Looking for racing sim

hello all,


I am looking for a racing sim to play. I used to play one but have lost it. It had a cool driver school in side it. It had an instructor telling you how to drive with his voice and showing the car going through the motion. Great fun, wish i could remember its name , it was racing through mountions and cool places, had Ferrari and Porsche.

Anywho what are the new good racing games that are sims, and perhaps having driving schools in them to. New as in 3years ish.

Thanks

 

Live for speed is one of the best. You can download demo with driving school.
http://www.lfs.net/
Also, good sims are based on rfactor engine. There is an unlimited possibility for the modding. GTR2, GTR evolution, Race 07, etc. I'm not sure for all games, but in GTR 2 driving school also is presented.
http://www.simbin.se/

 

http://www.rfactor.net/

+ http://www.rfactorcentral.com/ for mods etc.

 

i know its not a sim but GRID is worth the look, much more realistic comparied to the like of need for speed carbon

 

Wow.. Grid is worth trying out for sure..i ll download its demo soon..

check it out:

<object width='425' height='344'><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cP1Q6sxNJoY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cP1Q6sxNJoY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width='425' height='344'></embed></object>

 

Yeah I've been playing GRID for about a month now and it's by far the best, most realistic racing game I've ever played. The racing itself is tons more realistic than any of the NFS titles, although you're limited to set tracks and there is no street racing or cops (there is drifting though). If you want to enjoy it fully you need a pretty nice rig... with at least an 8600m GT i'd say.

 

It's not exactly a sim, but Trackmania on Steam is free and fun little racing game with tons of wacky tracks.

 

Btw, I LOL'd at that video.

 

Eh? Most realistic racing game you've ever played? You must mainly stick to stuff like Mario Kart and F-Zero...

Seriously though, for me GRID feels a lot like the Ridge Racer games. Not that that's a bad thing.

 

Er... name me some games that are most realistic then.

 

Live for speed is the most realistic.

 

As far as racing sims go, I don't think anything beats Gran Turismo 4 (And soon to come, GT5). Too bad it's not available for PC (Maybe if you used a PS2 emulator, you could)

 

Well on PC we have GTR...

 

live for speed bests both

 

I agree, live for speed is the best option. GT4 is simply an arcade game.

 

Even better than GT5 Prologue? In some respects, possibly. I see the damage in Grid (though this isn't the game you're exactly talking about) being cool but I don't really care about damage when I want the driver to be the deciding factor in a race (though they do give you temporary time/speed penalties if you hit someone else or the wall). The physics though in GT5 are like nothing before. I've played every single GT game and the physics have slowly come up through the series, with GT5 however, there was a fairly large jump compared to the rest of the series (cars definitely tend to slide more when accelerating hard coming out of a corner or changing directions really quickly), and that's just with the "Standard" physics. Moving to professional takes much more precise steering and throttle control to maximize your speed around the track (cars slide even more easily). For a real driving simulator, GT5 is the only game that satisfies my urge for speed. I'd like to see people compare games to it and why they are better, any takers?

EDIT: downloading Live for Speed now, will try it out this evening and post back.

 

I own GT5P (on PS3) and Live for Speed (on my desktop.)

I use the logitech G25 wheel for both.

There is no contest, Live for Speed is a more realistic sim with a better physics model. It isn't even close.

The only thing GT5P does better is the graphics and real-life cars---eye candy/car po rn whatever.


Edit---there's videos on youtube that show just how advanced the physics are in LfS---like the tire wear/heat/and deformation when cornering ones


Edit #2---If you only play with a gamepad, or KB+mouse then GT5P (heck, even Grid) might be more fun to play. With Live for Speed, you really need a wheel to get the most out of it. I just tried it with the "mouse-steer" option---yuck!

 

I don't know where this falls in, but BMW M3 Challenge seemed pretty realistic to me when I played it a few months ago.

 

I'm fairly certain it uses a version of the engine SimBin uses in their GTR2/Race07/GTL/GTE etc games.

M3 Challenge was OK for a free game, but it really lacked any sense of speed.

 

definitely try it out first before making such comment.

 

I just downloaded and tried Live for Speed and I'm only somewhat impressed. The only "advantage" of the actual driving in the game over GRID I noticed after about 20 minutes of playing is the ability to use fast/medium/slow steering and steering with the mouse, which I suppose gives the game more realism but also makes it more complicated to drive without a steering wheel. Also, car damage and collision physics are MUCH more realistic in GRID. I don't see why all these people are saying LFS is more realistic...

 

grid is nowhere close to LFS on realism. I have both games and LFS is meant for wheels. The end. grid got better VISUAL damages, but LFS got better calculation on how those damages affect your driving.

 

Agreed.

Calling Grid a more realistic racing game than Live for Speed is like saying Ace Combat shows more realism than Falcon 4.0 AF.

Graphics =/= Physics

 

Each to his own I suppose. The speed and responsiveness of GRID, not to mention the graphics, lead me to find it more "realistic" even if LFS better models actual driving.

 

WOW cant believe all the replys i got.


Thanks


I will try Live for speed that sounds like a good bet and BMW M3. And i picked up GTR 2 as it was only 20 bucks, for the driving school. Grid looks cool, but i have been reading reviews that say its driving is not the best, in terms of reality. Are there any other games with schools?

ps I do have a old thrustmaster wheel and pedels, with force feed back. But might be upgrading, the logitech G25 is nice but $300 is way to much for me. Looking for something cheaper.

I have a Thrustmaster Nascar Pro 2? Force Feedback Racing Wheel, is it worth it to upgrade?

 

what do you play with Grid? keyboard? Yes that is incredibly real.

 

the thrustmaster and G25 are like toyota and ferrari. G25 worth every single penny IMO. If it's too much for you, I recommend momo.

 

I bought GRiD and I kinda regret it. On one hand it's very, very pretty. There's no better way to say it. It's simply a PRETTY game. However, it has the one flaw.. the ONE FLAW.. that pains me. RUBBER BANDING. Get too far ahead? Let's put the WHOLE FIELD into turbo mode and catch up really fast!

I hate it. I hate it so freakin' much. I can't even play it anymore cuz every race is "get a few seconds ahead, then out of nowhere on the last lap everyone gets some kind of infini-boost" and blows ahead of me. Note that there's no boost in the game.

 

What???? That has never happened to me before (I play on Normal difficulty). Every time I get pretty far ahead I stay ahead unless I crash or graze something.

 

Well obviously no racing game will truly be realistic without an expensive driving wheel + pedals but the keyboard controls were implemented very well in my opinion. I'm coming from racing games like NFS: Most Wanted, Carbon, BMW M3 Challenge, and Test Drive Unlimited so GRID is really impressive.

 

You can download additional cars, tracks, mods, etc:
http://www.nogripracing.com/files.php?maincat=6

 

These all are arcade racing games, and we were asked for sims.

 

As a side note. I finally found the old game i was looking for "need for speed porsche unleashed" Man how memory fads i thought that game had great graphics and looking at it now its lol not so great. Looks like it was one of the better NFS sense they all had Porches thing spent more time making the Data more life like.

It did not have a driving school but a cool Factory driver thing. You complete time trails and stunts to earn stuff, after they tell you how.


Looking forward to the newer games. Thanks for everyone that help!


ps in GTR 2 how do you start the driver school? i select the driver school and i load the level like Braking. Then it loads this screen, and i cant find the "start game" "start race" button. haha i am sure its right in my face.

 

GTR2 all the way!, it's the best racing sim i've ever played.

 

well, just highlight the challenge you'd like to try and then press the "attempt" button, it's located down the right side of the screen above the train and observe buttons! :wink:...

 

haha, i am smart. Downloading add on now.

 

I guess I'll show my age...

Papyrus used to be THE premiere developer for racing sims...the eye candy obviously doesn't measure up to today's standards...but if you upped all the realism options (and there were a plethora of them), I guarantee you that you couldn't make it around the track with a digital input device (ie keyboard, gamepad D-pad)...it was hard enough getting around the track with a Microsoft Steering Wheel...

If you don't mind a drop in visual quality, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season was the last sim developed by Papyrus...

At one time, EA had a decent NASCAR sim before they started catering to the consoles (somewhere around 2004-2005)...and if you're not into NASCAR, F1 2002 was a good sim...again, the eye candy was down a bit...

I always considered GTR arcade, but I'm a jaded old man...I imagine Ace Combat 6 is now a flight sim...if the manual doesn't weigh about 3-5 lbs, then it probably isn't a sim...or at least that used to be the rule...

 

I remember those old Nascar games, They were so fun to drive the wrong way and cause a 50+ car crash spanning hafl the track. Then watching it on repley from different angles.



I always considered GTR arcade, but I'm a jaded old man...I imagine Ace Combat 6 is now a flight sim...if the manual doesn't weigh about 3-5 lbs, then it probably isn't a sim...or at least that used to be the rule...


You really cant apply that rule to day as many games for-go any manual. There online or in game. At work we just got a $3,000 copy center, then manual that came with it 50 pages total, thats including 8 languages.

 

I've tried Grid, and got extremely disapointed, the game is pure arcade, aimed at being played with a gamepad. A beautiful arcade racing game, nothing more.

The thing for me now is rFactor. It has some similarities with MS Flight Simulator, in my opinion, because his strenght is the worldwide community developing cars, tracks, add-ons and forming racing leagues. Start at www.rfactorcentral.com

Oh, yeah, and to really enjoy it you'll need a good force feedback wheel, ideally a Logitech G25. Although I like very much my MOMO FFB wheel.

 

Oh... hm... I guess GRID and NFS aren't, but isn't BMW M3 Challenge at least a sim?

 

Of all the ones you listed yes, IMO, M3 Challenge is the most sim-like in term of the driving physics.

It's not a very good sim at all (painful lack of options/tuning, tracks, cars--obviously, nearly everything), but hey it's free.

I suppose it depends on how you define the sim genre, but in my book M3 Challenge meets the basic criteria. The others are more.....arcade.

 

I would suggest rFactor and GTR2, however I play GTR2 a lot more since the Formula 1 2008 mod for it is better than rFactor's

 

I've had enough real driving experience with my old car everyday. When I play racing game I want it to be as arcade as possible