PC Race/Driving sim game(s)?

[MusPuppis]

Quick update,

 

I got my hands on a copy of GT Legends.

 

I have to say, this game is pretty damn fun. They claim something like 95 cars, which I was excited about (Im a sucker for choice, heh) but from what I can tell, that number is somewhat padded. They offer several different team versions of the same cars. This is fine and all, but I was really hoping they meant 95 different year/models.. In a few cases this is true, the Vette being one of them but as far as different models, theres something like 25 or so. The Z is notably absent - which really pisses me off, I was hoping like hell to have one.. but oh well.

 

I dont know though.. Maybe as I race I unlock new cars or something.. No idea.

 

The game isnt easy or idiot proof, but nor is it needlessly difficult. They offer a number of driver assists to tone down the learning curve a little bit and kinda tailor the game to your hardware. I have a pretty simple wheel, Logitech Wingman GP (non FF) so I dont have a clutch, which would normall make things more difficult, but they have an "auto clutch" option that simulates the clutch when I shift - keeps me from over-revving and losing control when downshifting in corners, heh. I havent tried to play it with the keyboard (nor do I want to) but just for sits and giggles I may hook up one of my control pads and see how it plays with that. I think with constructive use of the assists you could get it very playable (and still be competitive) with a control pad. Which is nice since you can buy cheap pads for like 8$ vs the 25-35$ for a cheap wheel.

 

You dont get to "upgrade" your cars, ala GT1-4 and many other games. When you own it, thats it. You do have a really indepth setup screen though to tweak and fiddle with options on the car. Everything from steering lock-out, camber, spring rates, brake bias/sensitivity, how much fuel you carry, tire pressure and type, etc. So you dont get to buy a "sports suspension" but you can tune the car to behave exacty as you want it to. Theres also a less indepth way to tune by way of a set of sliders where you can adjust the suspension between hard and soft, understeer or oversteer the gearing from low to high. So those of us who dont know how to make functional and educated changes to the suspension can cheap out and go it the easy way.. =]

 

The graphics and sounds are top-notch and it doesnt need some massive, brand new computer to play. My comp is a home built, AMD2k+, 1gig 2700 DDR, Radeon 9k Pro, KT4V Mobo setup and I can play it on a pretty good detail level at 1152x864 res without any problems.

 

So, in the end, I recommend the hell out of the game. I really enjoy it and anyone interested in vintage racing should get alot of enjoyment out of it.

[Hypertek]

Bhmotorsports.com cool site for pc racing games!!

 

I play richard burns rally, really great game, it never gets borring..

 

grand prix legends is good with tons of add ons to update the game.

 

GTR is a badass game , try the demo.

 

Live 4 speed is wack to me.

[Mikelly]

All this simm talk got me going, so I Dug up SportsCar GT and loaded it onto my new machine... I'm playing it and every five minutes the friggin' thing causes an error and XP stops the application from running. I have to stop the game...

 

This is a game from 2002-2003, so maybe it is an XP problem... Not sure, but this is very frustrating... Might just have to Load up F1 or GranPrix Legends and see if either of those has issues...

 

Mike

[Cruez]

 

Live 4 speed is wack to me.

 

How is that ???

[Gollum]

mikeelly, it could be your graphics driver. If you're cpu is overclock that could be an issue. Expecially if it's an amd.

 

cruez, he probly means the horrible graphics and the very low techness of it's presentation.

[Cruez]

The graphics are fine just not up to par with some of the games that are coming out now...but not horrible..

 

but the physics of the game are unmatched... I got my wheel out the other day and have been playing it off and on.. Very realistic... especially with a force feedback wheel..

[Mikelly]

This machine is stock non-overclocked. COuld be the drivers for my Accelerator, which is some integrated something or other... Frustrating. It is an AMD Athlon XP3000 2.1 GHz machine with 448MB of ram. This thing ran like gangbusters on my old 1.4GHZ machine... And that thing was an EMachine!

 

I'm not a fan of liveforspeed either. Very lowtech, and I just didn't like the feel of it at all.

 

Mike

[MusPuppis]

I downloaded a demo of GPL. Bloody hell its fun. Scary real to. I wish i had a FF wheel though.

 

I wanna buy this game ASAP but I just shelled out my last couple of bucks to rent a u-haul, trailer for the Z, put gas in two F-150's, a Civic, a Cav, a Taurus, the U-Haul and a little POS Ranger.. Not to mention having to feed the crew of 11million Ive rounded up to help myself and my roommate move.

 

BAH!

[Drax240z]

Grand Prix Legends is the best sim for my money, with Richard Burns Rally a close second, though it wasn't sold in North America I believe. Both are very intense, I don't think you can compare any console game to them as far as simulation goes.

[preith]

All this simm talk got me going' date=' so I Dug up SportsCar GT and loaded it onto my new machine... I'm playing it and every five minutes the friggin' thing causes an error and XP stops the application from running. I have to stop the game...

 

This is a game from 2002-2003, so maybe it is an XP problem... Not sure, but this is very frustrating... Might just have to Load up F1 or GranPrix Legends and see if either of those has issues...

 

Mike[/quote']

 

I beleive it's an issue with XP. A co-worker was going to lend my his, but told me it locked up on his PC as well. GPL has and XP patch, and I assume SportsCar GT has one out there as well, but haven't checked. Heh, the only reason I was considering it was because he has Blackhawk Farms add-on, and there isn't one available for GPL.

[redruM_0381]

I'm not a fan of liveforspeed either. Very lowtech' date=' and I just didn't like the feel of it at all.

 

Mike[/quote']

 

 

?? do you have a wheel? try the latest version?

LFS by far is the highest tech racing simulator available. Most of the physics in other sims, GT Legends, are "canned". and are not truley mathematically dynamic like LFS. Not that its necissarly bad to have canned physics, its just more arcadish imo.

LFS uses COMPLETE dynamically calculated physics.. EVERYWHERE... nothing is canned. Even the engine sound is fully synthesized, rather than recorded wav files. Dont get me wrong, GT Legends, GTR, etc sounds great. However LFS calculates the sound dynamically for the type of engine, and potentially in the future, change the sound for different components ie. bigger cam, you can hear more lope.

There are hacks avaiable (one in which, LFSTweak, I authored) that allow you to change any variable in the car, or engine. Basically allowing you to design your own car. After changing the engine/chassis, you can hear the difference, and feel the difference just like real car. In fact I have a V8 240z in LFS with about 400hp (body shape too, I can show screenshots/vid later)

I build the engine like a Z engine, and it automatically sounds suprisingly similar to the real deal.

 

The physics are so detailed that you can accually SEE the tires flex under different lateral or vertical loads. Decrease the tire pressure, and you can see the rim damn near touch the ground around corners. Not just feel it.

It also dynamically calculates the rubber thickness on the tire surface... so you lock up the tires, you can accually flatspot the tires, and feel/see it. Underinflate the tires, and the EDGES get worn, like they should.. overinflate, and the center wears faster. Its amazing how much this game calculates in REALTIME.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is LFS is still under HEAVY development. the damage model is young, and not accurate. Tire grip still needs a little work.

Most people complain of the slippery tires. I accually feel they ARE accurate, its just that you cant get that "seat of your pants" feel like real driving.. Also the perception of speed is CORRECTLY slower than other games. So you have a dendency to enter a corner waaaaay too fast, mashing the brakes and either sliding into the wall, or mashing the gas and spinning out... Very frustrating to noobs

 

Other sims are great too, and fun, but LFS has sooooo much more potential that other sims dont have.

 

Im done, Have fun

[Mikelly]

I've got a decent force feedback wheel with pedals. I've not played it in the last year, but the last time I downloaded it, it sucked as bad as the time before. I'll have to check it again and see if it has come along.. And I"m with Richard on the GP Legends comment.

 

Mike

[Gollum]

I just realised this would be a good thred to post this in case anyone's wondering...

 

The GT4 wheel "Driving Force Pro" works fine on XP and is true plug and play. For older windows systems you just need the logitech "wingman" drivers (or at least I think that was the name of the identical PC wheel. If you search thier product line up you'll find the identical wheel with a different colot scheme). I love this wheel as it's capable of insane feedback that can feel stronger than a car without PS. 900 degree turning is nice too

 

I don't think the PC version works with a PS2 though. But I just thought some people here might like to know this little tidbit.

 

And mikelly, it's probly a game/OS problem. These kind of things are the main reasons games have patches to begin with. But as many game comapnies say "if it works fine, don't worry about updating." Well, you're isn't working fine, so I'd look for the latest updates.

[Mikelly]

See my newest thread I just started...

 

And I've got the Wingman wheel... Works well...

 

I've tried to download drivers from some of these websites for Sportscar GT, and had no success... Just realized yesterday that this game was from 1999, and most of the support for it went away. I'll build a dual boot machine and see if that fixes some of the issues...

 

I'll have to give liveforspeed another try... I just wasn't impressed with it the last time I tried which was last winter... I typically only do the driver sims in the winter months...

 

MIke

[Cruez]

LFS is much better with a FF wheel. I got the ActLabs Force feedback wheel when I was beta testing MCO. MCO had some decent physics, but not as good as LFS.. I'm not sure I would play LFS without a wheel.

[Gollum]

LOL, MCO compared to LFS?!?!

 

Don't get me wrong, I loved MCO, but that engine when on to be thier main arcade racer platform, and thus gave birth to NFS:Underground.

 

It wasn't physics that mad MCO awsome, it was it's part's system and thier effect on the car.

 

Now, the LFS modding has REALLY got me interested in LFS again. Being a programmer that might actually make the game entertaining for me. Sure the game was always fun, but I almost view it as pracetice, not entertainment. Because of the lack of feeling from the car's movements like real life it's much harder to driver under the same physics, wich is why most games out there have simplified physics. LFS really forces you to pay attention to the little things that a car does.

 

I'm picking up GT legends today, we'll see how I like it

 

EDIT FOR CRUEZ (didn't want to generate a new post): Part of my problem with MCO physics might be due to the fact that I never truly experienced them. With 56k dial up (no broadband availible at the time) my car skipped all over the place until much later versions of the game that let the player seperate times from the other players, so winners weren't calculated until everyone had crossed the finish line.

 

The community started out great, but the game wasn't very good. The game got much better at time when on but the community went down hill. I was still having tons of fun even until the last time I logged in though. Truth be told the #1 reason MCO was closed was because EA wanted the servers for "Sims Online." Don't believe me? That's ok, beucase I know two people who were EA employees at the time that I had investigate the whole thing. MCO wasn't making decent profit and wasn't growing as much as they'd hoped, and the didn't have as much money as expected for servers for the sims online. So the MCO servers helped ease the launch of the sims online.

 

Gotta love video game politics.

[Mikelly]

I'll be grabbing copies of FIA GT and GT legends after the two demos I downloaded... Holy CRAP!

 

Anybody know where I can get ahold of these two???

 

Mike

[Cruez]

LOL' date=' MCO compared to LFS?!?!

 

Don't get me wrong, I loved MCO, but that engine when on to be thier main arcade racer platform, and thus gave birth to NFS:Underground.

 

It wasn't physics that mad MCO awsome, it was it's part's system and thier effect on the car.

 

Now, the LFS modding has REALLY got me interested in LFS again. Being a programmer that might actually make the game entertaining for me. Sure the game was always fun, but I almost view it as pracetice, not entertainment. Because of the lack of feeling from the car's movements like real life it's much harder to driver under the same physics, wich is why most games out there have simplified physics. LFS really forces you to pay attention to the little things that a car does.

 

I'm picking up GT legends today, we'll see how I like it [/quote']

 

EA went backwards when the went to NFS Underground, the phyics were better in MCO.. not quite as arcadian as NFSU... at least MCO was a decent game at first..

[Gollum]

Hey I've got a good idea. Since many of us seem have similar PC game collections we should setup "events" so to speak so we can set aside some time to race with other HZ member.

 

Just a thought.

[Guest bastaad525]

while I didn't spend a great deal of time with it, I did enjoy LFS quite a bit, and yeah the initial impression it gave me was that of having a very accurate, realistic physics engine. At the time, I didn't know about any tweak programs for setting up you're own cars, and the game didn't have any 'real life' cars in it, so I didn't stick with it long, but yeah the physics were great and the online was pretty fun.