Best gaming racing experience?
Discussion
The original Gran Turismo, before that most racing games had a handful of fictional cars and 3 tracks. Then suddenly along comes a game with hundreds of vehicles, not just racing or supercars but ones you'd see driving around day to day, loads of tracks and endless tuning options. Same with Formula 1 on the original Playstation, every team, every driver, every track, variable weather and Murray Walker as well.
Project Gotham Racing 2 on XBox Live. Spent far too much time playing that when I should have been studying for my degree. Best online gameplay racing game I've experienced. Far more enjoyable than Forza on Xbox One.
PGR3 was a sad disappointment as they'd messed with the perfect formula.
I haven't tried many other games beyond various Gran Turismos on PlayStation 1 and 2.
PGR3 was a sad disappointment as they'd messed with the perfect formula.
I haven't tried many other games beyond various Gran Turismos on PlayStation 1 and 2.
Assetto Corsa very recently on an Xbox Series X, with a Logitech wheel and proper gear shifter/clutch. Driving an E30 BMW Touring Car, on any track, absolutely awesome, heel/toe and what feels like to me the most realistic handling you can get on a console without spending a fortune...plus the noise!
Other than that, Toca Touring Cars and the original GT games were the stand out memories for me... a new GT game used to come out and you'd spend hours just looking through all the available cars.
Other than that, Toca Touring Cars and the original GT games were the stand out memories for me... a new GT game used to come out and you'd spend hours just looking through all the available cars.
The original Colin McCrae rally on PS1 was great. As was the first GT, groundbreaking stuff at the time. Destruction Derby 2 also. The modern Forzas and the like are great, normally so I can live out my weirdest resto-mod fantasies, rather than the online stuff. When it comes to actual fun, I'd rather play wreckfest than most of the others 
F1 and F197 on PSX. I was 13 and it was the height of my obsession with F1. To me at the time, there wasn’t anything more exciting than pretending I was Damon Hill!
TOCA 1 and 2 were also very memorable. Touring cars were cool then and played those games to death.
Gran Turismo 1-4 ate up an enormous amount of my time but I was never happier than when I was playing F1.
Funny, maybe it’s just growing up and getting older but no matter how good modern racing games are, I never had more fun than those blocky primitive looking games from the 90’s
TOCA 1 and 2 were also very memorable. Touring cars were cool then and played those games to death.
Gran Turismo 1-4 ate up an enormous amount of my time but I was never happier than when I was playing F1.
Funny, maybe it’s just growing up and getting older but no matter how good modern racing games are, I never had more fun than those blocky primitive looking games from the 90’s
Microprose Formula One Grand Prix. As a 10 year old used to a Commodore 64, seeing this for the first time on my uncle's PC blew my mind 
When my parents finally relented and bought an Amiga 1200 I spent hundreds of hours playing it. Got hold of the editing program as well so I could update the teams and liveries for each new season. I think probably up to about the 95 or 96 season, it was around that point we got our first PC and I moved on to Colin Mcrae Rally, that was the first time I used a steering wheel and pedals.
When my parents finally relented and bought an Amiga 1200 I spent hundreds of hours playing it. Got hold of the editing program as well so I could update the teams and liveries for each new season. I think probably up to about the 95 or 96 season, it was around that point we got our first PC and I moved on to Colin Mcrae Rally, that was the first time I used a steering wheel and pedals.
TOCA/TOCA 2 is a great shout, forgotten how much I enjoyed that. Anyone else remember driving Grinnall Scorpion in TOCA? Lairy if I recall correctly.
I really liked V-Rally on the Playstation as well. Obviously the Gran-Turismo series, especially GT2.
PS - Not real-life cars I know, but the sense of speed (and graphics) on the original F-Zero was something else - still stands up well I think. The sequels on Gameboy Advance were more of the same, and also excellent. F-Zero GS on the Gamecube is superb too - again cutting-edge graphics and crazy speeds.
I really liked V-Rally on the Playstation as well. Obviously the Gran-Turismo series, especially GT2.
PS - Not real-life cars I know, but the sense of speed (and graphics) on the original F-Zero was something else - still stands up well I think. The sequels on Gameboy Advance were more of the same, and also excellent. F-Zero GS on the Gamecube is superb too - again cutting-edge graphics and crazy speeds.
I was very impressed by virtua racing on the megadrive at the time, I lost many, many hours to that game! The original Gran Turismo, obviously. Burnout 3, Takedown was probably my favourite 'side by side on the sofa' arcade console racing game
More recently, Project Cars was fantastic. But, it was project Cars 2 where I had my first taste of driving in virtual reality and I think that first time was probably my best game racing experience! I just couldn't get over how real it all felt! That first crash in VR was quite unnerving to say the least!
I'm looking forward to seeing how much more immersive technology will allow the experience to get in years to come!
More recently, Project Cars was fantastic. But, it was project Cars 2 where I had my first taste of driving in virtual reality and I think that first time was probably my best game racing experience! I just couldn't get over how real it all felt! That first crash in VR was quite unnerving to say the least!
I'm looking forward to seeing how much more immersive technology will allow the experience to get in years to come!
_Neal_ said:
TOCA/TOCA 2 is a great shout, forgotten how much I enjoyed that. Anyone else remember driving Grinnall Scorpion in TOCA? Lairy if I recall correctly.
I really liked V-Rally on the Playstation as well. Obviously the Gran-Turismo series, especially GT2.
PS - Not real-life cars I know, but the sense of speed (and graphics) on the original F-Zero was something else - still stands up well I think. The sequels on Gameboy Advance were more of the same, and also excellent. F-Zero GS on the Gamecube is superb too - again cutting-edge graphics and crazy speeds.
V-Rally, forgot about those! The 2nd game was my favourite with all the Group B models and even the 405 T16 from memory I really liked V-Rally on the Playstation as well. Obviously the Gran-Turismo series, especially GT2.
PS - Not real-life cars I know, but the sense of speed (and graphics) on the original F-Zero was something else - still stands up well I think. The sequels on Gameboy Advance were more of the same, and also excellent. F-Zero GS on the Gamecube is superb too - again cutting-edge graphics and crazy speeds.
Enjoyed GT/GT2/TOCA/TOCA 2, a real eye-opener was trying Grand Prix Legends on PC with a wheel for the first time, couldn't even complete a lap! So demanding in comparison to licence tests and the Sunday Cup, first time I gained a glimpse of how difficult it actually was for drivers back in those days.
Bacon Is Proof said:
You could feel the weight of the cars in TOCA, better than any game I had played at the time.
GT 1+2 were fantastic, especially with the race spec TVR. Went down hill after that.
I was going to mention that race spec TVR, I remember downloading (and printing out!) a setup for it that changed pretty much everything, then it was an absolute dream to drive, especially around a track with fast corners like Deep Forest(?).GT 1+2 were fantastic, especially with the race spec TVR. Went down hill after that.
edit - ye gods, that spec is still online
https://kingspon.tripod.com/gt/Cerbera_LM.html
Edited by FunkyNige on Tuesday 8th March 16:21
Zetec-S said:
Microprose Formula One Grand Prix. As a 10 year old used to a Commodore 64, seeing this for the first time on my uncle's PC blew my mind
When my parents finally relented and bought an Amiga 1200 I spent hundreds of hours playing it. Got hold of the editing program as well so I could update the teams and liveries for each new season. I think probably up to about the 95 or 96 season, it was around that point we got our first PC and I moved on to Colin Mcrae Rally, that was the first time I used a steering wheel and pedals.
Which was a development of the original Revs on the BBC Micro, nothing else like it at the time. Grand Prix 2 was a lot better but the in game menus got a lot worse, which was silly because the genius behind it all, Geoff Crammond, physics genius, was always credited separately to the guy who did the menus.When my parents finally relented and bought an Amiga 1200 I spent hundreds of hours playing it. Got hold of the editing program as well so I could update the teams and liveries for each new season. I think probably up to about the 95 or 96 season, it was around that point we got our first PC and I moved on to Colin Mcrae Rally, that was the first time I used a steering wheel and pedals.
However, better than Grand Prix 2 was the original Indycar Racing from 1993, felt the weight of the cars much better. Oh and the menus were so much better, even than todays games, you could spend hours tweaking bump stop settings etc. without it getting tedious, and you could feel the difference. Perfection.
After that, yes TOCA was great, but also the original Moto GP from 2000 felt great, real knife edge riding, subsequent versions lost that I think.
Gassing Station | Video Games | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff