Best Racing Game To Date

[The Roid Rage]

I don't know about all of you, but one of the things I enjoy the most in gaming is sitting down and playing a good racing game. There have been many successes and failures in this genre, and it has been so since all the way back in the days of the Atari. I remember the first racing games I ever played were "Night Driver" and the classic "Pole Position". "Night Driver" was horrible "Pole Position" was the first successful racing game, perfect examples.

Racing games have come so far since then, and there have been so many good racing games to come out, I don't just mean driving games either, racing games. This rules out stuff like Crazy Taxi, Driver, Stunt Man, Spyhunter, Twisted Metal(which hurts to take out of the equation) etc... And no ATV games or Motorcycle racing games, nothing like that, real racers.

What I want to know is what do you think is the best racing game made to date. Take all kinds of aspects into consideration when making this decision too. Think about graphics, controls, the selection of cars, tracks, interactivity with the game(as in ability to customize a car in various ways), difficulty, advancement ability within the game, and all around entertainment value.

There are a few franchises that must be mentioned here too. You can't bring this topic up without mentioning the Need for Speed, Gran Tourismo, and Test Drive franchises as they are the longest running series of racing games, and have all made some of the best racers to ever hit our stores and consoles.

Other newcomers to be mentioned would be the Forza, Project Gotham, Burnout, and Midnight Club games as well. These games have had the luxury of coming around as the technology and graphic capabilities were going to a new level, giving them an edge over some of the classics that came before it as developers were able to do things that had never been done, but does the advancement of technology truly make them superior to some of their predecessors?

There are also some not as widely celebrated games that should have their say as well. Take for instance the Tokyo Extreme Racer series, Ridge Racer series, and new comers to the genre like Grid, Blur, Juiced, Full Auto, and you can't forget the Nascar series of games.

So Which is it? What of the group do you think has the greatest stake at being called the greatest Racing game ever, and why?

This is going to be a two part thread. After you all respond and give me the candidates you think should be considered as the best, I am going to create a poll for everyone to vote on and we will put it to a vote, which is the best racer ever.

I mentioned franchises, but I want you to give me specific games. Don't just say "I like the Midnight Club series the best" tell me a specific game and explain why. This opens up a wide selection of games, but we are in pursuit of the best of the best, the one game that no matter due to time or technology takes the cake. You can even give me a top 10 if it makes it easier, and I can put the most popular responses on the poll.

Let's hear it folks.

 

[Bozzaholic]

Tokyo Exreme Racer must be one of the most under-rated titles ever (when it comes to driving games anyway) I picked it up for a fiver and didn't put it down for months, much better then need for speed underground in terms of cars & mods

Speaking of need for speed it would be criminal not to mention Hot Pursuit - that game was so ahead of it's time.

If we go back to old school systems then I spent a couple of hours playing Virtua racer for the 32x a couple of weeks ago and aside from the horrible sound FX the game was brilliant.

Another game which was great for it's time was Micro Machines for the mega drive. did anyone use any other character then the dude with the sunglasses??

 

[Mr. TM]

Its well over a decade now, but when I was younger, nothing was as great as Need For Speed III, Hot Pursuit. The police were like an added character into the game, as I think they were absent for II. I loved the ability to stay customizing the car, and getting some of the secret cars, like the El Nino.

The tracks were great, the graphics were greatly improved over the first two games. I put it above Need For Speed: Special Edition because of the increase in the graphics, however, I still love the original, for its city track, and getting the Diablo up to 202 MPH.

 

[LUFC HBK]

Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 3 on PC is porbably the best racing game I have ever played. I was relatively new to gaming so this was amazing to me. There were so many different game modes. You could go from a 3 lap race at Hockenheim to a full Championship Season. You could play as any driver and change the settings for the cars. The gameplay was amazing, the controls were simple but at the same time they made the game feel realistic. There were a few settings to change the overall performance of the cars. You could make all of their settigns identical so it was an even race or you could make the cars realistic (so the Ferraris and Mclarens always won.) This game not only got me into Formula One but it got me into gaming as a whole. It was a truly terrific game for the time it was made (around 1998)

 

[Dagger Dias]

I think the best racing game is Mario Kart 64. Its prequel was the first racing game I ever played, but they truly struck gold with Mario Kart 64. No more annoying pre-determined orders of who finishes in what position or weapons specific to each computer controlled character, now everyone could use every item. Those two things were my main problem with the first game. The graphics were also phenominal at the time, as was the soundtrack. With every addition they try to match the success of Mario Kart 64 but I don't think they have ever come close, except for possibly the Wii version due to having a great selection of characters and tracks.

Mario Kart 64 gets my pick as the best racing game because it was a fun way to bring in fans of Mario games into the racing genre, as well as it being a very fun game. Playing through each of the 16 tracks one by one with 4 people at once was SO awesome at the time, although playing through all 32 tracks in the Wii version with 4 people now is equally epic.... No other racing game has made the impact on me that Mario Kart 64 did and it became the standard that I compare other racing games to.

 

[Dave]

This is my first post in the VGAT section in a while but my glorious return has been heralded by Game Rage on a subject that I know quite a lot about. So here goes again...

Racing games have always been a fun little past-time for me. The first one I expect that I ever played and enjoyed to a great level was Crash Team Racing. For me, there has never been a game that has managed to mix competitive spirit with fun as well as Crash Team Racing did. As a youngster, I used to sit around my TV and play this game with friends for hours and hours. It was fantastic and really gave the impetus for other games to go that way. Since then, there has been a lot of pretenders to it's throne and none have come close. However, this is not my favourite racing game ever. It is probably the most fun one I have played though.

Project Gotham Racing 4 is my favourite racing game ever. There has never been a game that I have so good at or spent so much time on, maybe with the exception of Final Fantasy X. At one point, I was ranked 7th in the world in score and for good reason. This game was so addictive and is the finest racing game that I have played on any platform. Great graphics and a great indy soundtrack meant that this game was not just driving round in circles for hundreds of laps at a time.

 

[Ferbian]

The one game (series you could really call it) that stands out to me would have to the the Gran Turismo series.

Why you ask me? because first of all it's the only game I really ever bothered to sit down and actually play through for a consistent amount of time to make off a love for the game as opposed to the amount of Need For Speed games I've played (I also have Hot Pursuit) which wouldn't add up to the amount of time I spend playing 1 single game of Gran Turismo.

One specific thing that makes Gran Turismo great to me was the enormous range of cars you could choose, me always having a certain love for the cool looking cars but properly being able to choose "ooh I wanna drive this one today" as opposed to having to complete a series of races etc. to actually advance to the next car, as opposed to just playing 1 race and selling the car you got awarded to then go on and purchase the car you've been drooling over for the complete game (I was young, had a love for cars, yes I'll drool for that),

The final thing that really made me love the game was the fun I had tuning the cars in the workshops (I believe that's what it was called.. I haven't played the game for quite a while)

 

[Tastycles]

The original Formula 1. It was released in 1996, and features the 1995 race season, but I still play it. The arcade mode is good for simplistic racing, where you can shunt and bump etc. and the grand prix mode was years ahead of its time. There were a few glitches, such as a classic one where one car from every team pits on every single lap in long races, but it is otherwise very solid. One thing that lets it down is a lack of multiplayer, but I don't really have any friends, so that doesn't bother me. From a multiplayer point of view, the best game is any version of Mario Kart, hands down.

 

[Trill Co$by]

I am 100% shocked that none of the Cruisin games are mentioned in this thing. I mean sure, the graphics aren't that great, but the racing in this thing is superb. It's not everyday that you get to race on Mars in a school bus and beat a Mustang.

Personally, my favorite is Cruisin' USA due to the awesome soundtrack that came with it and the better car selections, but still the entire series is one of my favorite game types to date.

 

[The Roid Rage]

I am 100% shocked that none of the Cruisin games are mentioned in this thing.

Ah-Ha!!! I was waiting for someone to mention the Cruisin series. If you mention that you have to mention the San Franciso Rush games, I personally loved the arcade version of Rush 2049. Both are legends of the arcade and had successful console launches.

I like what I am hearing so far, keep them coming guys.

 

[The Roid Rage]

C'mon people, I know there's got to be more of you who have a favorite racing game? I need more input like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. Where you at folks?

 

[Freddy4190]

It's a hard choice. I'm not sure i'm able to single out a favorite racing game, but one of my favorites indeed would have to be Need for Speed: Underground. It started a big boom in street racing type games, more so then before. They released it at like the perfect time around the Fast and the Furious franchises. It had a pretty badass car customization mode, and the racing was always fast-paced and exciting. I played that game way more then what should be considered healthy.

 

[The Roid Rage]

Still not the results I was looking for, although I do greatly appreciate the contributions thus far. I was hoping that this would really catch people's attention and really get people thinking about the topic as there are so many racing games to choose from. I will wait longer, but at some point I will follow through and create a poll.

 

[lostsoulforever]

It's Super Mario Kart, the first one on the SNES. Great fun, and you know that if you stuck it on today, you'd get hooked again and be desperate to beat the best time on Rainbow Road.

2nd place goes to Burnout: Paradise for me. I've had it since I got a PS3 in 2008 and still play it. The fact that the developers have kept on adding things to it has helped it's longevity.

I enjoyed the Need For Speed games on the PS2, but not so much on the PS3.

 

[youngbullzeye]

i have to say diddy kong racing for n64