One of the most enjoyable experiences, for those who love to play video games, you try the typical adrenaline challenge. Whether it's a chase through the streets of California, a military assault or a game of ball, to give us pleasure is that thrill that runs down the back, the fear of not making it, the victory achieved at the last second, the risk of losing the game virtual or life.
On this same spirit also rely the car games, those that – on a Formula 1 track or on the tarmac of a city – provide chases and overtaking to close control. Games in this genre exist since there are PCs and consoles and will probably continue to be more and more plausible every year and complex (although, frankly, in recent times we maybe at a level of detail that is difficult to match).
What are the best titles, those that have marked the genre? And, above all, such as those available on PC? We select for you five.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Escape from police with a graphics (at the time) spectacular
In our survey within the racing games we decided to start from almost a decade ago, i.e. from 2005, year of release of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the 11th chapter of what was then-and still is today, one of the longest-running sagas and most successful in the world of video games. The first installment of the series, in fact, dates back to 1994 (for PC, Sega Saturn, PlayStation and 3DO console forgotten today), while last year it released the 22nd episode, the significant Need for Speed: Rivals.
In five but I decided to put Most Wanted for several reasons: first of all, is a game that, as I wrote at the opening, stimulates adrenaline thanks to its high-speed chases, that mechanism was not new in the saga (he made his debut in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit) but that probably came here to his highest level of verisimilitude; then, at the time of its release marked a decisive step forward in the evolution of graphics with highly detailed also own machines on PC and not only on consoles.
Temporarily unavailable. If you make an order immediately, we will
It is, in short, probably the best title in the series and definitely what's left more impressed in the memory of gamers, even for some innovations like time slowed down, which allowed them to expand the action in some of the more heated moments (as it does in the movies, when you want to see that the brain processes information faster than normal), or the role of the police, always ready to put a spoke in the wheels; and it is no coincidence that has been recently launched a newer console remake ever published by Electronic Arts, already responsible for 2005 's original, but this time developed by Criterion Games.
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
Explore (and destroy) a city working at crazy speed challenges
We are now a leap forward with Burnout Paradise, released in 2008 for console and PC the following year, although we believe it is worth focusing on The Ultimate Box, a year later, that apart from the basic game offered three expansions (Bikes, Cagney and Party).
Developed by Criterion Games we just quoted and published by Electronic Arts, the game was set in the fictional town of Paradise City, home to a series of chases and urban challenges beyond the law. The special feature of the game is to run in all circumstances, regardless of the consequences at all: so a challenge can be launched at a traffic light and result in the destruction of cartels, head-on collisions with other cars, dangerous and spectacular flights.
Even in this case, Paradise was the fifth installment in a series that was launched in 2001 for the PlayStation, Xbox and GameCube, but that only with this chapter – the last, incidentally, was also briefly – official on PC. Its strong point, in my opinion, was on the one hand, the open worldgameplay, allowing you to explore the city at will (among other things were also some downloadable expansions to payment), on the other hand, the chaotic way of speed and of the challenge he could communicate. It is not for nothing that, at its release also won numerous awards, and he was acclaimed Best driving game of 2008.
Colin McRae: Dirt 2
The rally at the time of the DirectX 11
After the games developed by Criterion Games and EA, let's move on the House that has literally dominated the racing videogame landscape in recent years, the UK Codemasters, which since 2008 has definitely specializing in automotive, is acquiring strand Sega Racing Studio, either by signing the agreement for the rights to exploit Formula 1 brand.
An investment that has paid off both in terms of sales of products of high quality. One of the first, belonging to a saga that the software company had acquired along with Sega Racing Studio, was Colin McRae: Dirt 2, rally game on PC was one of the earliest to use DirectX 11 and therefore used a series of significant improvements to graphics layer, so that was really one of the most advanced in the industry.
Interesting, under different views were also choices of gameplay, both times to introduce new gamers to the saga, both to make more fascinating experience for those who had already played at the previous chapters: thus, for example, simpler levels there was a rewindmode, which allowed them to go back in time and correct any errors by GuideWhile for the most experienced player was well developed career mode, which allowed them to advance into increasingly difficult circuits, releasing at the same time, a number of additional features that allow greater customization of the car or participation in special events.
Grid 2
A tour of the world in 60 cars
Son of Dirt, but especially of the series TOCA that Codemasters working from a decade and a half is also abundant, Grid 2, which was launched with great commercial and critical results last year, five years after the release of the first installment of the series; a chapter available for PC, also for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and, for the past couple of months, as well for Mac.
The main feature of the game and the series is to be halfway between arcade and simulation itself, between the joyous and reckless driving an end in itself and the attention to detail that leads to an increasingly precise verisimilitude: Grid 2, in fact, manage to maintain both needs, such as providing help in driving easier but also presenting a hardcore mode which requires discrete skills and presenting also interesting twists such as changing the route of a runway after the first lap.
The strong point of the game, however, are the locations and cars: we run – day and night – long 82 tracks scattered around the world and often even within cities such as Paris, while the Park has about 60 cars and models is so large to embrace auto outputs over almost 40 years, from Alfa Romeo to Aston Martinfrom the 1970 Ford Mustang to the Ford Focus of 2013, from Jaguar to Mercedes.
F1 2013
To try to win the world today or yesterday
We conclude with another recent game and with yet another product of the guys at Codemasters, F1 2013, released roughly a year ago, in October 2013. The licensee of the mark series of Formula 1, in fact, in my opinion deserved to be in five, if only for the great quality that has been able to make over the years, but it was difficult to choose a title rather than another, since almost all the latest chapters have a high technical level and an amazing verisimilitude; I preferred, so choose the last, i.e. the most recent, among those who were on the ballot, because the point of arrival of a series of successive refinements, but excluding both F1 2014, which seems to me to be for various reasons slightly under his predecessors.
The series, there is not even say, simulates a Formula 1 season using the EGO Engine, the proprietary engine developed by Codemasters present even in already mentioned Dirt 2, Grid 2 and a number of other titles of good commercial impact. Are present in the game, all nineteen racetracks, the eleven teams and 22 drivers in the League, but it's also interesting the Classic Edition, in which are circuits, cars and additional pilots are from the golden years of Formula 1 (but introduced with realism, as, for example, the old cars are harder to drive).
The game is memorable from one side to the aforementioned details, which over the years has increased and made the product undoubtedly the best racing simulation available on the market; on the other hand, compared to its predecessors by adding some improvements such as more realistic pit stop, the graphics more attractive (and, in the older circuits, a vintage flavour that recalls the time television coverage) and adding a level of difficulty that makes the journey more gradual of the pilot.
On this same spirit also rely the car games, those that – on a Formula 1 track or on the tarmac of a city – provide chases and overtaking to close control. Games in this genre exist since there are PCs and consoles and will probably continue to be more and more plausible every year and complex (although, frankly, in recent times we maybe at a level of detail that is difficult to match).
What are the best titles, those that have marked the genre? And, above all, such as those available on PC? We select for you five.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Escape from police with a graphics (at the time) spectacular
In our survey within the racing games we decided to start from almost a decade ago, i.e. from 2005, year of release of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the 11th chapter of what was then-and still is today, one of the longest-running sagas and most successful in the world of video games. The first installment of the series, in fact, dates back to 1994 (for PC, Sega Saturn, PlayStation and 3DO console forgotten today), while last year it released the 22nd episode, the significant Need for Speed: Rivals.
In five but I decided to put Most Wanted for several reasons: first of all, is a game that, as I wrote at the opening, stimulates adrenaline thanks to its high-speed chases, that mechanism was not new in the saga (he made his debut in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit) but that probably came here to his highest level of verisimilitude; then, at the time of its release marked a decisive step forward in the evolution of graphics with highly detailed also own machines on PC and not only on consoles.
Temporarily unavailable. If you make an order immediately, we will
It is, in short, probably the best title in the series and definitely what's left more impressed in the memory of gamers, even for some innovations like time slowed down, which allowed them to expand the action in some of the more heated moments (as it does in the movies, when you want to see that the brain processes information faster than normal), or the role of the police, always ready to put a spoke in the wheels; and it is no coincidence that has been recently launched a newer console remake ever published by Electronic Arts, already responsible for 2005 's original, but this time developed by Criterion Games.
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
Explore (and destroy) a city working at crazy speed challenges
We are now a leap forward with Burnout Paradise, released in 2008 for console and PC the following year, although we believe it is worth focusing on The Ultimate Box, a year later, that apart from the basic game offered three expansions (Bikes, Cagney and Party).
Developed by Criterion Games we just quoted and published by Electronic Arts, the game was set in the fictional town of Paradise City, home to a series of chases and urban challenges beyond the law. The special feature of the game is to run in all circumstances, regardless of the consequences at all: so a challenge can be launched at a traffic light and result in the destruction of cartels, head-on collisions with other cars, dangerous and spectacular flights.
Even in this case, Paradise was the fifth installment in a series that was launched in 2001 for the PlayStation, Xbox and GameCube, but that only with this chapter – the last, incidentally, was also briefly – official on PC. Its strong point, in my opinion, was on the one hand, the open worldgameplay, allowing you to explore the city at will (among other things were also some downloadable expansions to payment), on the other hand, the chaotic way of speed and of the challenge he could communicate. It is not for nothing that, at its release also won numerous awards, and he was acclaimed Best driving game of 2008.
Colin McRae: Dirt 2
The rally at the time of the DirectX 11
After the games developed by Criterion Games and EA, let's move on the House that has literally dominated the racing videogame landscape in recent years, the UK Codemasters, which since 2008 has definitely specializing in automotive, is acquiring strand Sega Racing Studio, either by signing the agreement for the rights to exploit Formula 1 brand.
An investment that has paid off both in terms of sales of products of high quality. One of the first, belonging to a saga that the software company had acquired along with Sega Racing Studio, was Colin McRae: Dirt 2, rally game on PC was one of the earliest to use DirectX 11 and therefore used a series of significant improvements to graphics layer, so that was really one of the most advanced in the industry.
Interesting, under different views were also choices of gameplay, both times to introduce new gamers to the saga, both to make more fascinating experience for those who had already played at the previous chapters: thus, for example, simpler levels there was a rewindmode, which allowed them to go back in time and correct any errors by GuideWhile for the most experienced player was well developed career mode, which allowed them to advance into increasingly difficult circuits, releasing at the same time, a number of additional features that allow greater customization of the car or participation in special events.
Grid 2
A tour of the world in 60 cars
Son of Dirt, but especially of the series TOCA that Codemasters working from a decade and a half is also abundant, Grid 2, which was launched with great commercial and critical results last year, five years after the release of the first installment of the series; a chapter available for PC, also for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and, for the past couple of months, as well for Mac.
The main feature of the game and the series is to be halfway between arcade and simulation itself, between the joyous and reckless driving an end in itself and the attention to detail that leads to an increasingly precise verisimilitude: Grid 2, in fact, manage to maintain both needs, such as providing help in driving easier but also presenting a hardcore mode which requires discrete skills and presenting also interesting twists such as changing the route of a runway after the first lap.
The strong point of the game, however, are the locations and cars: we run – day and night – long 82 tracks scattered around the world and often even within cities such as Paris, while the Park has about 60 cars and models is so large to embrace auto outputs over almost 40 years, from Alfa Romeo to Aston Martinfrom the 1970 Ford Mustang to the Ford Focus of 2013, from Jaguar to Mercedes.
F1 2013
To try to win the world today or yesterday
We conclude with another recent game and with yet another product of the guys at Codemasters, F1 2013, released roughly a year ago, in October 2013. The licensee of the mark series of Formula 1, in fact, in my opinion deserved to be in five, if only for the great quality that has been able to make over the years, but it was difficult to choose a title rather than another, since almost all the latest chapters have a high technical level and an amazing verisimilitude; I preferred, so choose the last, i.e. the most recent, among those who were on the ballot, because the point of arrival of a series of successive refinements, but excluding both F1 2014, which seems to me to be for various reasons slightly under his predecessors.
The series, there is not even say, simulates a Formula 1 season using the EGO Engine, the proprietary engine developed by Codemasters present even in already mentioned Dirt 2, Grid 2 and a number of other titles of good commercial impact. Are present in the game, all nineteen racetracks, the eleven teams and 22 drivers in the League, but it's also interesting the Classic Edition, in which are circuits, cars and additional pilots are from the golden years of Formula 1 (but introduced with realism, as, for example, the old cars are harder to drive).
The game is memorable from one side to the aforementioned details, which over the years has increased and made the product undoubtedly the best racing simulation available on the market; on the other hand, compared to its predecessors by adding some improvements such as more realistic pit stop, the graphics more attractive (and, in the older circuits, a vintage flavour that recalls the time television coverage) and adding a level of difficulty that makes the journey more gradual of the pilot.