Which sim is best?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by TonyRickard, Jun 5, 2011.

  1. K Szczech

    K Szczech Registered

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    This is the post that started this thread:

    Look how he got people arguing about something he said he doesn't like people argue about!
    A clever trap indeed - worthy of a master-troll :cool:

    Just kidding of course with no disrespect to Tony at all.
    What my point is - why is it so hard for people to contribute to this thread in the spirit it was created in?

    My first sim ever was Revs (ha! beat that! :p ) and I enjoyed many racing sims ever since.
    So why are some people so focused on things that divide them instead of things we have in common and can share? People only hurt themselves this way, because eventually, all this hatred will consume them and turn them into internet trolls before they know it.
    So cut it the hell out while you still haven't lost it ;) And if you can't - get help :p
     
  2. Revvin

    Revvin Registered

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    I think I can just pip you by a year, my first was Chequered Flag on the ZX Spectrum (not counting the Atari years lol) though I'm sure someone will post something earlier :)

    It just shows how far we've come and how diverse our 'sim historys' are. I didn't think anyone would top Geoff Crammonds first Grand Prix game but then along came Papyrus and in between Ubisoft with their F1 series (whose name escapes me right now). They were all cutting edge in their day and all later surpassed by a newer sim. I've played all Papyrus's games, all ISI's games and right now iRacing takes up most of my sim racing time but rFactor 2 will still be a day 1 purchase as rFactor was.

    I just don't understand the blind loyalty some have to an inanimate object or string of code. If we can't be civil to each other then this forum loses its purpose.
     
  3. Nimugp

    Nimugp Registered

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    My first 'sim' was Grand Prix 2. I really liked it a lot, and didn't feel like something better could be made. Then came F1 2000, which was so much better, it was unbelievable, surely that was as good as it could get. But no, F1 Challenge came, and it was far better again. (Since then I started realising that games would improve, and improve. Probably due to getten older, and starting to understand how those things work in life :p )Every game takes another step towards the 'perfect' sim, improving beyond our (or at least mine) imagination of what is possible. Not all the steps are in the same direction, because different people have different views on what is the right way to go, but I think that that even makes Sim Racing in general better. The more games there are, with the more different points of view, the quicker sim racing will be improved. People aren't here to lose, we are allways trying to beat each other. For most of us it will be on the virtual track, battling for the lead, for some it is about creating a game that is better then the games of other developers (at least from their point of view). In the end, I think the more different points of view there are, the better. Not only will it improve the genre quicker, but that way there is allways a game available for anyone that suits his or her situation.


    PS: I think the game you were mentioning is "Monaco Grand Prix Simulator"
     
  4. the_last_name_left

    the_last_name_left Registered

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    Well, yes I can. Kind of.

    As someone else mentioned, Chequered Flag on the Spectrum, released 1983 (Revs was a year later). It certainly was more of a sim than a lot of the other rubbish about, but it couldn't hold a candle to Revs.

    View attachment 285

    View attachment 286

    Kids today, don't know they're born. lol

    Here's REVS as comparison:

    View attachment 287

    Hot stuff, huh?


    Anyways, I was just reading my earlier comment on "best sim"....and I noticed it says

    hehe - can scratch part of that now. C'est la vie.
     
  5. Guineapiggy

    Guineapiggy Registered

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    Revs was a really tough cookie; actually driving that car was a mess especially due to the rather mangled controls. S to accelerate, A to brake, L and : to steer and Q and TAB to change gears up and down respectively. This was made harder by the fact that steering was painfully slow and the wheel didn't automatically center its self, not to mention that for every session/spin you had to restart the engine by changing to neutral, holding down T and then S too until the revs built and then jamming it in to first. There was no clutch and you could also never tell how far wide you could run before the invisible wall skirting the track wrecked you.
     
  6. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Which part? 'free integrated online-hosting' ?

    Hate to labour the point, and I might be misinterpreting (but then someone else might, too, and I don't want confusion to spread... :) ) but rF2 has free hosting as well. We're anticipating the package will have 4 EXEs, one of which is for hosting and doesn't require activation.

    So you can host 50 rooms if you so desire, without paying a cent... but obviously to go and play on any of them you'll need to pay for online access (after your 1st year with rF2).
     
  7. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    It isn't integrated anymore... It's dedicated. But still free to host.
     
  8. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Ah. Misinterpreted then :) All good.
     
  9. johnsclander

    johnsclander Registered

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    More or less in chronological order:

    -Colin Mcrae Saga: i really enjoyed all of them, especially the first one. Dirt saga...well, fun for a week, or less.

    -Mobil 1 RC: the Rally game i liked most, really good memories.

    -Richard Burns Rally: great great game, by far the best rally game out there, even today (wich is sad). So much fun, with french mod, in online with league mates.

    -TOCA RACE DRIVER 2 (Spain name, i think in UK and other country the name is different): by far the best story mode of all the sim racing games i've ever played. Great graphics, handling, cars, tracks...a true classic. TOCA 3 is better in many things, maybe all, except the poor story mode. GRID...well, was a serious dissapointing althoug i hace fun with it 1-2 weeks.

    -F1 Challenge 99-02: great with F1 Mania (Spanish mod of F1 current championships at the moment: 2007-2008...). The first game i remember as a "simulator". Great moddability, superb IA, lots of options...i spent hundred of hours just racing offline.

    -Rfactor: i jumped in from F1 Challenge just to play online with RFT08. There was always open servers with races in Fuji, Spa, Monza...my first online sim. I played a lot in 2008, but i stopped until mid-2010.

    -In this period, i only played Simbin games, above all Race07/GTR-E wich still it's my favourite sim racing game along with GTR2. Many months of hotlapping with friends until we decided to play a championship and that's when we find the weakest point of this simulators: online mode in non dedicated servers. Awful, terrible netcode. Sometimes was just fine, but the most of times: terrible lag, bugs...

    -So we jumped in Rfactor at mid 2010. Greater netcode and so many mods and tracks. Lots of champs and fun races. Still our champs sim.

    -In the last 2 years i buyed Netkar, LFS, Iracing....good sims, really good, but in the end you always came back to Rfactor. Why? Is easy to host a 20 players race with your own dedicated server and doesn't require a huge internet connection.

    So i must admit Rfactor is the best in overall score, although many of this other sims have better graphics, FFB, UI, sounds...
     
  10. NoobRacer

    NoobRacer Registered

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    hey nostalgia!

    FWIW my pedigree, or lack thereof, in order of when I tried / discovered it:

    - Pitstop I / II

    - Grand Prix Circuit (Accolade)

    - Test drive (yeah the original, also decades later Test Drive Unlimited)

    - Death Rally

    - Death Track

    - 4x4 Off-Road Racing

    - Street Rod I / II

    - 4D Sports Driving

    - Network Q RAC Rally (what I consider my first semi-realistic racing game)

    - Need for Speed (the original and every incarnation since, most enjoyed Porsche Unleashed)

    - Hi-Octane

    - Wipeout

    - NASCAR (Papyrus)

    - Grand Prix 2 (Microprose)

    - F1 2000 (EA)

    - Gran Turismo 2 (on PlayStation of course)

    - BMW M3 challenge, rFactor engine right? really got into this free game, even figured out how to replace the default Nurburgring GP track with any downloaded gmotor track, good times

    - DRiFT 1 / 2 / 3

    and that was all before I got a steering wheel, then of course things got serious, what I've tried with said steering wheel is:

    - Shift 2 (already mentioned the NFS series, but this is with a wheel, community patches almost made it bearable, but not quite)

    - Racer (Dolphinity), not a fan of the physics tbh

    - Speed Dreams (wheel support seriously lacking)

    - netKar Pro 1.3 (couldn't quite put my finger on it, but again physics felt slightly off)

    - GTR2 (wheel support seemed off for my G27)

    - rFactor demo that came with the wheel (quite impressed, but gfx very much dated by now)

    - F1 2011 (Codemasters) - bitterly disappointed

    - Live For Speed

    Now I'll be the first to admit I'm a rookie when it comes to sim racing, hell I have more real world racing experience than sim racing, which is also not a lot, BUT I've at least tried quite a few games in my time. I can't try iRacing seeing as even a tryout is not free, been burnt too many times so unfortunately that is a deal breaker, I had high hopes for C.A.R.S. until I spotted Shift 2's physics in a video clip or two (again, sorry, but I've been burnt already).

    SOooooooo ... I'm planning on buying the rFactor 2 beta, the last one that I still have hope for, and from my entire list, what keeps the G27 from gathering dust until rFactor 2 happens? The LFS demo actually, find it the most engaging of the bunch, the lack of licensed content, the smaller community and the also slightly dated graphics being why I haven't bought it.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 8, 2011
  11. the_last_name_left

    the_last_name_left Registered

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    hehe. ok. It's free to host, but not to join. My point had been that anyone could host and it was free to race online. Now it's changed a bit - still free to host, but not to join (after 12 months licence, at least). No biggie - just mentioning it had been a significant enough feature for me to mention it - and it couldn't be said now for rF2.

    @guinea - that's some memory you have! Brought it back to me. Took us ages to get the car going at first, and then an age to complete a lap.

    @john - Mobil1 Rally / Rally Championship was excellent. The stages were mostly excellently done - narrow, tight, and somewhat accurate. And long. Nobody has done proper stages like that since. I'm Welsh and used to watch the RAC going back to the early 70s as my dad was a rally driver (not a pro) and I've never seen Welsh stages portrayed better than in Rally Champ.

    Everybody bought the ColinMcCrae rubbish instead though - and all CM stuff is rubbish as far as driving goes (and their rally stages have always been rubbish). All their stuff operates with a single pivot point in the middle of the car, I suspect, and all the rest is 'faked' - I don't believe they're doing anything like "physics" in any of their well-marketed rubbish. I believe you can feel it in the responsive-ness of the cars; they feel active and alert but that's surely because there's really very little going on under the hood. All rubbish, imo, really.

    I hope rF2's loose surface physics are much better - and I hope we get some good rally stages, tarmac or forestry.

    One big thing that rF did very poorly, I thought, was jumps.....leaving the track surface didn't seem to have been considered much in the code, I suspect. Hopefully rF2 will handle it much better.

    I'd ask Tim, but I guess we can just wait and find out......unless Tim feels like adding anything? [hint! hint!] ;)
     
  12. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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  13. PLAYLIFE

    PLAYLIFE Registered

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    Noobracer, great list, very similar to mine.

    A few big omissions though which I spent countless hours playing were:
    - Stunt Car Racer
    - Indy 500 (The Simulation)
    - Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge I & II
    - Formula 1 Grand Prix (Microprose)
     
  14. CdnRacer

    CdnRacer Banned

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    Dirt3 is awesome! Graphics are awesome and the sounds are just right in my opinion. No, it's not RBR but there never will be another RBR.
     
  15. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    :( It's still so sad he's gone.
     
  16. CdnRacer

    CdnRacer Banned

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    I thought this was really cool.


     
  17. the_last_name_left

    the_last_name_left Registered

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    Much the same history here. Thanks for RSC btw.

    I don't mind too much if rF2 doesn't get leaving the tarmac (and rejoining it!) especially right tbh - it isn't important for track racing anyway, right? GPL always impressed me with its crashes. They seemed "right" - though some were hilariously wrong (and that was fine)

    I watched both Burns and McCrae win the Rally of Britain (RAC, whatever). I've seen people all the way back to Roger Clark winning the British (RAC) Rally - Blomquist, Vatanen, Makinen, Mikkola and the legendary turbo powered Group B cars before their banishment, but I have to say McCrae was easily the most impressive in his win (95): I've never seen anyone come past so insanely aggressively. I just couldn't believe he was going to keep it out of the trees over 3 days. It seemed impossible anybody could, driving like that. But he did. Crash McCrae did it! [It taught me that however much I like driving and might imagine I could be ok at it, I couldn't ever drive like that - I don't have the balls, regardless of any skill.]

    Check him out in 01 - in a Ford? - somewhere in Wales (where I'm from).
    http://youtu.be/B8TffgtRQQk

    wow. How fast at 5'40"?

    And ....can't not mention Group B in 85.....54 stages? Today's stuff just doesn't cut it anymore.

    These cars came through Wales when it was icy, and it got dark..... The surface was difficult to walk on, yet these guys came through sounding like jet planes - honestly. Incredible.

    Turn the sound UP!

    http://youtu.be/4Q6tgSvdJFc

    Some shots of icy Wales at the end there, I think. Maybe it's me being sentimental and nostalgic, but nothing cuts it like 70s and 80s rallying in Welsh forestry. It was all so amateurish and dangerous.........a golden age? Ah well.

    Oh, and check the width of the stage? Codemasters take note? No? oh well. :D
     
  18. Nimugp

    Nimugp Registered

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    How could McRae's codriver (nicky grist??? or something :p ) not have been sick :S
     
  19. jorge salgueiro

    jorge salgueiro Registered

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    My favorite sims until now:

    - Indy 500,I spent years going around
    - Indycar II enjoy it
    - Sports car GT -My favorite sim of all times :D
    - rFactor - perfect
     
  20. the_last_name_left

    the_last_name_left Registered

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    Aye, just sitting there calmly going "over crest into...." Crikey.
     

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