Skylare said:
i would prefer more realistic racing games but thanks!
GT5 has been around for ever now, you should be able to pick it up fairly cheap. While the AI is dishwater-dull, online is actually pretty good fun. The game has been around long enough now that the community mainly consists of those who are in the game for the long haul and actually want to race like minded competitors. In other words, the rammers have all long since fucked off.
F1 2011 can be picked up fairly cheap too - it was a disaster on the PS3 at launch and bombed. Every branch of GAME I went to around mid-november had tons of the fucking thing pre-owned. The thing is, they've actually patched it up to a pretty decent standard now. Do be sure to look up the tyre bug they missed though. It's not a game-breaker -
if you know it's there and how to work around it!
Need for Speed: Shift Unleashed 2 probably sits about halfway between realistic and arcade. The developer really wanted to go for realism, but EA said "no". It shows, with a very "hybrid" handling system that sometimes feels simple, and other times leaves you fighting against the car with no real idea what the problem is.
As for The Run? Shite. Hot Pursuit is still head and shoulders the best PS3 NFS to date.
Other racers worth a look:
Driver San Francisco - a driving game as opposed to a straight racer, but still good fun for a week or so.
F1: Championship Edition - a bit long in the tooth now, and with a woefully out of date driver and team line up. Still a fucking ace game though, with a good difficulty curve and interactive pitstops that can win or lose the race if the mechanics fumble a tyre change because you fucked up the QTE. And this was before the term "QTE" had even been invented. And it was actually fairly demanding compared to today's "interactive cutscenes" that QTE's have become.
WRC - Now I know it didn't do well critically. But here's the thing - it lost a lot of marks for a lack of spit and polish. I only have last year's edition to go by, but I believe this years is not significantly different. Now, although it lacks a bit of shine, everyone knows that rally cars are not supposed to shine. They are supposed to leap grunting and snorting across yumps and through streams and to be utterly covered in filth and muck. If you don't get mud on the roof, you are DOING IT WRONG! And
that is where WRC is actually pretty damn good once you get to grips with setting up the car. It's such a demanding task to thread your 300bhp 4WD monster through narrow, twisty gravel and mud paths with trees and rocks lining the way as opposed to half a mile of gravel and some nice comfy tyres to end up in. Seriously, fuck the critics - it will cost you like £10 or something, and I guarantee that if you like a hard, challenging car game that has a go at being serious, then you will definitely get your £10 worth.
Wipeout - It's old. It's ancient. The franchise goes back to the launch of the PlayStation (back before it was called PSOne or PSX or PS-whateverthefuck). But it's still brilliant fun. It can be frustrating and hard as nails as you move to the faster, high tier races, but that's how
any game should be. Work for those trophies, motherfuckers!! And the online community is still healthy(ish) after Sony gave the game away on the back of the PSN hack-a-thon.
DIRT has specifically
not been mentioned, because the only one I have is the original Colin McRae Dirt. I suspect the series has moved on leaps and bounds, and I remember it being pretty good fun, but leaving me unsure as to whether I was supposed to take it seriously or approach it as a pure arcade racer?
Best thing to do? Rent (or borrow from mates) a few before deciding which one you are most likely to sink serious time into before buying. A couple may even have demo's on PSN. I know there are still F1:CE and GT5 playables on there. A couple of months back anyway. Maybe.
Have fun whichever you pick, and I may even bump into you online. Only because my mirrors were too small though...!
[EDIT]: How the FUCK did I forget Burnout Paradise? 'Tis truly awesome.
