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Racer/Sim with Educational Value?
C.S.
Registered User regular
I'm looking for a realistic yet fun and simple racer to add to my classroom. It will be part of a design lesson where kids learn about how cars are designed. I would like to have a racer that includes numerous customization options for the cars that the kids would be able to test out on the track. Ideally these customizations would show them how changing certain components in a car would change its performance. I do this now with a crappy multimedia program, but it is visual only, no interaction.
I normally would go Forza or GT, but it must be a PC game. I'd like some nice graphics as well; I like to emphasize realistic simulations in my class. The problem I'm running into is that most PC racers are either highly realistic and over the students' heads, or they're too arcadey and not appropriate for class. Right now I'm looking at GTR Evolution, but I have no experience with this game so I'm kinda grasping at straws.
So, any suggestions on a nice-looking racer that's semi-realistic with lots of customization options?
I normally would go Forza or GT, but it must be a PC game. I'd like some nice graphics as well; I like to emphasize realistic simulations in my class. The problem I'm running into is that most PC racers are either highly realistic and over the students' heads, or they're too arcadey and not appropriate for class. Right now I'm looking at GTR Evolution, but I have no experience with this game so I'm kinda grasping at straws.
So, any suggestions on a nice-looking racer that's semi-realistic with lots of customization options?
C.S. on
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What age are the students?
Also, you might look at rFactor.
On a serious note, you could use that and the F&F movies as "Spot the Bullshit" exercises.
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cars
No matter what game you end up using, I think you'll end up doing a lot of teaching outside the game to explain stuff like slip angles, center of gravity, and how all the forces of driving effect both.. without some kind of background, the tuning parameters in the game are going to be hard to make sense of.
PSN: Milky28 XBL: Milky28
rFactor will come the closest to fitting the bill.
The cars that come with the game are mostly fictional, and of course you can download many more series from rfactorcentral.
You might not even need to do this, though.
A number of the fictional cars that come with rFactor allow you to apply numerous upgrades to enhance performance. You just need the in-game "money" to buy them, but there's cheat codes for that. Each car has its own performance stats, and when you apply upgrades the stats are updated to reflect that.
The tracks include everything from speedway ovals to rally-style mountain climbs, so even without downloading a ton of mods I think this'll be just what you need.
Depending on the skill level of the person driving, there are all sorts of driving aids you can turn on and off to make things easier or more difficult.
Here's a fun little site they put together called rF Motors that showcases the standard cars that come with the game.
They both feature a fairly high level of setup-customization.
PSN: Milky28 XBL: Milky28
Heck, I have a sturdy wooden cockpit setup that you can have for free if you're in the area and can pick it up.
As far as I know none of the PC Simbin games offer part customization, only tuning.
It's being paid for by a school system budget and they aren't likely to approve something like that. Keeping it on PC keeps things discreet. Thanks for the suggestions. It looks like it will be a tossup between Live for Speed and rFactor; I might just get both!