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Highly scenic but selectably easy driving games - PC

Cloth-Ears

Cloth-Ears

pfm Member
I'm trying to get back into gaming. I want at least one or two nice driving games to play. After all I have a really fancy Logitech Momo wheel and pedals. I have a few old games but they are really old like 2002-5 kind of era. I'm looking for better graphics now, but not quite the latest games.

What I'm looking for is :

- Highly scenic, be it iconic landcapes, cities, industrial sprawl, in different weathers and times of day, preferably selectable.
- Era lets say from 2008-12. Not older but not beyond 2012 either for my PC.
- Selectable to play easy. I'm no realistic physics geek - I just want enjoyment. Not continual crashing and repetition.
- None of this locking out of routes or vehicles until I've proved myself - yawn.
- Preferably with a "free roam" option too.

Can you give me suggestions please ?
 
The problem is your graphics card and it's limitations if you want highly scenic landscapes.
Despite the fact that you have a wheel and pedals, a PS4 and Driveclub would probably get you all you wanted.


Driveclub is also on PC, but it's the graphics and landscapes that will suffer if your graphics card is not great. My son wanted a gaming graphics card, but it was better value to buy the PS4.

For free roaming, Midnight Club gives you the run of LA, but the graphics are a bit old and clunky now. It's 2012. On PC too. The difference with graphics a couple of years can make is huge.

[YOUTUBE]iK6QxT7tZ-0[/YOUTUBE]
 
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Give RFactor a try. Myself and a few lads from the Caterham owners club have a little league going where we race on Friday night, circuit is open all week to practice with lots of help from the guys on TeamSpeak.

Every circuit on the planet is available along with most cars..........PM me if interested and I'll get you started..........great fun for the winter nights.
 
Rfactor will do everything he wants. There are industrial drives, 8 miles of the Nurburgring, varying weather and time of day etc., simply thousands of options You don't have to race if you don't want to.

Most of all though is that it's pretty accurate for a sim, in fact very accurate.
 
kennyh said:
Rfactor will do everything he wants.
Click to expand...

Except he said "Selectable to play easy. I'm no realistic physics geek - I just want enjoyment. Not continual crashing and repetition." Whereas rFactor, excellent game it is, is a sim and aimed more at the sort of people who know what trail breaking is.

Also if he wants a game based on the ISI engine (like rfactor) then the old SimBin games like GTR2 (one of the best sims of all time) or the Race series which are available super cheap, especially since SimBin went bust.

My 2c.
 
Good points I guess. I have bought a couple of Steam games, one was the Euro Trucker sim. Agree excellent but simply not in the same league as the real time realism of Rfactor or Iracing.

Again correct, people can get to learn how to trail brake/Heal-toe/shortshift and dial oversteer in. However they can simply jump in a ford escort and go for a ride and enjoy the German countryside in beginner mode :)

It was only a suggestion anyway!! Wanna race in our league? :p
 
I can't help with "driving games" I only know some of the racing sims, most recently Iracing, which is a full on racing simulator, not a quick pick up and play game. Maybe one of the GTA games would suit you?

Off topic a bit but I have to share some of the excitement I have for the new wheel I've ordered for my Iracing fetish. It's the SimXperience Accuforce wheel and it will be sim racing heaven=) Hopefully mine will be sent in the next couple of weeks or so.
Here's a quick vid of one of the beta testers for it driving the Lotus 79 at Bathurst.


And here's the link to his full review
http://www.mockracer.com/2015/01/simxperience-accuforce-review.html
 
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I know what my system should be able to cope with.

I've just bought a new graphics card and the rest of system is older but well speced for the time. The biggest difference will be from the GPU, which is, a GTX760. Even today that's a decent card, but for games up to about 2012 it's a fabulous card for the job. With games on the older end of my suggested span, I'll be able to run at max settings. The 760 is a really powerful card.

I'm all for stunning driving environements. Iconic cities like San Francisco are great even just to free roam about. I love classic landscapes like the American west. But I also find scenes of industrial Japan for example, to be enthrawling. So long as the grapohics are good and the conditions adjustable.

But above all, I wish to avoid endless crashing and repeating. I simply don't have the time and I want to enjoy the experiemce not feel like it is a chore. Oh and a reminder, I damn well want freedom to decide what routes and vehicles to enjoy. I do not want locking out because I'm shit at driving games. Screw them if that's what the studio does.
 
Ayup Clotho=)

Dunno really mate, I rarely go there any more. It's not the same any more, without its pub cat.

Aye Kenny, I'm beyond excited, been waiting for it to go on sale for probably a year now, and now, it's almost here.. Direct drive servo motor and some magic software to control it. Should be superb=)
 
I still get a buzz from Microsoft's "Midtown Madness II", from what was it, 2000 ?
Blocky graphics of course, but great fun, driving around San Francisco. I just found it frustrating that some of the runs I could never manage in time and I hated being locked out of vehicles. And those stupid cop cars interfering annoyed me. Reminds me of the Commanche 4 helicopter sim, which took you most of your time to fly the damn thing and find your target, then those pesky small black helicopters would spoil it and you'd have to start again. No no no, I want to control what impedes me, i.e. nothing.
 
Kenny, for the last year or so I've been using the Fanatec CSW (v1 version) with their matching CSP pedals. It's a good wheel, but the FFB is a bit dulled and slow, even the G25 my brother had felt quicker. I think it has too much internal friction due to all the pulleys and belts to be accurate and fast. The new version is supposedly much better though.
 
G27 here and not nearly good enough for anything better. Also I think I need need to pull it apart as I need to do the replace encoder hack to stop it off-centering. Would love the new Fanatec CSW and "well jell" of Dik's AccuForce.

Mainly playing Assetto Corsa and just learning to drive the cars and the circuits rather than any racing. Also have an iRacing (3 month free subscription) which is, as far as I can tell, the one you want to play if you want to race real people.

I am also seriously considering an Occulus Rift DK2 as AC works with that and it's cheaper and more sensible than a third monitor.

PS I refuse to believe that anyone can drive the RUF Yellowbird without crashing regularly.
 
Matthew, have you tried the "stronger spring" and rubber bump stop kit on the G25/G27 pedals? Biggest improvement I made to mine, proper feel now.

I'm running 3 screens now using an ATI eyefinity card, took some getting used to but it is great.

If you have Rfactor then you're welcome to join us if you like. There's 18 of us who race weekly (if we can).
We've just finished a season with the R300 Caterhams and are now just starting this year with the Z Cars Yamaha powered Minis...........Knockhill this week :D

Harder than the real thing, I'm still a midfielder usually a good second or 2 off the quick guys.

Great fun though being hooked up to speak to the other guys..........and with the circuit opened all week there's always something to do if the telly is crap in the dead of winter.

As I say, if you'd like a few laps with me and the other lads you're welcome.
 
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