I know some of you older guys are rolling your eyes, and that’s fine, I’m good with that. I’m a child of the 1980s, for better or for worse, and yes, I’ve had a video game console of some kind since I was five years old, and for good reason: up until I became legally licensed, it was really the only place I could get some joy out of driving. It was safer than the times where I would take the keys to my mother’s Mustang when nobody was looking, but that’s another story for another time…
The early games were fun enough, like Rad Racer 2 and Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off-Road, but things changed when Gran Turismo came out. My stepdad, who up until then had a “you’ll have a Nintendo and you’ll shut up and like it!” attitude about games, bought the Playstation and the game the second I showed him the demo in the store. Many, many nights our household was car noises and the occasional “How did you make that corner? HOW?!” Later on, I wasted more quarters than I ever want to think about on San Francisco Rush 2049. Why? If you got far enough in the game, you got to ditch the fake futuristic cars for several versions of modified Plymouth ‘Cudas.
Nowadays, the games are unreal. Gran Turismo is as good as ever and the Forza series is right up there with it. As much as I enjoy those gams, though, the one that really has me is Grand Theft Auto 5, and for good reason: I can do whatever I want to. I’m not restricted to the racetrack at all. I can street race, bomb around the city or countryside, go four-wheeling on honest-to-God trails, ride dirt bikes and quads, and the modifications for the cars in-game are excellent. Do I want to go ripping around the countryside like I’m Bo Duke? I can do it. The in-game cars are fictionalized mashups of real-life cars, which is fine, because no manufacturer wants to see their cars explode after being driven off of the side of a mountain. In fact, every screenshot here is of one of my vehicles from my GTA online persona, from the green Declasse Vigero getaway car to the red Imponte Phoenix, and from my Bravado Youga robbery van to the black and gray Vapid Sandking I parked on a station wagon because I felt like it. Racing games are simulators, but GTA5 still has the fun of an arcade game. Just with more Michael Bay explosions. And cops.
So what about you? Got a game that stands out in your mind? Don’t like games whatsoever? Let us know below!
I prefer the Forza Motorsports series for good, realistic racing. And the DiRT series of rally games (Formerly the Colin McRae series) are really good too. The Midnight Club series wasn’t bad if you wanted a more casual racer.
Never liked Grand Theft Auto myself. Once upon a time, Need For Speed was a good franchise but every successive game has gotten worse and worse. Don’t care for the Grid series, every car feels on the edge of hideous, uncontrollable snap oversteer. And Gran Turismo is pretty bad.
Dad bought Pong when it first came out. Not long after that mom got religion and all hell broke loose. Within three years they were divorced and I felt lucky to just have a b&w tv.
About twenty years ago I bought a Nintendo off a neighbor kid that needed money for Christmas. I enjoyed it but didn’t have enough time to get really good at anything and Mario Bros. wasn’t/isn’t my style.
Now that my own kids are old enough to appreciate a game system I’m thinking it may be time to buy something that isn’t already worn out. Maybe I’ll enjoy it as much as my kids…
I agree on the Gran Turismo series 100%. I’ve always thought that they should come out with a “GT Vintage” Game. It would have nothing but old school cars, classic/famous race cars, and tracks like they would have looked back in the day. I also miss how you could tune more on the older versions of the game, so GT Vintage should have an extensive ability to tune the vehicles, changing compression, timing ect.
gta and driver are my only time wasters, i usually grab a city bus and taunt the cops all over town.
Gran Tourismo and Grand Theft Auto are my favorite car games. Gran Tourismo series because it’s as close as I’ll ever get to actually driving some of the cars. GTA series because it’s just wide open fun, you can do anything you want to do and the in game worlds are HUGE!
Bryan, you have to get the Vapid Blade. It’s based off of a 64-65 Falcon and you can modify it into a sweet gasser with a blower and injection stacks!
Compared to most of my generation, I dont play video games all that much, that being said, I own a fair share but all of them are racing games. The first video game I owned was Gran Tursimo 2 which came out in ’99.
Some of my favorites:
-Dukes Of Hazzard Racing For Home
-Hot Wheels Turbo Racing
-Stuntman
-Test Drive Eve Of Destruction
-Flat Out 2
-Forza 4
-Forza Horizon
-Grand Theft Auto V (of course)