So, it occurs to me that there might be others out there that really enjoys some balls-tightening adrenaline rushes at the edge of what human engineering can do, except can't actually do it in real life due to either lack of money, skill or courage. Racing games do seem to have gotten places since the old days of Stunt and... well, all the old games. The physics engines are becoming absolutely incredible when it comes to both the cars and the tracks, and you can get an incredibly authentic racing experience in the comfort of your own home now.
One of these incredible games snuck in completely under my radar, namely
DiRT Rally.
Having dropped the arcade game style they followed in their latest outings (Grid games, the dudebro style Dirt3 etc) Codemasters have returned to Rally with an absolutely fantastic rally sim that delivers what may be the most insane rally game I've ever played. It's incredibly hard and enormously satisfying to succeed at. I've heard some use the term "The Dark Souls of racing games" and I can't actually disagree. Somewhere between six and seven hours into the game I've managed to win
one stage out of I have no idea how many I've driven and I still loved every minute of it.
It may just be the way rally works, where you're at every point a split hair from complete disaster while still trying to push the envelope further, but this is easily the game where I've felt like I've gone
really fucking fast, even though I've been going up to four times faster in other games in various hypercars etc. The tracks are so faithfully reproduced that people have put their own replays side-by-side with real life footage and it has matched damn near 100%, and the physics are amazing.
Fair warning, if you don't have a wheel and pedals, you're not going to get the same out of this game as someone who does. Feathering brakes, shifting the balance of the car while feeling the grip in your hands as you try to negotiate a hairpin with a scandinavian flick (or in my case, the lesser known but far more spectacular scandinavian flip) just isn't going to be as good or feel as amazing as with a decent racing wheel.
So, what racing games are mainstays in your collection, and which ones will you argue have the best driving feel to them? You know, except for Eurotruck Simulator 2, obviously. Best game ever. So engrossing.
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Topic: Racin' and Drivin' games. (Read 3303 times)