What is your favorite racing game?

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I just remembered Beetle Adventure Racing on N64. I loved that game, but getting all the collectables was really difficult.

It had so many awesome hidden routes and secret areas.

The 2 ultimate unlockable cars were so broken though. The alien one was very groovy, but the police car had a feature that made it truly special.

When you honked its horn you also turned its lights and siren on for a few seconds which made the a.i. cars STOP AND PULL OVER if you were nearby. XD

 

[Soxafloppin]

NFS: Most Wanted (looking forward to the original)
NFS: Hot Pursuit 2010
Driver San Francisco, which took me by surprise big time.

 

[R4ptur3]

Mario kart 64 kicked so much ass. God knows how many times I have played bowsers castle haha.

As for a racing game with some sort of realism, I would have to go for GRID or need for speed underground 2.

 

[Starik20X6]

My problem with racing games is I really like playing them, but I'm terrible at doing so. The Mario Kart series are the only ones I can play with any skill, in all others my brother absolutely thrashes me. So for me the crown goes to Mario Kart, hands down. Though honourable mention must be made to ModNation Racers' staggeringly deep customisation, and pre-emptive honourable mention of LittleBigPlanet Karting.

 

[Seriin]

F-Zero GX and then probably Mario Kart DS. I don't like the "realistic" racing games, and these two styles are about as far in either direction and you can get. I love that we've got stuff like F-Zero, full of things you can only find in video games and yet people flock in droves to ones that recreate the feel of driving a real car. Impressive on a technical level, I guess, but I play games to do things I could never do in real life.

 

[Baron_Rouge]

Mario Kart's a lot of fun, but my vote goes to Motorstorm: Apocalypse

 

[juyunseen]

Any mario kart game. No questions asked.
i like the arcade racing games too. You know, the ones with the wheel and the seat? Those need for speed ones are fun.

 

[Semudara]

Mario Kart Wii is my favorite, thanks to the Wii wheel. I know two types of players: those who hate the Wii Wheel and just use the GameCube controller, and those who love the Wii Wheel (like me). It just makes the game a hell of a lot of fun, and I actually play better when I use it. XD

 

[Humble Grapefruit]

Being in college, I decided to bring my N64 along. It is amazing how many people walk past my dorm, see it, and ask if I have Mario Kart. It is just that fantastic. I also really like Forza 3, you can sink way too much time into that game.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Burnout 3 Takedown Because nothing screams manly like a combat racing game in which you use nothing but your car as the weapon.

Yeah, Takedown was probably the high point of the series. Revenge was also great. Paradise kind of blew.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Gran Turismo 5. I've sunk an ungodly amount of hours into this game.
Burnout 3: Takedown is my favourite arcade racer.

 

[Nightly Rabi]

Probably either Project Gothan Racing 4 or Burnout 3. Lots of good memories with they two.

Edit: After reading through some of the comments I've been reminded of Dirt 2, not sure how I overlooked that.

 

[scorptatious]

WELCOME TO MARIO KART!!

Diddy Kong Racing was pretty cool too.

 

[srm79]

I'd like to get F1 2012, played F1 2010 for quite a while but held of on F1 2011 because of the reported bugginess/framerate issues on PS3, anyone know if this has been fixed? Maybe I should just get F1 2012

Sorry for the consecutive post, but I'm too damn melted to feck about with edits...

F1 2012 looks pretty good, but I am going to wait until it's released and the fan feedback starts to paint a clearer picture. F1 2011 was much better after the patch (although not without some pretty big flaws) but some of the display issues never went away for some apparently - something to do with certain types of TV or somesuch. Codies are bigging it up obviously, and it does look like the business but once bitten, twice shy and all that. If the AI and penalty/safety car system are still broken, then I'm not going near it. Probably. Maybe. But I do love F1...dammit!

Thanks for input, hope I don't go too far off-topic. Might wait for a bit more fan feedback in that case, because I love F1 as well and don't want to go for the wrong one just yet. One of my friends said I should just go for F1 Championship Edition instead, I think I only tried that once in a demo with a controller, seemed nice graphics and effects but don't know about the driving much. I Love F1 as well, just hope one of them is the solid, tight, game I'm looking for with all the tracks and car setup, moreso than graphics and presentation, can play GT5 for that, at least on PS3.

If you already have F1 2010 there's no real reason to recommend F1 Championship Edition.

For a start, it's so old that Michael Schumacher wins lots of races, and there are recognisable fag ads on the cars (albeit the "sanitised" European versions)!

Because of it's age, the rules are just different enough to confuse the hell out of someone depending on how long they've followed the sport. To anyone who is new to F1, the idea of tactical refuelling during a Grand Prix or running only one type of tyre for the entire weekend will be things they won't know a great deal about. And the scoring system will seem a little weird too.

Lastly, the weather engine is broken. Actually it's an AI flaw, but you can't win a dry/wet or a wet/dry race (or any combination thereof). You can win a dry race and you can win a wet race, but if you have dynamic weather on and the conditions change then you're stuffed. The AI is able to adjust it's wing angle to change the downforce levels during a pit stop. Unfortunately, the devs forgot to give the player the same ability. Basically as soon as the weather changes, the AI will adjust their setup to suit the conditions. The player will be stuck with the "wrong" setup, and you can basically forget any result.

 

[Arina Love]

Gran Turismo 5. i just can't get enough of it. i play it pretty much everyday since release. Not much just few timed laps on random track and couple practice laps on THE Ring so i don't get rusty. Recently released Twin Ring Motegi DLC sucked me in for 4 hours.

THIS! I fire up GT5 from time to time, and just hop on to a track day lobby and blast in a few laps in whatever takes my fancy that day. I'm especially feeling the love for Spa-Francorchamps at the moment for some reason...

hahaha yeah after watching Spa-Francorchamps F1 race i immediately turned on GT5 and gone for few SPA laps in Ferrari F1

 

[Palademon]

Burnout Revenge is a good, mostly racing game. Never played anything but the Paradise demo.

Driver: San Francisco is a good driving game in general.

 

[falcon1985]

Still playing F1 2011 and still have a lot of love for Gran Turismo 5. The WRC series are far better rally games than Dirt for the purist, and I even have NASCAR in my collection (unusually for a European). So yeah, I like my racing to be rooted firmly in the real world.

I never could come to love "kart" stylee games or arcade racers. They're fun, and I do play Need For Speed and Burnout in short bursts from time to time. They just never hold my attention the way a game with a more "sim" feel to it can. I think that puts me firmly in the minority of a minority on The Escapist...

I feel the same way. My driving and flying games are firmly rooted in Sim territory.

 

[Razentsu]

It is without a doubt in my mind, Crash Team Racing.

 

[RA92]

Great to see some love for racing games, especially with Psygnosis and Blackrock shutting down recently...

Anyway!

Wip3out
Burnout: Paradise
NFS8:MW
Re-volt
Split/Second

 

[karcentric]

Without meaning to offend anyone, I don't view Mario Kart as a racing game.

My choice is the Forza series, can't wait for Horizon.