Grid 2 - A personal score to settle

If you've read my recent stuff you've probably noticed that I've been waxing nostalgic lately.  In part that's due to a minor case of OCD that drives me to at least get a few hours of play out of a game I forked over my hard earned money for.

That's what caused my obsession with the BioShock franchise over the past 3 months and the videos that resulted.

Considering I've recently been living on Ramen noodles ( .25 a package!) and tap water I'm hard pressed to let anything I've paid for languish for long.  It's used or it ends up on Ebay.

I can't Ebay my Steam games so I might as well play them...

I wrote an earlier article on Grid 2 and I was kind of lukewarm on it.  I really didn't care for the "Need For Speed" direction it's taken with the very Autolog like Racenet online portal and DLC disease.  Still, the game is as gorgeous as its predecessor and car control is almost as good.

For months, however, I just couldn't get into the vibe of the game.  It seemed like there was always this disconnect between me and what was happening on the monitor.  Today, however, I was in the right mood and decided that at least I would finish the first "Season" of the single player game.  I'd let it languish for almost a year so it was about time I think.

Now I already mentioned that things have been a bit financially challenging and one of the big changes,  gaming wise, was being forced to sell my Radeon HD 6950 video card from my home gaming/everyday pc. 

Hey, I got a few bucks that bought some groceries and gas to get to a few interviews so not a bad trade but that left me coming up a bit short.

I had originally tried to sell old Nvidia GTX 260 216 which while a worthy card in its day, just doesn't stack up to anything made recently.  I mean, really now, it's a Direct X 10 card that came out 5 years ago.

So that's what I had to put into my home gaming rig to get by.

Here's the thing...

I found out that Battlefield 4 could run on a DX10 card, Call of Duty Ghosts won't but then who cares,  I hate that game.  Guess what else works, Grid 2.  In fact it appears to play better on that old 260 than it did on the 6950.

I'm starting to wonder if in spite of my efforts I just play better on Nvidia cards.  Even if they're old and crusty.  After all, HD gaming doesn't need a lot of power and Grid 2 isn't taxing the hardware even with 4XMSAA and high textures. 

The result is what you see below.  I finished the Season 1 series pretty easily.  I was not having as easy a time with the 6950. 

I think I'm an NVIDIA guy now....