Widescreen Gaming Forum

Midtown Madness 2 had pretty photorealistic car textures for the time... :hide

I won't even try to rate games, it raises too many questions in my idle mind (What is realism ? Is there only one way to be "realistic" and degrees in achieving realism ? Can I be a "keyboard driver" and discuss realism ?) but there's just one thing I'd love to know: what would 5 be ? :?

I think 10 is a perfect simulation 1 is an absolute arcade game with no more strings attached to reality
& 5 is a middle ground, half arcade half realistic
and yes you can be a keyboard driver & discuss realism, realism is not about how you control your virtual car in front of your computer, it's about :
if I turn my wheels about X degrees in this direction, that I have this car with this weight & parameters, that I'm speeding at Y km/h, and that the road is made of this & that materials & is heading in this direction, then if this was real the car should behave in this way, however since it's a game, the car really behaved this other way so what's the difference between the two ? & deduce the rating...

however some games like TDU are better driven with a 360° wheel & analog speed control... still this has more to do with how they designed controls than any realism and you can still learn to drive no problem with other controls
(most games prevent overturning the wheels at high speed due to the limited controls most people have when gaming, TDU doesn't seem to do so)

I don't think of it like an absolute rating, it's just a way to show how you as a person feel toward those games on the reality standpoint

Thanks for the responses! Let's say all racing games voted on had to be stratified into "action game" and "sim." Does this look about right?

BTW - I think "5" means "minimum amount of realism needed to qualify as a sim."


Action game:

2000:
Midtown Madness 2

2002:
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

2003:
Midnight Club II
Need for Speed Underground

2004:
FlatOut
Need for Speed Underground 2

2005:
Need for Speed: Most Wanted

2006:
FlatOut 2
MotorStorm
Need for Speed: Carbon
TrackMania Nations ESWC

2007:
Need for Speed: ProStreet
SEGA Rally Revo

2008:
Need for Speed: Undercover
Pure

2009:
FUEL


Sim:

2000:
Grand Prix 3
Metropolis Street Racer
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed

2001:
Gran Turismo 3
Project Gotham Racing

2002:
Grand Prix 4
Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel

2003:
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
Project Gotham Racing 2

2004:
Gran Turismo 4
Richard Burns Rally

2005:
Project Gotham Racing 3

2006:
Test Drive Unlimited
TOCA Race Driver 3

2007:
DiRT
Formula One Championship Edition
Forza Motorsport 2

2008:
GRID

2009:
Need for Speed: SHIFT

Yeah that looks pretty accurate to me!

How about the earlier Need For Speed games (pre-Porsche Unleashed)? How would you classify those?

Definately arcade style games.

NFS: Road Challenge/High Stakes is still one of my all time favorite racing games, but it's pure arcade action all the way, there isn't really much of a sim element to it, except for a pretty basic damage model.

The earlier ones are even more arcady - but still good, especially NFS2:SE :)

A few Sim titles . . .

Based on Image Space Inc's graphics / physics engine, GMotor 2

SportsCarGT (GMotor 1) - 1999
F1 2000 - 2000
F1 Championship Season 2000 - late 2000
F1 2001 - late 2001
F1 2002 - 2002
GTR2002 (Simbin's mod for F1 2002, based on the FIA GT racing series)
F1 Challenge '99-'02 - 2003
GTR (Simbin's first standalone release) - 2005
King Of Ovals (Free Add-On for GTR) - 2005
GT Legends - 2005
rFactor - 2005
GTR2 - 2006
RACE - 2006
RACE 07 - 2007
GTR Evolution - 2008
RACE ON - 2009


Other Sim Titles

Live for Speed - 2003

netKar Pro - 2006

iRacing - 2008

A good reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_racing_simulators