Searching for a racing game

[Kyrdra]

Hello
I am searching for a racing game of the current generation without a story or someone commenting how great (or rubbish) I was. I search for a racing game which will simply let me do a race without listening why that was great. I dont want to be forced to play through the tutorial.

I haven't played a racing game in a long time the last I played was Nail'd and it was great. Totally arcardy, great soundtrack and best of all no unskippable support character.
The game before that was NFS3: Hot Persuit and it was practically the same. No introductions simply driving.

Now a while ago I bought the new Hot Persuit and well it disappointed completly. I started it up once and after I nearly broke my controller in frustration that I can't skip the tutorial to the so cool new interface they made I never started it up again.

So to sum up what I search for in a racing game:

• 
  -for Pc
  -Arcade feeling
  -simply starting it up and be able to drive
  -No forced tutorials
  -no (attempted) story
  -no support spiel from a supporting character

 

[LaoJim]

Ok so suggestions:

If you enjoyed Nail'd you'll probably enjoy Pure as well. Basically the same style of trick game, but Pure was generally better reviewed. (Though I've only played the Nail'd demo, that seemed right to me)

Split/Second: Very arcadey, very fast lots of fun, lots of explosions. There's no story as such, you are supposed to be taking part in a reality-style TV programme, but it doesn't intrude into the gameplay at all and you can just skip past all the cut-scenes. There is a three-minute tutorial at the beginning, but it shouldn't be any big deal. No supporting characters.

I'd also recommend Dirt 2 or 3 as being good mix of arcade and simulation, very accessable and look gorgeous. Dirt 3 may be better for you as Dirt 2 contains a lot of 'rad' chatter from the other drivers.

Finally, as a bit of a wild-card recommendation, Sega Rally is the most arcadey racer out there, in that its physics bear absolutely no relation to reality, but its lots of fun, though very hard. It's not the deepest game out there and it looks a bit dated these days but it matches all your criteria perfectly.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

...

I'd also recommend Dirt 2 or 3 as being good mix of arcade and simulation, very accessable and look gorgeous. Dirt 3 may be better for you as Dirt 2 contains a lot of 'rad' chatter from the other drivers.

...

On that note, the first DiRT game was an excellent rally game. By rally I mean both a combination of dirt tracks, urban pavement and any combination of the two. There is a bit of a tutorial in the beginning from what I remember.

The handling in that game was a complete departure from Gran Turismo, Forza, and even the Colin McRae series which directly resulted in DiRT being made. The driving is so smooth and forgiving that once I tried it I never turned back and ended up buying DiRT 2 and 3 for PS3.

The sheer variety of cars made DiRT noteworthy, plus all the different track types around the world kept the handling styles very different for races. You can easily choose at the beginning of each race your transmission type and I think perhaps your tires and that's about it. It's very straightforward, a total pleasure to play, and best of all, there's no fucking LICENSE TESTS.

*EDIT* Never mind. Apparently DiRT on PC forces you to install something called StarForce [http://www.amazon.com/review/R2H6B3BF5NUQTS/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2H6B3BF5NUQTS], which is some type of DRM.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

There's the Burnout series. I think only Burnout Paradise made it to PC. Open-world, you can crash other cars to advance. It also has a Crash mode where you can damage other cars to build up points.
Other than that, there's Blur, it blends realism and kart racing. Very fun.

 

[Trucken]

FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage maybe? No tutorial, no story, just race. There are some other modes as well if you ever get tired of just racing. My personal favorite when it comes to racing games, but admittedly I'm not that big a fan usually.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

If you're into driving games, there should be no reason brought up by man or woman or God to stop you from playing Gran Turismo 5.

Oh, PC. No licenses? Is that a jab against GT5? Ooh how dare you.

Dirt 3 for you all the way.

captcha mantra of the day:

learn.
advance.

 

[Ruley]

Need for speed: Most Wanted (2005) is a good arcady sort of game. And its cheap as chips from Amazon. As is Need for speed carbon. some might say they're realistic games but i don't. it has infinite nitros and bullet time!

 

[Kursura]

I'd recommend Flatout 2.
Fits your criteria and I personally loved it.

 

[MrRaggaedeman]

I'd recommend Dirt 2 over Dirt 3. It's basicly the same game but Dirt 3 has a bunch of small issues which annoyed me to no end.
It takes longer to restart a race, the soundtrack is worse, the track are kinda boring and paywalls everywhere.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Blur is quite a blast, essentially Mario Kart put into real cars.

 

[LaoJim]

Dirts 1, 2 and 3 are all worth playing. My preference would be for Dirt 2 rather than 3, as it has more beautiful tracks (China and Utah especially), seemingly more content. I also loved the rock soundtrack from Dirt 2, Dirt 3 felt a bit more muted. However lots of people complained that the voices and "attitude" in Dirt 2 was off-putting and that seemed like something that might annoy the OP as "spiel from supporting characters". The engine for Dirt 1 is a little dated and the handling is not as good as the subsequent games, but it has longer tracks and more realistic rallying.

Incidently which other racing game is FlatOut most like? I've always thought about getting a copy, but never been really sure what it is? I've always assumed it was like Burnout but that may just be because the names are so similar.

I'm kicking myself for not mentioning Burnout Paradise to begin with, but I'll settle for seconding it here.