Recommend a racing game please

[Ryan0r]

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

 

[Ryan0r]

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.

 

[Ryan0r]

If you want a decent single player career mode then F1 2016... to be honest.

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.

Grid 2 is my favourite. Flat out, no braking, drift round every bend. Great fun.

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?

 

[Ryan0r]

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.

 

[Ryan0r]

I've never played the first one but after playing Grid 2 and then getting Grid autosport, I found Autosport a bit dull. I guess I am in to more arcade style racing than sim though.

Well worth a look then; still looks amazing even today and can be picked up for pretty cheap. (Currently a tenner on Steam, but frequently discounted to £3.xx)

 

[Ryan0r]

I re-installed The Crew again to give it another fair crack of the whip, because in theory it's got everything I was looking for (in first post) with regard to racing, customisation, progression, a big map to play in, etc etc.

But by god it seems hell-bent on making me not like it - crappy handling/driving, constantly ramming "social" stuff down my throat, and the nail in the coffin, in a car showroom browsing stock and some cars are listed at £3.50. For a ******* car in a game! Nope, nope, nope. I'm actually a fan of the Ubisoft collect-a-thon model; occasionally I'm in the mood to just turn my brain off and chase blips (especially if the reward is a new car), but on principal I'm gonna have to bin this. Grr.