Best racing game currently? (Online mode in particular)

So in addition to a multiplayer shooter like Battlefield 4 I am also looking into getting a racing game, the most recent one I have played being Test Drive Unlimited 2 which I love but the online community is as good as dead now. The most recent Need for Speed game I owned for Xbox was Hot Pursuit which I also really enjoyed because it was similar to burnout with cop chases and open-world driving but the online community died very quickly and within about 6 months of owning the game (got it for Xmas 2010, didn't start playing until February because of exams) the online community rapidly died out too.

So at present, which is currently the best arcade-style open-world driving games out there that have decent online communities. I am looking at NFS Rivals but I have heard mixed things about it (although a lot of negative reviews are because online shops don't tell you a hard drive is required) but are there alternatives?

P.S. Don't say Burnout Paradise as I already own it and my save file got corrupted and I lost all my data.

Thank you :)

I'm assuming you don't own an Xbox One? Otherwise I would recommend Forza 5. Don't listen to the nay sayers, NFS Rivals is your best bet at the moment and pretty fun too.

I don't own an Xbox One and don't plan to until it takes a significant price cut, otherwise I would definitely get Forza 5! What is the online community like for NFS Rivals then?

@Comic_Capers:

The best driver out there on consoles if Forza. PC is coming out with another driving game called Project Cars.

It is really hard to find a good online racing game, I'd love F1 2013 but the online is garbage because people just crash into each other and there is no punishment for it, at least it has an online coop though.

iracing for PC is the best online racing game tbh, but it is a proper sim and if you mess around you'll basically be blacklisted and never be able to play again.

Best racing game according to me is Forza !!!

I couldn't agree more.

forza 4 for sure forza horizon is pretty fun but its more of a street racing/roaming which i play a lot because its more of a chill game cruising with friends and racing on highways and thru town. If you are wanting a more serious racing game with advanced tuning options and (suspension, gear ratios, tire pressure etc) then forza 4 is for you.



PS my files got corrupt too on burnout and i lost all my shit, pissed me off lol

mx vs atv alive, except for the cheaters

@racing247: Oh, I didn't know about Forza Horizon; it looks very similar to TDU. What's the online community like at the moment (considering it has been out for a year and a half)? How does the overall gameplay and the activity of the online community compare to NFS: Rivals?

@Comic_Capers: I have been playing horizon for the past week for about 6 hours straight lol i cant put it down. The online community is pretty big, mostly people do free roam but theres usually a few doing other race types (circuit, street race, cat and moue, etc) but the majority do free roam where you can do roll racing and drag racing and drifting you can drive around the whole map and pretty much do what you want. i like it because of the simplicity, its easy to pick up and play and theres always someone on. The gameplay is really really good the steering and how the car feels is way more natural and predictable than and nfs game ive played. its not as much of a simulator like the other forzas but its a lot fun to play. You can still do upgrades and motor swaps and things of that nature however you cant tune your setup(adjust suspension,gearing,alignment, etc). I havent played need for speed rivals but i have payed most wanted and shift 2 and like forza much better. If you end up getting it heres my gamertag: SH0M3URl300l3YZ

Interesting...well I can find Forza a lot cheaper new than NFS Rivals used (£14.65 compared to £20) but that's unsurprising considering Forza is a year older than NFS Rivals. What do people think of the Xbox One version? I plan to get an Xbox One within the next 8 months (provided there is a significant price cut near Nov/Dec time). Maybe I could play Forza Horizon now and hopefully by the time I have completed and got bored of it I will get an Xbox One, and maybe by then NFS Rivals will be cheaper for Xbox One. What do people think? Will the online community of NFS Rivals on XBOne still be decent after a year?

Can you customise the appearance of your car like with spoilers, bumpers, rims etc like in the old-school NFS Underground and Carbon etc?

yea you can do all the customizations and vinyls and rims and paint you want

@racing247: Oh cool, that's something I've missed in the last few racing games I've played. How long does the game take to complete roughly? Online reviews of it seem to think it's quite easy and won't take very long. How does it compare in difficulty and length to NFS Rivals?

depends on what difficulty setting you do if you put it on easy you will get through it in about a week depending on how much you play. Also I played it on insane with all the assists turned off and set to simulation to make it as hard as possible and i made sure to finish in first each race. its a pretty good challenge and you get 160 or 165% increase on the winningsf you turn off the assist and make increase the difficulty setting.

theres always computers driving around that you can race to a random location as well as a good number of people online

I would probably play on "Normal" difficulty and play with only a few of the assists on- I care more about fun driving like drifting and power-sliding than fiddling about with different assists.

okay then you should get it because theres always a ton of drifting lobbies online, theres a cool mountain people drift up and down at night

Looks like I probably will get this over NFS Rivals then. Just out of interest what is the Xbox One version of NFS: Rivals like in comparison to the 360 version?

@Comic_Capers: cool when you get it message me on XBL and let me know how you like it