Ten Driving Video Games We'll Never Stop Playing
Caption:
Excitebike
One of the early fine titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Excitebike is an absolute granddaddy in the racing genre. Certainly not sophisticated, the game could only remain so fresh for so long because the hugely skillful timing one needed to get beyond the middle levels. Excitebike was also one of the early adopters for in-game customization, allowing would be gurus to design their own track. There may have been a tendency towards making courses that consisted of only unreasonably massive jumps, but it was good fun nevertheless.
Thousands of video games are developed each year but truly impressive driving games remain relatively rare in the world. We may be a little on the picky side when it comes to our motoring entertainment, but we just can’t stomach the idea of forcing our way through a title like Hot Wheels Ultimate Racing (seriously bad) when there are Pole Positions in the world.
Our list of ten is by no means exhaustive, but we do think it covers a pretty wide, certainly entertaining cross-section of the automotive gaming world. Click through our gallery above to read about what we liked, and then make sure to tell us what we missed (got wrong?) in comments.
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Comments
Nate Luzod
No F-Zero! Am I the only SNES enthusiast here or what?
Donald
No Sega Rally (arcade/Saturn) mentioned? This is a dark day in journalism.
Reilly Brennan
Donald,
I never played Sega Rally. Have a link to a video or screen shot?
Brytown
Sega Rally 2!!! (have 23498784758934 hours on it), Ridge Racer(RR1 RageRacer RRT4 RRV)GrandTourismo 3, marokart(nes), Fzero (nes,GC <--onlygame i played on GC), NFS (High Stakes Hot presut Underground 1) Ferrari YA! 355 Challenge (dreamcasrt ver) Daytona USA 2001 (dreamcast version)
ill give u pole position and monico gp but road rash?? auto modelista?? nah we can stop playing those lol. Colin Macrae is a good series of games.... it just dosnt capture... iduno the excitemet of rally it does just not all the way. i find when i play dirt im bored after a while maybe the human element of rally is what makes it more exciting. its a fun game i just dont get that "barely holding on feeling" that i do when i watch real ppl do it. but its the closest theyve come so thats a plus STILL not on my list tho lol.
also GTA? comon not driving game its a beating and stealing game that involves driving to your next beating and stealing.
schmidt
I think Microsoft's Forza series is as good if not better than Gran Turismo, at least any Gran Turismo's released so far. It allows more customization of the cars and has far more accurate sounds, and even more importantly I think it has more accurate physics (Forza 2 especially) and is much much more fun to play. I tried playing Gran Turismo IV after a year of Forza 2 and I could not stand to play it, it was so boring and the horrid audio (which Gran Turismo covers up while you are racing with music) really hurt the whole driving experience. Gran Turismo was an amazing game (5 years ago), but I think Forza has really shown where GT series is lacking.
Doug Milliken
Pole Position (arcade version) was OK, but we did a lot better with Atari Hard Drivin', and the update, Race Drivin'. These arcade games were the first (afaik) to have a real math model (physics model) of a car, decent model of the tires, along with 3D graphics and force feedback steering, starting in 1989. All the driving games before it used "phony physics" and didn't drive like a car--Hard Drivin' is good enough that it has been used to teach people to drive.
For all you kids that never played one of these in an arcade, see if you can find one owned by a collector. The sit-down cabinet version still has better force feedback steering than any of the home (consumer) steering wheels, it uses a giant DC torque motor connected directly to the steering wheel. Google Hard Drivin' for plenty of details, Wikipedia article is a good start, but this one by Jed (who designed the hardware) is better, http://www.jmargolin.com/schem/schems.htm
jamesbro
No doubt about it, Hard Drivin' and Race Drivin' were the 1st and only video game to authenticate performance driving and racing. You mentioned the steering system but even better was just the overall feeling of "balance" with the car and the ability to easily transition between understeer, neutrality, and oversteer. Just AMAZING!!!! Why can't anyone do this with modern technology? And the other great thing was on the "classic" course, the high speed corners had posted speed limits, and very similar to the real world, you could run about 10-15 mph above that speed but much faster and you would lose control! OH, AND DON't FORGET to mention the authentic clutch/shifter interaction! Man do I miss that game.
TwoPynts
Carmageddon -- still one of the best "death race" games!
Fer
C'mon, these are stupid car driving games!! Only agree with Gran Turismo and Collin Mc Rae series. The best car sims ever are Grand Prix series for PC, and recently GTR1 and GTR2 for PC too, and if you want fun without realistic physics you have the Need for Speed series (prior to NFS Underground)
jimagn
If you're looking for online racing, nothing has yet to surpass Grand Prix Legends. Nascar racing 2003 has good online code as well, and the GTP mod is very well done. GTR2 is good, as is GTL. rFactor has its advocates, and keep an eye out for iRacing, from the same folks who created GPL and NR2003.
RX-8 Tracker
For those of us who do track days at Buttonwillow, Willow Springs and Laguna Seca, Live for Speed on PCs or F-355 in arcades are unmatched. However, due to their realism, most find them too hard to even make it around the track once, let alone set any respectable times. Too bad, as popularity relegates us to the above list of the rank mediocre, unless a miracle brings up an F-355 version 2! glhf
bmwkp
Test drive unlimited is great.
1 shit game is GRID
What other pc games you quys know of thats good?
Anonymous
I would love to see a Formula 1 game for x box 360 but I don't think it would happen Mr F1 Bernie Ecclestone will not allow it
Forza 2 is best
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mardywright
I like most other's here love car driving video games, there is something that excites you about fast cars and when you can sit in front of the screen and maneuver the car and swing and stumble over get up back again and race that give you quite high adrenaline.
Mardy,
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