The tone has changed with Grid Autosport. Gone is the raucous, obtrusive, personality-sapping hullabaloo of the poorly conceived and painfully stereotypical "dude bro" aesthetic that characterised

In the end, I decided that the only option was to hang back and drive across the grass to avoid trouble, losing time on the leaders but keeping my car intact. Stronger AI could have provided a more realistic front for the technical disciplines, and would have helped make each event feel more unique, limiting the instances such as this in which it's almost impossible to continue to suspend your disbelief.

This failing is possibly a byproduct of Autosport's exhaustive approach. There are a number of nice extra features that similar games have shied away split-screen multiplayer, for example, and an online component that is entirely separate from the single-player, which means there are essentially two games to progress through. Play it for a few hours, and the cracks begin to show, though. They're not game-breaking, but they are abrasive, and they dull the shine of the early portions of the game. If you're up for some casual racing, Autosport is a decent option, but when you go deep, the experience is soured by the finer details.