OK, my girlfriend is in Tallahassee autocrossing, my car is motor-less, and most of my friends are at VIR this weekend.
So I hit Blockbuster and rented above mentioned NASCAR game.

I HIGHLY recommend this puppy.

Why?
1. You can destroy the car. Parts fly off, it catches on fire, etc, etc. Just like the real thing. Something GT-3 is sorely missing.
2. Watkins Glen, Sears Point, Pocono, etc. Very well reproduced. Oh yeah, Sears Point is a BITCH. And yes Karl, I've been checking out Lowes Motor Speedway.
3. Traffic. Big time. you and 42 other cars. Very interesting to say the least.

GT-3 is more realistic from a raw vehicle dynamics perspective, but in all honesty I can't say it makes much difference through a game controller.

In the end, GT-3 is more detailed and complicated, but the NASCAR game is just more fun.
Now... back to Lowes. I actually managed to finish the last race with the hood still on the car... a first.

 

Just those minute differences makes it better..

I am of the belief it does not, although it would be real nice to have Sears Point and damage to body panels.

The more real to life the better (and harder, especially if you slam a wall at 180+, your race SHOULD be over)

 

You guys should check out Gotham Racing on the XBox - incredible graphics and the car damage is sweet. Overall the gameplay may not be as fun or exciting as GT3, but it is worth a look...

 

I wanna try Burnout..

 

Do you guys remember
The Need for Speed

the orginal?

 

I am not much of a "gamer"; but my wife picked up a real cheap game; never heard of it before -- its called "Dirt Track Racin'".

its a hoot! you gotta drive sideways all over the place. you start off in stock like chevys, pontiacs, delta 88s, etc. its fun to play to say the least.

Todd

PS i once tried to play "Grand Prix legends" couldn't even get around the Glen for the parade lap without crashing 5 times! very hard to play (i don't have a steering wheel system)

PPS I think i remember actually crashing attempting to leave the pits in the Lotus 49 racecar....

 

How's Sprorts Car GT by EA? I keep hearing it's the most addictive driving game by far. Too bad it's not ported to Mac yet! Guess I'll have to fire up the Virtual PC.

Speaking of old racing games, how about Test Drive? I had that one on my C64!

 

Lot's of fan support on the internet for it.. check it out by doing a search on it on Google.

 

Forget all of them, World Sports Cars (coming out for PS2) is supposed to be the most realistic ever. For example, each tire is broken down into 32 components, each component analyzed for temp, pressure, wear, etc. A complete damage model, which accurately alters the performance of the car. You can even flat spot tires by locking the brakes! Or, if you just lock them a little, the game records what sections of the tire were damaged, and if you lock up the brakes again with that section in contact with the road, it will increase the damage accordingly. On top of that, you have parts failures related to how hard you are on the car, etc. It sounds AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt

 

Yes, World Sports Cars (WSC) is what all "simmers" have been waiting for since GPL. WSC is due out next year sometime for the PC, PS2 and X-BOX. Basically it's going to be like Falcon 4.0...virtual cockpit, etc... Not only does looking at the specs and features of WSC blow you mind, but the Graphics are the best I have seen for ANY sim yet. Here's a nearly 1 year old screenshot for yall:



Ok..stop drooling! Until WSC comes out SCGT is still the current champ - Well F1 2001 with the sportscar conversion is actually the current top Sportscar sim! F1 2001 = newer and way better coded version of SCGT engine.


[Modified by Vracer111, 1:50 PM 12/11/2001]

 

Some recent articles and screen shots:

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0,10869,2614733,00.html (this one has LOTs of screen shots).

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories...579650,00.html

http://graphix-design.virtualave.net/

or go straight to the screen shots at

http://graphix-design.virtualave.net.../screens1.html



Matt

 

Nice spelling on the screen shot..

Will
-who hopes to own a Feppari one day

 

I don't think the "Poor Show" (PORSOHE) would appreciate the spelling either...

Andy - who thinks he needs a new video card...

 

Nope, don't need a video card, you just need to live in a land where there are no lawyers. Obviously they didn't want to pay the liscensing fees to Ferrari and Porsche (or the deals haven't been settled yet since the game isn't coming out for a while), so they can't use the real names....

Matt

 

Heh, well then, they better get ready for a lawsuit... 'cause Ferrari is spelled correctly on the far left...

And *I* need a new video card to handle that game... that's what I meant...

 

speedracer33, that screen shot with the "Porsohe" and "Feppari" is about 3 years old! Not sure about the current state of the liscensing agreements, but I think that manufactures would be doing a bad thing not to allow the correct naming in a, I mean THE ultimate racing sim! But what the matter anyways, the Wests (two brothers for the whole design team!) have been working nearly six years on this project and it's really looking to be released within a year now!

Real racecars included are slated to be some of the following:
Acura NSX
Lotus Esprit
C-9 Sauber Mercedes
333sp Ferrari
Ford GT40
Porsche GT1
LMP Panoz
+more....(12 models total)

I know the following cars are currently in development by 3rd party modelers:
Dodge Viper GTSR
Porsche 917
427 Shelby Cobra
+a few others...

And since Lemans isn't in the realease, (because of that junky 'Test Drive Lemans' game) when the Lemans track is finished for SCGT it can then be tweaked and worked on for WSC. I already know that a WSC version of Bathurst has been progressing for a while by Danny G... That is one insanely fun and scarry track! Now imagine running some Aussie V8's through it in WSC ...


[Modified by Vracer111, 4:49 PM 12/11/2001]

 

Feppari. Sorry, that's too funny.
Thank god for Ezno Feppari.