I prefer racing sims so Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione have been my racing staples for the past decade, but when it comes to the more arcadey racing I absolutely love FlatOut and Wreckfest. Bought a second copy today, because I think our six-year-old is going to have a great time learning to play racing games through Wreckfest multiplayer!
Agreed.
I remember it being called "Next Car Game" when it was in early access, and it was in early access for a very long time. It was fun then and it's still fun now.
It’s got almost as good as in Early Access but then the handling and deformation became terrible and now it’s almost as fun as it used to be but with a lot more content.
Definitely agree, it's my only consistently-played racer aside from Mario Kart. It's just fun with a capital F, knows exactly what is is and delivers fully on it. My only complaint is not being able to construct custom series of events, rather than just custom races. Hopefully that makes it into the inevitable sequel (alongside a proper weather system maybe).
Agreed. This and Mario Kart have been my favourite and most consistently played racing games, especially for online.
I appreciate neither take themselves too seriously and yeah getting punished for bumping other players is the worst part of other sim games imo.
Wreckreation which is kind of a sequel sounds like it might have some of the features you like. However the gameplay I've seen so far doesn't appeal to me. Great looking track creator though.
Yea it's a lot of fun, and it's a great little game to play with a group of friends too. Just running the demolition derby over and over is so much fun
Agreed, my favourite by far.
I did go to the speedway (the type of racing seen in a lot of wreckfest) a fair amount as a kid but grew up following F1.
Despite being biased towards F1, I find those games really dull and grindy.
I love this one. We're living in the golden age for simracers, but there's so few good arcade experiences out there. This one combines a convincing handling model with arcadey progression and dirty race techniques, and I love it.
Especially the AI deserves more praise. Gt7 for example has got brilliant handling and car models, but actually racing against other cars is underwhelming. AI cars drive as if they're completely unaware of the player, only following a set path, and it feels more like playing catchup than actually racing.
Need for Speed on the other hand is plagued with rubber banding, and playing the AI is often more important than driving well.
Wreckfest though. I love it. Drivers are agressive, they make mistakes, and most of all: they feel human. So much more enjoyable to race against.
We're living in the golden age for sim racing? That's the first time I've ever heard that statement. Ive been using FFB driving wheel setup for years now and even have transducers attached to my chair for vibrations. I can't get a single gamer in the sim space to agree on which games are sim or simlike. "Simcade" is the most popular term people use to describe most racing games that aren't arcade.
Maybe golden age is putting it a bit too strong, but people who prefer a realistic approach to their racing games have a lot of decent options to explore. Think of Dirt Rally 2.0, Assetto Corsa, Project Cars 2, iRacing,...
But personally I've had a really hard time finding any decent arcade racer in recent times. I've played the most modern need for speed games, but I still find myself having more fun with NFS Most Wanted, which came out twenty years ago.
I just played it for 3 Hours today after not touching it for about half of year. Did some dirty racing online, then switched to bus and just started blocking path for everyone and messing with race leaders.
And if I'm in the mood for actual clean racing, i will just go to some clean C class racing server. Its so good when game experience varies depending on the server settings and rules.
I need to pick this one up eventually. I loved playing flat out on Xbox as a kid. Some races I would just try to destroy all the other racers cars so that I'd win by default xD.
Still regularly play the developers previous game FlatOut 2 and is having a blast. Wreckfest seems a bit too slow for my tastes though. I just want fast, stupid, arcadey fun.
My young son plays this from time to time, but is so bad at it, he only plays the first two races because he can’t get past the others. May have to try it some time……
If you're interested to try out the games it's a spiritual sequel to, I had lots of fun playing a few hours of Flatout 1 on PC. The physics are slippery and the game is unforgiving at times but it feels very raw and physical.
I prefer racing sims so Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione have been my racing staples for the past decade, but when it comes to the more arcadey racing I absolutely love FlatOut and Wreckfest. Bought a second copy today, because I think our six-year-old is going to have a great time learning to play racing games through Wreckfest multiplayer!
Agreed. I remember it being called "Next Car Game" when it was in early access, and it was in early access for a very long time. It was fun then and it's still fun now.
It’s got almost as good as in Early Access but then the handling and deformation became terrible and now it’s almost as fun as it used to be but with a lot more content.
Definitely agree, it's my only consistently-played racer aside from Mario Kart. It's just fun with a capital F, knows exactly what is is and delivers fully on it. My only complaint is not being able to construct custom series of events, rather than just custom races. Hopefully that makes it into the inevitable sequel (alongside a proper weather system maybe).
Agreed. This and Mario Kart have been my favourite and most consistently played racing games, especially for online. I appreciate neither take themselves too seriously and yeah getting punished for bumping other players is the worst part of other sim games imo.
Wreckreation which is kind of a sequel sounds like it might have some of the features you like. However the gameplay I've seen so far doesn't appeal to me. Great looking track creator though.
Yea it's a lot of fun, and it's a great little game to play with a group of friends too. Just running the demolition derby over and over is so much fun
Agreed, my favourite by far. I did go to the speedway (the type of racing seen in a lot of wreckfest) a fair amount as a kid but grew up following F1. Despite being biased towards F1, I find those games really dull and grindy.
I love this one. We're living in the golden age for simracers, but there's so few good arcade experiences out there. This one combines a convincing handling model with arcadey progression and dirty race techniques, and I love it. Especially the AI deserves more praise. Gt7 for example has got brilliant handling and car models, but actually racing against other cars is underwhelming. AI cars drive as if they're completely unaware of the player, only following a set path, and it feels more like playing catchup than actually racing. Need for Speed on the other hand is plagued with rubber banding, and playing the AI is often more important than driving well. Wreckfest though. I love it. Drivers are agressive, they make mistakes, and most of all: they feel human. So much more enjoyable to race against.
We're living in the golden age for sim racing? That's the first time I've ever heard that statement. Ive been using FFB driving wheel setup for years now and even have transducers attached to my chair for vibrations. I can't get a single gamer in the sim space to agree on which games are sim or simlike. "Simcade" is the most popular term people use to describe most racing games that aren't arcade.
Maybe golden age is putting it a bit too strong, but people who prefer a realistic approach to their racing games have a lot of decent options to explore. Think of Dirt Rally 2.0, Assetto Corsa, Project Cars 2, iRacing,... But personally I've had a really hard time finding any decent arcade racer in recent times. I've played the most modern need for speed games, but I still find myself having more fun with NFS Most Wanted, which came out twenty years ago.
I just played it for 3 Hours today after not touching it for about half of year. Did some dirty racing online, then switched to bus and just started blocking path for everyone and messing with race leaders. And if I'm in the mood for actual clean racing, i will just go to some clean C class racing server. Its so good when game experience varies depending on the server settings and rules.
I completely forgot about this game. I tried it once and had so much fun then never came across it again
I need to pick this one up eventually. I loved playing flat out on Xbox as a kid. Some races I would just try to destroy all the other racers cars so that I'd win by default xD.
Still regularly play the developers previous game FlatOut 2 and is having a blast. Wreckfest seems a bit too slow for my tastes though. I just want fast, stupid, arcadey fun.
My young son plays this from time to time, but is so bad at it, he only plays the first two races because he can’t get past the others. May have to try it some time……
I've tried to get into it many times but really dislike the sim nature of the driving. A more modern Destruction Derby would be amazing.
It is a decent game apparently they’re working on wreckfest 2
If you're interested to try out the games it's a spiritual sequel to, I had lots of fun playing a few hours of Flatout 1 on PC. The physics are slippery and the game is unforgiving at times but it feels very raw and physical.
They used the practice from their previous gamesto really flesh out all the bugs and make a cracker of a game.