GRID2

Fact
The Grid 2 Mono Edition is one of the most expensive games in the world, priced at $125,000 USD. The price is apparently justified, because you get a ton of original content along with it, along with the incredible experience of owning a BAC Mono.

Racing games are a dime a dozen nowadays, all of them working off the same basic formula that has been running for years to deliver a virtual driving experience for gamers. Usually these games feel mass produced and marketed to a crowd that rarely knows much about cars other than the obvious: 4 wheels and spoilers look cool on almost anything.
Grid 2 looked VERY promising in its pre-launch buildup. Great cars (the BMW E30 M3 a personal favourite of mine), a long list of promising tracks, and the eye dazzling graphics wowed us, with expectation rising to boiling points for most car enthusiasts who are into playing games.
Now that it's here, though, it feels a little overhyped. The graphics are intensely beautiful, every single car modeled perfectly down to the rear light clusters that occupy our vision most of the time. We like the interior view, especially in simulation games, because it makes us feel like rockstars when we can pilot a million dollar Pagani Zonda around the Nurburgring without a scratch, from the interior view no less. One of the biggest disappointments was the exclusion of the interior view, reducing the effects of the hyper-realism as promised by the developers, pre-launch.
Speaking of hyper-realism (or rather the lack of it), the handling model is okay, but feels a little arcade-y, a deviation from the original Grid game. The cars feel more planted and less twitchy, but around corners, the slides and handbrake induced turns feel like NFS Underground, instead of feeling close to what the masters of simulation racers, Granturismo, can offer us. It's a nice balance of fun and simulation, not necessarily a game aimed at hardcore car enthusiasts but something the general populace would lap up more easily.
The career progression is simple, effective and rewarding. If you're here to drive some fast cars around iconic tracks, don't be afraid to start off with the career mode, because the cars are unlocked really fast and you start off with a tasty selection of metal anyway. The races aren't much of a challenge at first, but every time you move up the ladder to each new, more difficult race series, the fun doubles.
Onto the graphics, and this is probably the best part of the game. Even in-game, in the middle of a race, it's tempting to stop and admire the crowd, the cars, the track itself. Every crash is played out perfectly, with jarring screens and a collision model that turns the cars into smoking heaps that look surprisingly beautiful (if you're a crazed psychopath who finds beauty in destruction). The point isn't to wreck your car, but try it out anyway for the sake of knowing, because you really don't want to find out what a fully kitted out Nissan Silvia drift car looks like when it's a crumpled heap of metal and fiberglass in real life. This is stuff that should be moving you to tears, but Grid 2 lets you witness it in the safety of a virtual world.
All in all, a great game even if you aren't a proper car enthusiast but you're looking for a little high speed thrill in your free time. The car enthusiasts will grumble under their breaths, but you can't please everyone all the time, right?