Hi duders

My brother is getting a ps4 for christmas He likes cars and racing games and I was wondering what people thought was the best racing game to get him. I don't play racing games so I have no idea.

Thanks for the suggestions.

If he likes simulation-style racing then I'd say go for Project Cars. If he's into more arcade-y games go for Need for Speed: Rivals. It's not the best NFS in recent years but it's better than this year's game.

There's a chance he'd like DriveClub but that is a definitely love-it or hate-it kind of game, so the other two are safer bets.

Project Cars, no doubt.

The PS4 is in dire need of a better racing selection. Our "biggest" game is Drive Club, which isn't exactly a banger.

I've heard a lot of good things about Project Cars. Might be worth a shot.

Rocket League doesn't count, right?

@clagnaught: Rocket League ALWAYS counts.

No.

I want to mention something about NFS Rivals, as it was brought up earlier in the thread. It's not good. The progression is based entirely around points that you need to cash in at certain locations, but if another player or AI driver decides to ruin your day and wreck your car, you lose all of your held points. It makes progressing in the Racer career near impossible. Progressing as a Cop is done by wrecking Racers, which would make an alright dynamic if there was ANY risk for you, but there isn't. Go nuts.

Also, awful lag seemed to be present whenever it mattered most, so actually wrecking racers was pretty rough.

I enjoyed this years need for speed, I think it's better than rivals. It's not a great game but I enjoyed it enough to get the platinum.

I haven't thought about it, but I'm definitely getting him rocket league that's about the driving game I play.

I'm surprised people mentioned drive club cause all I ever heard was people crapping all over it and it getting delayed. I tried ps plus edition and after an hour fave up cause I couldn't do what I wanted. But I don't really like racing games.

Project Cars doesn't have the purposely horrid handling of Drive Club, both titles are made better with even the cheap Thrustmaster T80 wheel, but that's as good as it gets until Gran Turismo Sport.

Adding: I think Drive Club is absolutely freaking great and all games where you drive cars from now should learn from all of it but the handling and the 30fps, BUT. That handling is meant to be sim+arcade, in actuality it's shit+fart in faster wilder vehicles until you get a wheel but manageable in cute hatchbacks. PCars is flat out track racing, if he digs real life racing and those tracks then that'll be an easy choice

@bofooq I'd assume it's because like made apparent here, that and NFS are about the only games besides Project Cars that are available on PS4, regardless of the quality. Seems noone mentioned The Crew yet, but that isn't any better from what I've gathered.

Project Cars is legitimately a great game. As for Drive Club and NFS both have improved since launch but of those two I would take NFS. It's better now after a few updates.

Depends on the type of game he wants. Project Cars is probably the safest bet.

Drive Club actually turned into a great game and they're still supporting it with free DLC, but that's dependent on if you can figure out the weird handling.

The dark horse and my personal favourite is F1 2015. All the complaints people have about it are valid, but if all you want to do is have the best driving experience with F1 cars on real F1 tracks, it's phenomenal.

By far my personal favorite is F1 2015, but that's only because I watch a lot of F1. If your brother's not a fan, it's not the one to go with (it's also lacking basic stuff like split-screen).

Honestly, both DriveClub and Project Cars are fine games. Project Cars is better, but it's also a bit more sim-y, and DriveClub has better graphics. If your brother is really into cars and driving games, go with Project Cars. If he enjoys driving games but is not that into simulation racing, go with DriveClub. If he really only wants some arcade racer, go with Need for Speed.

SRL in Destiny

I'm not going to let him get anywhere near destiny. His wife is getting him the star wars bundle, and I'm thinking I'm going to go with project cars and rocket league.

Thanks for the helpful ideas

I wish there was more options. I love a great racing game but nothing has grabbed my attention on PS4. I got NFS Rivals when it was on sale for a couple of bucks but it only held my attention for an hour or two.

Project Cars looks interesting but I like a good progression system in simulation games like that and from what I can tell it doesn't seem to have much of one.

Xbox One has a much better selection but I can't afford one right now. The only thing announced for PS4 that interests me is Gran Tourism Sport. Maybe 2016 will be more interesting for racing on PS4.

Driveclub is an absolutely fantastic racing game. In fact, it's the best racing game I've played since PGR4.

Unfortunately it got thrown under the bus on GB and other sites and press members didn't give it another look after all the great updates it received.

edit: NFS Rivals is absolute garbage compared to DC. And while Project Cars is pretty good itself, it just doesn't offer the same racing sensation that DC does.

I liked Need for Speed Rivals a whole lot. The driving is fantastic and I think it's much stronger than this year's game (not to mention cheaper at this point).

The online isn't great but I put dozens and dozens of hours into the single player. Nice variety of cars, fun risk/reward system on the racing side, cool gadgets, and a heck of a lot to do.

@cptbedlam: Aren't Rivals and Driveclub completely different racing genres? Thats like comparing Americas Army to Counter Strike. I dunno, I tried to give Driveclub a fair shake and nothing about it grabbed me. I enjoy slightly more realistic racers like Grid or Dirt, which is more or less what I assume Driveclub was going for. I even dabbled with the much more realistic Richard Burns Rally ages ago and enjoyed the inherent challenge of learning how to take the simplest turn without spinning out. Driveclub just didn't seem to have anything to hook me. For the most part it felt really lifeless and barren, without any sort of personality. The driving itself was also not something that felt instantly fun like a completely arcadey game such as Rivals, nor did it feel like something you want to put hours into like a serious rally game.

These are just my opinions on it of course. They weren't formed because GB threw the game under the bus and I blindly listened. I played it, and found it pretty lackluster in every way, and I can only assume there were other people who felt similarly. It is awesome that you're having a ton of fun with it but don't mistake GB's cold shoulder for the games own shortcomings that possibly turned many potential gamers away.

@cptbedlam: I played it briefly with that PS Plus demo or whatever, but the handling on the cars just really did not feel good to me. Do the cars still handle exactly the same? It's nice that the developers are putting so much post game support into it and I respect that, but the base gameplay just did not feel good to me.

If he's into simracing, and I mean REALLY into simracing, it still doesn't get better than Gran Turismo Sport, especially with all of the updates. Granted, it's very much an online-focused game, but that's what makes it such a satisfying experience for me. I don't need to win: if I improved my start position or if I managed to salvage it after a bad mistake, I'm happy... and exhausted.

Not to hijack the thread, but to Drive Club fans: Have any of you guys played Drive Club VR, and if so, would you recommend it? I liked the demo, but I really disliked regular Drive Club (as it was before all the updates, but I never played the "improved" game), so I never picked it up.

I'm itching for a good VR racing game that isn't Wipeout.

Burnout Paradise remastered and Gran Turismo Sport

#1 Edited by BoFooQ (1057 posts) - 2 years, 6 months ago

I think we're gonna need a time machine to save Christmas.