't have "Rich" either).

Perhaps the "nicknames" bit would suit you better. Toff? Hawkman? Butler Worrier? Mongdeo?

Perhaps the "nicknames" bit would suit you better. Boss? Chief? Dude? Dumptruck? Maverick? Mongoose? Vandal?

Where does PGR fit for you? I'd say Grid and PGR are pretty close in terms of sim/arcade balance.

I found GRID pretty much unplayable, and very unforgiving from the off. The cars seem to handle really weirdly and you're forced to get into shitty American muscle cars that probably do handle/brake like shite to be fair. Then there's that whole fiddly 'replay' malarky that really detracts from the fluidity of the game and the damage incurred is way, way too harsh given the aforementioned terrible handling.

Mind you, it probably doesn't help that I'm a ham-fisted, silly old twat with the reflexes of a slug.

Nah it's not just you. I had trouble with it too. For example if you go on the analogue accel too hard at any given point the car will just start peeling.

I'm too clumsy to take full control over a button so stopped playing the game for a while.. Then Echo (our mate Al) told me about the amateur settings (forget where they are now) that allow your car to take a couple of bangs and make things easier to use.

So I just set the game to that and loved every minute. However, I didn't ever use that rewind setting because I didn't know it existed.

It just doesn't know what it wants to be. It's got realistic-looking cars, tracks and championships but the handling is all shit and squishy. I loved the idea of racing the Le Mans 24 hours course, but I just kept either braking far too early, or too late. I don't really care about the Japanese drifting bollocks, either. It's just rubbish. What happened, Codebastards!?!?