PC games featuring the 944?

[bebbetufs]

Winter has arrived with constant rain/snow so I started wondering if there are any computer games that feature the 944?
At least it could make the winter a bit more fun.

Any suggestions?

[Schumi]

Need for Speed - Porsche Unleashed.

Old but fun.

[bebbetufs]

I allways found the need 4 speed series to be too arcade.
I've never tried this one though. how realistic is it?

[WestonP22]

Originally Posted by bebbetufs

I allways found the need 4 speed series to be too arcade.
I've never tried this one though. how realistic is it?

NFS: Porsche Unleashed is easily the best NFS game ever made, and is possibly the most brilliant racing game I've ever played. It's a video game, not a simulator, but it does seem to be much more realistic than others in the series, and especially better than the NFS titles that came after it. The lone exception may be NFS: Shift, which claims to care about realism again.

I was a big fan of the 1990's NFS series, with NFS 3: Hot Pursuit being a high point, then NFS: Porsche Unleashed came out and blew it out of the water. It's a much different game, and that's part of what makes it so great. NFS then went seriously downhill afterwards... they just cater to the street ricer arcade crowd now.

[WestonP22]

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed screen shots of me screwing around with 944's...

[Rjackel944]

probably not very realistic.. my advice if you want winter racing fun, lol, fork up the $200ish dollars and buy the xbox 360 and FORZA MOTORSPORT 3!! wow thats a realistic game with 400+ cars, and soo many porsches,
check out this thread.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/507950-want-forza-3-a.html

[exitwound]

From what I've played of the FORZA series, it's not fun at all. It's *too* realistic. No sense of speed without peripheral vision. Just... boring. I'd take NFS:Porsche over any forza game any day. Just my thoughts.

[WestonP22]

Forza 3 is impressive, but the only 944 is a Turbo. If you want to race 944's in a video game, NFS: PU is the game to get. Lots of Porsches, including multiple 944 models, the ability to modify them, and the game play is brilliant. Nowadays everyone gets all caught up in "realism" and graphics, completely forgetting that the game play is what really matters, and what hooks people. I'd absolutely love a more modern game to come out to compete with it, but nothing I've seen even comes close. NFS: PU is more about history and a journey, rather than just racing alone, but the racing can be pretty fun too.

[Rjackel944]

yeah, forza defiantly take some time to get used to and i think the reason you think that is because you have to have a lot of practice, and skill to be good and have fun playing the forza games..thats what i found out when i first started playing it. i personally am not very good at it, but you can turn on assists like auto brake and that best line to help ya out. lol thats what i do, although i've moved past auto brake now.. i'm starting to get the hang of it lol.

[bebbetufs]

Personally I prefer realism before gameplay. It might take longer to learn but I find the rewards to be greater. I really enjoy the simbin series of GTR games so they are my yardstick for realism... I will take a look a forza, but I don't really want to buy an xbox.

[flash968]

me too - i think just too old for video games - i was around when pong first came out - i never understood why anybody would play these things more than 10 minutes - i've tried a lot of them over the years, and still get bored after a very short time - there was a very brief period where i played a fair amount of defender, but i was very drunk then - it's not about the graphics either

it's either that or i've done so much of the stuff for real that they just don't measure up - i miss the sensations of gravity, speed, and physical effort - i've even done the real flight simulators, and even those aren't quite real enough for me (though they are petty darned cool)

[HondaDustR]

Those pictures always bring back memories! I've spent hours on that game long before I ever owned a real Porsche.

+1 for Porsche Unleashed! I got it when it came out and played through the whole thing. It's got far better taste in character than most of the other NFS games and the physics/gameplay are really good for it's time. The front end (menus) is very Porsche-like and has lots of cool historical video footage that plays in the background. It's got a few old magazine ads and stuff to look at as well. The racing is not too realistic, but not too arcade-like either. It's one of the few driving games with accurately modeled cockpits (graphics of the time limited, unfortunately) with a real driver's eye view. The engine sounds are like most fake digital game engines, but they made some effort to make them sound true to each individual car series (the first time I drove my 924S, I was immediately impressed at just how close they managed to get the game sound to the real thing, considering...)
They have just about every Porsche ever made through 2000, except for the 924, 924S, 914-6 (sad...), and really exotic race cars like the 917. They have the LeMans GT1, 935 "Moby Dick" (personally my favorite to drive!), 550 Spyder, 959, 911 GT2 and 3, and other good ones including the Carerra RS, 356 Super Speedster, 928 GTS, Boxter S, pretty much everything.
The tracks are really good, especially the Monte Carlo circuits. They have a course modelled after the autobahn that's banked and everything, plus more standard european countryside type settings.
The factory driver mode is also pretty cool, since you take on the role of factory test driver and drive a bunch of auto-X style courses on the Weissach (sp?) skidpad, do demos for customers, make last minute car deliveries across town, go for afterhours races out and about, etc.

Overall, I enjoyed it alot, and it's about as historically and technically accurate as I've ever seen for Porsches in a video game. Each car definitely has a finely tuned difference from one to the other and each drives more or less like I imagined it might. There's all kinds of upgrades you can buy for your cars that really makes them alot more responsive and fun to drive. You can have as many cars as you want in your garage, so you can leave some stock for the authentic experience and soup others up to win the races hands down (some races are still pretty tough later in the game, though). There's a used car lot where you can find some specific versions of models that were not available in the game's showroom, in addition to some fixer-uppers that may be cheaper to fix than to buy new.

Now if you're a seasoned real life racer/driver and you can't really get immersed in video games, it's going to be boring, since the sense of speed is lacking as usual, but the historical value and Porsche character really set it above most other racing games for Porsche people. It plays best if you have a decent steering wheel and pedals for the computer, though. It's pretty good on an analog controller (XBOX360 PC controller is hands down the best) and pretty tedious on the keyboard.

It's a must have for any Porsche enthusiast if you can even remotely relate to video games.

[running_cold924]

x2 for NFS: PU!!! just great for history and seeing how one car company got their start. BUT it is also fun to play with the car you own with some of the mods done to the car, and then add the mods that you WANT to do to the car. overall, its the best one NFS has made. all of the older ones are okay but the new ones are pretty "riced" out.

if all else fails.......there's always DOOM

[Rasta Monsta]

I too love NFS 5 (Porsche Unleashed), and I also think most NFS games suck.

However, I just bought NFS:Shift, and I would say it is the most like NFS:PU of any of the NFS games.

You can drive: Cayman S, GT2, GT3, Carrera GT. You can run: Spa, Silverstone, Laguna Seca, Road America, Green Hell. It is the first NFS game since PU to have cockpit view, and the cars are rendered beautifully.

Oh, and non-Porsche cars? Z06, GT500, Challenger RT, every flavor of M3, Lotus Exige, Subie, Evo, GTR, multi Ferrari and Lambo, anything you might want.

BUY! BUY NOW!

[Schumi]

Forza 1 and an Xbox 1 can be had for probably about 70$ used, and well worth it. Features the 951, 959, 2.7RS, 914/6, Carrera GT, 993 Gt2, 996 Cup cars, 996 Gt3, 996 gt3RS, and most importantly, the 962, which is the quickest car in the game.

[Joel8005]

What type of pompous would ass would engage in a thread about a PC gaming and go on a rant about how it is beneath them be virtue of "i have done so much". Please, I am not a gamer but have enough respect for those that are....... When posting this you must have been drunk are you must truly be old and non-tech savvy!!!!! These type of games/simulators are how are military trains the guy who protect you.... just incase you wish to belittle them also.........

[Damian in NJ]

Originally Posted by Joel8005

What type of pompous would ass would engage in a thread about a PC gaming and go on a rant about how it is beneath them be virtue of "i have done so much". Please, I am not a gamer but have enough respect for those that are....... When posting this you must have been drunk are you must truly be old and non-tech savvy!!!!! These type of games/simulators are how are military trains the guy who protect you.... just incase you wish to belittle them also.........

Not to mention the F1 and other racing drivers who use them to learn new tracks.

[HondaDustR]

Yeah. Thanks to the games, if I ever somehow ended up at Laguna Seca for real, I'd at least know where I was on the track and what's coming up next.

Games have very little value for actual driving experience, but a good game with true to life track models will teach you the basic idea of the various courses...and who's ever going to get to run on the Nurburgring in real life?

[scottish944]

YouTube - Porsche 996 Forza 3 Road Atlanta

Forza 3

YouTube - Forza2 Porsche 2

Forza 2

YouTube - Forza2 Porsche

Forza 2

Forza 3 screen shots






You really need a wheel to get the best from Forza 3

[phil823]

i agree FORZA 3 for the XBOX360 is BOSS! errrrmm i mean amazing. the wheel is nice, but i would recommend buying it new not used. i bought a wheel used and the Force Feedback is not working right and there is steering lag!

!!!!!!!!!!WARING!!!!!!!!
if you go to craigslist or ebay looking for a used XBOX360 BE CAREFULL! close to 1 million xbox360's have been banned in late november and they are swarming the market, some selling cheap and some not!

the ban means that you cannot play online! and lose all online capability including netflix, and on demand media. some even had thier Hard drives messed with, with stops disks from being installed to them.

if you only want to buy a single player only xbox these discounts might be well for you, but it you want online i would just buy a new one.

even "refurbished" ones have been reported as banned (ones bought from ebgames)