The Best Offroading Games

[Ryzza5]

TDU2 isn't out yet, so where else can you get your fix?

 

I would like to propose this title: 'MOTORM4X Extreme Offroading'

 

 

It has good graphics, good physics, good variety of races/challenges.

Uhh, what else? Front and rear dif-locks, 4WD/2WD modes, Hi/Lo Gear, Fuel/Petrol Stations, Supports the G25's H shifter (although no clutch input, you can pretend there is one though). 3 smallish maps (forest, snow, desert) of good quality and with a weather system (rain, lightning, thunder, fog, snow, etc). No day/night cycle. Performance upgrades (springs, tyres, etc, etc).

 

 

I bought the game from a shop for $20 to use it in an upcoming movie later for SpeedCarProductions. I had a quick stint again at 1080p and it looked very nice. No dasboard camera or TrackIR support unfortunately, but there are number of other views. Damage is also in game, which you need to pay for. Unfortunately I threw caution of the wind yesterday and drove flat out and managed to bankrupt myself, so I'll need to do a few races if I want to contine.

 

 

Here are a couple of the official videos:

 

 

 

 

Feel free to comment, ask questions, and recommend your own favourite offroading games.

[Car Freak]

Certainly looks pretty interesting, although I think it's too hardcore and it's scope too narrow for it to become a popular game. How many different cars are there, and are they licenced?

[Ryzza5]

From memory there are about 10 or so real cars (they look like real ones anyway).

 

There is a choice between arcade and sim physics modes

[GTAMADDOG]

I had MotorMax.

 

It was OK. If I'm honest I found it to be slightly too arcadey in either mode. Hi/Lo gears made hardly any difference to me when I was 'off-roading' or mountain climbing.

[Ryzza5]

Did you switch to the simulation mode and use a wheel? I actually find it pretty challenging (I lost every race I tried yesterday, need to practice a bit more)

[Camel]

I just got this today and installed it onto my laptop. It ran pretty well on full settings and looked really good. Although I don't recommend using a keyboard for it.

 

If I have time tomorrow I'll install it on my desktop and use my G25 and give it a proper go.

 

It was good fun though, even on my laptop with a keyboard.

[Leadfoot[YT]]

Tried the MotorM4x demo a while back. Had the G25 set on 900 degrees, though, 'cause I was an... particular about it. :cheeky: I'll have to give it a go on less rotation, and fiddle with the pedal settings (brakes/reverse kicked in as soon as the accelerator was lifted).

 

-Leadfoot

[Ryzza5]

Yeah, the pedal controls can be a pain to setup. For me, I had to hold the pedal in before I hit enter to choose the gas/brake controls. Then, when it asked me to choose the control, I released the pedal, and now it works fine in game.

[Guest turbo lag]

*Bump*

 

I tried this game out recently, and it's fantastic! It's got a fun factor that a lot of other games lack, even if the game isn't the best out there.

 

For anybody using the G25 and having pedal problems; go into the Profiler and change some settings and make sure your pedals are on a combined axis.

[Ryzza5]

Glad you like it.

 

If anyone wants to check out another small-ish game or two, head over to Steam and grab Crash Time III (it has a few offroad segments, but mostly it's a free-roam style cop/detective game with missions/story mode. If you like it (which I'm sure you will), then you can also grab Crash Time II, which isn't quite as pollished as the first game (i.e. you have to press F5 every time you start a mission to enable the G25 or other gamepad), but if you can ignore that it's also very good.

 

The graphics and physics are very good, although there is no H shifter support or cockpit view. As Tom mentioned above, the most important thing is the fun factor, which is what these games have in spades. The cars are not licensed, but there are ones that resemble a BMW, Porsche, and Jaguar in the game from memory. There are a variety of other cars, even a go kart, tank, truck, etc. No Ice Cream van though.

 

 

Official trailer:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTG64MpHRVU

[Leadfoot[YT]]

I can back that up. It's a pretty good game - was released quietly, but it is actually quite fun. :)

 

I had my doubts at first, but once I started playing it, it was my main game for almost a month. And it's a confidence-booster if you know what the cars are really supposed to be. :cheeky:

 

-Leadfoot

[Camel]

Motorm4x, I preferred it whilst using my Xbox 360 pad as there isn't an interior view. I just couldn't use the wheel, it bugged me too much.

 

I got into the ice part and found myself not being able to beat the races with AI as they just shot away and whenever I got near them, they would ram me off of the track.

[----]

I played MOTORM4X a while ago, I enjoyed it but it kept crashing my computer. a good, realistic game is Screamer 4x4, it's pretty old but it has the most realistic physics of any off-roading game in my opinion.

[Camel]

Screamer 4x4 is just a plain old no! imo. :p

 

I thought it was a good game in it's time, 9 years ago but by todays standard of games it's pretty crap. Motorm4x has superior graphics and physics.

[CLR-GTR]

The only games with offroading which I played were World Racing and World Racing 2 (nice games :) ), Fuel (actually quite a horrible game), Powerslide (an old game, ahead of its time) and the Trainz series (it's about trains, which don't drive on-road :p).

 

Out of those games, unfortunately Fuel is the only serious offroad game, and it's very bad.

 

I can't wait for TDU2. Even though it won't be full offroad, it does contain some offroad. I think it'll be nice.

[Ryzza5]

I've also played 1nsane, but wouldn't recommend it (unless you're after cheapo arcade w/ bad graphics game that has multiplayer, tiny maps, and Capture the Flag.

[Mb]

 

I do like this game... :p

[iLLGT3]

^^ Best rallye game ever.

 

I like Rigs of Rods. (RoR) It's an open-source game with all sorts of off road vehicles and tons of maps and vehicle specific controls. ;)

 

EDIT: I'm getting MotorM4X right now but I will be using my keyboard. Hopefully it'll work fine without a controller/wheel.

[CLR-GTR]

Me to. I also always loved the music of the introvid, even my mom loves it. Luckilly I did manage to get all themesongs of CMR1-2005 and also the original on which CMR3 was based on.

 

Game was fun too. I always had to drive cars off the Finnish cliffs into the pond though xD

[Ryzza5]

Downloading RoR now, will check it out in a few days time before I get Split Second and Blur

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBBbK1Bgnf0

[StrickenHAWK?]

Fuel? I've only played it on the 360 and it was great. don't know how good it is on PC.

[Guest turbo lag]

CT3 (Alarm Fur Cobra:Highway Nights) is an epic game... so fun patrolling in an M3 or C63 (equivalent). :D

[iLLGT3]

Ryzza5: How do you like RoR?

 

Very nice eh?? I finally got my MotorM4X to work and it uses that same OGRE engine.

[Rai06]

I remember this game I used to play ages ago.

 

 

Test Drive Offroad 2.

 

 

Looked like puke if you ran it in DX, and not bad with a Voodoo card of those times. I loved that game. Had loads of cars, tracks, tournaments and stuff. Anyone else played this?

[mod edit:] Please do not swear or use asterisk's to mimic swearing, thanks.

[CLR-GTR]

Fuel? I've only played it on the 360 and it was great. don't know how good it is on PC.

 

Well, quite bad. If you could actually connect to somebody, it took about 1,5 hours, 45 minutes at its least. There was no textchat, quite a stupid move for a multiplayer game, not everybody uses mics etc.

 

Gamers were promised a lot, like a bumpercam, an interiorcam, tornadoes in freeroam, storms in freeroam, all that wasn't delivered and ended up was racing-only happenings.

 

To be honest there was a lot that could be improved. The races were quite weird, you always saw the competition blasting away from you, only to grind to a stop before the finishline.

 

Last thing that I really found bad about Fuel were the Vista points. Promised to give breathtaking views, I've never thought of ''wow this looks fantastic!''. Too hard to reach and so little satisfaction of reaching them...

 

I did play it a lot, mainly for getting some extra achievements, but it was just not interesting enough, and the multiplayer never worked for me as it should. GTA IV on the other hand has awesome 32-people chaos at the airfields :D