Decades:
Genres:
Welcome back. This part of the series will be primarily focusing on genres. So far I have [Turn based RPG, Action RPG, Board Game, tabletop RPG, Arcade Game, Third person shooter, MMO, Action, 4X (Civilization-like), 3D Platformer, Dungeon Crawler, Card Game, Point and click, Indie, Text dungeon, Souls-like, Stealth, Rhythm, Horror, Metroidvania, Survival, Sandbox, shoot/beat 'em up, City Builder, Adventure, Simulation, Puzzle, Fighting, MOBA, Real Time Tactics, Grand Strategy, Walking simulator, Tower Defense, Sports, Idle, Trivia, miscellaneous, and Casual] as available genres. Let me know if I missed something, and I will try to get it added.
This is eventually all going to get compiled into one megathread for people who want gaming recommendations from Chapos specifically. Other consoles and genres will come in sporadic subsequent threads. Please contribute to previous threads if you missed them. This is meant to be an exhaustive list.
Expanding on your choice(s) is definitely a plus. Not everyone knows about or has played non-mainstream titles.
The best racer of all time is Burnout 3. I will not be taking questions.
Gran Turismo 4 is probably the best for a realistic racing game. The car list, amount of events, endurance races with tyre degradation and pit stops and realism was unparalleled by anything else at the time in 2004, at least on console. So much to do on that game with great physics for the time. Still more fun than most racing games released in the 17 years since.
As far as arcade racers go, it has to be the original Need for Speed Most Wanted. That was the first arcade racer to combine a open world, a police chase system, car upgrades and even a plot/story together. Almost every arcade car racing game since then, including most need for speed games, has been based on that formula or uses aspects from it. There's a reason why the Burnout franchise changed to the open world format with Burnout Paradise and why the Forza Horizon and The Crew games are open world, and it's because of the standard set by Need for Speed Most Wanted and Underground 2.
If you don't like the open world format in arcade racing games, Burnout 3 Takedown is just perfection. The tracks, cars, gameplay and soundtrack are some of the best in any arcade racer. There's even an Xbox 360 version with improved graphics.
Yakuza 0/Kiwami are excellent slot car racing simulators. It is quite frustrating that they keep interrupting the otherwise excellent racing with some side plot about organized crime. Personally, I think Kazzy-Kun's backstory as a member of the Yakuza should just be scrapped or not constantly brought up because it really detracts from the main focus of the game
A few of my favorites:
MarioKart Wii — probably the best party game racer. it's great to play splitscreen and the motion controls add another layer of fun over other mariokart titles.
Dirt Rally — a great rally driving game that's realistic without being unapproachable. tons of good tracks mapped from real-world ones.
Same, but for me it's Gran Turismo 3 and 5, and currently Forza 7.
I despise Mario Kart because my dumb brain keeps wanting to play it as an actual racing game rather than strategically power slide thru turns. I still play it with friends though.
My entire childhood and teen years were spread out between Gan Turismo 3, 4, 5, and 6. I still play GT sport and have even gotten some top 10 times for my region in the daily races. That muscle memory will never go away lol.
Cruisin' USA
It's basically a cheesy arcade game that was
onported to n64. Similar "play all night at the sleepover" energy to rampage world tourF-Zero GX
Do racing games need Story Modes? Probably not, but this one had one and it's kooky fun
The controls are tight and really give the feeling that you're going a couple hundred miles per hour
Also the track design is A+ and the variety is impressive; everything from standard circuits to downhill leaps a mile over the surface of a volcano
Plus, it's just really fun to drive a hovercar piloted by an Octopus-Man
Late to the party, but X was my fave f-zero partially cause it's the one I'm really good at and partially cause dat randomized x cuo
God-tier arcade racer right here. The tragic thing about it is that apparently Nintendo was disappointed by it, so they've kept the F-Zero license under lock and key ever since.
I have this crazy dream of an F-Zero Switch where you can strap the Switch to your head as a VR headset.
A lot of people hate it but it's my favourite: Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed.
Pluses:
Insanely good menu music. (Just search Shift 2 Gladiator on youtube, there's like 10 of them, all good)
Decent car selection. (Not massive, but had all of the iconic cars at the time, except Ferrari)
Perfect mix between arcade and simulation. (About 25%/75%, great for transitioning from Arcade to Simulation)
THE ATMOSPHERE. Can't describe it. But it like the developer focused a lot on recreating the feeling of driving a race car.
Negative:
Drift mode is trash.
Keyboard control is utter garbage. Like nearly unplayable. But since I can't afford a racing wheel at the time I managed to get used to it and complete the campaign with KB. Even got a 6:45 on Nordscheleife.
Annoying announcer at the start and end of race.
Wrap editor is very clunky even for 2011.
No per-part customization. Instead you choose 1 from 3 body kits, or stock.
Nascar Racing 2003 Season (and later iRacing) are considered some of the greatest racing simulation games and used by some actual drivers to train
Gran Turismo 2 and 4 are personal favorites, 4 is a decent mix between some "realism" (You can actually feel cars have some weight) and arcade gameplay, it's a great great game for people who like to collect things.
On the simulation side, rFactor 1 is great to me, it's a classic, it works well, it has a realistic physics model despite it's age and there are some good mods for it, plus it's ridiculously easy to set up a server and race with a friend. The AI is a bit op imo, loves to crash into you for some reason. Assetto Corsa is a favorite of mine, I don't like it for the driving against the AI but for the content it has, I fucking LOVE playing the Mazda 787B, the Audi Quattro S1, Porsche 917K and so on, it has a good number of fun cars to drive around in hotlaps. I haven't played iRacing, don't know if I ever will... it's expensive and you must be really good at simracing to dedicate enough time for it, I'm more of a casual sim driver.
