What is your favorite PC Race Sim?

I know XBox and PS3 have some good stuff, but after upgrading my PC and loading rFactor, I found them to be much better then the game station stuff. Probably because PC hardware continually improves.

Tried iRacing. Good stuff but not enough vehicles, and frankly not worth the money to me.

GTR2 is pretty good but competition is diluted between WTCC and GTR Evolution. I think GTR Evolution has the best physics but lacks some of the mod-ability.

rFactor is my favorite. Plenty of leagues too. My favorite vehicle is the Champ Car 2005 and run a Sunday afternoon league with about 20 others.

Whats your favorite and why?

Built an RX8 for rFactor and still have some physics refinements to work out. That may take a few months with my schedule but I'll probably set it up with a couple versions all having tire/gearbox/suspension adjustments.

Stock Power
Turbo Power
3 Rotor
3 Rotor Turbo Lightweight

It should be on equal footing with the WTCC class of cars and may be released as a series mod rather then just by itself.

I used to play LFS
Live for speed
Check it out ... I like it a lot better than rFactor
Drifting is fun and realistically hard in Live For Speed as well

GTR2 for me, just because it's the best that my computer can run. I do love it though.

My current obsession is Race Pro - it's made by Simbin (GTR series) and will be coming out Feb 13th for the 360. It's looking absolutely fantastic, but I'm a little worried since the videos don't seem to represent that super realistic gameplay from the PC versions. I really hope they're not diluting it for the console crowd. The demo is supposed to be coming in "late January," so I'd say we can expect it any day now.

I play them all pretty much.
You asked for PC games not console so...

I'd recomend checking out simracingworld.com
I like GTR Evolution, Race 07, F1 2002 ( have nto tried 2009 yet), Ive even been known to play the nascar titles.... Its a must to have a nice wheel and pedals IMHO though.

Its about that time again.

I'll be adding Indycars to the season this year.

Ran an F1 league last year, what a hoot! Puts a whole new perspective on watching F1. Practicing for a race at every track the week before a real F1....

You know every bump, exactly where the braking points are, where any chance to pass is....

Anyone else running rFactor in a regular league?

Toca Race Driver 3:

It has ariel atom, off road, go kart, f1, gt, just a wide range of stuff.

But I'm not that far yet, I just can't stop sliding off the road and spinning around in the grass. Not as easy as Need for Speed.

Even trying to leave the grass ditch is hard without spinning circles all over again. Surely it is easier than that in real life.

Along with GTR series, Richard Burns Rally was always one of my favorites and I think it still has some of the most realistic physics out there.

I used to play LFS
Live for speed
Check it out ... I like it a lot better than rFactor
Drifting is fun and realistically hard in Live For Speed as well

+1. Live for Speed is generally considered the best racing simulator for the PC. I am unsure if it is as up to date though, last time I looked at it was around 2 years ago.

i did rfactor for a while. but since i got into console gaming, i havent really used my pc .unless its surfing the web.

gtr2 wtcc, race 07, race on, rfactor, live for speed... name it all...
thes best would still be GTR2 even though Live For Speed was the most realistic one

+1. Live for Speed is generally considered the best racing simulator for the PC. I am unsure if it is as up to date though, last time I looked at it was around 2 years ago.

LFS sucks. The graphics are sub par and you can drift with your eyes closed. I haven't tried iracing but it looks very promising, especially with the lotus F1 car. I could drift totally sideways in LFS with a keyboard. (binary steering)

LFS sucks. The graphics are sub par and you can drift with your eyes closed. I haven't tried iracing but it looks very promising, especially with the lotus F1 car. I could drift totally sideways in LFS with a keyboard. (binary steering)

I'm going to have to ask to see this.. I played LFS with both keyboard and wheel. Wheel input felt very good, keyboard felt retarded. It's very difficult to get steering input correct with just binary. I tried setting input rates to a certain degree, but with varying corners where you have to either turn at an increasing or decreasing rate, the keyboard wouldn't do.

I will state that the graphics are terrible, yes. However, their graphics engine sort of sucks, so I wouldn't expect much from them. Did you play S1? S2?

I have tried Race Pro, GTR (and GTR2), and RBR. GTR did not feel very realistic at all, although I did not have the wheel at that time. Race Pro was very good. RBR was very difficult at times, and I cannot comment on realism as it was mostly dirt roads (i.e. I kept sliding off because I suck :D)

I have not tried WTCC or rFactor (or anything recent in the last 2 years).

I played GT3 on my PS2 long time ago but my fav PC racing sim was;

http://www.kalpen.de/stunts/pic/Stunts_cover01.gif

Made your think you were in a real car!
http://www.pspsource.de/hdp_images/newspost_images/1176134230/stunts1.gif

Build your own track!
http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue20/misc/stunts4.gif

I used to play this game for hours!

I really like Live For Speed and Richard Burns Rally. (I also like NFS:Shift, but that's not really a sim.)

LFS sucks. The graphics are sub par and you can drift with your eyes closed.


I'm going to have to ask to see this.. I played LFS with both keyboard and wheel. Wheel input felt very good, keyboard felt retarded. It's very difficult to get steering input correct with just binary. I tried setting input rates to a certain degree, but with varying corners where you have to either turn at an increasing or decreasing rate, the keyboard wouldn't do.

I will state that the graphics are terrible, yes. However, their graphics engine sort of sucks, so I wouldn't expect much from them. Did you play S1? S2?


You guys must have not played LFS for a while. It doesn't look that bad. I won't say it's the best looking game out there, but keep in mind it was released around 2003. Since then it's been updated extensively. (mostly in the physics department but also the graphics.) I actually like how it looks. There are no extraneous effects. It's just smooth and clean.

And besides, the graphics are not the focus. If you think it's a bad game just because the graphics are a bit dated, you've missed the point. It's a racing simulator, not a screen shot generator. The driving physics are the top priority. That's why it's no good with a keyboard. If you tried to drive a real car with a keyboard it would be just as bad. Try LFS with a decent force-feedback steering wheel.

(btw, there are some major physics updates coming soon...)

(Sorry about the big screenshots. They're on the LFS site.)
http://www.lfs.net/page_images/screenshots/patchz1.jpg
http://www.lfs.net/page_images/screenshots/patchz2.jpg

With a few simple tweaks and mods (like high res sky) it can look even better.

I know they updated the graphics in S2, and it was a great increase in polygon count. However, the game still doesn't compare graphically to some of the games out then.

I am not saying that graphics matter to me, though. Some people get games for graphics over gameplay, so I wouldn't want them to be misled. The environment is very well done in the game, but it's very easy to see that it isn't refined.

The physics was (and I'll say still is) considered the best, especially in terms of tires. This game should definitely be played with a wheel, especially considering how the higher powered cars in the game would be very hard to control on the throttle.

One thing I think LFS is damn great for is also the online multiplayer. People did 24hr endurance races online (fuel included, tires, etc) in this game back then. I'm not too sure how the online is right now, I haven't played in forever.

ultra, they're planning to update it? I might get back into it lol.. I hope they don't make me purchase anything extra. I have the S2 license.

oh, well you're on the same page as me then. :) Physics > Graphics. I don't do the online much either (I'm just not very competitive). I just enjoy hot lapping and sometimes racing against the AI. I like LFS for the same reason I like my RX-8: Steering feel.

I'm not sure when you last played, but there have been several physics updates in the past couple years. (Now on patch Z28.)

The update I was referring to is actually a whole new tire model. You may know that development is kind of slow. Nobody really knows when it will be released. Here's a post by one of the developers describing the changes:
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=63604

Lol, I stopped playing for about 2 years at least.. I'll take a look when I have time. Online play was very difficult for me, as I had quite a bit of lag due to my crappy internet connection. Hot lapping against best times would frustrate me to no ends :lol:

I usually just feel like driving casually for fun (like on a track day), but I end up trying to go faster and faster trying to beat my previous time. It's addicting.

I know they updated the graphics in S2, and it was a great increase in polygon count. However, the game still doesn't compare graphically to some of the games out then.

I am not saying that graphics matter to me, though. Some people get games for graphics over gameplay, so I wouldn't want them to be misled. The environment is very well done in the game, but it's very easy to see that it isn't refined.

The physics was (and I'll say still is) considered the best, especially in terms of tires. This game should definitely be played with a wheel, especially considering how the higher powered cars in the game would be very hard to control on the throttle.

One thing I think LFS is damn great for is also the online multiplayer. People did 24hr endurance races online (fuel included, tires, etc) in this game back then. I'm not too sure how the online is right now, I haven't played in forever.

ultra, they're planning to update it? I might get back into it lol.. I hope they don't make me purchase anything extra. I have the S2 license.


Yeah actually from what I remember, the tires do feel good in LFS, but I hear Iracing is the best yet for tire modeling. In terms of just physics, independent of tire modeling, I think Grand Prix Legends is still the best. I still haven't found a game as real and exciting for balancing a car on the limit, especially under power on corner exit. Grand Prix Legends came out in the previous millennium. (1998). As far as graphics...well....

This was the ulimate racing sim in DOS. Most people just drove the other way and killed all the other cars:

Indianapolis 500

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD6XuvlU5N4

Tried this mod out a while back and its probably the best you could find. Been running it with a few others recently. Options include excellent rain tires and just finished a race at Portland in the wet.

We're running a season of F1 and Indy road courses this year along with some enduro races with the WSC 1970 mod. Most of the Enduro races either run at night or under a 24 day-night-day format with 1 hour long races. Send me a PM if you're interested in joining. Races run on Sunday nights - no points and a good group of racers.