Dragging the open world versus closed track discussion out of the PS4 thread.

I think it's purely down to resources. You can put great tracks in if you want. Generally open world is a poor alternative, there's maybe one track I remember from TDU. Midnight Club LA wasn't really about the tracks and I thought that was a great game. The Crew is certainly lacking in that respect. The first Horizon did have some nice tracks, but the MP was so flawed by lag and odd design decisions that none of them had a chance to stick.

Costa Sprint and the brawls in Storm Island are absolute stone cold classics though. Sega inspired classics at that. There's a reason people are still playing them and insist on certain tracks every week. I'd agree that the city circuits aren't a patch on PGR, too much street furniture - it's spectacular, but a bit too random - and the game isn't punishing or precise enough to match PGR in those sort of tracks.

I've been plodding through NfS Rivals to get it off my hard drive before I do the same to the rereboot, with a mixture of emotions.  The cop career is better than the racer, with some bizarre and frustrating decisions made for the banking of speed points.  The racer career is quicker to complete though, mainly because you can cheese the Interceptor events by just hitting the cop car with all your pursuit tech.  The driving is too crashy, even at low speeds, and there have been some irritating glitches, but there has been some fun to be had.

Apropos of precisely fuck all, I've been dipping in and out of Grid 2 on Bone BC.  I find it very stressful.

The pinnacle of the series.  Imagine my dismay after Most Wanted came along to blight the show.

I've pre-ordered Assetto Corsa from amazon for the end of the month. Which I'm really excited about but can't see a thread for so presumably it's just me?

I fully expect that PGR2 would possibly disappoint today.. but in its day it was fucking perfect. The online was so sweet, The courses where fabulous, Usually I can name a few I don't like on most racing games. The car selection was brilliant in the way it was balanced and grouped together.. I used to like picking the S2000 and nailing everyone else in the Boxter because it handled better even if it wasn't out right faster.. the community was so cool.. the single player rocked.. the original xbox was probably my favourite ever console from a hardware point of view too.

Bob wrote:

I've pre-ordered Assetto Corsa from amazon for the end of the month. Which I'm really excited about but can't see a thread for so presumably it's just me? I fully expect that PGR2 would possibly disappoint today.. but in its day it was fucking perfect. The online was so sweet, The courses where fabulous, Usually I can name a few I don't like on most racing games. The car selection was brilliant in the way it was balanced and grouped together.. I used to like picking the S2000 and nailing everyone else in the Boxter because it handled better even if it wasn't out right faster.. the community was so cool.. the single player rocked.. the original xbox was probably my favourite ever console from a hardware point of view too.

The delay and subsequent silence about Assetto Corsa make me a bit nervous. The hype seems to have died right down. Returning to Forza 6 last week might have convinced me that the genre just isn't for me any more as well. Boring.

PGR2 does hold up reasonably well on the 360. A bumper remaster of the series best courses would be nice. I suspect MS is piling a lot more money into both Forza games though, so it will probably never happen.

I_R wrote:

The delay and subsequent silence about Assetto Corsa make me a bit nervous.

I'm hoping for DiRT levels of goodness after a similar PC first set up..  It sounds like they've done away with the tedious grind to buy cars.. I'm hoping for something that's just a joy to drive and time trial/race.

afgavinstan wrote:

I really hope there's still someone out there that believes in a pure arcade experience though. Ridge Racer, Outrun, Sega Rally, Wipeout, all dead in the water. And fuck buying a WiiU for MK. (although it does look amazing)

Motorstorm too

I know some bloke working on a multiplayer racer, you should all play that when it's ready...

Nah, this is more postman pat does Sega rally...with a bit of trackmania mixed in.

Looks neat.

Neon Drive looks very cool. I’d buy that if it was on Xbone, but not for my phone.

Kevin's Pacy Race.

Or, for normal people:

Aye, it's pretty comprehensive. I've probably played 8 hours, but I've still not finished the first career race because I've been determined not to use ABS or TC, which has been tricky because I have massive, stampy feet. So I've just been restarting the practice things and doing a lot of time-trialling to get used to it. It's supremely satisfying when you pull off a half-decent lap.