DescentBB

I have played SportsCar GT and NASCAR4 and really enjoyed them but it is time to move on. Can anyone suggest a good racing sim? Preferably one that models real tracks in a real race environment. I am not interested in racing through city streets, unless of course it is in Long Beach or Monaco.

*cues Merlin*

GT3 for now, GT4 when it comes out.
I have GT2, 3, and I will have 4 very soon
It's a remake of pretty much every major race track, innumerable cars and excellent graphics. And unlike the GTA series, realistic physics :p. Except damage, hope GT4 fixes that.

GTR Racing (out in Germany only but has English conversion packs.

US and CDN version due within 2 months witht he extra 24hr SPA race with night/day transitions.

GPL - old but still a classic swith al;l the updates. If you think you know how to drive a race car, try driving a 67 F1 car. This has got to be the hardest SIM to learn.

Some MOD's out for the NASCAR and F1 99-02 games are pretty good.

IMHO, d/l GTR and get the conversion packs. You'll never turn to another racing game.

I've been playing a lot of Richard Burns Rally lately, if you're looking for a sim, this is one of the most realistic I know of. Be prepared for some frustration though, its very difficult. There is a rally school segment to the game where you learn left foot braking, the handbrake turn, the scandinavian flick, etc. Its hard to use in real stages at first, but it was really cool when it started to come together and I could actually keep the car on the road. Great graphics too, lots of varying scenery and varying surfaces. The stages are very realistic - narrow and twisty, with lots of solid objects to collide with. No monaco F1, but the french tarmac stages are kind of like monaco the rally.

Anyway, there's a demo of RBR you can download somewhere, probably not hard to find.

I second the recommendation on GPL (Grand Prix Legends), that's a game with depth. There are tons of mods and tracks for that game, a lot of people having continued playing it instead of newer sims. A game that survives 5+ years and still has a loyal audience is something special (like Descent!). There's a demo of GPL preinstalled with many commonly used mods here:

http://www.bhmotorsports.com/download/6447

Another game just for the sheer variety of racing is ToCA Race Driver 2. DTM, Formula Ford, Super V8's, and open wheel, just to name a few.

http://www.bhmotorsports.com/

http://forum.rscnet.org/

Another upcoming game is rFactor.

V8 Supercars was a fun game. Based on Aussie V8's. I'm sure you can still find it.

Another rec for Richard Burns Rally. Cool game. Having a steering wheel is a must.

I'm with Merlin and Sligar on the GPL recommendation. Don't be put off by the 3dfx/Rendition Verite acceleration requirements of the original game. Papyrus produced OpenGL and Direct3D "beta" renderers for the game prior to their demise, so you can play it on most cards these days. You should also get reasonably good performance given the fact that it predates the titles you mentioned in your post. Do try the GPL 2004 Demo before you buy though.

I have played GPL before. It kept locking up on me so I removed it. Too bad to, because that was a fun game. Impossible to be competative but a fun game. Gobs of horspower, skinny tires, and no aerodynamics really do make life hard.

Dedman, if you want, I can zip up my copy with a bunch of added features and tracks and the openGL and D3D settings. I'm sure it won't lock up on you then. It's still a great sim and you should at least try out 2 tracks, Ilse of Man & Nurburgring. Both are about 25KM long.

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/140000/149586.shtml

EA's next NASCAR 'sim'

(I wonder if this is the 'project' Team Wildfire shut down thier site to work on.....)

i still like Burn Out 2 and 3

CDN_Merlin wrote:Dedman, if you want, I can zip up my copy with a bunch of added features and tracks and the openGL and D3D settings. I'm sure it won't lock up on you then. It's still a great sim and you should at least try out 2 tracks, Ilse of Man & Nurburgring. Both are about 25KM long.

Got it thanks. Cool sim. Very hard to drive. I am still getting it set up.

Keep trying. The way to take med-fast corners is to opposite lock it. Start turning before you get to the corner and let go of the gas a bit and brake. YOu'll get the hang of it soon. Oh, there are plenty of replays of me and my friends lanning so take a look at them.