Something to scratch that car racing itch

[Ivan]

Hey bros, I'm looking for something that scratches that Midnight Club 2/3 and Burnout itch. I am not looking for a sim type game, a la Gran Turismo. I enjoy the frenetic pace of Burnount but also appreciate the gameiness of the power-ups found in the Midnight series. Please advise, much thanks.

 

[A user named cat]

Forza Horizon 3 is a pretty decent open world racer similar to Test Drive Unlimited and Burnout Paradise.

Flatout 2 has a lot of awesome game modes and fun you can have with ragdoll physics.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I lost my love of racing sims when I played an AAA racer for mobiles a couple of years ago that was carefully constructed to look as slick and beautiful as possible, like the most beautiful piece of ass that ever walked into a bar that you managed to get drunk and fuck, played like it was designed for kiddie karts on rails at the carnival so you wouldn't get frustrated, and incorporated a micro-transaction dynamic that made you wait at least 10 real world minutes between courses unless you paid hard cash or credit for the virtual mechanics to speed things up. Thank you, and FUCK YOU, android, for single-handedly killing my love of an entire genre in gaming.

 

[Rolo]

Ivan, if you liked Burnout... then why not Burnout? I'll assume you played 2 or 3 on consoles. Burnout Paradise is a fun open-city racing game with tons of secrets. I think it gets stale quickly but maybe I'm past my racing craze. It's going to get remastered in the coming months but with zero info I'll asume your PC will accomodate a 2010 game better.

Speaking of games for weak computers, Megarace 2 is now on Steam and it's so cheap it would be a shame to miss it. In short it's a sci-fi racing game with mines and missiles. Good steering feeling, nice visuals especially for a DOS game from more than 20 fucking years ago, the jungle in particular looks amazing. Skip Megarace 1 as it's too primitive for comfort, and skip Megarace 3 as it's too shit for comfort.

Other games with power-ups are Rollcage and its recent clone named GRIP. Rollcage I Redux and Rollcage II Extreme are both free upgrades / remakes and will give you a great time.

Split/Second is a bit like MotorStorm in that it's a modern-setting racing game with power-ups that can alter the environment and change the layout of the tracks, for example by collapsing buildings. It has a lot of potential but you should definitely try before you buy because it forces you to drive like a complete moron in order to grind your power-ups.

Speaking of MotorStorm, assuming your computer can handle it, you can always emulate it and give it a look. I wouldn't put it very high on your list because the driving doesn't feel fast and nervous at all. It's broken on PPSSPP (no sound) so you are stuck with PCSX2.

Speaking of what you can get on PPSSPP, make sure to check both Legends and Dominator. Dominator is typical of a slightly improved sequel except they ditched the crash mode entirely (no big loss). Both will give you a great time as the driving is both slick and precise, but also extremely fast and intense.

Relevant links:

Burnout Paradise on Steam

Megarace 2 on Steam

Split/Second on Steam

GRIP on Steam

Rollcage I Redux on... whoever that is' blog

Rollcage II Extreme, same source

Not linked:
Burnout Legends (PSP)
Burnout Dominator (PSP)
Motorstorm Artic Edge (PS2)
Just so the admins don't get into trouble. I'm sure you know how to get them through the usual channels.

 

[fantadomat]

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Anything with Colin McRae's name on it

 

[agris]

Hey bros, I'm looking for something that scratches that Midnight Club 2/3 and Burnout itch. I am not looking for a sim type game, a la Gran Turismo. I enjoy the frenetic pace of Burnount but also appreciate the gameiness of the power-ups found in the Midnight series. Please advise, much thanks.

If you like Flatout 1 and the Midnight series, check out NFS: Most Wanted Black Edition (~2005 or so). The open world style plus cop pursuits / roadblocks etc are really fun. Unfortunately, it isn't on steam but i'm sure you can find it.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

After being disappointed with a lot of the more recent Need for Speeds, I was pleasantly surprised by Hot Pursuit http://store.steampowered.com/app/47870/

There are 2 single player progressions, one where you're often being pursued by cops and another where you're the cops. You can deploy spike strips and use boosts and shit, it's very arcadey and the drive-feel is amazing. The cop missions are optional and are mostly based around shuitting down races, but they're kind of cool in their own way as they have better access to gadgets for their vehicles.

 

[Gragt]

I typically don’t like racing games but Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast is the exception.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Either get Mashed or boot up a nice emulator and play sega/snes Micro Machines. PSX was a golden era for these kind of games too, so, if the dated graphics are no issue, take a look into its repertoire.

 

[Markman]

The Crew is pretty arcady with bunch of stuff going on, a gangsta vengeance story mode, lots of different car classes plus if you get the complete edition you get 2 exp packs with monster trucks and you can play as police with bunch of abilities.
Plus you get to play on USA map, from LA to New York.

 

[Jacob]

I typically don’t like racing games but Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast is the exception.

This especially on the arcade machine.

 

[Country_Gravy]

It looks like the crew 2 is coming out soon. Sounds kinda lame, though.

 

[Gerrard]

The Crew 2 was delayed to "between April/September".

 

[warpig]

I you are interested in futuristic racers I would recommend Redout:

 

[Freddie]

I typically don’t like racing games but Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast is the exception.

I don't usually like arcade racers but this one was good. There was a trick to get it working right on either AMD or nVidia hardware in the past though. IIRC internal game speed was tied to screen refresh rate or something like that.