Before being marred by Mr McRae's tragic death, 2007 was to be remembered for delivering one of the greatest rally racers yet in the form of Colin McRae's DiRT. Tragedy aside, Codemasters is back to take the racing to the streets with Race Driver: GRID. Better known locally under the V8 Supercars moniker, this latest addition to the Race Driver series ditches our most beloved racing scene to try something a little new with the series.

GRID is broken into 3 regions, each with their own distinctive flavour and racing styles: Japan, the US and Europe. Europe sticks true to its racing pedigree, focusing on closed circuit races around the likes of the Nuremberg in high performance supercars and open wheel racers. The US is all about V8 muscle, street racing and that classic Southern speciality, the demolition derby. Japan is deeply embedded in the tuner scene; complete with your requisite drift events and Initial D style Togue mountain races. Whilst there mightn't be any lawnmower races this time around, racing is diverse and each mode's a lot of fun.

Different racing types require different cars, so you'll need to amass a worthy collection of vehicles to compete. Before you can kick off your own team, you'll need to earn money for your first car by fulfilling driver offers. The cash and respect isn't all that high, but you'll earn an appearance fee just for completing the races and a bonus for achieving certain tasks. Your first car is a pre-selected Mustang to get you started, but from there on in, what style of racing you choose to pursue is up to you.

Whilst diverse in its range of racing styles, car choice is slim. With only 45 cars across all modes, collecting cars becomes merely a means to progression. Purchasing new cars is essential to enter new tournaments and racing styles, where often your choice is between only a handful of different cars or simply limited to one specific vehicle. Customisation is limited to as much as selecting your team's exterior paint job and deciding which sponsors decals go where. If you don't like the way a car handles, you've just gotta live with it. What you have on offer though is a distinctive selection of automobile that ranges from stereotypical drifter the AE86, to Mazda's infamous Le Mans entry, the 787B. The choice may be slim, but what you have is the cream of the crop.

Running on a modified version of the DiRT engine, GRID is equally as gorgeous as its predecessor. The engine from DiRT has been tweaked for GRID, but the main improvement to note is improved environmental damage, delivering crashes that are as brutal as they are impressive. It might run at 30 frames per second, but it looks just beautiful and even better in replay. Replays are spectacular and instantly accessible on the fly with a press of the Select button. Not just for show, replays now play an integral part of the gameplay, in the form of the newly included Flashback feature. Essentially used to rewind and correct a bad move, you can jump into a replay on the fly and rewind back anywhere in the previous 10 seconds to a point where you feel comfortable to turn back time and try again. It's just a shame that as impressive as the game's replays are, there's no ability to save them for a later viewing.

GRID bears a lot of similarity to last year's DiRT. Both are aesthetically gorgeous and decidedly stylish, but visuals aside, GRID's career mode revolves around a tier system working its way up from grass roots racing in a well loved Mustang to more prestigious events, the likes of the 24 Hour Le Mans. Progression is all about earning a respect, an area that can be amplified by turning off driving aides, increasing difficulty and eliminating the use of Flashbacks to significantly boost your reputation. The Flashback feature can seem a bit discouraging to more purist, simulation type fans but you are ultimately rewarded the less you use it.

As pure as you may wish to race, for the nature of the game, it can feel like Flashbacks are inherently essential to the nature of the game at times. Competing racers will stick to the racing line largely, but they're not afraid to give you a bump if you get in their way. Should that bump send you spinning out off the track then you realistically stand little chance of ever regaining a top at the front of the pack. If you chose to play on the hardest difficulty setting, not only do you strip yourself of Flashbacks, but also the ability to simply restart a race from the pause menu. When the error's your own doing then fair enough, but accidents are bound to happen and they're often random and unavoidable.

Further working against more purist players, pit stops have been given the boot. In a game where vehicle damage is more than a mere cosmetic concern, maintaining your car in peak form is a necessary to cross the line, let alone place first. Whilst the newly included Flashback ability counters their removal, higher difficulty players are not awarded the same privilege to simply rewind time after each wrong move and especially in endurance-based races such as the Le Mans, which even as an accelerated interpretation takes 24 minutes to complete, it leaves you with nothing to do but have a bit of a whinge and surrender another half-hour of your life. Sure enough, a pit stop might put you out of the race for good, but it can leave you without option online where no one has the ability to rewind time.

GRID does have quite a steep learning curve to begin with, but it levels off fast. Each vehicle style plays different and must be mastered individually. Lower difficulty races are made all the more forgiving by a liberal dose of Flashbacks, but on upping the difficulty other drivers won't be afraid to bump you around on their path to glory. Adjusting to use the Flashback feature can be a little disorientating and undesirable to start but soon becomes second nature. The Flashback feature is that lifesaver that stops the controller from getting thrown through the TV. Forget to use it though, or find yourself all out of Flashbacks, and there's fat chance you'll be able to hustle back to the front of the pack. As different as each car class handles, sometimes the difference between them feels almost non-existent, which is a little disheartening for simulation fans, but does help to ease the learning curve once you adjust to the game mechanics.

Not everything in GRID is about coming first. Driver offers and sponsors often have the objective of beating a certain rival team, placing in the top 3 or even simply just placing no less than 5th. Walking away from a race, having failed to take pole but with a large wad of cash is encouraging, allowing you to purchase a new vehicle and move on to a different race type if you find yourself stuck.

At its roots, GRID is a title that seems to strive for fun above everything else. Whilst criminally limited in the sheer number of cars and the ability to tinker under the hood when compared to the likes of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, GRID is very much about capturing the spirit of racing, both in race and off the track. Going into the game for the first time, you pick yourself a name (or else be given a nickname like the lovable "dumptruck" if your name's nowhere to be found in the predetermined list), which your team will address you by. Returning to the game only to be greeted by the team manager stating "Welcome back Matthew" is a nice touch. Dialogue carries out through all areas of the game, with your team consistently giving you tips and updates mid race and commenting on your progress. It can be inconsistent at times and not always useful, but it's a nice touch that gives you that extra bit of encouragement on the track. If you stick with the third-person camera, the camera moves with every bump and crash, giving it a real sense of personality. If there's one area where this game really succeeds its in capturing the vibe of the racetrack like no other game out there.

To round out the package, GRID offers robust online multiplayer and full wheel support for some of Logitech's spiffiest models. The lack of diversity in car selection does become a little apparent in multiplayer, but there are plenty of different races to maintain variety. Unfortunately there's no splitscreen multiplayer to be had, which has always been great fun in the series, but then it's fair to say that multiplayer gaming trends have shifted a lot in the last few years. The only other thing I could really ask for in the game is a rear-view mirror to know when a player's flying straight up your rear.

Although it mightn't offer the biggest selection of cars, GRID offers one of the most diverse. It injects life beyond the racing itself, delivering a career mode that is as interesting as it is rewarding. Control is going to make or break this game for some players, but ultimately that all comes down to personal opinion and to me it wasn't such an issue once I adjusted. Strictly purist simulation players will find themselves rewarded for their superior skill, but find themselves disadvantaged by the game at times. They'll find themselves fighting an uphill battle, but a satisfying one none the less. If you're looking for sheer variety and a game that captures the spirit of racing, then GRID more than does the job. If you like your arcade style racers, GRID is certainly worth a play.