Be Excellent To Each Other

Ok, so I'm a big fan of my driving games. I have far more than I should and haven't played any of them as much as I would've liked. At last count:

Burnout Paradise
FlatOut: UC
Forza 2
NASCAR 08
Need for Speed: MW
PGR 4
SEGA Rally
Test Drive Unlimited

Of currently-released games, I still would like:

Ridge Racer 6
MotoGP 07

Talking about games that are coming soon, I feel that Codemasters have lost their way a bit. I played the demo of Colin McRae: DiRT, and found it to be massively inferior to the previous CM games (the handling was far lighter and looser than I was expecting); can anyone confirm/deny this, or is the demo not a good representation of the game?

I also enjoyed the ToCA: Race Driver games on the Xbox, but I cannot muster up any excitement for Race Driver: GRID, as it seems to be some kind of NFS tuner rip-off. Why can't we just have ToCA, DTM and V8 like the old games?

I'm really looking forward to Midnight Club: LA, however. I really enjoyed 3: DE, and I have faith in Rockstar being able to pull off a vibrant city for racing in, especially one like Los Angeles.

So, what are you looking forward to? Have I missed anything?

Race Driver: GRID is very good. Hardly any tuning bollocks.

And that's the definition of good is it?

It still doesn't have the BTCC in, so it's still a failure on that score. And from looks NFS : Pro Street has beaten it (very well actually) to that kind of racing.

Actually myop, consider pro street.

Really? I played the demo and thought it was utter, utter gash. I loved NFS: U (and to a lesser extent U2). MW was excellent, but I didn't get on with Carbon at all.

I would really, really, really love a game that had the BTCC in. Codemasters still have the TOCA licence don't they? Surely a BTCC game, or at least one that featured it, would be a bit of a no brainer considering the respect the championship gets in the motorsport world? (Plus, it would be nice to 'do my bit' in getting Gordon Sheddon to victory!)

Edit: Also, Ferrari Challenge on the PS3 is looking pretty good.

I'm sure I posted about Ridge Racer being £6.99 in the bargains thread.

[edit]Aha! It was a tenner.

I really mustn't buy another racing game. Must. Not.

I've played both, and GRID is a far better game than Prostreet. Since playing > looking, I'd say my definition of 'good' holds firm.

Especially a crappy single player game.

Ok, convince me to buy GRID. You haven't really elaborated as to why it's good.

Not any good then?

I have no idea. Just guessing that none of The BM Kliq will have it.

(think that's been up long enough now, thanks for the misplaced hostility, everyone. Next time I try to reccomend a game I like, I'll keep my thoughts to my fucking self).

I have Ridge Racer 6; it's jolly good fun. The online works suprisingly well, and people do still play it a reasonable amount for such an "old" game.

You'd assume, but they've dumped the TOCA licence for this release (not that the previous 2 had anything TOCAy in them).

Ferrari is very promising but the developer has been responsbile for some of the worst racing games of our time, such as Total Drivin, the shit PSX version of LeMans 24hr and Pimp my Ride.

But what about the voice of Geddy Lee / How did it get so high? / I wonder if he speaks / like an ordinary guy
I have it, and it's good.
And you're my fact-checking CUS

"Geddy Lee! Best bass player ever!"

probably will get motogp 07 as i could get it for 10 pounds and remember how i loved driving at Assen in the seminal No Second Prize

What? I've read this thread about 5 times and I can't even find the slightest trace of anything that might remotely have been considered even a tiny bit hostile.

Yeah - I'm also a bit confused, and I've been through the logs and everything?

I could have sworn that Dudley wrote something about the time rewind feature in GRID, saying it can "fuck off", also "And that's the definition of good is it?" seemed pretty confrontational but not actually hostile. I think ChocoboOfDoom is being rather over-sensitive though.

Ah right - but that's just because Dudley is an arsehole.

I did write that but that's not what chocofdoom is talking about. He PM'd and asked me to remove a quote of his because of possible legal issues and obviously I removed my response at the same time.

I do indeed object to the measure of a good racing game being lack of tuning, that's something people have picked up from Reverend can't handle a brake button and it's bollocks.

I owned NFS: Pro Street. For about a day. Then I took it back, because it was the shittiest racing game I've played for a long while.

Naff handling, and I thought frames dropping in the corners dies with the PS1? Oh, and all the awful 'Streetz, man' bollocks.

EDIT: I don't object to tuning stuff in racing games, but why, in this day and age, can't you pay a little virtual mechanic bloke to do it for you. If you don't want to, loike. 'Here, Mr Mechanico, tune the suspension on this car, because I can't be arsed with the tedious process' 'Sure, Mr Player, what sort of handling do you want?' 'Ohh, tight race style/a little bit of drift/full on going sideways at 120mph drift please' 'Sure!'

See I must be missing all of that. Moving it off the streets seems to have worked and the idea of a former street guy moving to legal racing works fine.

I haven't seen the dropped frames and I'm actually quite fond of its using the right stick as a sequential gearbox.

Just me then, fair enough.

I'm fucking good a setting up race cars. My fee is £50 an hour, plus 75p a mile if I have to come to your house.

F1 Championship on the PS3 actually has something a little like this - before a race you can have the computer suggest different setups which you can test on your practice laps. The computer will then adjust your cars settings according to your driving preferences.

You can, sort of, in Forza you can just download other people's setups or buy cars already tuned from the auction house. There's plenty of options for those who can't be arsed but it's nice to have the option to tinker for those who can. These sort of racing games are aimed at people who are into motorsport and will likely be interested by it. If nobody wanted them then the features wouldn;t be there. It's like me putting on a football game and being annoyed by having to choose between different formations or ten other layers of football related nonsense.

When Bobbyaro has serenaded me with this song in the past, he always makes sure he changes it to "fat chicken" instead of "fact checking".

So, is no one interested in Midnight Club: LA except for me, then? I'm really looking forward to this one.

I really liked midnight club 2 never got round to the 3rd one, I may be tempted come release if Ive got any moeny.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67228

New F1 game confirmed.... from Codies.

Fucking YES! I hope it's not going to be shit.

Well, the engine is promising enough. And bear in mind they just picked up Sega Racing Studio. Those people could do an F1 game all right.

With full-on powerslides?

Well they won't be using the Sega Rally engine, they'll be using the codies one from Dirt/Grid which seems pretty handy at doing virtually any style (although the physics of the 320si was definitely the low point of the demo)

They have the talent to get it right and the fact they're not rushing out an 08 game seems promising.

I haven't played the GRID demo yet - any good?

Everything except the physics is impressive (except you can choose your name so the pits call you by name and mine is pronounced wrong).

The physics are....so very nearly.... can't quite.... The drift car is perfect. The American muscle one is good.

Trouble is, in a TOCA game, even one that's finally dropped the name, I'm kinda looking for Touring car physics and I don't think the 320si is quite there, it's just a touch uninvolving.

Plus the flashback feature (the one I was asked to delete the comment about for NDA reasons before) is still the single stupidest idea a non-arcade racing game can ever have.

I need to play it more, call it cautious optimism.

Colour me as disinterested as I was before, by the sounds of it. I'll play the demo.

Basically it's a good driving game, but having dropped all pretendance of their heritage they've gone and dropped it into a very crowded market where there's a fair chance all the competitors will give it a good kicking.

Take the demo, remove all driving aids and head to the 320si race (where there are precisely two real cars in the 20 car field, one of which is yours, and they're from 1996) and tell me what you think.

Ok, I've played one race (the 320 as you suggested). I turned all assists off and set it to 'Pro' mode, in order to get rid of that stupid flashback feature, and...


...it's not half bad at all. I didn't have a problem with the handling, as ToCA games have always been somewhere between arcade and realism. I managed to finish 12/20, which isn't amazing, but not bad considering I was 20th after my first lap due to getting used to it.

I'll play it a bit more before deciding whether I'm interested or not.

Good show.

I'm going to give it longer myself, it's a buy certainly but I don't think it's the must have previous games were to me instead of a "When Lewie tells me it's £17.99".

Agreed.

I sure hope Codemasters include the 'Well, you're leading the constructors AND driver's championships, but because you failed to get the minimum number of points for this race, you are INSTANTLY SACKED' feature of previous TOCAs!

In North America, I remember one of the TOCAs being called 'Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing'... endorsed by two NASCAR drivers (NASCAR... er... cars not making any sort of appearance in the game whatsoever)

To be fair, that's a mechanic they haven't used since TOCA 2, after a decade it might be time to forgive. TOCA 3 : WTC was Jarrent and Labonte. It didn't have any of the WTCC cars either, although to be fair the championship didn't exist then...

Recent TOCAs, the PSP version of 3 leaps to mind, have included the fun "You finished a close 2nd in some meaningless regional championship we forced you to do. Now you're stuck here until you win it despite the fact you've won every single seater race you've ever entered and you're trying to get to F1".

I always used the cheat to get rid of that horrible mechanic.

The problem with TOCA 2 is, even if you cheated the actual sacking, the progressive difficultly remained, you'd dominate rounds 1-4 but by the end were lucky to get 8th.

I was a bit bored at the weekend, so downloaded the GRID demo for both PS3 and 360. The PS3 version is fucking horrible - even with the snap-on triggers on me DualShock 3. The graphics are noticeably lower res, but worse, the handling has been totally butchered.

The 360 version on the the other hand seems quite good.

I'm warming to the demo, but the drifting is utter wank. I hope it's not mandatory to do those championships.