Drifting In Videogames: A Starter Discussion

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So, general question here. A massive noob's question too!

I've been replaying Need For Speed: ProStreet recently - I know, I'm a masochist. One thing I always quite liked about that game and the NFS games overall was drift mode - though the physics make drifting in NFS:P an absolute nightmare, it's still fun to have drifting as an actual event kinda like real-world drift races.

It then got me thinking; which games are the best and most fun to drift in?

To my knowledge not many games have dedicated drift modes, outside of the NFS series and maybe Race Driver:GRID. But I know the Gran Turismo games in general are good for 'freelance' drifting, just taking a car out to drift a regular circuit. I'd assume others like Assetto Corsa and Forza are good for similar - any others I hadn't thought of?

And what other games have a dedicated drift mode?
 
I think if one game made drifting cool before almost any other, it is the very first "Ridge Racer." The drifts were wonky to control, but you actually cleared corners in a cool way if you got it down pad. "Ridge Racer Type 4" offered the easiest and sweetest drifts in my view. I am not a drifting fanatic in any sense, but I do watch and enjoy drifting. There is actual skill involved in trying this sort of controlled chaos. Maybe it isn't skill like out-in-out cornering or heel-and-toe braking, but drifting is its own science.

That's really all I can contribute to this discussion- Ridge Racer is perhaps best at drifting and was one of the first to make drifting look cool in racing/driving games. A few others would be the likes of most classic SEGA 3D games like Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, Super GT/SCUD Race and the like.
 
theres not many with a dedicated mode that I can think of besides the japanese titles like the offical D1 drift games or like touge max g, road rage 3, battle gear and the fast and the furious tokyo drift. Mainly all PS2 era games

oddly driver San Fransisco has really good fun physics, I know it doesn't have a drift mode or anything even related to it but I have a blast in that game drifting around town. Honestly if they re skinned that game andcreated some drifting and racing events it would be better than any other NFS game.
 
In terms of sims, you can't go wrong with Assetto Corsa and Live For Speed. GT drift physics is not the best unfortunately, GTS is better than the PS3 era games, which is better than PS2 era but still not quite right.

In terms of arcade game, well almost everything is good for drifting these days so take your pick :lol: Doesn't mean they are realistic however.

Below that you have all these crappy indie drift games on Steam and mobile platforms - too many to mention but most of them are trash unless you're just looking for some mindless fun.
 
I think if one game made drifting cool before almost any other, it is the very first "Ridge Racer." The drifts were wonky to control, but you actually cleared corners in a cool way if you got it down pad. "Ridge Racer Type 4" offered the easiest and sweetest drifts in my view. I am not a drifting fanatic in any sense, but I do watch and enjoy drifting. There is actual skill involved in trying this sort of controlled chaos. Maybe it isn't skill like out-in-out cornering or heel-and-toe braking, but drifting is its own science.

That's really all I can contribute to this discussion- Ridge Racer is perhaps best at drifting and was one of the first to make drifting look cool in racing/driving games. A few others would be the likes of most classic SEGA 3D games like Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, Super GT/SCUD Race and the like.

Oh man, RRT4 is a game I revisit still to this day. SUCH a satisfying game to play. The handling is super arcadey but still really fun and satisfying? Like drifting in that game makes you feel like a GOD of driving. Burnout 2 has a similar vibe to the drifting handling.

theres not many with a dedicated mode that I can think of besides the japanese titles like the offical D1 drift games or like touge max g, road rage 3, battle gear and the fast and the furious tokyo drift. Mainly all PS2 era games

oddly driver San Fransisco has really good fun physics, I know it doesn't have a drift mode or anything even related to it but I have a blast in that game drifting around town. Honestly if they re skinned that game andcreated some drifting and racing events it would be better than any other NFS game.

I'll have to look into the Japanese titles. I figured there HAD to be some kind of dedicated drifting games in Japan, with how popular D1GP and drift culture is over there. And seconded on Driver San Francisco, a great game all round and the driving is really fun. Very powerslidey for those spectacular 70s cop show moments of sliding a muscle car round a corner into an alley and smashing piles of boxes over, but without being uncontrollably slidey you know?

In terms of sims, you can't go wrong with Assetto Corsa and Live For Speed. GT drift physics is not the best unfortunately, GTS is better than the PS3 era games, which is better than PS2 era but still not quite right.

In terms of arcade game, well almost everything is good for drifting these days so take your pick :lol: Doesn't mean they are realistic however.

Below that you have all these crappy indie drift games on Steam and mobile platforms - too many to mention but most of them are trash unless you're just looking for some mindless fun.

I've heard AC and LFS recommended already - I remember first hearing about LFS over ten years ago back when I was in the NASCAR Heat modding scene! Never knew it was known so highly for its drifting. I have AC on console but I might have to pick it up on PC too to get those mods for drift cars and circuits like Ebisu.

I've always found GT drifting to be relatively easy if unspectacular? Like I've seen some guys do amazing stuff, but for me personally it's a nice game to drift in knowing that I can control the car, but maybe won't get super spectacular angles and such. It just lacks a bit of intensity.

And speaking of indie games, there is ONE that I've seen called Drift19 which is coming soon; I'm curious to see how it turns out, as from the preview material it actually looks pretty good.
 
There is one video game I know of that is dedicated to drifting and probably an obscure one too but my favorite.



Sure this may be old but I love this game because of how it emulates D1GP well.
 
There is one video game I know of that is dedicated to drifting and probably an obscure one too but my favorite.



Sure this may be old but I love this game because of how it emulates D1GP well.


Those three judges in the corner going nuts for everything made me crack up. That's the most Japanese thing ever. Looks like a pretty decent game, hard to tell physics from watching gameplay footage but it looks pretty well done! Would it be possible to play a Japanese copy on a PAL PS2?
 
I have that D1 game and a bunch of other PS2 stuff stashed in the attic. On paper it's really cool, you've got all the licensed D1 cars from that era (2005 ish) as well as all the old school tracks (Ebisu, Odaiba, Sekia Hills, Tsukuba, Sugo Sportsland, etc) but the physics are abysmal. I don't think that video above was recorded using a PS2, as the drifting itself felt a lot more sluggish and slow-motion. The AI wasn't exactly spectacular either.


But it's a fun time capsule game. Just don't expect a polished experience like Enthusia or Gran Turismo 3/4.
 
Of all that I've played, Live for Speed, Enthusia Professional Racing (PS2), and Project CARS 2 offer the best oversteer physics and control. They're all on the sim side of things, but I find that's the only way to go for the best drifting physics.
 
I do remember doing the "Driving Revolution" events at Dragon Range in Enthusia Professional Racing. Enthusia has been rather notorious for its driving dynamics. I said before that Enthusia doesn't have as much control as I would like compared to GT4. Then, someone else suggested GT4 gave you too much control. Enthusia was still pretty good for drifting. Maybe not Ridge Racer drifting excitement, but still very good.
 
Those three judges in the corner going nuts for everything made me crack up. That's the most Japanese thing ever. Looks like a pretty decent game, hard to tell physics from watching gameplay footage but it looks pretty well done! Would it be possible to play a Japanese copy on a PAL PS2?
I don't think it's possible.

Oh and not to worry. There's a US version available too. Though there are some differences in comparison to the JP version and those are:

- The judges are different from the US version as compared to the JP version. (That means no Tsuchiya, Orido, and Suzuki)
- Theres a scoring system when doing tsuiso battles as compared to the JP version where you can only see the scores when the tsuiso battle is done.
- Four additional cars for US version. (Rhys Millen's GTO, Alex Pfeiffer's S2000, Tyler Mcquarrie's Supra, and Richard Petty's RX-7).
- And soundtrack too.

Hope this helps. :cheers:
 
I have that D1 game and a bunch of other PS2 stuff stashed in the attic. On paper it's really cool, you've got all the licensed D1 cars from that era (2005 ish) as well as all the old school tracks (Ebisu, Odaiba, Sekia Hills, Tsukuba, Sugo Sportsland, etc) but the physics are abysmal. I don't think that video above was recorded using a PS2, as the drifting itself felt a lot more sluggish and slow-motion. The AI wasn't exactly spectacular either.


But it's a fun time capsule game. Just don't expect a polished experience like Enthusia or Gran Turismo 3/4.

I'm still very curious to play it - time capsule games like that can be fascinating for good and bad reasons! :P I'm curious to see it given it's one of the few games to properly represent the series, and include those cars and tracks. I don't think any other games outside of NFS ProStreet has featured Ebisu, has it?

Of all that I've played, Live for Speed, Enthusia Professional Racing (PS2), and Project CARS 2 offer the best oversteer physics and control. They're all on the sim side of things, but I find that's the only way to go for the best drifting physics.

See Enthusia is an interesting one. I'd heard of it, but often those kind of quasi-GT style racing games from the PS2 era, like Total Immersion Racing and R:Racing Evolution, are quite disappointing or don't live up to the intrigue. I kinda pegged Enthusia in that same catagory, but now I'm curious to give it a crack. And Live For Speed actually!

PCARS 2 might be a curious case. I enjoyed racing certain cars in that game but others were undriivable for me. I'd be curious to go back to it from a drifting perspective.

I do remember doing the "Driving Revolution" events at Dragon Range in Enthusia Professional Racing. Enthusia has been rather notorious for its driving dynamics. I said before that Enthusia doesn't have as much control as I would like compared to GT4. Then, someone else suggested GT4 gave you too much control. Enthusia was still pretty good for drifting. Maybe not Ridge Racer drifting excitement, but still very good.

I'm even more curious to give Enthusia a go! I remember GT4 being quite good in terms of drifting, but maybe that was my n00b perspective - I found it easy to do some decent drifting right off the bat without really knowing a huge amount about setup and technique.

I don't think it's possible.

Oh and not to worry. There's a US version available too. Though there are some differences in comparison to the JP version and those are:

- The judges are different from the US version as compared to the JP version. (That means no Tsuchiya, Orido, and Suzuki)
- Theres a scoring system when doing tsuiso battles as compared to the JP version where you can only see the scores when the tsuiso battle is done.
- Four additional cars for US version. (Rhys Millen's GTO, Alex Pfeiffer's S2000, Tyler Mcquarrie's Supra, and Richard Petty's RX-7).
- And soundtrack too.

Hope this helps. :cheers:

Ahhh, interesting! So what would I need to play either the Japanese version or the American version? An NTSC-PS2 for both, or?
 
See Enthusia is an interesting one. I'd heard of it, but often those kind of quasi-GT style racing games from the PS2 era, like Total Immersion Racing and R:Racing Evolution, are quite disappointing or don't live up to the intrigue. I kinda pegged Enthusia in that same catagory, but now I'm curious to give it a crack. And Live For Speed actually!
An understandable conclusion. Part of why I caught on to EPR was because GT4 left me wanting for a better alternative, and another significant part was spying an E30 M3 in the screenshots-- I drove an E30 318i at the time.

It was an ignominious failure in the end, with Konami disbanding the team and scrubbing any trace of the game's existence on their website, etc., which is sad because it's evident a lot of passion went into it. Seeing the likes of Assetto Corsa or PCARS scrape out a niche they can survive on leads me to believe that EPR was a decade ahead of its time. Today, I'm pleased to see that PS2 emulation seems to have given it a refreshed cult following. :)

Live for Speed is easy because there's a free demo version and its PC requirements are very lean (the game has been in development hell since 2003). 👍

PCARS 2 might be a curious case. I enjoyed racing certain cars in that game but others were undriivable for me. I'd be curious to go back to it from a drifting perspective.
Yeah, the car list is still a little hit-and-miss, but updates improved some cars. Some of my favorite cars to drift in that game are the GT86 (naturally), 2002 Turbo, the W194 300SL, and the Evo VI or IX. Not to mention the rallycross cars (the RX Lite is the friendliest now, when it used to be undriveable), and the occasional misuse of a touring/GT car when it lets me get away with it, like the Group A Skyline GT-R or Audi V8 DTM on a rallycross track in the rain. :)
 
Ahhh, interesting! So what would I need to play either the Japanese version or the American version? An NTSC-PS2 for both, or?
You'll need a NTSC-US/J PS2 to play either version since PS2s are region locked unfortunately. Or you could try finding a modded PS2 whereas it can let you play any PS2 game regardless of the region.
 
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