Best simulation racing game for the PC?

  • Thread starter JCE
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What about any Project Gotham style racers? Half sim-half arcade full fun! Oh, and real cars are preferred.
 
Toronado
Viper Racing is kind of limited compared to games of these days, though, and it has a terrible interface/menu system (though the paint editor was a fairly powerful system). I always found the way it modeled downforce to be weird, as well.
I personally prefer Sports Car GT for old school sim racing.
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+1. I'm going to have to dig it out & do a few laps around Road Atlanta in the 911 GT1. :D
 
MildAshers
World Racing 2 - http://www.bhmotorsports.com/WR2
Evolution GT - http://www.bhmotorsports.com/EGT (better on pc than console)
Cross Racing Championship - http://www.bhmotorsports.com/CRC (if you dont mind no real cars)
Sports car GT - http://www.bhmotorsports.com/SCGT (if you havnt already:P)
And again, Race 07, bloody fantastic racing. http://www.bhmotorsports.com/RACE07
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Good list, though I've heard that World Racing 2 wasn't as good as the original, Mercedes Benz World Racing. I don't know myself, since I've only played MBWR.
 
The best is Live For Speed. Best online racing (CTRA), best physics, best racing oriented features. decent selection of car types(roadcars, racecars,openwheelers + bmw). LFS also has the most active community out of all of the other sims.

I dont think anyone has mentioned iRacing yet. its supposed to be a sim for the more serious, but sofar there's just been lots of hype shown and no demo released to public.
 
That is really a good link, thanks :) 👍. It seems three games that use manufacturer's data use pacejka, one use pacejka integration? (quasi finite element). Maybe manufacturer only use pacejka.

About NFS, I still prefer the first NFS physics for realism.

About iRacing, I read somewhere that some beta exe leaked out at those website earlier days. They say that iRacing use a modification of Nascar Racing 2003 exe.
 
GTR2, GT Legends, and Race '07 are, IMO, the best sims I've played.

R/Factor is cool, I have it as well, but it's hit&miss. Track selection and car availability are awesome, though, and I use the game to get familiar with RL tracks before I actually drive on them.
 
Gabkicks
says the newb. thats like saying the NES is the best console ever.:lol:
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As in, it was the best when it first came out, but has since been outclassed multiple times and is difficult to get working properly?
 
JCE
What about any Project Gotham style racers? Half sim-half arcade full fun! Oh, and real cars are preferred.
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OutRun2006: Coast 2 Coast

Also check out Nebula, which is an emulator that allows you to play all Model 2 arcade racing games from Sega in arcade perfect form. That means that you can play the real, arcade perfect versions of Daytona USA, Sega Rally, and Indy 500 on your PC!
 
Grand Prix Legends

maybe you will laugh at me but this is the truth.Driving physics at MAFIA are really good with a steering wheel.
 
Toronado
I love the game, but if Outrun 2006 was half-sim than Tokyo Xtreme Racer would be the next Live for Speed.
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Maybe he was thinking of the fact that the game's drifting technique is rather accurate, even if the drifting itself and cornering speeds are hopelessly exaggerated. Technique-wise, Outrun 2/2006's drifting is more accurate than the vast majority of racing games. You really get that feeling on the arcade versions.
 
Wolfe
Technique-wise, Outrun 2/2006's drifting is more accurate than the vast majority of racing games.
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What, you mean the blip the throttle and slide bit? I would agree, but it is too obvious that the game used the corners themselves to turn rather than the actual car motions. Try and slide the rear out on a straight bit and all you will do is drive straight off the road, but do it in a turn and you can pull off a quarter mile drift of win. Ridge Racer (R4 in particular) did it better, in my opinion. Similar idea, but the game doesn't use the turns to drift so much as it used the steering input to do so.
 
Toronado
What, you mean the blip the throttle and slide bit? I would agree, but it is too obvious that the game used the corners themselves to turn rather than the actual car motions. Try and slide the rear out on a straight bit and all you will do is drive straight off the road, but do it in a turn and you can pull off a quarter mile drift of win.
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It's not just the blipping the throttle part I'm thinking of (you can also tap the brake or do shift-lock when using manual). It's the way the game has you hold and control the slide with your countersteer, the way the game rewards perfect countersteer technique with a smooth exit from the drift (and punishes poor countersteer technique with some fishtailing), and the way the game lets you transition from one drift to another.

Toronado
Ridge Racer (R4 in particular) did it better, in my opinion. Similar idea, but the game doesn't use the turns to drift so much as it used the steering input to do so.
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R4 is a bit better, but the drifting in every other Ridge Racer "uses the corner" even more than OutRun does. :P The difference is that while OutRun lets you countersteer and adjust your lane position mid-drift, once you go into "drift mode" in Ridge Racer the only thing the steering does is affect the rotation (literally, like from an axis in the middle) of your car. Thus the reason why I think OutRun is more believable.

In Ridge Racer, you can successfully drift around a right-hand hairpin while rotating counterclockwise. There's nothing remotely realistic about that. :lol:
 
Wolfe
It's the way the game has you hold and control the slide with your countersteer, the way the game rewards perfect countersteer technique with a smooth exit from the drift (and punishes poor countersteer technique with some fishtailing), and the way the game lets you transition from one drift to another.
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Oh, that bit? I would be inclined to agree then, but I still wouldn't call the game anything remotely like a half-sim.
I personally always use shift-lock to start drifts, and I feel that the throttle blip doesn't have enough effect in starting drifts as it should (but at the same time in Ridge Racer it works too well).

Wolfe
R4 is a bit better, but the drifting in every other Ridge Racer "uses the corner" even more than OutRun does.
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I dunno about that. While Ridge Racer does have the problem that initiating a slide on a straight road leads to no direction change until a corner, it is pretty hard to even get your car to turn at all (much less slide) on a straight section in Outrun 2. I think Ridge Racer may be more obvious in its application simply because of its drift physics, but I don't think Outrun is any better in this regard.
At the same time, I think Ridge Racer (Ridge Racer V in particular, even though I hate it compared to R4) puts far greater importance on corner entrance location than Outrun does. You can start a slide way out by the grass in Outrun 2 and force the car to the inside over the course of the slide (at the expense of drift speed, but regardless), whereas you need to have good drift placement in Ridge Racer

Wolfe
In Ridge Racer, you can successfully drift around a right-hand hairpin while rotating counterclockwise. There's nothing remotely realistic about that. :lol:
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It looks really cool, though, and it went away after RRR when they tightened up the controls (try it in R4, or even Rage Racer, for that matter, and you die).
Ridge Racer Turbo Mode disc: Doing a 360 while going straight at 140 MPH and not deviating from your path at all. Makes for awesome replays.
 
Toronado
It looks really cool, though, and it went away after RRR when they tightened up the controls (try it in R4, or even Rage Racer, for that matter, and you die).
Ridge Racer Turbo Mode disc: Doing a 360 while going straight at 140 MPH and not deviating from your path at all. Makes for awesome replays.
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I don't remember if I ever got it to work in R4, but it works in every game after it.
 
Wolfe
Maybe he was thinking of the fact that the game's drifting technique is rather accurate, even if the drifting itself and cornering speeds are hopelessly exaggerated. Technique-wise, Outrun 2/2006's drifting is more accurate than the vast majority of racing games. You really get that feeling on the arcade versions.
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Took the words right out of my mouth Wolfe. That IS precisely what I meant. Tornado....I never implied that OR2:C2C is a half-sim. I just threw the name out there because it's a game that I feel everyone should play. To me, OR2:C2C has a lot more depth to it than quite a few other racing games out there have in terms of gameplay. The depth, as wolfe pointed out, is indeed in its drifting. There are guys in Japan who to this day, are still competing in getting the best times they can in OR2. You could actually consider OR2 the successor to Daytona USA proper, since it shares the same kind of deep drifting physics as that game. The different ways you can learn to tackle corners in the latter stages to improve your times is incredible. Stages like Jungle, Lost Vegas, Milky Way, and New York Skyscrapers are incredibly difficult to master! It is a bitch taking some of those corners at top speed! Surgical precision in some of those Ferraris is required to make it through without crashing!

It is a damn shame OR2:C2C did not get the recognition it deserved on the Xbox and especially the PC, where I'd bet not even 500 copies were sold. To think that a POS like Burnout and NFS can garner more popularity and praise than an indepth racer like OR2:C2C just completely blows my mind!

At least Ridger Racer 7, which is my favorite videogame of all time, is still fairly popular on the PS3 :P

Anyway props to both of you for your posts and insight. I'm very glad there's still a few people like you who acknowledges good arcade racers when they 'em :)
 
isamu
You could actually consider OR2 the successor to Daytona USA proper, since it shares the same kind of deep drifting physics as that game.
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I never thought I'd meet someone who thinks of Daytona USA in the same light -- that game's engine had some impressive realistic touches, particularly for its day. When explaining Daytona USA's drifting to someone who has never taken the time to get the hang of it, I often describe it as a "primitive" version of OutRun 2.

isamu
It is a damn shame OR2:C2C did not get the recognition it deserved on...the PC, where I'd bet not even 500 copies were sold.
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I lol'd. OutRun 2006 is great, but the PC version is an unreliable and poorly-programmed mess that didn't really deserve any recognition.

Okay, maybe I'm being unfair, because I've never actually played it. After I downloaded the game to try it out, I couldn't get it to properly recognize my Logitech DFP, it booted me to the desktop randomly, and the game ran in fast-forward, presumably because my computer was too fast.

isamu
Anyway props to both of you for your posts and insight. I'm very glad there's still a few people like you who acknowledges good arcade racers when they 'em :)
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I've been playing arcade racers for as long as I can remember, and for the last three years I've been working with them. The actual arcade machines, that is.

I think simulators and arcadey racing games are both great -- it's when a developer churns out a bad one in either category that I can't stand. ;)
 
does anybody play

Rfactor or GTL?

I wouldnt mind catching up with some GTP'ers and having a quick race or practise session..
 
Small_Fryz
Rfactor or GTL?

I wouldnt mind catching up with some GTP'ers and having a quick race or practise session..
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I've got both, but I'm more into GTR2 these days. I've still to re-install Rfactor after my recent PC upgrade.

I can't seem to drive any of the cars in GTL except the FF ones. The back always comes round on me when I change down (I can't manage to heel and toe)

I can drive the GTL cars in GTR2 though with the Power and Glory mod though. It must down to the fact that GTR2 models the clutch differently as most cars in GTR2 don't have a manual clutch.

I'd love to race against you at some point though if we find a game and a time that suits.

Nitrof1
what is GTL? gran turismo legends :) or you mean grand prix legends
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GT Legends
 
For the physics and realism nuts:
nkpro first, then these all come in a very respectable 2nd place (gtr2,rfactor,lfs,gpl...etc).

For the fun/achievment whores:
Dirt, ...all the "sims" on the consoles.
 

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