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One Racer to Rule Them All? (360)
Tzen
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Okay, so I've had my 360 for a bit and I've been getting my Halo 3, Dead Rising, and GTAIV on. Those were my must buys, and I am not disappointed. However, I really need to get my racing fix on. Unfortunately, I cannot just go out and buy all the popular racers out there.
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My favorite racing game of all time is Burnout 2. I was not really happy with the direction the series took after that. I liked trying to avoid cars at insane speeds rather than trying to hit them at insane speeds.
My second favorite racing game of all time is Project Gotham Racing 2. The track design was amazing considering they were working with real world locals, particularly the Tokyo tracks. I really liked bombing around in the rain in a Shelby Cobra on some European track, too. My only complaint was the fact that the game favored drifting so much. I never drifted and would try to get good lines, but some of the hairpin turns seemed impossible to do without drifting, like I just couldn't turn the wheels far enough. (Fuck drifting. I can't wait for that waste of rubber to go out of style.)
I was able to play the Forza demo before I sold my oXbox, but it was a lot of fun and the physics seemed a lot more real than the GT series (honestly, I know shit about cars and physics, so I'm not saying the physics in GT are not realistic, but Forza just felt more realistic to me)
If I had a PS3 I would be feverishly anticipating Motorstorm Pacific Rift and its glorious monster trucks, and mildly anticipating GT5 in all of its incredibly beautiful but somewhat boring glory. Unfortunately, I do not have a PS3.
Finally, I DO NOT HAVE LIVE, AND I DO NOT FORESEE PAYING FOR IT - EVER. Therefore, online play does not factor into my buying decision. The HDD that came with my used 360 was dead and I just traded it in at Gamestop for 20 bucks and got a memory card (NOTE: I told the guy it was broken and he said they don't check them and just send them off anyway and it wasn't going to just get put back on the shelf for some poor sucker to buy), so I can't try demos though I'm not even sure you can get those without Gold Live, anyway.
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Games I'm considering:
PGR4 - This is what I'm leaning toward, but I'm not sure if I'll really like it or if it'll just make me want to play PGR2. Exotics, rain, and real-world locals all equal tingly ballbag. Sportbikes equal meh. Is PGR3 worth getting along with/instead of PGR4?
GRID - I like the way it sits between sim and arcade, and I like the cool crash model, but I do not like how bloomy and reddish brown and blurry and crusty asshole the whole thing looks in screens and vids. Is this really how the game looks? Are there some morning/noonish, crisp clear and/or colorful settings for any of the races? Also, drifting sucks, etc.
Burnout Paradise - Honeslty, I feel a bit burnt out on the franchise, pardon the pun. But if this game will take it up the ass and pretend that it likes it, I may be willing to give it a try. Is this game THAT good?
Forza 2 - This is really tempting. However, I feel like my lack of Live kind of castrates this game. I am also not interested in spending hours covering my cars in Mario or cocks or something. I hear it doesn't have a lot of tracks, and no DLC for me so...
DIRT - The rally thing is mildly interesting to me. More so if it has monster trucks and cars/people to run over with them. Probably the least interesting of the bunch, but it does look damned sexy.
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My favorite racing game of all time is Burnout 2. I was not really happy with the direction the series took after that. I liked trying to avoid cars at insane speeds rather than trying to hit them at insane speeds.
My second favorite racing game of all time is Project Gotham Racing 2. The track design was amazing considering they were working with real world locals, particularly the Tokyo tracks. I really liked bombing around in the rain in a Shelby Cobra on some European track, too. My only complaint was the fact that the game favored drifting so much. I never drifted and would try to get good lines, but some of the hairpin turns seemed impossible to do without drifting, like I just couldn't turn the wheels far enough. (Fuck drifting. I can't wait for that waste of rubber to go out of style.)
I was able to play the Forza demo before I sold my oXbox, but it was a lot of fun and the physics seemed a lot more real than the GT series (honestly, I know shit about cars and physics, so I'm not saying the physics in GT are not realistic, but Forza just felt more realistic to me)
If I had a PS3 I would be feverishly anticipating Motorstorm Pacific Rift and its glorious monster trucks, and mildly anticipating GT5 in all of its incredibly beautiful but somewhat boring glory. Unfortunately, I do not have a PS3.
Finally, I DO NOT HAVE LIVE, AND I DO NOT FORESEE PAYING FOR IT - EVER. Therefore, online play does not factor into my buying decision. The HDD that came with my used 360 was dead and I just traded it in at Gamestop for 20 bucks and got a memory card (NOTE: I told the guy it was broken and he said they don't check them and just send them off anyway and it wasn't going to just get put back on the shelf for some poor sucker to buy), so I can't try demos though I'm not even sure you can get those without Gold Live, anyway.
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Games I'm considering:
PGR4 - This is what I'm leaning toward, but I'm not sure if I'll really like it or if it'll just make me want to play PGR2. Exotics, rain, and real-world locals all equal tingly ballbag. Sportbikes equal meh. Is PGR3 worth getting along with/instead of PGR4?
GRID - I like the way it sits between sim and arcade, and I like the cool crash model, but I do not like how bloomy and reddish brown and blurry and crusty asshole the whole thing looks in screens and vids. Is this really how the game looks? Are there some morning/noonish, crisp clear and/or colorful settings for any of the races? Also, drifting sucks, etc.
Burnout Paradise - Honeslty, I feel a bit burnt out on the franchise, pardon the pun. But if this game will take it up the ass and pretend that it likes it, I may be willing to give it a try. Is this game THAT good?
Forza 2 - This is really tempting. However, I feel like my lack of Live kind of castrates this game. I am also not interested in spending hours covering my cars in Mario or cocks or something. I hear it doesn't have a lot of tracks, and no DLC for me so...
DIRT - The rally thing is mildly interesting to me. More so if it has monster trucks and cars/people to run over with them. Probably the least interesting of the bunch, but it does look damned sexy.
Tzen on
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Plus it's pretty cheap nowadays, seemingly.
I was pretty fond of GRID when I rented it too. It's lots of fun and has lots of variety as well.
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If you want realistic, get Forza 2. Period. I played PGR3 for a long time and it felt like only training wheels for Forza (though it's a great game). One thing I will warn you about with Forza, though: get it only if you really are that hardcore. The game is ruthlessly intense, and getting to unlock some of the more classic race-game cars (the name Ferraris and Lambos, among others) for career mode will take quite a while. That said, if you really are that hardcore and want a game to sink your teeth into, Forza is fantastic. There's *plenty* of single-player to keep you going without Live, and a fair number of tracks even without DLC. You'll know them well by the time you're into the game, but that's only because there are so very, very many races to run.
PGR4 is more of PGR3, with no real discernible difference except that the good cars are more annoying to unlock (I only played it as a rental, but that's about what I gathered). Both are solid games with a relatively realistic swing, but some drifting used to get around corners (and more importantly, to make points). Pretty, fun, solid all around. Maybe start with 3 and see if you like the play?
GRID: I played the demo and thought it sucked ass. Way too out of control for my tastes, and clearly all about the drifting. But then I've sunk god-only-knows-how-many hours into Forza. Paradise was similar, although the main problem I had with that one was having to drive halfway around the city to find things to do.
Have you considered the Need for Speed series? I have mixed feelings on Most Wanted because evading the cops constantly was a pain in my ass, but I had a ton of fun playing Carbon. Definitely not a sim racer, but much more under control and finesse-intensive than something like GRID, and with some really innovative ideas (the canyon race mechanic is awesome). The entire game of Carbon is set at night, but it's in a Miami-like city so it gives off this great Vice City-style vibe.
In short, I suggest Forza if you're feeling like something intense, NFS Carbon if you want something a little racier, and PGR 3 (then, if you like it, 4) for something in between.
Forza is a very acquired taste. IF you like Burnout you will find it diametrically opposed to that style.
Yes there are drifting only challenges, but you can get just as much kudos in a race by getting clean lines and fast lap times than if you power slide round every bend. In fact it is almost always better. Winning races is a gigantic kudos boost and clean sections strung together add insane multipliers. Yes you can drift, and some cars really handle well in that mode (most american cars that cant corner for shit but destroy in a straight line).
Not to mention the cities look ridiculous. I mean look at this shit :
Essentially they just upped the score you get for fast times and clean sections. A lot. The online is more comprehensive too, with the much lauded cat and mouse mode being an incredible standout.
It sounds like im pimping the game. im not really. it is just that i have been a huge PGR fan since its MSR beginnings on dreamcast. that style of game crosses between burnout and forza and i think the best of both worlds. you can play it serious, do proper racing. or you can recreate the car chase from ronin.
Also you can see my apartment in it. (which is amazing because in pgr2 on the edinburgh course you could see my sisters student accomodation. Support British developers)
PGR4 felt like a step backwards from PGR3, for me. It took away all the joy of unlocking sleek, sexy sportscars and filling garages with them, and replaced it with a bunch of busywork races driving shitboxes and having to use the lame motorcycles to get enough kudos to buy new cars. If you're not so hot on drifting, you won't enjoy having to do it just to get new rides.
I am a little concerned that Forza 2 really needs a wheel peripheral to extract maximum enjoyment, but I'll just deal with that.
As for PGR4, I can live with some mandatory drifting, but in PGR2 I remember getting kudos for taking corners properly without drifting. Did they get rid of that? Like "good racing line" or something to that effect. But now that I think about it they probably give you kudos for that WHILE drifting as well. I can't really remember. It still seemed very possible to play PGR2 to its fullest without drifting, save for the hairpin turns I mentioned in the OP.
Anyone want to comment on DiRT?
Edit: Ah, thanks Scarab. Didn't see your reply.
Have you tried the demos on XBL? DiRT, GRID, B.Paradise, and both PGRs are there, not sure about Forza. GRID looked fantastic but the handling was very slippery, and I quite enjoyed the Burnout Paradise demo.
Me too
Title is both misleading and a major let down. I'm going to go market this idea now.
Final Fantasy XI -> Carbuncle - Samash
I played the demo of Test Drive Unlimited a few weeks ago. It was, in my opinion, utterly atrocious. I've got the demo of Burnout: Paradise downloaded but haven't tried it yet, but I suspect if you're looking for that free-form layout, Burnout is the one to go for.
Admittedly, I've never played a Test Drive game that I liked.
Forza 2 is great. I love it and really anyone who liked the first one will like this. Loads of cars and races but not many tracks unfortunately. It doesn't need a wheel, at least not in my experience, but one can't hurt.
DiRT is a pretty good game too, a lot better than Grid in my opinion. The cars do ot handle realistically but this is good as you can get some very fun and difficult driving in the rally modes. If you prefer more conventional races with other people on the track thoguh don't get this as the "normal" races are rubbish and have a whole load of slow down.
That's because there's never been a good one. I have no idea who is buying these so they can make more. Test Drive has always been an awful awful series.
But I'm throwing my vote in Forza 2 if you wanna do some hard core racing. PGR is like the retarded step child of Forza.
Burnout Paradise if you want something more arcadey. I have Need for Speed: Carbon and it's not nearly as much fun as Paradise.
it honestly looks like a far superior version of motorstorm
It aparently has 3 hour long tracks (!) and loads of ridiculous stuff like having to make sure not to lose your body panels so your sponors will pay you
XBL - Follow Freeman
Also, the game should be dirt cheap because it was a pack-in at one point.
I was kind of confused by the interview. At one point he says you can fire off up a mountain and go exploring off-track. At another point he says if you miss the next corner you get instantly respawned.
Screenshots:
I find sort of the same with PGR4 in that you can play it like an ultra arcade racer or a sim-ish arcade racer.
Between the two of them they cover the whole spectrum of racing. . .
If that makes any sense at all
I understood at as being if you missed the corner you could still drive on, but crossing the checkpoints/finish wouldnt count until you did that corner
I don't think you even know what an "ultra arcade racer" is. The Burnout games are arcade racers, the Cruisin' series from the mid 90s are arcade racers. Forza and PGR? Not arcade racers. At all. Even when you mess with the options, they're still not arcade racers.
you can carefully tune the cars in Forza to do crazy drifts.
but they will be ultra-realistic crazy drifts.
well first off I didn't call Forza 2 an arcade racer. I was saying that if you turn all the assists on and put it on easy then you don't have to care about the technical details of the simulation, which is where the arcade-ish comes in.
With PGR4 there aren't nearly as many technical details in the simulation, which is where I called it a sim-ish racer. I admit I'm not as well versed with PGR4 as I am with the previous 3, but if its anything like the first 3 then you can do fine FLYING IN THE FACE of the simulation. Which is where I was leading to with the "ultra arcade."
With Burnout or Cruis'n there are no technical details in the simulation. As a result you'll see things like rubber banding and other such fudges to make up for the lack of technical details. I'd call this also Ultra arcade.
I'll concede that I may have a different definition of "arcade racer" from yours but you don't have to be an ultra cockface about it.
also, Cruis'n is not arcade racing, its just shit.
I would suggest checking out the demo's before deciding which one to get.
Also Midnight Club:LA will be out in October. I'm certain it will be pretty good.
Definitely looking forward to it. I didn't hear too much about it at E3. I assume it was shown though.
Oh shit fucking yes. I always forget that this is coming out soon. I loved MC3: Dub Edition so goddamn much. I can only assume the new one will be even better.
So you want an arcade racer that focuses on good lines? Sounds like GRID is your game. Personally, I don't enjoy the super-sticky tire physics of the game, but to each his own. By not having Live you really are cutting out a huge portion of gameplay that's available in racing games.
I would suggest Forza 2 to anybody. It's leaps and bounds ahead of the Gran Turismo franchise in every way possible(okay, well... maybe not graphics).
PGR 4 is a fantastic game but yes, there is a palpable element of Kudos and drifting. There's really no reason to choose PGR3 over 4 if you don't have Live, since 3 seems to be more active. The car selection is ridiculously diverse and the weather effects are fantastic. You don't have to drift during regular races, in fact to get first place against good racers(online) you would want to avoid drifting as much as possible.
Burnout Paradise is cool, but gets stale pretty quickly without friends.