Which games do you consider as serious racing simulators?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Strittan
  • 145 comments
  • 14,466 views

Which game(s) do you consider as serious racing simulators?

  • Gran Turismo 5

    Votes: 218 69.6%

  • Forza Motorsport 3

    Votes: 55 17.6%

  • Need for Speed Shift

    Votes: 6 1.9%

  • iRacing

    Votes: 185 59.1%

  • rFactor

    Votes: 180 57.5%

  • Live for Speed

    Votes: 168 53.7%

  • GTR (and the other SimBin titles)

    Votes: 167 53.4%

  • Richard Burns Rally

    Votes: 111 35.5%

  • Nascar Racing 2003 Season

    Votes: 37 11.8%

  • Other (please state in your post)

    Votes: 21 6.7%
  • Total voters
    313
I voted rFactor, GT5, LFS. I think they are all racing simulators, Forza is good and the Simbin games, but I still think they are a bit too arcadey..
 
warpspeed2slow
Lack of qualifying for any or all races as well as the A.I. in GT which makes it a large stretch to call it racing and not just trying to out drive the A.I..
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Well, do you consider no game but the insanely expensive iRacing to be a simulator then? Because you don't have to qualify in any of those games if you don't want to, and they have A.I. which is just as stupid as Prologue's in many, many ways.

How about Live For Speed, in which almost every car and track is fake, and tires turn to butter one lap past their predefined life, and there is just a basic racing structure? Plus, the A.I. is bare bones, to say the least.

How about we just forget about every video game, because they all get something wrong, or dumb several aspects so even kids can play and juice their sales beyond a tiny hardcore group of purist snobs.

Or maybe you could drop the tude. Just a thought.

I include LFS in the simulator category because they physics are simulated extremely well. And likewise, GT5. And if you think I'm stupid, well... like I care. ;)
 
Didn't see anyone mention it, but Formula 1 Championship Edition is a pretty intense racing game. That is probably my favorite PS3 game at the moment. Nothing like getting your car set up nicely in practice, making pole after 3 rounds of qualifying, and then blowing your front wheel after goosing it a bit much in a corner and hitting the wall on lap 45 of a 60 lap race:ouch:

I still love the GT series though. It's a different style, obviously, and a nice change of pace from F1CE. Not sure i would call it a real serious race sim, but it is a lot of fun. Just my opinion.

My love of F1 may make me a bit biased though:sly: I'm anxiously awaiting the full GT5 release and F1 2010.
 
GT is far from serious. Serious is LFS where you have to spend days in fine tuning your car for a specific track.
GT does not have telemetry, tire temperatures, bound and rebound settings for the damers and it doesn't use real values for the settings.
Therefore for me GT is perfect. I don't have the time and nerve to deal with a serious racing game, though it's better rewarding at the end.
 
One thing I really hope PD will do, is to allow us to remove the driver from cockpit view. This is an option most of the serious race sims have.
 
I find it strange that, many say GT5D and FM3 are completely different to each other, and some say they're on par with each other. :rolleyes:
 
Haha c'mon, i know this is the gt5 forum. And i love gt5 for what is.

But it's no way a serious racing simulator. The only serious racing simulator is offcourse Iracing!

Iracing has laser scanned tracks, awesome physics and a serious racing community. Quite often you see real drivers online. sometimes really famous ones in the top ranks.
Professional racers especially from the US will use iracing above any sim. But rfactor has way more tracks you can download therefore rfactor is also popular. But it's not as accurate at all, both in physics and tracks.

And i agree with .pixr, pure physics wise netkar pro is really really good. But the community is not so strong, and the tracks aren´t laser scanned. Iracing altho way more expensive is the best sim for sure.

Gt5 is nowhere near the same league as Iracing. You can´t seriously compare the two.

gt5 is for the mass community, who like to drive cars they maybe can´t drive in real life. Iracing is really to learn some basics about racing and to learn tracks for real life.

gt5 is a semi sim (game) and iracing is a serious simulator.
 
Some proof:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EQrjj2I5Bo

Offcourse this could be a marketing stunt, but the proof are the reactions. Read the reactions below this youtube clip and you will see alot of people talking about how they raced against Dale Earnhardt online.
So he really play this sim and he also talks about other drivers who race iracing.

No way in hell you will see famous professional race drivers online racing in gt5.
 
Wakkaman
No way in hell you will see famous professional race drivers online racing in gt5.
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So that's your argument GT5 can't be considered a racing sim? How cute...

You forgot something though. Sebastian Loeb plays GT, but that means nothing I guess?

Oh, and if I'm not mistaken, the first GT Academy winner, ended up winning races in real life, but that probably doesn't mean anything either...
 
I'm sure there are people out there that have played Need for Speed: Underground and have gone to become racers (not professional, but it's enough). Does that make it a serious racing simulator?

I feel I interpreted incorrectly your comment, though.
 
Strittan did you even try Iracing?

Sebastian Loeb maybe played gt4. So what...he liked the game. Becease the grand turismo series are fun.
If he would try iracing he would for sure agree tho that iracing is way better in terms of realism then gt4 or gt5p/tt. For sure more professional race drivers would prefer iracing if it offers the same amount of tracks.

I think the gt academy winners are just talented drivers. I don't think they drive so good becease of gt4. The same for iracing.

Iracing is helpfull to learn tracks, and it will learn you some basics about racing better then Grand Turismo. Are good iracers good real drivers tho..?
Not so sure there is way more to racing in real life.
 
Codename L
I'm sure there are people out there that have played Need for Speed: Underground and have gone to become racers (not professional, but it's enough).
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Street racers perhaps, but that's a different story.

I agree though, only because Earnhardt Jr plays iRacing and Loeb GT doesn't make none of them serious racing simulators.

iRacing is much more serious than GT5, yes. But I think they're still highly comparabe.
 
Honestly all of those games can be serious racing sims including GT. Its really just a matter of how serious the participants are. That being said some of those games certainly do a better job of encouraging serious racing than others so in that sense I would put games like iRacing and GTR way above GT.
 
Iracing is at the top of the simulation tree, but GT5D is superior than GTR2 and rFactor in terms of physics.

Only a tiny percentage of PC sim racers play iRacing, it's a niche within a niche.

GTR2 and rfactor are the sims that are by far the most popular on the PC, they were far superior in terms of physics than GT4.

GT5P matched these sims for physics, while GT5D has pushed slightly ahead thanks to a more progressive and natural feeling tyre model.
 
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gt is not a serious simulator, can't be compared to pc games.. but it's obvious that a poll like this a GT forum can only give that kind of result. I've never found a racing game on console that can be called simulator ( except for Richard burns rally).. and when i say that f3 and gt are on par i mean that are both in the same league of "non-simulation" even if the games are really different and gt is way better.
 
Strittan
iRacing is much more serious than GT5, yes. But I think they're still highly comparabe.
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I can't give my opinion on that matter, to be honest. I have never played iRacing, and I don't believe I will play GT5 in a long, long time (years after it is released).
 
JAGUAR1977 gt5p/tt isn't better then rfactor in terms of physics.

There are rfactor mods wich are extremely good. For example to make a fair comparison you have 2 mods with production cars a corvette c6 mod and a Toyota Supra mod. Physics made by a guy named Niels Heusinkveld, who knows alot about physics and also has real information about these cars.

These 2 mods alone are better then any car in gt5p/tt. By a margin!
 
Wakkaman
JAGUAR1977 gt5p/tt isn't better then rfactor in terms of physics.

There are rfactor mods wich are extremely good. For example to make a fair comparison you have 2 mods with production cars a corvette c6 mod and a Toyota Supra mod. Physics made by a guy named Niels Heusinkveld, who knows alot about physics and also has real information about these cars.

These 2 mods alone are better then any car in gt5p/tt. By a margin!
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Your trying to highlight a major difference when there simply isn't one, not with GT5D at least.

You can play any number of rfactor mods simulating the same car, all will feel different, yet all will claim to be the most realistic. You also have a wide variety of different FFB programs and settings which change the feel of the car, there are even people who tweek physics files to their own liking.
 
I agree Jaguar1977. I don't say all rfactor mods are good. That's why i specifically gave these two mods as example made by Niels Heusinkveld.
Niels Heusinkveld is a highly talented physics engineer he will be part of Reiza Studios a new simracing development team.

But it just shows that the rfactor physics engine does have pontential in the hands of true talented people.
I mean the gt5p/tt engine could offcourse be just as good, but then the gt5 development is doing a pretty bad job, just like the original rfactor development team did kinda ;).
If you would try these two mods made by Niels Heusinkveld with the setup he describes in the readme, you will notice it's way more authentic to real driving with a production car then any car so far in gt5.
 
Just by looking at it you will see it's more advanced then gt5p/tt.

Compare this z06 mod in rfactor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUNhek_CvDk

Now compare this with the z06 in gt5p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGbEa25JNjc

Both are driven with steering wheel and physics without aid and on suzuka. Just by looking at it you will see the difference.

In gt5p cornering looks really smooth, it's almost like the car is floating. Hardly any major correction he makes in cornering. This could offcourse be becease of the driver but also if i drive gt5 it´s way more smooth in cornering. In real life tho you really have to work to corner fast especially with this kind of cars.
The major difference between zo6 mod and z06gt5 is the weight physics and tire physics. In z06 mod allready by looking at it you see the weight physics are more realistic. And also how advanced the tire physics are.
In the z06mod video the driver (niels himself) is showing off a little bit to show the physics, but just by looking you already see how authentic it is.

Some more vids for comparison:

z06 rfactor mod:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUWxdkBTAqw&feature=related

z06 gt5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HTY6nFmRnw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GW6-MavZ6A

Now here i will post some real clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6mE...2277EC01&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=41

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV4ptFUVpLI

Look at the weight of cars in these real clips and the minor corrections they make. In rfactor you clearly see that these corrections are a must. In gt5p tho it's way more smooth, but offcourse driving in real life is not that easy. You really have to work through corners with stock cars on the limit.

(i have to add tho gt5tt is already doing a better job but. The feedback you get is still way off. The feedback you get in these rfactor mods are way better and intuitive).
 
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Strittan
So that's your argument GT5 can't be considered a racing sim? How cute...

You forgot something though. Sebastian Loeb plays GT, but that means nothing I guess?

Oh, and if I'm not mistaken, the first GT Academy winner, ended up winning races in real life, but that probably doesn't mean anything either...
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Not to be disrespectful to Lucas, but the GT4 series is pretty piss weak. He's in the best funded team racing against people who race on the weekends for a hobby.
 
JAGUAR1977
Iracing is at the top of the simulation tree, but GT5D is superior than GTR2 and rFactor in terms of physics.

Only a tiny percentage of PC sim racers play iRacing, it's a niche within a niche.

GTR2 and rfactor are the sims that are by far the most popular on the PC, they were far superior in terms of physics than GT4.

GT5P matched these sims for physics, while GT5D has pushed slightly ahead thanks to a more progressive and natural feeling tyre model.
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Not even close mate. GT5 still isn't to the standard of these games. I'd say that GT has a distinctly Japanese feel to its physics. Everything else is similar but GT just feels different and not in a good way. If Gran Turismo handled like Live For Speed, the game would be the best on the market. The problem is, it doesn't. Long way behind the PC models. Good but not that good.
 

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