I love racing. And I love gaming. So a racing game is an obvious draw for me. Recently I have been doing a lot of “sim racing” which tends to be less gaming, and more sim, and thus I dont actually count it as gaming.
Assetto Corsa Competizione is a GT racing simulator with all the bells and whistles for making real life gear heads drool. Its as close to racing as you can get without getting grease on your hands. But its not really a game. There is a single player “campaign” but it simply sets you up for the world of online sim racing. Its magnificent for what it sets out to do!
I remember the old days of playing F1 on my “Super Chinese Console Game” which I only much later learned was an NES clone. The feeling of being a great driver and kicking my dad’s butt when I was 6 really made me fall in love with racing games. And I miss having a fun gaming experience when playing games.
So here follows my quest for finding the best racing GAME available today with hopefully regular updates
Need for Speed Underground 2
Race Driver: GRID
The Crew 1
Forza Horizon 4 and 5
Blur
Split/Second Velocity
Death Rally Classic
Death Rally (2012)
Mad Cars
Bloody Rally Show
Good topic! I haven’t enjoyed an arcade racer in a while. Forza Horizon often gets mentioned but I feel it takes the worst out of sim and arcade games.
The AI feels cheap and the sensation of the cars feels “off”. Like I said, the worst of both worlds for me. Which is a pity because I love the selection of cars.
I loved the old NFS games. Hot Pursuit, High Stakes, Underground and Porsche 2000.
Project Gotham Racing 4 perfectly nailed the simcade feel imo, and nothing has come close. Unfortunately, this one is only playable on Xbox 360.
I noticed I had Ridge Racer Type 4 on my PS5 and gave that a go. While it’s old and quirky, it definitely has a vibe and is kind of fun still!
I played the Grid Legends story mode via Gamepass / EA Play. I have some thoughts
The game plays really well on my 1080ti. It looks pretty, and SOUNDS amazing, both inside the car and the external cameras! The handling via controller is surprisingly good and no matter whether I am driving stadium trucks, 60’s muscle cars or LMP1 prototypes. Catching drifts and stopping quicker than I expect should be possible is easily done.
The tracks are varied between street circuits, real race tracks and even some point 2 point levels. The AI is not the smartest and playing on hard I still beat them easily.
The story has some real cheesy acting but its fun to see your team progress and… Dont want to spoil the ending
Overall the game fills the gap between arcade racer and simcade racer. In the category of “Arcade Racer” it scores 7/10.
An unashamed arcade game effort, in everything from its handling to it looks and sounds. It has a distinct mobile game feel in the way the level progression is managed, and seems it was indeed on mobile first. The cars are varied enough in the way they look, but 50’s big fin cars can compete and win against knock-off Veyrons and Zondas.
The best feature is the 4-player split screen for some fun where you can beat your sim racing buddy who always talks about “slow in, fast out” by holding accelerate flat through the whole race.
No real long term appeal but fun in short bursts 6/10.
Here’s one of those old school, isometric arcade racers, but with a presentation that puts me in mind of a VHS-inspired take on Art of Rally. The similarities don’t end there either, because while Super Woden GP 2 is unmistakably an arcade-oriented approach to racing, it’s very obviously made by people who adore cars and know everything about them (someone is the Steam comments raises Gran Turismo as a comparison). There are 180 vehicles, a huge variety of race types, and plenty of chances to pedantically tinker with each vehicle. Local splitscreen multiplayer is supported too.
This should have been an obvious and early choice! This is pretty close to perfection! We play on my Wii U and it is, with all the DLC, simply amazing! Easy enough for a 3 year old to grasp, yet it has some intricacies that allows my far more skilled 11 year old to really kick my butt! The power-ups and weapons scattered through the simply astonishingly well done levels add an extra flavour (some sour flavours ) to the 4 player mayhem. Also, baby Luigi!!!
Now add it to my gaming PC and we play in 4K with XBox controllers, and we can play 4-player split screen! (I only have 1 Wii U tablet and 1 Wii Motion Controller, and the Bluetooth hack to use other controllers is simply too unreliable…)
For the quick pick-up and play arcade racer itch, this is your scratch! 10/10
