Be Excellent To Each Other

Yep, I'm very much looking forward to this. For pretty much the same reasons you've stated.

I agree with the previous two posts.

Do you all prefer cockpit views as well, then? I've never been able to control racing games with 3rd person cameras, and bumper cams always feel like you're a ghost.

I haven't read or seen anything about this game. I'll have to have a look.

Also, I've never really managed to click with Forza 2 as a game, nor its predecessor on the original Xbox. What I really like in racing games is getting a car, and working hard to increase its performance to keep up with new races; in Forza, instead, I have too much money too quickly, and I'm forced to drive hundreds of different cars I have no interest in just to meet the class requirements. I never connect with a particular car, or ever get a chance to truly master its character.

Forza 2 got me into the habit of using cockpit view. It also kinda racing gamed me out. Race Pro will have to be shit hot to tempt me into buying it.

I prefer a first person view of some description, preferably the view with the bonnet just visible at the bottom of the screen. I find that including the interior of the car takes up too much of the screen and makes what is already a restricted view feel even more so.

ShopTo.net are doing pre-orders for £29.99, apparently, but I can't get on their website at the moment.

Yes, I prefer cockpit views. It just feels more immersive, even though visibility is lower.

Yep, I can't think of anything that's 'wrong' with Forza 2 right now that's going to make me buy a game that's going to be pretty much exactly the same.

That's the problem with racing games - make a good one, and there's not a massive amount to improve on next time round.

Except they're nothing alike. Forza 2 is a collect-em-up, whereas Race PRO is a simulation of the WTCC. It'd be like comparing Gran Turismo to the F1 games on the Playstation.

Eh? They're both car games.

From having played previous titles from these devs on the PC I'd have to say that there is a huge difference in the feel. And in a simulator that's what it's all about really. Part of the fun comes from the illusion that you are controlling a physical object, Forza is a fun racing game but it does have that floatyness which deadens things somewhat.

Get the fuck out.

Comparing touring cars with touring cars is like comparing touring cars with F1? I think not, fella.

If you believe that then you and Zardoz don't belong in this thread.

A car's a car, myp, whether it's a Fiesta or an F1 car. They have the same number of wheels, and the same steering wheel and pedal set up. Some are just faster than others.

No, I'm comparing the actual games - not the cars themselves. Forza and GT have fictional series, and even the top performance cars with liveries on are fakes. The whole point of a simulation like the F1 games or Race is that you're fully immersed in a real-life championship.

That's the pinnacle of racing games, for me.

"Nothing alike" is complete bouncing monkey cobblers though, right?

The point where it gets really tedious, you mean? BTCC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Grass track racing>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>F1

Absolutely. I think my favourite moment in any racing game so far is still from Colin McRae '04, where I was battering along a narrow forest track, window wipers furiously trying to keep up with the complete onslaught of the bucketing rain and mud splashing up from bouncing and skidding around, desperately trying to get a peek at where the hell I was going, and what was going to appear in front of me next. I don't think I've ever felt as immersed since.

Yeah, I was exaggerating a bit. Also Chris: One man's tedious, etc.

Well obviously it's a given that they're both racing games, RacePro isn't going to be as different to Forza as say Mario 64 is. But having played previous titles from these devs on the PC I'd have to say that in terms of racing sims they were very different from the Forza type of thing.

But that's my point - if you're into it enough, you find enough difference in the details to justify buying it. For me, it's the same cars round the same tracks with a barely noticably different physics model.

Exactly. Now get the fuck out so we nerds can talk about camber settings.

So the only people who bought Forza were either full on racing game nerds or had never played something like Gran Turismo?

The roads were really narrow in 2005, which is the one I played the most. Is RBR any good, then?

Nah - it was next-gen, wasn't it? There wasn't a decent 360 racing game around at that point.

Ah so only some extra pixels can make for a different experience.

I really enjoyed CMR2, but struggled with any of them after that. Mind you, I was too keen on RBR either, but I'm more of a casual driving game fan - I'll change tyres for the conditions but that's about all I can be arsed with.

As for cockpit views, I found Test Drive Unlimited a lot better using that but generally I like to see what's around me. I couldn't imagine playing something like Ridge Racer or Flatout using anything else other than a third-person view.

And it runs on the 360. I think I may have to do some digging.

No, the difference was that it was the first of its type on a new console.

Like I said above - if you're into racing enough to notice the difference between two touring cars games offering little different in the way of actual features on the same platform, it's probably a fine purchase. I was explaining why I wouldn't buy it.

Forza is great in many ways, but it doesn't feel real enough for me.

I don't think you do have to be into racing all that much though. I really can't be arsed tweaking setups or any of that crap, that's all just filler, it's all about how the cars feel. It's the same with shooters, you know how some just feel better than others? They have some indefinable (by me at least) quality that makes the shooting feel somehow much more satisfying.

I wouldn't buy a shooter that had the same guns, same maps, but a tightened-up feel though, that's what I'm saying. Other people would.

Or they'd just write a mod for the extra weapons nerdery e.g. the Rainbow 6 games on PC.

Except Race Pro doesn't have the same 'maps'. Lots of the tracks in Forza are fictional - all of them in Race Pro are real-world courses.

It might not seem like much of a difference to you, but it makes a lot to me.

I'd go as far to say that FPS games are far more homogenous than driving games.

I know, but people keep arguing with me when I tell them why I won't buy a game, oddly

I know - and I accepted your reasoning before telling you to GTFO - why are you still here?

I think that's the difference between an "arcade" game and a simulation.

You're pretty much describing the spectrum of driving games.

I'd go as far to say that you're a homo-genius.