Board 8 > What games control cars but are not focused on racing?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I had a conversation recently about needing a game built for students of drivers' education. Is there a game well equipped for this?

Or games built around exploration like the overworld and key elements from Diddy Kong Racing?

Or the combat elements like F-Zero?

Just made me realize most driving games are (understandably) built around competitive racing. What else is built around cars but not racing them?

I think gta is pretty car centric, or used to be

B/K Nuts and Bolts maybe? (haven't played)
GTA
Truck Simulator or whatever that series is called, although that's obviously about trucks not cars

Carmageddon?

Blast Corps

rocket league isn't what you go on to describe but has to be the most notable answer to the title question, depending how you feel about GTA (you control a guy! but i get it)

Kirby's Air Ride

(City Trial's the only mode that matters)

Final Fantasy XV

pjbasis posted...

I think gta is pretty car centric, or used to be

This was my first thought

There is a game on Switch called Car Quest where you drive a car but it focuses on precise driving to pick up collectibles.

the driver series

L.A. Noire because it forces you to follow driving laws

Snowrunner

Twisted Metal (and all those other battling games that were popular in that era)

Banishing Racer

It's a side-scrolling platformer starring an adorable little cartoon car. Who jumps on other vehicles to knock them off the road.

IIRC, the plot suggests that he's nominally involved in a race, but the gameplay doesn't involve actual racing at all (for one thing, every enemy vehicle is going the other way).

Dead End Road - a horror game where you're driving to outrun monsters and creatures.

Glitchhikers - a sort of night drive road trip simulation narrative game where you pick up various hitchhikers and chat with them about different, usually deep, topics.

Beware - don't think it ever made it out of demo stage but it's a game about driving a car away from a pursuer behind you.

Groaning Steel - I guess technically it's a racing game but you don't race against anyone, instead it takes place in a Lovecraftian, flesh hellscape with living cars. Just a demo.

Wasn't that most recent Forza Horizon mainly about driving around? Never played any Forza game

OutRun games are a lot of fun though. No racing in those, just glorified time trials

Road Trip Adventure for PS2 is a bizarre game with sentient cars in a car world. It has racing, but lots of other stuff too

Burnout Paradise and modern Forzas are basically Assassin's Creed in a car

Just Cause can be very vehicle-centric

I've always felt that the best video games to train someone for driving isn't actually any game that actually takes place in a car, but FPSes. No game that takes place in a car actually feels like driving does and the objective is almost never to avoid getting hit at all costs. But FPSes teach you important concepts about blind spots and how to scan for dangers and react quickly to them.

The Sims 3, though only minimally.

This is a great list. I wanna check out Glitchhikers now.

burnout in general feels like a good answer if f-zero was cited as an example, they're only like a third oriented around racing and all the rest is combat/destruction

i haven't actually played them myself but i'm pretty sure ex-devs went on to make some games that were just based off the road rage and crash modes from them, forget the names (edit: the danger zone series)

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Twisted Metal (and all those other battling games that were popular in that era)

Shout-out to Destruction Derby

Oh wait.

Crazy Taxi.

Paratroopa1 posted...

I've always felt that the best video games to train someone for driving isn't actually any game that actually takes place in a car, but FPSes. No game that takes place in a car actually feels like driving does and the objective is almost never to avoid getting hit at all costs. But FPSes teach you important concepts about blind spots and how to scan for dangers and react quickly to them.

This makes sense. And I think the key thing you want to learn for driving isn't really the mechanics, but the interactions with other drivers. Using non-verbal communication and being predictable which also making quick decisions, and reading others doing the same. So a game like R6 Siege (without voice chat) would be perfect for that. Or L4D for something much less difficult.

Blast Corps and Destruction Derby are the first two I thought of.

Driv3r

Rocket League was the first thing that came to mind. Actually thought of Crazi Taxi too.

I guess there are a bunch of shooters where you can drive a vehicle at some point, but I'm not sure that's what we're asking for.

Deadly Premonition.

The driving takes forever.

Leonhart4 posted...

Shout-out to Destruction Derby

While talking about this and Twisted Metal:

Vigilante 8

my summer car

fortnite

Tokyo Bus Guide

Snake5555555555 posted...

Dead End Road - a horror game where you're driving to outrun monsters and creatures.

Glitchhikers - a sort of night drive road trip simulation narrative game where you pick up various hitchhikers and chat with them about different, usually deep, topics.

Beware - don't think it ever made it out of demo stage but it's a game about driving a car away from a pursuer behind you.

Groaning Steel - I guess technically it's a racing game but you don't race against anyone, instead it takes place in a Lovecraftian, flesh hellscape with living cars. Just a demo.

These sound neat

Hmm well in Jak (and Daxter) II you hijack hovering vehicles to navigate around Haven City far faster than you could on foot but the controls are janky. Also there is racing and authority invading involved in several missions, but it's not the focus of the game.

In Jak III the vehicle controls are a lot smoother, but since Haven City is only one of the areas involved in that game there is a lot less focus on the hover cars and more alternative vehicles are introduced. I don't recall many racing missions in that one, but it's also my least replayed of the trilogy. In fact I think I've only beaten it once versus like 7 for J&D and 3 for II.

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

These sound neat

They are! And they can all be played for free or cheap!