Incline Best racing games

[sullynathan]

I got Dirt 3 for free on PS3 & PC, I haven't played it but it got me wondering about great racing games. My racing game background isn't very extensive. I've played either Forza 3 or 4's demo a couple years ago and remember it being very fun. I also played the beta for the game Blur and it was fun as hell online but the series got canned . I have heard good things about Gran Turismo and DIRT rally, but I'm not shelling money for them any time soon. I also own The Crew, but haven't touched it.

What are the other good - great racing games? I don't really care about what sub-genre it falls under like sim, arcade, kart or open world. Which ones do what they set out to do well?

 

[J_C]

I got Dirt 3 for free on PS3 & PC, I haven't played it but it got me wondering about great racing games. My racing game background isn't very extensive. I've played either Forza 3 or 4's demo a couple years ago and remember it being very fun. I also played the beta for the game Blur and it was fun as hell online but the series got canned . I have heard good things about Gran Turismo and DIRT rally, but I'm not shelling money for them any time soon. I also own The Crew, but haven't touched it.

What are the other good - great racing games? I don't really care about what sub-genre it falls under like sim, arcade, kart or open world. Which ones do what they set out to do well?

Are you talking about modern games, or older ones as well?

As for hardcore sims, I heared Assetto Corse is one of the best on the market. Project Cars also seems good, although the simulation is not as good as in Assetto Corsa, but still might be a good racing game. I actually liked the Need For Speed - Hot Pursuit remake, which is arcade as hell obviously.

GT5 is great on the PS3 IMO. Many say that it is not as fun as Forza on the Xbox, and it is true that it has less game modes, but it has good semi-sim-arcade driving.

 

[Declinator]

Assetto Corsa is quite possibly the best handling driving simulator around with a very good line-up of cars both classic and modern and the track list isn't too shabby either. However, if we're talking best racing game there a couple of caveats:
-The career mode is shit
-No rain, no night

You want to do some hotlapping it's the best thing since sliced bread. The AI is ok but can be unpredictable with certain cars. Multiplayer is ok and mostly the complaints have been the usual (not enough regulation against deliberate crashes etc.)

If you don't have a wheel I wouldn't recommend it but if you do I would absolutely recommend it.

I would probably recommend Forza over Gran Turismo though it is a pretty even matchup. Honestly, I had more fun with Gran Turismo 5 than Forza 4 but from an objective standpoint the sounds in GT5 are shit, the brakes lock very easily indeed, the UI is terrible, the AI is terrible and a lot of the content is gated behind a lot of grind whereas Forza is a far more polished game. But Forza 4 always seemed sort of muted in how the cars handled. As though they had pretty much the right values but somebody decided to dial it down. They both have sort of solid career modes though.

The undisputed champion of career modes is still Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed (also known as Porsche 2000). Old game, looks like crap and has some glaring deficiencies in the handling model but goddammit if the career mode isn't the best around. And while the simulation value isn't that great anymore it's still great fun. In the career you go through the history of Porsches and you use money to buy cars, tune the cars, and fix any damage done to the cars. In something like GT5 the basic money model is the same but you don't actually lose any significant amount of money if you damage your car whereas in Porsche Unleashed you crash an expensive racing car and it'll cost you more than many of the cars themselves. You can actually sort of fail the career mode if you can't afford to fix your car and have no other cars. There are also a couple of unrepeatable special events with the car you race with as the price. One try and if you fail, well, go fuck yourself because you won't ever get a second chance. If only others would copy the risk/reward model of Porsche Unleashed but noooo let's give the players the ability to rewind (Forza 4).

Dirt Rally is a solid game. Quite pretty. Rally games are pretty different from normal racing games as they aren't so heavy on memorization and perfect lines so I would try that Dirt 3 before splurging on Dirt Rally or Richard Burns Rally (older classic rally game).

Forza Horizon was an amusing game for a bit but it got quite repetitive. From what I've seen Forza Horizon 3 seems better so if you've got a hankering for open world racing, check it out.

If you want to focus on regulated serious business US-style (NASCAR, Indy etc.) multiplayer racing then look no further than iRacing but note that it is subscription based.

 

[racofer]

Assetto Corsa is the only answer.

 

[Carrion]

Rally Trophy from 2001 is great if you're into 60's and 70's cars. Fairly realistic as well, with those old and powerful real-wheel-drive cars requiring a fair amount of skill until you can master them. There's also a nice damage model and some humour you probably won't get unless you're a Finn. I'm not all that much into racing games, but there's just something cool about the more realistic rally games.

Haven't really played anything since then, as my racing wheel stopped working and I've never bothered to get a new one.

 

[A user named cat]

GTR 2 is still the king of sims and PC racing games as a whole, especially if you install some mods. It sounds and handles incredibly well. If the graphics feel dated to you, you can also spice those up as well with texture mods, ENBSeries or Sweetfx.

 

[J_C]

In something like GT5 the basic money model is the same but you don't actually lose any significant amount of money if you damage your car whereas in Porsche Unleashed you crash an expensive racing car and it'll cost you more than many of the cars themselves.

I remember always postponing the repairs until the last possible moment, so I usually won the races with cars which were terribly wrecked. :D Man, Porsche Unleased is one of my all time favourite racing game.

Rally Trophy from 2001 is great if you're into 60's and 70's cars. Fairly realistic as well, with those old and powerful real-wheel-drive cars requiring a fair amount of skill until you can master them. There's also a nice damage model and some humour you probably won't get unless you're a Finn. I'm not all that much into racing games, but there's just something cool about the more realistic rally games.

Haven't really played anything since then, as my racing wheel stopped working and I've never bothered to get a new one.

Just a hug for a fellow bro who played Rally Trophy. What a great game!

 

[Freddie]

The undisputed champion of career modes is still Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed (also known as Porsche 2000). Old game, looks like crap and has some glaring deficiencies in the handling model but goddammit if the career mode isn't the best around. And while the simulation value isn't that great anymore it's still great fun. In the career you go through the history of Porsches and you use money to buy cars, tune the cars, and fix any damage done to the cars. In something like GT5 the basic money model is the same but you don't actually lose any significant amount of money if you damage your car whereas in Porsche Unleashed you crash an expensive racing car and it'll cost you more than many of the cars themselves. You can actually sort of fail the career mode if you can't afford to fix your car and have no other cars. There are also a couple of unrepeatable special events with the car you race with as the price. One try and if you fail, well, go fuck yourself because you won't ever get a second chance. If only others would copy the risk/reward model of Porsche Unleashed but noooo let's give the players the ability to rewind (Forza 4).

Dirt Rally is a solid game. Quite pretty. Rally games are pretty different from normal racing games as they aren't so heavy on memorization and perfect lines so I would try that Dirt 3 before splurging on Dirt Rally or Richard Burns Rally (older classic rally game).

Forza Horizon was an amusing game for a bit but it got quite repetitive. From what I've seen Forza Horizon 3 seems better so if you've got a hankering for open world racing, check it out.

If you want to focus on regulated serious business US-style (NASCAR, Indy etc.) multiplayer racing then look no further than iRacing but note that it is subscription based.

Someone still remembers Porsche Unleashed! Damn that was a fine game. Career mode is indeed the best there is and tuning your cars with various parts something I haven't seen done that well in any game. Damage with more expensive cars can really hurt... Recall smashing GT 1 in Monte Carlo and repair costs beinghundreds of thousands.

Richard Burns rally is also excellent, but like advised, it would be good to try Dirt or something else before getting into that.

Rally Trophy from 2001 is great if you're into 60's and 70's cars. Fairly realistic as well, with those old and powerful real-wheel-drive cars requiring a fair amount of skill until you can master them. There's also a nice damage model and some humour you probably won't get unless you're a Finn. I'm not all that much into racing games, but there's just something cool about the more realistic rally games.

Haven't really played anything since then, as my racing wheel stopped working and I've never bothered to get a new one.

This is another great game, wheel is indeed required.

For something more arcade, Test Drive Unlimited 1 and 2 are options if you are able to get them for cheap. I don't think online modes work anymore, but they have nice sandbox environment and quite a variety of different cars. Driving model is very different between 1 and 2, making TDU 2 very ideal for casual challenges with a decent gamepad. I prefer Xbox 360 controller. They get boring after a while though.

If getting later Gran Turismo titles isn't an option, Gran Turismo 4 with PCSX2 (if you have decent PC) has been a lot of entertainment for me. If you go that route, I advice to skip GT3 because it's less optimised than GT4 and more difficult to emulate.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The Sim Bin games are still viable and the the rFactor engine is still being put to good use by Reiza.

Too bad rFactor 2 was such a dub. At this point it seems Assetto Corsa is the defacto heir of rFactor, judging by the modding community anyway, which seems to be taking off nicely.

 

[Sore Loser]

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