Recommend a racing game please

Ryan0r

Ryan0r

Ryan0r

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27 Feb 2009
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All the talk of Forza Horizon 3 is giving me a racing itch. I won't upgrade to Windows 10 (for various reasons, 11 years in IT, so no Win 10 discussions pls...)

I'm looking for recommendations for something that includes progression, car customisation, a mixture of driving and exploring (I particularly enjoyed the delivery missions in Test Drive Unlimited for some reason, and like the idea of barn finds in FH3)

Other favourite driving games:
  • GRID (the first one, loved going from one crappy car to a fleet of exotic racers)
  • Need for Speed Most Wanted.
  • TDU 1
  • DIRT games (in spite of the yee-haw American BS)

I had a try of The Crew as it was free recently for Ubisoft's 30 year promo, the driving felt horrible though and I couldn't begin to care about the stupid story. NFS:Hot Pursuit's driving felt awful. Not too fussed about any of the hardcore racing sims. Burnout Paradise is just loud nonsense - something in between! :) How is the new NFS:MW?

No wheel; I play with a 360 controller. And offline ideally; I'd rather not be at the mercy of servers being up or down to play...

Awkward, I know, but appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks all x
 
WRC6 has just released and I kinda like it, It's fixed isssues WRC5 had and is a fun game that runs really well.

Grid Autosport was a disappointment, I lost track of how often I got spun out by the AI tapping my back end, It drove me mad, It was like they were cheating cause it seemed to always happen right at the end of a race, I ended up raging too much.

Dirt rally isn't bad, It isn't an Americanised event like 3 & Showdown are.
 
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Really wish they'd polish up and re-release TDU2 so much good stuff and potential in that game - but the backend/registration and servers is on the blink these days and some of the gameplay is quite laughable.

I've not really found a game that has all 3 - I've been hopping between TDU2 and Assetto Corsa (which I picked up recently) depending on what I wanted.
 
Dirt rally and assetto are the best car games i would say but a wheel really helps with them.

Dirt rally on gravel is almost perfection.
Assetto on tarmac is also great fun.

F1 2016 is pretty decent aswell . good fun on a pad and pad guys can put in very fast times.
 
~>Dg<~ said:
Dirt rally and assetto are the best car games i would say but a wheel really helps with them.

Dirt rally on gravel is almost perfection.
Assetto on tarmac is also great fun.

F1 2016 is pretty decent aswell . good fun on a pad and pad guys can put in very fast times.
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the 3 games Dg mention above are the best 3 racing games on the pc at the moment imo but like said a wheel makes them a bit more fun,,,but,,, they are still fun on a pad.
they are sort of sim based though but still heaps of fun and the best on pc :)
 
Dirt Rally is the best but no exploration. The driving experience is superb, though. Same with Project Cars and it's not a full-blown simulator so it's fairly easy to get into.
And you can grab both for a decent price:)

The new NFS is decent if you get it cheaply but it gets old quickly and the cutscenes and all the fistbumping will drive you MAD. Customisation is rather crap and it takes some time to get used to the handling. They've nailed the atmosphere of the city at night/early in the morning perfectly, though. And you can just drive about, which you can't do in DR and P:C.
 
I usually fall back to Need for Speed Shift 2 if I want the closed "Gran Turismo / Forza" experience on PC. It still looks alright and has good sound effects even today. There is apparently a realism mod too.
 
Project Cars looks great, specifically the career mode. There's no open world stuff as such, but it seems similar to GRID in terms of progression. Watching a video just now, seems pretty cool going from karting/teir 8 and working your way up. How long does that all take, anyone done this?

The new NFS:MW (2012) could be a shout; has the 'open world' stuff I'm after and plenty side activities etc it seems.
 
I'm going to throw some curve balls at you, because for what you're asking for the PC is limited.

Rocket League - it's driving, but it's a fun game...especially with a pad.
GTA V - online it has some very good racing
 
Ryan0r said:
Project Cars looks great, specifically the career mode. There's no open world stuff as such, but it seems similar to GRID in terms of progression. Watching a video just now, seems pretty cool going from karting/teir 8 and working your way up. How long does that all take, anyone done this?

The new NFS:MW (2012) could be a shout; has the 'open world' stuff I'm after and plenty side activities etc it seems.
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The Project Cars career mode is OK, it's pretty linear when it comes to progression and takes as long as you want it to take really as you define if you want to skip or simulate stages like qualifying and also select how long you want the races to be.

If you want a decent single player career mode then F1 2016... to be honest.
 
spacedskunk said:
If you want a decent single player career mode then F1 2016... to be honest.
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The open wheel races in GRID were my least favourite :( Watching a video on the F1 2016 career mode, looks really good though. I like the upgrade + R&D stuff, and 'mini games' for practice, etc.

heartburnron said:
Grid 2 is my favourite. Flat out, no braking, drift round every bend. Great fun.
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I have that, didn't get on with it at all. After working hard for the satisfaction of buying cars in the first one, you just get given them for completing a race in 2! wtf? :confused:
 
automobalista is a really good sim

nfs Porsche had missions and stuff todo (car delivery), which was decent :)

test drive ferrari? has some progression/storyline type of thing going on too
 
Took the plunge on Project Cars - picked up the GOTY edition for £22. Have started the career mode in Tier 8 (karts!) and enjoying it so far :)

Thanks for the recommendations folks.
 
A bit older but Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is spectacular. The AI is quite rubber bandy, but the gameplay is awesome, really visceral.
 
Ryan0r said:
I had a try of The Crew as it was free recently for Ubisoft's 30 year promo, the driving felt horrible though and I couldn't begin to care about the stupid story.
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Not really into racing outside of arcade machines anyway, but opened thread to recommend this very game, precisely because it's free so can't really beat that... but never mind!! :D

I do have a sudden urge to go play some of the Outrun soundtrack, though...
 
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