Driving Games - why am I so ****?

Hamha!

Ok, so, it was my birthday a few days ago. My missus (bless her) gazed
around my peripheral collection and thought "Aha! He doesn't have a big
shiny steering wheel for his xbox!" Had she looked at the games collection,
she'd have noticed no (zero)(none) driving games. Reason being, I'm totally
**** at them.

So, here I am, armed with a MadCatz MC2 full-on-driving simulator, a copy
of PGR and a copy of Rally Sport Challenge. Thing is, I'm terrified to put
them on cos she'll quickly realise that I really don't enjoy racing games
cos I'm so crap at them. But (and all you married types will know this) it
will be much more painful in th elong run to fess up.

So, question is - why am I so crap? I drive a car (IRL) and have even done
a fair bit of Offroading in various old Landies. I avidly watch the grand prix
(and now that I have a wheel, I'm kinda looking forward to the release of
GP2003), but I can't keep an xbox car on the road for any longer than about
five seconds. So, before I make a complete arse of myself, anyone have any
hints and tips?

Cheers

Choobs

--
Sir Chewbury Gubbins <chewbury.gubbins@nelefa.org>
Knight of the Wholly Gnarly Widget
http://www.nelefa.org
http://www.miserable-bastard.com

Beck wrote:
> "Sir Chewbury Gubbins" <chewbury.gubbins@nelefa.org> wrote in message
> news:bemu1v$6vp37$1@ID-189241.news.uni-berlin.de...
>>
>> So, here I am, armed with a MadCatz MC2 full-on-driving simulator, a
>> copy of PGR and a copy of Rally Sport Challenge. Thing is, I'm
>> terrified to put them on cos she'll quickly realise that I really
>> don't enjoy racing games cos I'm so crap at them. But (and all you
>> married types will know this) it will be much more painful in th
>> elong run to fess up.
>>
>> So, question is - why am I so crap?

No idea. Practice??

You may find the wheel helps a lot, if you're used to gaming with a joypad.
Dunno really, I play quite a few driving games - but have only ever used a
DC wheel on Ferrari 355 and Daytona. Otherwise, I've only ever used one in
arcades. It might make sense more, than an analogue stick, to you?

I'd suggest picking one of your games (Rally Sport!) and just having a go at
the league, or whatever. You might also wanna choose your favourite track,
and then practice on that one for a while - until your comfortably in
control. Rally Sport is arcadey though, although PGR is too, compared with
'proper' simulation's.

K.

"Sir Chewbury Gubbins" <chewbury.gubbins@nelefa.org> wrote in message
news:bemu1v$6vp37$1@ID-189241.news.uni-berlin.de...
>
> Hamha!
>
> Ok, so, it was my birthday a few days ago. My missus (bless her) gazed
> around my peripheral collection and thought "Aha! He doesn't have a big
> shiny steering wheel for his xbox!" Had she looked at the games
collection,
> she'd have noticed no (zero)(none) driving games. Reason being, I'm
totally
> **** at them.
>
> So, here I am, armed with a MadCatz MC2 full-on-driving simulator, a copy
> of PGR and a copy of Rally Sport Challenge. Thing is, I'm terrified to put
> them on cos she'll quickly realise that I really don't enjoy racing games
> cos I'm so crap at them. But (and all you married types will know this) it
> will be much more painful in th elong run to fess up.
>
> So, question is - why am I so crap? I drive a car (IRL) and have even done
> a fair bit of Offroading in various old Landies. I avidly watch the grand
prix
> (and now that I have a wheel, I'm kinda looking forward to the release of
> GP2003), but I can't keep an xbox car on the road for any longer than
about
> five seconds. So, before I make a complete arse of myself, anyone have any
> hints and tips?
>
> Cheers
>
> Choobs
>
> --
> Sir Chewbury Gubbins <chewbury.gubbins@nelefa.org>
> Knight of the Wholly Gnarly Widget
> http://www.nelefa.org
> http://www.miserable-bastard.com

Take it slow to begin with, drive like in real life. With rallisport you
have to practice on a track for ages before attempting it in the league (I'm
**** as well!). But eventually you'll get to know where you can push the car
and where all the bends are so as to slow down in time.

I find it a slow process as I only play it about once a week!
Rich.

> Drive slower. Concentrate on getting round the track by following the
> racing line - to put it simply, go wide and cut the corner. Take your
> foot off the accelerator going into the corner and slowly accelerate
> as you come out of the bend. As you get used to the tracks, gradually
> increase your speed until you start matching the other cars.

Agreed. The main reason people mess up is driving too fast and not
braking. Rallisport is great though... persevere. Also try Burnout 2.
It's very forgiving and even when you do crash, it's a scream.

Paul M say...

> I share your pain. I find it take too much dedication to finish higher
> then last place in most driving games. Sega Rally's the only one I
> ever completed.

You might want to try rallisport challenge. It's a bit deeper than Sega
Rally (I think) but arcadey enough that it's not too intense (for the most
part) to drive round. And it's quite easy to beat the computer at first,
it's only the last courses that become impossible.

RC is in the budget range now for xbox, so can be found cheap.

--
Nathan.
XBL Gamertag: Cowfield
http://www.cowfields.com
Bow to the Cow!

>> I absolutely stormed the green, yellow and orange levels of
>> Rallisport. I reached the red levels though- and was absolutely
>> stumped! No matter which car I go and how well I try to drive, I
>> always end up around 3 seconds behind everyone at the first
>> checkpoint- and gradually get further and further behind everyone
>> else.
>
> Same here. Although I am persevering with it, and I end up playing it
> rather a lot, especially if I want to just quickly have a go at
> something.
>
> I'm still losing, but after doing the same section over and over (and
> not getting bored for some reason) I managed a couple of first places.
>
> Bought rallisport for £15, and I'm getting mroe than my money's
> worth, I really enjoy it.

I bought it cheap as well- from Amazon. I absolutely love the game- it looks
amazing (probably the best looking game available on the Xbox IMHO), and
it's incredibly fun to play.

Just a shame it gets so difficult I suppose... It's also a shame it doesn't
have more varieties of tracks as well. Other than these minor niggles, it
was well worth the money and I can't wait for the sequel (if there's one
coming!).

--
PaulStation
--
@ paulstation at ntlworld dot com
@ Xbox Live! Gamertag: "PaulStation"

"Nathan" <spamfourstomachs@hotmails.com> wrote in message
news:Xns93B636FB49EDfourstomachsspamhotm@130.133.1 .4...
> Paul M say...
>
> > I share your pain. I find it take too much dedication to finish higher
> > then last place in most driving games. Sega Rally's the only one I
> > ever completed.
>
> You might want to try rallisport challenge. It's a bit deeper than Sega
> Rally (I think) but arcadey enough that it's not too intense (for the most
> part) to drive round. And it's quite easy to beat the computer at first,
> it's only the last courses that become impossible.
>
> RC is in the budget range now for xbox, so can be found cheap.
>
If I see it cheap I may give it a try, It has to be pretty arcadey though or
I wont like it. How forgiving is it with crashes, I don't like it when a
game punishes you too heavily for them. Its annoying when any sort of crash
put you out of the race entirely in some games.

--
Paul M

"Paul M" <maz_35@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:beoh3m$7haqn$1@ID-137281.news.uni-berlin.de...
>
> "Nathan" <spamfourstomachs@hotmails.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns93B636FB49EDfourstomachsspamhotm@130.133.1 .4...
> > Paul M say...
> >
> > > I share your pain. I find it take too much dedication to finish higher
> > > then last place in most driving games. Sega Rally's the only one I
> > > ever completed.
> >
> > You might want to try rallisport challenge. It's a bit deeper than Sega
> > Rally (I think) but arcadey enough that it's not too intense (for the
most
> > part) to drive round. And it's quite easy to beat the computer at
first,
> > it's only the last courses that become impossible.
> >
> > RC is in the budget range now for xbox, so can be found cheap.
> >
> If I see it cheap I may give it a try, It has to be pretty arcadey though
or
> I wont like it. How forgiving is it with crashes, I don't like it when a
> game punishes you too heavily for them. Its annoying when any sort of
crash
> put you out of the race entirely in some games.
>
> --
> Paul M

You just lose seconds off your time!

"Neil Hopkins" <neil_hopkins@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3f0f0502.13278843@news.cis.dfn.de...

> Drive slower. Concentrate on getting round the track by following the
> racing line - to put it simply, go wide and cut the corner. Take your
> foot off the accelerator going into the corner and slowly accelerate
> as you come out of the bend. As you get used to the tracks, gradually
> increase your speed until you start matching the other cars.
> --

Absolutely spot on. Most people are crap at racing games because they go
full speed and can't judge turns. In every racing game, on every track
there is an optimal racing line, optimal speed and optimal gear pos for
every turn. Learn tracks one at a time, work out the best line/speed/gear
for each turn and you'll soon be burning around the track in record times.
Like everything, practice makes perfect.

---SBD

SBD <silverbulletday1974@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Absolutely spot on. Most people are crap at racing games because they go
> full speed and can't judge turns. In every racing game, on every track
> there is an optimal racing line, optimal speed and optimal gear pos for
> every turn. Learn tracks one at a time, work out the best line/speed/gear
> for each turn and you'll soon be burning around the track in record times.
> Like everything, practice makes perfect.

Many thanks to all who have responded to this thread. I've been taking your
advice (and my time) and working my way through a few careers/campaigns in
rallysport and having a great time doing it - it was immensely satisfying to
finish a season without coming off the road once, even if I was last

Thanks to all for getting me to persevere with what has turned out to be
a seriously fun genre I'd otherwise have ignored. Oh, and thanks to my missus
for buying the wheel as well

Choobs
--
Sir Chewbury Gubbins <chewbury.gubbins@nelefa.org>
Knight of the Wholly Gnarly Widget
http://www.nelefa.org
http://www.miserable-bastard.com