While yesterday’s Apple Keynote had a relatively strong mobile gaming presence, with the exclusive reveal of Sky from thatgamecompany and some impressive ARKit experiments showing the full capabilities of this exciting new technology, I came out of the conference feeling a little disappointed. Those amongst our lively Discord community will have seen me repeatedly predict that GRID Autosport, Feral Interactive’s stunning racing simulator, would make an appearance. After all, if there ever was a game to show off the ridiculous capabilities of the shiny new iPhone X, it’d be GRID Autosport. Thankfully, the developer has numbed the pain somewhat by releasing their first official trailer for their highly anticipated racing title, and I can’t help but feel that GRID Autosport could the premium driving simulator that the App Store has desperately needed for so many years.
While independent releases like Rush Rally 2 ($0.99) have been mightily impressive, I can’t remember being particularly excited around a big budget, realistic racing title for a while. Real Racing 3 (Free) looked nice, but its monetisation mechanics were controversial and ironically slowed down the experience. Similarly, while we found F1 2016 ($1.99) to be a lot of fun for time trials, the actual AI racing side of the game was severely lacking. While the trailers and numerous sneak previews of GRID Autosport have all been positive, the jury is certainly still out on whether the title can deliver – and the previous failures within the genre will only make expectations for Feral’s biggest iOS effort yet even higher in the lead up to its launch.
Despite this, the excellence of its source material, coupled with the developer’s impressive track record in porting console games to mobile, mean my excitement for GRID Autosport is as strong as ever – and this beautiful new trailer only reinforces this. Here’s hoping the vague ‘coming soon’ release date indicates a release this side of Christmas, but either way GRID Autosport is showing all the signs that it’ll be more than worth the wait.