Simulators differ from other games in the realistic elaboration of the selected area. For example, driving a car through mud, where maximum amount parameters. The perfection of many has reached the point where they can serve as a visual aid for racers, since modern computers are able to process large amounts of information and simulate realistic conditions. In general, the genre stands out for its complete immersion in one area, as a rule, rather narrow, which is why such games do not have the highest popularity. We present to your attention the best simulators on PC.
10. Car Mechanic Simulator
Opens our rating of PC simulators Car Mechanic Simulator. This is a simulator of an ordinary car service, where the player needs to fulfill orders for the diagnosis and repair of cars. The insides of the cars are identical to the real ones, which allows you to use the game for learning to remember exactly where a particular part is located. However, the gamer is not limited to just one garage. To diagnose some problems, the car can be rolled out to a special landfill and after the trip a special report will be drawn up containing a list of problems. Nevertheless, Car Mechanic Simulator is not able to teach a person to repair cars, since the gameplay is greatly simplified in favor of dynamics. However, the project still received many fans around the world.
9. Farming Simulator 17
Farming Simulator 17 is the best farm simulator on PC. Gamers have to become a farmer and build a profitable business. To do this, you can grow grain crops, engage in animal husbandry, and earn money by felling forests. Each task requires the purchase of special equipment, hundreds of items are available, and each model has its own peculiarities in application. In general, the player has all the tools to create the richest farm in the world.
8. Fishing Planet
Fishing Planet is the best fishing simulator on PC, which has a realistic tackle breakage system, as well as a flexible AI of fish that simulates their behavior in natural environment... Thanks to this, the gamer can spend a lot of time trying to catch the right fish. To do this, you will first need to know her habits and lifestyle. The game has a lot of locations covering almost the whole world. It is also possible to raise the level and compete in the ranking with other users.
7.theHunter: Call of the Wild
theHunter: Call of the Wild is the most realistic and best hunting simulator for this moment... The total area of hunting grounds is over 13 thousand hectares. This territory is home to a huge number of animals, ranging from bison to quite common deer and birds. Several multiplayer modes are provided at once, including co-op and competition, where gamers will have to gain points in terms of the speed of destruction of game. The list of weapons is also rich, rifles, bows, revolvers are available to players, almost everything that can make the gameplay as unique and varied as possible. In addition, the simulator has an excellent training system that allows beginners to start playing at full strength very quickly.
6. Euro Truck Simulator 2
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is one of the most popular simulation games in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The game is a simulator of a truck driver, with a small splash of economic strategy. The main feature was the AI capabilities. Thanks to the work of programmers, virtual drivers are able to respond to traffic accidents and interact with the player. When entering the main road, a gamer can be missed by a random car, having given a sign in front of it, like flashing headlights. Euro Truck Simulator 2 implements a system of penalties for violations, which are recorded by cameras, as well as a fatigue algorithm that forces the player to periodically look for places to rest. This simulator received good popularity due to fans who managed to release a multiplayer mod that allows hundreds of people to travel across Europe at the same time.
5. Project CARS
Project CARS is the best racing simulator for pc, the development of which was carried out not only by the British studio Slightly Mad Studios, but also by interested gamers. Fundraising for development took place on the WMD site, which is an alternative to Kickstarter. The main difference is that users donating money can directly participate in the process of creating a project. In fact, they buy a whole bunch of different tools, test it, and then write back to the developers about the results. This method allows you to somewhat speed up the creation process and reduce the time until the final release. The Project CARS simulator has an excellent physical model, a change of time of day, excellent graphics, thanks to which the project was even a sales leader in the UK for some time. This was a great result for the genre as a whole.
4. Flight Simulator X
Flight Simulator X is one of the most famous and best flight simulators, which reproduces hundreds of types of aircraft, airfields and includes a detailed game world, the size of which exceeds 510 million km. The world always lives on its own. When flying over the ground, the player can see small villages, cities, villages and more. In fact, here the opportunity has been created to fly around the entire planet, and it will be almost identical to the real one, all objects are so carefully arranged. In addition, Flight Simulator X has a unique multiplayer mode, where several gamers can create the crew of one liner, or act as dispatchers.
3. City Car Driving
City Car Driving is a quality driving simulator that was created to train novice drivers. For a comfortable pastime, it is recommended to connect the steering wheel, since the developers have implemented all the subtleties and nuances of driving. In fact, City Car Driving is good for learning the rules road traffic, because with the help of advanced AI it was possible to implement the random occurrence of various events on the road. All violations and errors are recorded in a special log. The map includes both autobahns, single-lane roads or two-lane roads with city traffic. Thanks to the physics model, the driver always knows which surface he is driving on, a country road or an asphalt road. In addition, City Car Driving has good graphics, a system for changing the time of day and weather conditions, because of which you will periodically have to drive in conditions of zero visibility or in the rain.
2. Spintires
Spintires is an excellent off-road driving simulator. Initially, the project was a simple demo version that showed the capabilities of Havok, but soon acquired many loyal fans who began to actively refine it and create modifications. The main task is to deliver a certain cargo from point A to point B. In this case, the entire route is a continuous deformable mud. When driving through, a track remains, which seriously impedes movement. Cars have classes and are capable of being scouts, tractors, tankers. All this was implemented for multiplayer, where groups of up to 4 people can try to overcome off-road and mud in order to deliver valuable cargo.
1.35MM
Topping our ranking of the TOP 10 "Best PC Simulators" is 35mm. This is a unique project created by the efforts of almost one person. It has absorbed many genres, there are shootouts, quest and horror elements. However, little attention has been paid to them. The main emphasis is placed on the atmosphere and recreation of the post-apocalyptic post-Soviet space. The locations are huge. Their research will take several real hours, and the user will never be alone - on his travels he is accompanied by a partner, with whom it is necessary to get to a safe place. The graphics also stand out and give the locations an atmosphere. In total, 35mm is a natural "walking" simulator, where everyone is periodically entertained with notes, the history of the world, shooting and dialogues between the protagonists.
If you are interested in cars and computer games, then you are probably curious about the best car simulator
Let's try to name the most popular games of this genre here.
Let's start with a curious mixture of strategy and car simulator. This is "Truckers" - a game, the popularity of which is still enormous, despite the fact that it came out a long time ago.
The bottom line is that during the process you will cooperate with various customers who offer you contracts, evaluate the benefits and accept them. Any fan of trucks will be interested in playing it.
The best car simulators for pc - or at least some of them are the NFS series. However, only the Shift part can be called the only realistic one. The undoubted advantages of this game include the fact that the developers have paid a lot of attention to how cars behave on the road. Definitely a very good game.
Race 07 is another thing that can be categorized as "Best Car Simulators". This is the only game made under the FIA WTCC license. It has 9 different race classes and three licensed championships. The game is very well developed. Here you can see a lot of little things - exhaust, smoke, various insects on the glass. You can even create your own helmet - it is he who is the attribute of a true racer.
The best car simulator - this is how you can call any of the games in the Colin McRae series. One of the first, where there was an opportunity to pass long way from an amateur racer to a true rally legend. You can gain experience by competing against low-ranking opponents, and then take the risk of competing against legendary masters in any championship, whose choice is large enough.
The graphics in this series of games have always been excellent. Even in the part that is already 7 years old, it will not yield to many modern ones.
Another contender for the title of "Best Car Simulator" is GTR Revolution. A large number of routes - 40, 19 different routes. 49 absolutely unique cars of different class. This game will require you to have a perfect pilot reaction, who is able to instantly react to any trick of a skilled opponent.
Relaxing is not easy in this game. And it will take more than one week to get used to the driving style. Even if you, being familiar with other simulators, consider yourself a good racer, you will surely be very surprised.
You can dwell on DIRT 2 - another game dedicated to the name of the untimely deceased Colin McRae. The DIRT offshoot is significantly different from previous creations. First, because the emphasis here is on extreme off-road racing. The graphics are also above all praise here.
Of course, a game called F1 mania should not be overlooked. Few were able to secure cooperation with Formula 1, the same Need for Speed will not succeed. And here is the best car simulator that can offer you a unique opportunity to rush along the tracks that have thundered all over the world. It is here that you can compete with the most famous racers of the most legendary teams.
Speaking of good car simulators, you cannot overlook the game Live for Speed, which, although very different, is even today considered the most realistic game of this kind. The number of settings in it is simply enormous and capable of capturing the imagination of even a professional. And to drive the race perfectly, you will need to sit at the computer for more than one day. The physics is also worth mentioning - the suspensions are perfectly modeled, and everything else is on top.
Let's hope that among the above you will surely find your dream car simulator, a game that meets your ideal in all respects and, moreover, will be as interesting as possible.
An excellent game, which, however, cannot be considered a purebred car simulator - rather, it is a simcade that makes gamers drive carefully, but at the same time forgives minor mistakes and even allows you to rewind time after a serious accident (in fact, this project popularized the mechanics of "flashbacks", which is present in many racing games today).
Race Driver: GRID is a game that brings motorsport to a wide audience. A racing career gives you the opportunity to take part in races from a wide variety of categories: drift in Japanese sports cars, drive American muscle cars, overtake rivals in Formula 1 cars and even test your endurance in the 24-hour Le Mans race, which is narrowed here to 24 minutes. ... Alas, the sequels could not repeat the success of the first part, although they are also worthy of attention.
Where to Buy: Race Driver: GRID Removed From Official Digital Services
9. Need for Speed: Shift Dilogy
Need for Speed is a racing series that has undergone perhaps the largest number of innovations and experiments. The Shift Dilogy by Slightly Mad Studios (also responsible for Project CARS and World of Speed) is an attempt by the publisher to take the franchise on a path of realism (after two games, attempts were abandoned, and NfS games returned to the usual arcade style).
Need for Speed: Shift and Shift 2: Unleashed, like the previous position from the list, cannot be called the most realistic simulator - nevertheless, the developers had to make some simplifications for the sake of entertainment. But in some ways the dilogy stood out from the competition - for example, the perfectly realized view from the rider's helmet, which reliably conveyed overloads when accelerating, as well as the player's reward system for clean or aggressive driving.
8. Project CARS Dilogy
An ambitious car simulator, money for the development of which was collected "by the whole world" - through crowdfunding. The developers took the engine from Need for Speed: Shift, rewrote the physical model, added a dynamic change of time of day and weather, and paid careful attention to realism gameplay... Alas, not everything worked out smoothly, but the game cannot be called a failure either.
The sequel was already being developed with the support of the publisher, and here the authors tried to correct all the mistakes made in the first part: the career became more interesting, physics - more reliable, but at the same time the complexity of driving cars increased. And this auto-sim is made, probably, with the most realistic graphics among competitors in the genre: in terms of the visual component, only Forza Motorsport 7 can compete with Project CARS 2.
7. DiRT Rally
6. F1 series
A franchise dedicated exclusively to Formula 1 racing. But do not think that it will disappoint you with a small amount of content: there are more than enough different modes, tracks, cars and interesting gameplay mechanics. Career allows you to develop your own team, and additional modes give you the opportunity to conquer the legendary race cars.
As far as the gameplay goes, he's okay too. Codemasters has been improving the series from year to year, so each release of the F1 series delights gamers with a realistic driving model, smart rivals and significant differences between cars.
5. Live for Speed
A racing simulator that has been in development for a decade and a half, which stands out for accurate physics and meticulous modeling of the behavior of cars on the road, including realistic suspension work, heating tires, calculating damage to various parts of the car, and so on. Over the years of the project's existence, an impressive community has gathered around it, which partially contributes to its development.
Live for Speed can be downloaded absolutely free from the official website. Of course, the base game contains only a fraction of the content available, and you'll have to fork out to unlock all the cars and tracks.
4. Forza Motorsport 7
The gameplay of the project does not disappoint either: the cars roar with motors, rush along the tracks, slip into a skid and wrinkle beautifully in collisions - with the corresponding consequences for the components. The difference in control when choosing different cars is felt instantly; the same applies to different weather conditions. Combine this with a huge fleet of 700 vehicles, tons of modes and addictive multiplayer and you have one of the best racing games of 2017.
3. Assetto Corsa
The studio of the developers of this game is located near the Italian race track Vallelunga. This gave the authors the opportunity not only to regularly enjoy beautiful cars and watch exciting races, but also to test the cars and copy all the irregularities of the track as accurately as possible (for this, laser scanning technology was used).
The Assetto Corsa perfectly captures the characteristics of racing cars, and the driving is done at a very realistic level - up to the possibility of burning traction and brakes from careless behavior on the road. However, there were some drawbacks: for example, a career is a loosely coupled set of races, and basic version the game contains quite a bit of content. But at the same time, the disadvantages of the project are balanced by the aforementioned advantages.
2. rFactor Dilogy
Car simulators, on which work is constantly in full swing: both game developers and modders are working hard on new content and realistic gameplay mechanics. The level of performance is so high that real racers are even trained in the games of the rFactor series.
Why is the franchise so attractive for professionals? For example, a reliable simulation of the thermal conductivity of tires: the rubber overheats, sticks to the asphalt, forming irregularities on the track, and loses grip. And this is just one example of the realism of the game. Also don't forget about a large number tracks and cars, which are becoming more and more thanks to the creativity of enthusiasts.
iRacing is an expensive but high quality pleasure. The game can be called, rather, closed club racers, where gamers compete with each other, share experiences and help set up virtual machines. It even hosts regular championships with cash prizes of ten thousand dollars. If you do not just love, but live racing, then iRacing is just what you need.
Also noteworthy: Colin McRae Rally (first installments of the series), Richard Burns Rally, Grand Prix Legends, Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, TOCA Race Driver series, RaceRoom Racing Experience, Forza Motorsport: Apex, Race 07, Spintires: Mudrunner
Car simulators are a lifesaver for many car enthusiasts. If you don't have your own sports car or are too lazy to get to the sports track, you can always turn on the racing simulator and practice. And you shouldn't treat it as simple fun, because many motorsportsmen use driving simulators for practice. Here are a selection of 10 racing games to watch out for:
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed... Judging by the name, it immediately becomes clear that the game is completely dedicated to Porsche cars (starting from the 60s).
Despite the fact that the fifth game in the Need for Speed series was released in 2000, in fact it is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Porsche, which was in 1998. Gamers could ride both modern fast cars and rare concepts and vintage cars. Game features: more than 80 Porsche models, 4-point physical model, 3D salon, cool graphics, unique track design (9 European tracks and 5 closed tracks), customize the car to suit the player's preferences.
FlatOut
A distinctive feature of the game FlatOut is the destruction of the enemy during races and the complete destructibility of objects (about 3000 destructible objects on each track). All this: broken parts of cars, rolling tires, broken obstacles that are lying around, make the track not only more difficult, but also more unpredictable.
Race Driver GRID
The success of this car simulator was ensured by excellent graphics, vivid special effects, realistic car behavior (more than 40 models - from classics to the latest prototypes), replaying any moment of the course (up to 50 licensed tracks), as well as a variety of competition classes (street racing, drift, round trips , toge and race for survival).
Need For Speed: Underground
Need For Speed Underground is a fast-paced street racing game that takes place around the city at night. In the seventh part of Need for Speed, the ability to customize the car was added and the career mode was returned. It was with the release of the arcade racing simulator (2003) that a universal hobby for tuning began to develop in Russia.
Gran turismo
The first game in the Gran Turismo series, a cross between an arcade and a simulator, was released by SCEI on December 23, 1997 on the PlayStation platform. All tracks in the game were fictional, but the authors created tracks such as the Eiger Nordwand, London City Track and Suzuka with great precision. This game, which can be said to have opened the doors to the genre of realistic car simulators on consoles, conveys the feeling of real driving - at what speed you drive, this is transmitted. During the entire existence of the series, about 47 million copies of Grand Turismo have been sold.
Colin McRay Rally 2.0
The car simulator fully reproduces 12 types of racing cars, including the Ford Focus of the late World Rally Champion Colin McRae. The game features high-detail graphics, a large number of tracks around the world, the ability to customize a rally car in detail, dynamically change weather conditions, and realistic damage to cars.
Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the 9th installment in the series Need games for Speed. An arcade car racing video game that combines street racing, tuning, and police chases. In addition, Need For Speed: Most Wanted is the first car simulator to offer the ability to slow down time, which will allow you to make decisions in the most emergency situations.
Richard Burns Rally (RBR)
This is the most realistic computer rally simulator to date. The development of this game was attended by the British 2001 World Rally Champion Richard Burns, who died in 2005 at the age of 34. Richard Burns Rally surpasses its competitors in technology excellence, graphics quality and physical model implementation.
GTR2
Just like Richard Burns, Rally is considered the most realistic racing simulator, which is dedicated exclusively to the FIA GT championship of the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The game uses 144 cars, created according to real drawings, and races take place on 34 tracks.
Live for speed
The main features of the Live For Speed computer simulator are high realism of the physical model, simulated suspension mechanics, tire deformation and temperature, suspension arm deformation, vehicle mass distribution and inertia along all axles.
In the world of car simulators, frivolously called "racing" in our country, new big names rarely appear. The heavyweights of the genre, the Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport series, God grant them health and prosperity, turned 18 and 10 this year, respectively. A whole brood of racing games with a smaller caliber - of varying degrees of arcadeness - is confused at their feet by a cheerful multicolored crowd. On the outskirts, all alone, stands a group of poorly textured and poorly lit characters who look at all this glossy fun like shit. Their eyes are steel and their hands are smeared with machine oil - these are "real" racing simulators like rFactor 2, iRacing and R3E.
This order was not introduced by us and it is not for us to change it, but in last years, with the growing popularity of crowdfunding, community assisted development, cheaper hardware and technologies, as well as in the dazzling light of the VR future, projects from independent studios appeared on the horizon, in which a close-to-real model of control and damage, tons of settings and laser-scanned tracks quite successfully get along with gorgeous graphics and effects, as well as, I'm not afraid of this word, gameplay outside the racing track. Let's figure out who needs it and why.
I'll tell you right away: I'm not a snob and I love arcade racing. There is nothing better than toppling at a speed of 300 km / h in the glow of night lights in the oncoming lane, "checking traffic", jumping on a Lamborghini Aventador through hay sheds and throwing banana skins under the wheels of opponents. If at the same time it is still possible to shoot back from them from the AK-47 - generally excellent. All these games are also "simulators", simulators of delight. We play to relax and have fun, we love beautiful supercars and fatal grid girls, the roar of engines and smoke from under the wheels, loud music, checkered flags and escape from the police. Nobody has watched Le Mans or Grand Prix, but everyone knows "", and as long as that is, Need For Speed will rule the world.
Making racing games is expensive; licensing fees to car brands, track owners and race series owners amount to millions of dollars, and this money needs to be paid back somehow. Therefore, the developers go to great lengths to make their games as accessible as possible to the audience of the conditional "Fast and the Furious". They came up with an ingenious rewind button, McLaren P1 monster truck wheels, extra points for the most beautiful crash and many other really cool features that make the process more fun and accessible to a mass audience.
And yet - attention, now the main idea of the text will go - is this the only way out? Bored European aristocrats more than 100 years ago, the laws of physics and the universe itself, after all, have already come up with everything it takes to create the perfect car game. Real, deep, stunning, unique gameplay is actually formed somewhere between uneven asphalt, overheated tires, steering wheel, gas pedal and stopwatch. Everything has already been invented before us. You don't need to invent anything. You just have to do it the way it is in life.
Let's get rid of the marketing crap. Let's muffle the pop soundtrack, let our music be the clatter of the engine in the cut-off, the screeching of tires, the screeching of stones in the arches and the thuds of punched racks. Let's temporarily turn off the girls' detailing at the start - I understand, it's difficult, but that's not about that now. Let's turn off the electronic crutches - all that automatic steering and braking, perfect trajectory and even traction control. You can leave the ABS, okay. Let's try to drive the way our fathers and grandfathers drove - beyond the possible, between heaven and earth, clinging to the asphalt with four thin wheels. To be honest, without any electronics.
You ask: what could be more boring than reeling circles on the same track over and over again in an attempt to improve your time by a couple of tenths - and you will be right in your own way. I thought so myself. In theory, there is an optimal trajectory for each machine that will provide the best lap times. This is pure mathematics - you just go along the right line and that's it. Boring!
Irreversible changes began about three years ago, when the traffic police marked my sporting achievements by depriving me of my license for six months. The replay of the race - overtaking through two continuous lines with space overspeed - had to be seen right in the passenger compartment of a police car. Not the most comfortable place, I can tell you - no popcorn, no 3D glasses.
In winter it was unbearably boring, and I went to karting school. There we were taught what a "late apex", "driving in support" is, and why brake and accelerate at the same time. Later I changed the car and took part in several stages of the amateur auto racing championships RHHCC / RTAC and Max Power Cars (with disastrous results), worked with coaches (without much success), went on track days in Myachkovo, Smolensk and Moscow Raceway - in short, I got completely hooked on this topic and completely changed my views on where, how and what to drive.
Typical first track day of a man who grew up on Need for Speed and Burnout
Fifteen minutes on a real race track - no matter which car, as long as it lasts those fifteen minutes - gives more emotions and experience than a year of fooling around on public roads. On the track, no one cares who you are and what kind of car you have - only a few digits before and after the decimal point matter. All theoretical reflections on "pure mathematics" are smashed to smithereens at the very first arrival. The car - so expensive, beautiful, stable - actually connects almost nothing with the surface of this planet - four (at best) palms of contact between rubber and asphalt. Keeping him on the track in extreme modes, squeezing the maximum out of technology, showing the best time is both science and art, and partly mystical experience, available only to a few. Remember what Senna said: “And suddenly I realized that in my consciousness I was not driving. I drove by instinct and was like in another dimension. "
However, let's get down to the ground, where we belong. Can a car simulator at least partially replace real-life experience? The short answer is no. Long answer: yes.
Maybe, but you have to try. First, you need a steering wheel. With feedback, pedal set and 900 degree rotation. This is out of the question. Of course, for a start, you can get by with a gamepad (the peka-boyars are suitable for the Xbox 360 for Windows), but it will be more difficult to control the car with its help at the maximum level of realism. In addition, during practice, the wrong neural connections are formed in your brain; you will turn into a mutant and you will have to wait another 20 years until the steering wheel is finally replaced by joysticks. The steering wheel not only helps to keep the trajectory cleaner, but also gives a lot more feedback - and this is critical - and allows you to make instant adjustments, catch a skid early, which is especially important when driving with rear wheel drive. This experience will come in handy later in real life.
For the steering wheel, it is advisable to buy a rack, for example, Wheel Stand Pro - it does not take up much space in the apartment, it is convenient to fold it for storage and transportation. If you are suddenly an oligarch and you have a separate room for games, you can splurge on a real racing chair like the Playseat.
Of course, as an option, you can fix the steering wheel with clamps to the computer table, but it will look wild, and you will quickly get bored of assembling and disassembling this structure.
Cockpit options for virtual pilots depending on the scale of the disease
Having installed all this machinery and yourself in it in the correct position (the back is almost vertical, the outstretched arms touch the upper part of the steering wheel with the wrists, the legs remain slightly bent when the pedals are fully depressed), you suddenly find that your favorite 27-inch monitor no longer provides the required level. let's say immersion. You will have to buy two more monitors or fence a garden with a large TV, projector or think hard about buying an Oculus Rift. And these are just flowers.
Disconnect all electronic crutches. The level of realism is maximum. Damage, tire degradation, gas mileage, race time not less than 15 minutes. And welcome to the world of PAIN and HUMILIATION. No, it’s true, the first few hours, or even days in this mode, make you understand the meaning of the word SUFFERING in a new way. Everything is very bad, the car either slides outward in front of the turn, then suddenly breaks into an uncontrollable skid, the suspension angles leave after a couple of departures from the track, on cold rubber the car behaves like an elephant on a rink, stupid computer racers leave to rot in a sand trap with a damaged transmission , your favorite way of cornering - with acceleration on the car in front - no longer works, the only mistake sends you to the last positions (ekarny babai!), and at the finish line a wheel suddenly comes off and takes first place instead of you.
IRacing cannot boast of the detail of models and the beauty of the picture, but it is famous for the prohibitive cruelty to beginners
It is also tiresome. A full racing day with practice, qualification and race takes a lot of time and keeps you on your toes. Yes, during the game we do not experience overload, although, by the way, the feedback steering wheel gives such a normal load on the arms and shoulders - the next morning the muscles can hurt. But the emotional intensity of the virtual race is so great that after the game you feel squeezed out like a lemon. Not the best way to spend an evening after hard work, right?
And yet - and I know this for sure - if you overcome all the difficulties of the initial period, you will discover a pure, sparkling, non-energized source of the highest pleasure. And, in the end, you will acquire the skills necessary for real racing.
A couple of obvious tips on how not to crash on the vertical learning curve: do not, as much as you would like, immediately get behind the wheel of a Pagani Zonda R - in order to enjoy driving, it is better to start with hot hatchbacks and not too powerful rear-wheel drive machines. It is very helpful to read something about driving theory, such as the excellent book by Mikhail Gorbachev (namesake) "How to Win a Race". It makes no sense to rush to the competition right away, especially online - it's better to spend time training in splendid isolation. Learn the track, feel the car, and when progress stops, search the Internet for what smart people write about setting up a car for a specific track, etc.
What game are we actually talking about? The question, to be honest, is deeply secondary. More recently, Project CARS (Community Assisted Racing Simulator) from the British studio Slightly Mad Studios has been released. Natives of the Swedish company SimBin (GTR, GTR 2 and GT Legends), well-known to fans of car simulators, made Need For Speed: Shift and Shift 2 for Electronic Arts, which were warmly received by the gaming media and caused waves of negativity from the community of virtual racers.
At Project CARS, developers have raised the bar incredibly high. Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport were designated as the main competitors, funds for the project were raised by the whole world through their own crowdfunding system World of Mass Development, active community members were to receive money for assistance in development within three years after release. A physics model based on a supermodified Madness proprietary engine with a frequency of 600 times per second calculates all the necessary parameters, including the condition of the rubber, in real time, while the level of graphics and visual effects is made at a level close to excellent (in this regard) Driveclub after all patches. Yes, the game was also supposed to be released on all available platforms, including Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Windows, Linux / Steam OS and, sit even deeper, Wii U.
The claim for victory was more than serious. In fact, Project CARS is the most ambitious new racing franchise in a decade. Of course, in reality, it turned out not quite as many fans expected - the game first got rid of the versions for the Xbox 360 and PS3, then the release dates were shifted three times; too active members of the community, the developers began to swing with a ban-hammer; the version for Wii U and Linux was postponed until better times and, in the end, the game was released on May 7, 2015. Raw, uneven, bugs, frustrating physics in places, and still beautiful.
Project Cars: Pagani Huayra in the rain
Most "serious" car simulators are limited to simulation of driving on the track - this is the basis, blood and flesh of such games. SMS decided to go further and try to simulate a racing career. Here, fans tweet you, the chief mechanic speaks directly from the gamepad in the voice of the ex-Stig from Top Gear, treacherous weather is constantly changing. You can skate a training session on a dry track, it will start to rain during qualification, and test attempts will take place under a hellish downpour, when the outline of the track can only be determined by the blurry lights of the stop signals of the cars in front. Career is a sandbox, every season we sign contracts with new racing teams, you can stay in karting or move towards GT or Le Man, tires and brakes after leaving the track are cold as ice, and the tactics of entering the pit boxes can be changed up to creating tire pressure presets.
BMW at Laguna Seca in reality and at Project Cars
Playing Project CARS according to the method I described above is very difficult and sometimes painful, but when you, after a dozen unsuccessful attempts, suddenly start to feel the car “at your fingertips”, and everything starts to work out, the joy of hitting at least the top ten is worth all the misadventures. I have never experienced sharper, more intense, exciting and happy moments in such games.
Asseto Corsa
For PS4 owners, Project CARS is, in fact, the only choice right now in anticipation of Gran Turismo 7. Happy owners of powerful gaming PCs - the kings of the world of virtual car racing - can choose from many interesting options. One of the highlights is Asseto Corsa, a superb simulator that recently left the early access ghetto. Yes, there is almost no gameplay outside the race track, and never it's raining but there is Ferrari, laser-scanned racetracks with all their micro-relief and, most importantly, amazing, refined feedback. Choose BMW M3 in the back of E30 or Alfa Romeo 4C and tears of joy and recognition will come from your eyes. Darling, I'm home!
Pavel Arseev tests Project Cars and Asseto Corsa in different life situations and at the same time demonstrates why it is not necessary to play simulators from a gamepad
You can spend a lot of time comparing the parts of Project CARS, Asseto Corsa, Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, what people on specialized forums are doing now, but all these games are on the same side - the side of good, damaged tires and bent suspension arms. The more of these games, the more beautiful and brighter our life will be. There is just one little thing to do: take a moment aside from installing the bumper guard on the Koenigsegg Agera. Welcome to the club!
-Oleg Khazhinsky