“Hello, Bozo.” It’s charming enough when a game greets you every time you load it. It’s even more endearing when you can choose to be called, instead of your first name, a gently satirical nickname like Bossman, or Chief or, indeed, Bozo. The announcer sounds like she’s almost♚ laughing whenever she says it, like it’s our little shared joke. So we’re proud to be a Bozo, and we feel welcomed. Immediately, from the second it’s loaded up, it’s clear that the good-natured personality of this racer is a far cry from its ever-frowning contemporaries.

GRID totally understands the importance of presentation. While other car games, especially those with any leaning towards accurate simulation, content themselves with being an accurate racing model and leave it pretty much at that, this smiling semi-sim paints a little flair onto even minor details. Such touches could be accused of superficiality, yet they make a colossal difference.Sometimes this is pretty subtle - your advisor makes worried noises about the famed abilities of a༒nother racer and suggests you aim for third place. The hell you will. Just that casual mention creates an instant, single-serving rival, granting nebulous personality to one of the 15 otherwise faceless drivers - you don’t know anything about him, but you do know you🦋 absolutely have to beat him. There’s no benefit to doing so except pride, and every time that’s more than enough. You’ve beaten someone you were told you couldn’t beat. Go, you!

All images taken from the 360 version