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Is there any open world racing games like test drive unlimited or burnout paradise with sprawling single player and exploration?

Shadowstar39

Shadowstar39

Member
I v spent the last 3 months on a gt7 binge and I want to move on to some arcade racing, like I remember. I remember playing Test Drive Unlimted on PC and PSP back in the day and loved it. Most wanted was amazing as well. The driving and exploration was just fun for its time. People said that the crew was similar and it wasn't. It felt like an mmo with small incrimental number upgrades. Nothing felt substantial. Exploration was bland. You also didn't get many cars. Plus these are online only games that shut down.

I own forza Horizon 3 and 4, but only tried 4 and I don't like it. I don't like the forced festival. The fact that you can't buy new cars for a while or do anything but follow the shoehorn path. They also give you a powerful car that feels way over powered from the start. I like starting with a junker, gran turismo style and earing my rides. Burnout paradise did this right but unfortunately doesn't have real cars. Forza horizon feels like an amusement park racer and is way too exaggerated.

I seen there is a new test drive, but it looks like it has bad reviews and isn't in a cool location like Hawaii. I am thinking about buying some old games like tdu1, most wanted, on ps2 (I don't have Xbox 360 only series x, it's only on 360, psp and pc, but not digital).

Nfs has been bad for a while. Shit soundtracks with zero rock/metal, and crap storys. I miss the days where racing games were loaded. It's been really barren this gen, and portable racers are almost non existent. Psp had more racing games than ps4/PS5/series x/switch... Real sad state of affairs for arcade racing.
 
Shadowstar39 said:
Nfs has been bad for a while. Shit soundtracks with zero rock/metal, and crap storys. I miss the days where racing games were loaded. It's been really barren this gen, and portable racers are almost non existent. Psp had more racing games than ps4/PS5/series x/switch... Real sad state of affairs for arcade racing.
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simtards have destroyed the racing genre
 
JDM: Japanese Drift Master i think,
but it's not as much as what You said above

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anyway~~
open world racing always reminds me to choro-Q / road trip back then.

if you like cartoony things, open world since '97 (IIRC)
in the west called road trip, but it's old game, the world is like disney cars
where everyone is magically talking car.
the world is huge and had lot of moments.
GyuazBvH3sYU6Kno.png

tZqR2APIfBJjv2r1.png
 
Assuming you were referring to the original most wanted in your post, you could try Most Wanted 2012 too. It's not as good as Burnout Paradise, but if you're really looking for something like that, it's probably the closest thing.

I also didn't like Forza Horizon 4, especially because it tries way too much to be easy and accessible for everyone, that there isn't any challenge or sense of progression at all. You immediatly have access to everything, you get a gold medal even if you arrive last... It's really not satisfying at all. Horizon 3 was pretty good though, but it still has the whole cringe festival stuff etc.

Other than that I'm not really sure. I don't like The Crew either. Nothing really compares to the fun of Burnout Paradise.
 
I always felt the horizon series was the natural evolution of TDU.

You could try the crew: motorfest. The game is actually alot more fun then people will give it credit for.

But overall, open world racing games all follow a formula now, so if your not a fan of the "festival island" style of racing your shit out of luck.

Even the recent nfs's do a similar style of campaign in recent years
 
Shadowstar39 said:
Nfs has been bad for a while. Shit soundtracks with zero rock/metal, and crap storys
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I feel this down to my bones...the recession of arcade racing is right there with RTS as crimes against gaming.

You basically get a few cart racers, Forza-lite still sim-ish physics in open-worlds, but nothing brings back Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005).

Wreckfest and a few others are still there, but not the same as Burnout in its prime.
 
Midnight Club: Los Angeles

It's somewhat similar to Burnout Paradise, although progression can be a little slow.
It's available on Series X. It works really well with Quick Resume.
I enjoyed it, although I got a little burned out on it after a few hours. I think maybe the aggressiveness of the cops is a bit too extreme. It's really hard to lose them.
 
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If you have a PC try CarX Street, it's a bit rough around the edges but the devs are constantly working on it. The cars are not licensed but look like their real life counterparts, the tunning and map is really good, and you actually race to progress starting with a low powered car.
 
You can skip the festival races as soon as you get to the open map in Forza Horizon 1,2,3,4,5 and just spend your time exploring for signs and barn finds etc. I never rush to do the festival, the festival is mostly done when I feel like I should wrap it up and "finish" the game if such a thing is possible. I love to aimlessly mess around in the sandbox and find all roads and side stuff and do crazy jumps and drive on the railroad or jump the sand dunes etc.
Don't know if it's a sprawling single player experience playing it like that though…
 
intbal said:
Midnight Club: Los Angeles

It's somewhat similar to Burnout Paradise, although progression can be a little slow.
It's available on Series X. It works really well with Quick Resume.
I enjoyed it, although I got a little burned out on it after a few hours. I think maybe the aggressiveness of the cops is a bit too extreme. It's really hard to lose them.
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Midnight Club LA looks and runs like ass on XSX, probably one of the worse performing games from the backwards compatiblity catalogue since it didn't get any boosts. For me it was a very uncomfortable experience on a 4k tv.

There's also the issue with the loading times when entering / leaving the garage, I read that it may be related to the game wanting to connect to the servers, but I haven't tried playing it offline.

From the pure gameplay perspective, progressing in this game is very slow. I don't like when the game throws money and cars at you, but this is close to the opposite. Dropped the game (also because of the visuals) after maybe 10 hours.
 
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keefged4 said:
Road Trip Adventure / Choro Q is goated and more people need to play it
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Yeah, i never knew the game back then, only knows the toys, also collecting them. I started to found the games a decade ago, and loving the games. Very cool concept if we looking back at the time game released
 
Fess said:
You can skip the festival races as soon as you get to the open map in Forza Horizon 1,2,3,4,5 and just spend your time exploring for signs and barn finds etc. I never rush to do the festival, the festival is mostly done when I feel like I should wrap it up and "finish" the game if such a thing is possible. I love to aimlessly mess around in the sandbox and find all roads and side stuff and do crazy jumps and drive on the railroad or jump the sand dunes etc.
Don't know if it's a sprawling single player experience playing it like that though…
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How long does that take? I got my first car and did at least 6 to 8 races and 90% of the tabs in the menus are still grayed out.
 
You're describing Forza Horizon to a tee so it's disappointing that you didn't like them.

Try 5 or wait a few months for 6, that seems to be de-emphasizing the millenial festival thing, at least.
 
IAmRei said:
open world racing always reminds me to choro-Q / road trip back then.

if you like cartoony things, open world since '97 (IIRC)
in the west called road trip, but it's old game, the world is like disney cars
where everyone is magically talking car.
the world is huge and had lot of moments.
GyuazBvH3sYU6Kno.png

tZqR2APIfBJjv2r1.png
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, what a shame that the ChoroQ brand died off, they had a moment on PS2 where it seemed it might expand internationally and instead it ended. Could use more of that light spirit today.

The last game of the series (before it did some mobile releases) came out on Wii as Penny Racers, so look that one up too. (Reviews on it were not good, however.)

Speaking of which, the old Pixar Cars games have open environments, but that may not be the feel we're looking for here.
 
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Shadowstar39 said:
How long does that take? I got my first car and did at least 6 to 8 races and 90% of the tabs in the menus are still grayed out.
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Do you mean like a specific event? I don't remember if they keep yapping about things they want you to do but ignore that and make it your own game. If you free roam and explore and just mess around on the map to find barns and signs and jumps and drifting etc you're never going to any menu. Just drive around and have fun and do the stuff you like. Ignore the events and menu and everything.

If you want to unlock specific bigger events like the goliath or Halo race etc you need to go through the festival. But again if you just want that sandbox experience you can ignore everything. You won't get that sprawling single player experience that way though but I'd say it's roughly like Burnout Paradise which you liked, don't feel like you're forced to do anything, just have fun. đź‘Ť
 
This may sound weird, but Euro Truck Simulator got that slow progression and driving around a big map feel. But it's only trucks and you drive for cash, not to win races.
 
Larxia said:
Assuming you were referring to the original most wanted in your post, you could try Most Wanted 2012 too. It's not as good as Burnout Paradise, but if you're really looking for something like that, it's probably the closest thing.

I also didn't like Forza Horizon 4, especially because it tries way too much to be easy and accessible for everyone, that there isn't any challenge or sense of progression at all. You immediatly have access to everything, you get a gold medal even if you arrive last... It's really not satisfying at all. Horizon 3 was pretty good though, but it still has the whole cringe festival stuff etc.

Other than that I'm not really sure. I don't like The Crew either. Nothing really compares to the fun of Burnout Paradise.
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Burnout paradise was so fun it took a guy like me who doesn't play those games and I even platinumed it.

They should have made a paradise 2. They still should.
 
If you are looking for old games I used to play this poorly reviewed game called World Racing back in the early 2000s. Mainly because I was looking for another testdrive-like game and I enjoyed playing splitscreen on a PC (which was rare). It's pretty trash by todays standards though and testdrive back then was different to testdrive unlimited so I'm not sure I would actually recommend it. Just had fond memories of it.
 
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I played Mario Kart World in free roam for a couple hours this weekend using Pauline in a skin tight body suit on a motorcycle. Does that count?
 
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