Racing games

Hi guys, right now I am having a conversation with the peeps in irc abt racing games.

Do u like racing games?

I absolutely love it to death, More so than VF.

Top racing games that I still play till date

:Fzero series
Sega really 2
F355
GT
1080 (GC ver rocks! it's a racing game! not a stunt BS feast)
Initial D
MK
Scud Race
Outrun 2

Anyone know of a good F1 game on console?

I am a racing nut but a good F1 game on console is still not available for me.

 

Finally someone posted about racing games. I love them too, My fav's are Initial D, GT3, Tokyo Extreme Racer, F-Zero(snes), Le mans. I remember a F1 racer called F1-Cart Fury which was really good in arcades, but I dont know about the ps2 version. I just bought Initial D special stage, and its raw, just waiting to buy a logictech wheel. Was wondering if u knew any websites that sell Initial D steering wheels?

 

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F355

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Is this the only racing game made with a clutch? It's an awesome simulation game, just doesn't seem to be...interesting enough. Then again maybe little kids shouldn't yank the gear stick until changing into 2nd goes to 4th /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif. Can you simulate the sound of a crunching gear box?

 

Had completely forgotten about F355. That game was great. I too like racing games, but I've always like fighters better.

My list, from favorite on down:
1.Gran Turismo Series
2.Initial D
3.Need for Speed Underground
4.F355

I'm not a racing game junkie, but I do love to play them. Gran Turismo mainly caught me because it had so many cars. I hope GT4 has Pontiac so I can use the GTO (I've been a pontiac fanboy until the firebird was cancelled).

 

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Need for Speed Underground

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I'm not a HUGE racing game fan but I don't get what makes this game so appealing. It's like Fast and the Furious: The Game or something.

 

I must say..SSX3 disappoints me when it comes to racing.

Glitches...magnetic board that makes me bum into too much logs n rocks for reasons only known to SSX fans...

I thought ' wow! race all 3 peaks at one go' was soooo cool when I first heard of it.

Now I am just bitterly disappointed.

I'll admit that SSX3 has its ups.

But not my cup of tea in the areas where it really kicks ass in.

Kinda like how I love viewtiful joe, yet others have said it is too 'kiddy'.

Kinda like ' u're HOT, I would bone u..but u're only 22!...no thanks'.

*shrugs*

 

Auto racing :
- GT3
- NFS Underground
- NFS Hot Pursuit 2

Other :
- Wave Race (GC)
- Wipeout (PS2)
- Mario Kart (GC)

All time favorites :
1. Mario Kart (SNES)
2. GT series
3. NFS series
4. Ridge racer
5. Virtua Racing

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DrunkenCat said:

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Need for Speed Underground

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I'm not a HUGE racing game fan but I don't get what makes this game so appealing. It's like Fast and the Furious: The Game or something.

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I personally wanted to check out the drag racing mode and see if they'd actually be able to pull it off and I personally like it. Other than that, the sense of speed is sick, especially when you hit the NOS. The driving is arcade style but that's what I expected. Only thing that bugs me out about it is that there's no cops at all. Maybe next time.

 

Just in case anyone forgot about these...
Motor Toon GP on PS1 was nice.
The original Wipeout on PS1 was an amazing game.
Sega Rally on Saturn was good.
Jet Moto on PS1 was pretty novel.

 

I love NFS, but Need for Speed Underground just lacks everything that makes it a NFS game.

 

Powerslide
Leadfoot
Dirt Track Racing (1 and Sprint Cars)
Gran Turismo 3
NFS:Underground (Tricking out your car actually 'worked' in this game. It was fun to drive and more fun to tweak)
NFS: Motor City Online -- If you didn't play this game, and you love tuning your car in Gran Turismo or any other game, then you missed one HELL of a great game. There were catalogs of parts to purchase for your car, and they were real-life or pretend parts that acted like the real thing. There were no "level 3 tires" or "High-performance NOS" kits to purchase; you assembled a collection of Holley, Edelbrock, and miscellaneous other manufacturers and checked the performance characteristics of each part to try and match up everything for the ride of your dreams. This was by far the most in-depth tuning engine I've ever seen. Period. Too bad they didn't include it in NFS:U

That's a pretty good starting list /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif Powerslide is definately my favorite racer of all time though /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif Stiff AI, perfectly balanced cars (even the 2nd tier cars weren't necessarily the best), and imaginative track designs all coupled with the incredibly detailed physics and car handling to create a truly challenging racer.

 

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I'm not a HUGE racing game fan but I don't get what makes this game so appealing. It's like Fast and the Furious: The Game or something.

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For me, it was the high level of customization that sold it for me. Also, it was one of the few racers I know with a drag mode. Great game, I'd recommend it, especially if you like customizing cars.

I would like to add to my list another game I completely forgot. After F355, I'd like to add Motor City Online. Racing in that game was O.K., but I mainly got it for (like NFS:U) customization, and drag racing. Also, I love old-school cars. But the prices for cars were extremely exaggerated, and online racing was pretty crappy.

I thought this thread was for sim/semi-sim racing games, but since you brought the others;

The Mario Kart Series is hot. I also liked that Star Wars Pod Racer game (in the arcade). And Hydro Thunder (also arcade) was pretty fun as well.

Damnit painty...you beat me to the Motor City Online /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.

 

I'm more of a fighting fan but I do like the occasional Driving games tho I tend to stick with Street Racing rather than Rally, I hate rally games. NFSU is ruff man, no doubt. It's just different from the other NFS's out there which I like. F-Zero AX on the arcades ifs FUN yo!. Street Racer on the PS and SNEs I hate to admit was fun too, lol. Mario Kart of course. Heck even Wipe out is Ruff.

Aside form Racers, I like a nice RPG and Gun game here and there.

 

Gahh! Edit time expired. I'd just like to highlight one game from my list, best racer ever in my opinion:

Powerslide

Give it a whirl if you can. Should be able to find a used copy at EBGames or something for around 6 or 7 bucks. It's older than dirt, but the graphics are still pretty clean and nice looking. Speed is top-notch, and it'll take you AGES to find the 'sweet-spot' on each track. If you want depth but dont need pure realism, this is as good as it gets.

I'm lookin forward to the sequel, due to be released at the end of the year. Powerslide: Slipstream. It's gonna be awesome, I can only bet /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

If you like racing games you should get XBox Live and play MotoGP 2. It is a deep racing game that you can spend a lot of time learning, and the online competition is great. This game also has the best XBox live integration of anything I've seen so far. The lobbies work so well, and you always know who is talking and who can hear you. It is a really good, yet underated game.

 

moto GP

Good call dude.

Excellent!

Esp in first person view....incredible realism.

 

i'm a fan of racing games.. .the games i play are:

Gran Turismo
Rush 2049
Ridge Racer

 

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SummAh said:

I absolutely love it to death, More so than VF.

Top racing games that I still play till date

Fzero X for n64

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Okay well hehe I edited the quote to fzx instead of f-zero series /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Just hoping you're into this wonderful game /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Now guys, I tell you this game is WICKED. sure GX for gamecube is wicked too, but wicked because of abuseable glitches/techniques :/ F-zero X is just so kick-ass /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif It is the ultimate time-attack game, i tell ya. In terms of depth it's just incredible. Sure it doesn't have the mind games that you VF'ers get a hard-on from, but it's so damn thrilling to dive at 3000 kph that nitaku or whatever can go eat itself /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Check the fzx vids over at fzero.mrfixitonline.com if ya wanna see what I'm talking about. I recommend you watch Jimmy Thai's Rainbow Road, Sector Beta, Mute City III. If any of you have played fzx for a while and thought you're any good, those will blow your mind away /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Also, join the ladder there! (they have ladders for all f-zero games btw) It's a pity that if you haven't tried to do that shite, you don't understand how hard it is : /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I dont like racers in general (I sort of feel spoiled fromplayin fzx so much) but this is prolly my fav "skill oriented" game of all time. Sure, I have yet to experience crazy vf4 vs fights, but oh well, since I dont know about that I'll say that it's the ultimate single-player skill-oriented experience /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I hope to see some of you join the ladders /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Don't let the fact that this is a single player game scare you away /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif

By the way, I'm new here and I just wanna say that KiwE is mean to me because I'm not champion yet. He calls me names like "flubber" and "popo" /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif Is he always this mean to people? /versus/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

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Painty_J said:

Gahh! Edit time expired. I'd just like to highlight one game from my list, best racer ever in my opinion:

Powerslide

Give it a whirl if you can. Should be able to find a used copy at EBGames or something for around 6 or 7 bucks. It's older than dirt, but the graphics are still pretty clean and nice looking. Speed is top-notch, and it'll take you AGES to find the 'sweet-spot' on each track. If you want depth but dont need pure realism, this is as good as it gets.

I'm lookin forward to the sequel, due to be released at the end of the year. Powerslide: Slipstream. It's gonna be awesome, I can only bet /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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Aww, interesting /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif Altho I obviously could be wrong, I believe FZX is the ultimate time-attack game. So far I haven't even seen anything come close to it /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif It takes thousands of hours to get within seconds of many of the WR's and heck, the world champion took ~14 000 hours to get where he is today -.-

That was obviously not arguments for why its the deepest, only a taste of how crazy some of us fzx players are /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I'm very interested to see some videos of that game and hear about what gives it the depth /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif Gimme something to chew /versus/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

Mostly the depth comes from how the physics engine isn't 'hacked' at all. For an example of what I mean, I'd like to point out Gran Turismo 3. When you're driving the way you're supposed to be driving, the game handles perfectly fine. One of the most obvious ways of telling that the programmers used some quick 'n dirty hacks to get the game to behave like that is when you get slammed into a wall by someone else. Notice that even if you try to get off the gas first, all your car does is spin it's wheels for a second or two? In real life, if you get slammed into a wall and you dont put any gas in the motor, the wheels stop. You could (if the car wasn't totally destroyed from the impact) then get on the gas and drive off. It's Q'nD hax like that that separate Powerslide from GT.

Not that these hacks are really bad. If they woulda done a physics engine that was so complete that it could cover every possible way to abuse it, the game would probably run much slower.

What sets powerslide apart is that the physics engine is written so completely that there are no "off-bounds" areas, and you can drive up on any piece of world geometry so long as you have enough momentum and speed to do it. Then, most surfaces in the game also have their own friction coefficients, so once you get a feel for the game you can DEFINATELY tell the difference between dirt, mud, sand, and pavement. What makes this significant is that on most tracks, you'll run across quite a few different surfaces in each course. Coupled with very 3-dimensional tracks with banking, bumps, and all sorts of little things to interfere/boost your speed, it can take a while to find that 'perfect' line.

The cars themselves are also part of the reason the game is so deep. I'm goin on memory here, but let me see what I can recall.:
You have a fast, decent acceleration musclecar that doesn't have much traction. Then there's a car with great acceleration and not much traction or great top-speed. There's a car with good traction, so-so top-speed, and average acceleration. I forget the rest, but all except for the supercar are very balanced. What makes the performance characteristics significant is that each car REQUIRES a different racing line. Conveniently enough, all the tracks are set up so that there is a line that each type of car can follow and still be competitive. This even holds true for the extra 2 cars that you unlock; they're by no means better than the first 4 you start with, but they haev different driving styles that may or may not fit your own driving style better.

For example, let's take a run through the Dam Track, with my favorite car, the one that has great top speed and poor performance everywhere else. Starting at the finish line, we turn right a bit and then start sliding in a HUGE circle to the left, trying to stay on the gravel portion of the track because it has the highest grip. Then we should be entering the collapsed tunnel, so on the pavement we throw it left some more and swing into the small tunnel, hugging the left wall. There's a pitched right turn here, and for this car the best line is to ride it as high along the pitch as possible, then shooting down the ramp and onto the old dam, for which this track is named. If done correctly you'll be very high on the damn, and you have to try to angle corrrectly to maintain speed and drive down the dirt ramp on the side of the dam. Going down the dam face itself is bad.

Once off the dam, there's a long stretch of mostly uphill, but bumpy, road. Staying on the extreme outside of the track, we can avoid alot of the bumps, but there's also a tight 180 turn coming up. If I were in any of the other cars, I would try to race a gran-turismo style high-low-high line through this turn, trying to dig my tires into the small ditch on the very inside of the turn. Since my car is a top-speed machine with poor acceleration though, that would be bad because everyone else would beat me coming out of the turn. Conveniently enough, on the EXTREME outside of the turn, there's a ridge that looks like a dinosaur bone, and grips like one too /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif For the musclecar, that's the best line to take; slide along the bone and whip around the corner like a bat out of hell. Sure, you'll lose a little time to the competition in the turn because they're gonna get through it alot faster, but your speed coming out is going to be INCREDIBLY faster than theirs. Then you shoot up a small ramp, curve through a lazy right-hand turn, and emerge through the finish line.

I love this game. Online against human comp, (these guys are truly unreal. They can lap the computers on the hardest difficulty!) there really is no single car that is better than the others. For each track, sure, but overall it comes down to the driver's ability over ALL courses.

In essence, I feel like Powerslide is the equivalent of VF in racing games as far as tiering is concerned. There may be a car that has a slight edge over the others, but it's so small that skill makes more of a difference.

Looking for the download for the demo? I found one finally, it's here:ftp://ftp.infogrames.net/demos/powerslide/powerslide_demo_050_english.exe Have fun, and happy sliding!

 

Thats very interesting /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif Your talk about the physics engine impressed me and what is sort of scary is that you just as well could be talking about F-zero X for a while /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

It's all about a physics engine that allows you to do so many things. Neither in FZX's case is the engine in any way "hacked", all the techniques are results of and a well integrated part of a well balanced and incredibly advanced physics engine, rather than added on top of the package afterwards for some extra coolness/flashyness.

F-zero X is not about balance between cars. There are 30 cars thrown in "for fun" but only 2-3 are worth using most of the time. Just realise that the depth lies not in the cars, and you will see that this doesn't take away from any of the fun/depth /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif Between the cars there is no real difference in racing lines and strategies. However with the same car, there are so many different strategies, techniques (and thus of course racing lines) you can apply depending on your skill level and play style. Learning to apply the hardest techniques in the right places, linking them all together in succession etc, is what gives the great depth. There is actually usually only one way to do the course in the fastest possible time, but on the way to developing all the technique that is needed for that, you have to find a lot of different solutions. In this way people can help each other with their strats to help each other develop. Just watching the WR vid and trying to duplicate that isn't a good idea most of the time.

Not having any real difference in cars/characters/whatever often makes head-to-head games less fun. However, it is definitely not a necessity for a really deep game; just look at chess. However it doesn't really matter because F-zero X is not a head-to-head game anyway, when it comes to the real competition. Sure, today online play vs other people is appearantly the trend to follow, but playing on your own to improve your times retrying again and again and again, is really a whole other experience and business. I really don't think the two ways of competing should be compared. For me personally, the head-to-head experience I have had through playing lots of starcraft: brood war, as well as some other strategy games and a handful of first person shooters (and soon VF4 also I hope). Playing FZX to perfect my skills, and doing that perfect (of course only "relatively perfect" and only perfect considering the strats/techs you use) is just a thrill I have actually not experienced in any other game yet. I think noone can ever say that VS is simply a better or more thrilling experience than competing with yourself. This is a matter of personal taste. I for one love both ways of pushing myself, so for periods i play a VS game and other periods i play FZX /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I remember KiwE talking about how thrilling it was to finally manage to do the akira DLC after hours of practice. I'm not sure, but in a way that could have some similarity to the "inwards traveling" (hehe /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif ) "dedication journey" that f-zero x takes you too. This is a whole other aspect than the VS part of VF4, and this aspect is all blown up to actually be the entire game in fzx (time attack that is). However, a big, err... no _HUGE_ difference is the depth of the technique itself. If you manage to do the DLC, you've done it. If you don't, you haven't. Its either success or failure. It's like a digital on/off switch whereas the techniques in f-zero X are like a stepless analog wheel. Many techniques are damn-hard from the start but still there will actually never be a time when you can fully do a technique /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif Get my weird explanation? It's like Naruto summoning the small tadpole and then finally summoning the giant frog. He all the time succedes in actually summoning something but its a matter of how well he does it /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

But, then there actually is a small aspect of "mind-games", or atleast VS strategy in FZX competing too. For each of the 24 courses (imho all superb, by the way) there are tons of different strats/techs required. On top of that, course time (3 laps), lap time and max speed are all weighed equally. You can look at a rivals records sheet and see what his weaknesses and strengths are, and really rape his weak records rather than spend your time to just beat his records one after one. So, you can analyse records and actually gain quite alot from systematically work your way through, but this still of course is not that big a part of the game as any straight head-to-head game. I just thought I'd share it with you anyway /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

My "final blow" : FZX is not about different play styles. They do exist, and they make it more fun to learn from each other, but the game is not about them. It's about pushing yourself and putting alot of effort in, and you get alot of thrill and fun in return, just like VF. There is always room for improvement. Theoretically, any racing game has this because no human can really take the perfect racing line no matter how shallow the game is. What you need is a real depth in skill and strategy to pull you in and encourage you, and FZX has that. If you after 10 hours of play on any course in a shallow game can shave off .1 seconds by just trying to hug the curves as tight as possible, that isn't very rewarding. If you have to think and experiment with many techniques and strategies for 10 hours and in the end manage to shave off 15 seconds, thats a hell of a reward. And I'm not strictly talking about the number "15", obviously the course is alot more fun to race when you gain all that extra speed, that in turn makes every part of the course more challenging. When you get into this it's a very exciting experience, and what makes it different from VS play is that fzx is an "inwards" experience, feeling deeper and deeper withing yourself as you dig the hole, while VS is more of a "linked outwards" experience, where you feel your opponent. Both rock very hard /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif And no I'm not gay, I'm just a very nerdy racer /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I'm still interested in videos if you have any /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif I'm no longer interested in trying to decide which game I prefer because as I stated before I dont think they should be compared, but I wanna see the shite anyway /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Anyway here is the fzx vid page:
http://www.mrfixitonline.com/Library.asp?VolumeId=5627&Action=LISTLIBRARY&filter_filetype=movie

Three vids I can recommend:
http://files.mrfixitonline.com/f/1614/mc3_jktspeed_109450.avi

http://files.mrfixitonline.com/f/1614/sb_jktspeed_110126.avi

http://files.mrfixitonline.com/f/1614/wl2_jktspeed_37961.avi

You DEFINITELY can't understand one bit of how hard that shit is to pull off, just like a vf noob definitely can't understand shite of all the things going on in a vf4 Ohsu Akira vs Chibita game. However, it may still look cool and you might be able to see that there is great diversity in strats and techniques. Heck, its almost like each course is its whole own game /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

And a fourth video... Now before you watch this I'll tell you about the course. Just imagine a totally straight course with not one single curve, no different surfaces. So you suppose its just about holding the gas and staying straight and fine? Well have fun getting a piss-poor record doing that /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif

http://files.mrfixitonline.com/f/1614/s1_jktspeed_102447.avi

Now that, imho, should make anyone realise that this is not your standard racer. If an all straight course has that depth. That record is 1'02"412. A common time for a beginner, even after several times, is about 8-10 seconds slower. 8.-10 seconds on an all straight course thats only about a minute long? If you're into racers, you know that means depth /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif