D1 Grand Prix
[PS2] We take this drift-heavy racer for a spin - literally
While it's a deeply technical game, D1 Grand Prix is far from bland. The car-customization options are fairly deep, and the competitive races are loaded with explosive pre- and post-match visuals that look like they were borrowed from WWE SmackDown! And if you get bored with the racing, "X-Treme" challenges - which involve everything from drifting to launching your car off a ramp - and unlockable movies of actual drift events should keep you busy for a while. So while it's unforgiving, race fans with a tolerance for steep learning curves might want to check this out next month.
- The shift-light tells you when to change gears or pop the clutch, if you like driving manually
- This bar here shows the balance between your score and your opponent's
- This is what happens to your score when you bump into an opponent
- This meter shows how "hot" your drift is. Right now it's ice cold
- On the plus side, you can rip off your opponent's bumper if you don't like having points
- Your bumper flies off if you hit anything. No. Bad. Never do this
- This car shows your tilt. It also lights up, which is meaningless but looks cool
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
A 29-year-old PC racing game going cyberpunk anime with Troy Baker, Initial D drifting, and cutscenes from the Metroid: Other M studio sure wasn't on my Game Awards bingo card
A speedrunner just beat Need for Speed: Most Wanted's world record by 90 minutes - by using Half-Life's Gordon Freeman instead of a car