Right, after our recent rant about Forza Horizon's current direction and the greatness of the PGR series, we started to think about some of the most popular racing series' on Xbox, past and present.
Forza, as a whole, has been a platform mainstay for years now and is absolutely one of the best racers out there when you look at the entire series. But, what about some of those racers that have fallen by the wayside in recent times, like Burnout and Need for Speed?
Some entries in those two franchises are still held in very high regard, even many, many years after release. Then, there are a number of racing games that simply flew under the radar, like cult favourites Blur and Split/Second.
So, we want to know what your favourite racing series on Xbox is. Any era, any style, which of these would you pick?
If your beloved racer isn't here, drop it down in the comments!
Comments 42
Forza Horizon. I rest my case. Made me realise how utterly boring Gran Turismo is.
Project Gotham 3 and 4 for me with the Forza horizon series a close 2nd never could get into forza motorsport though. Split second on xbox 360 was amazing too.
Dirt rally 2.0 is as close to perfection as racing games have come for me, so DiRT gets my vote..
Too hard for me as a racing games fan. Split/Second, FlatOut Ultimate Carnage, TDU, PGR... How do I even choose? Going with Forza feels... Basic?
So many great racing series on the list, I chose Burnout since I used to play those games all the time.
Yes FH winning buy a long shot. So well deserved.
Come this November 2022 still the only true top end AAA exclusive title on the series consoles to have released from an Xbox studio.
Which on another note is very poor studio management and higher executive management.
Hardly a competition, forza Horizon
@gollumb82 Forza Horizon is different to Gran Turismo. Comparing GT to Forza Motorsport would be a more fair comparison.
I voted Project Gotham Racing, I’ve missed that series and I’m totally burnt out with Forza Horizon. I’d seriously roll my eyes if another Horizon is announced.
@gollumb82 I've had many arguments about how boring GT is and the attempted ps4 spin off of GT sport was dreadfully boring and painful. Long live forza
@MaccaMUFC
That depends. I like both arcade and sim racing (or simcade if you want to be more specific). In terms of the sheer fun factor Forza Horizon mops the floor with any racer out there. I do like Motorsport as well. My favourite is FM6 and I hope FM8 is more like 6 rather than 7 (especially in the career, soundtrack and overall feel department). I get where you're coming from, though. I had to take a break from FH5 as I got tired of it in time. Still, Gran Turismo 7, which I bought at launch because I liked GT Sport well enough, got boring after 10-15 hours. The worst part if it- the catch up you play in most races. No qualifying session etc. Also, the rigged reward tickets that net you the worst possible reward 90% of the time. In short, Forza is way better, whether you're talking Horizon or Motorsport.
I'll never forget you, Midnight Club.
Couldn't pick there's a lot of good ones on there
Forza Horizon is great, but for me it still hasn’t passed the fun I had with PGR, Burnout and Midnight Club. Even some of the Need For Speeds have been amazing over the years.
Horizon all the way. Didn't get 5 yet though, still waiting on a sale.
PGR for sure. So many great memories of them games.
I don't like racing games ...apart from one,burnout paradise the only car game I've ever been able to get Into for some reason and I loved it it so much I had to do it all over again on the remaster
I’ve got so many great memories of the first Test Drive Unlimited. At that time, it seemed like a totally new experience and concept. So many times I’d just randomly pick up someone’s tail and just follow them, overtaking, then over taking me etc.
I really enjoyed Forza Horizon 4, really connected with that game. Forza Horizon 5 on the other hand, couldn’t stand it! So much confusion on the map, online community ***** that I didn’t care about. I’m not expecting much from the next Horizon game.
PGR. Bring it back and remind everyone.
@Eleventy8 I have the same memories of Test Drive Unlimited. An open-world racer seemed so magical at the time, years before FH and The Crew would emulate it. Test Drive Unlimited walked so FH could run.
Easy, Forza Motorsport, I bought my Series S only to play that game, sad that is not releasing this year
Loved PGR but if I had to choose between it or Forza Horizon, I’d have to go with FH. I’ve probably spent more time playing FH games than anything else in my console gaming lifetime.
FH is a different beast that is unmatched.
I chose TDU. Forza was simply too obvious of a choice, and PGR was great but TDU felt the most special to me.
An obscure hidden gem reference I would make: Import Tuner Challenge, an old Xbox 360 exclusive, which was actually the final game in the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series.
Outrun is not in the poll!
one of my favourites was Rallisport Challenge 2 and PGR2. PGR3 & certainly 4 lost me as a fan but PGR2 was my favourite other racer as I get 'bored' going round 'similar' looking purpose built tracks and Rallisport had multiple disciplines and surfaces that made things more 'interesting' to me.
I prefer the more 'Arcade' style too as they retain most of the 'fun' of racing without being bogged down by Rules, discipline and technical aspects of Racing. Even when I play Forza Motorsport, certain aspects are too 'much' for my personal enjoyment - tyre pressures, suspension settings, wing angles, brake bias etc - Great that it has these for the more 'Sim' style fans, but that's where I lose interest.
I voted for Forza Horizon here - just because its 'currently' my favourite Racing game franchise that's still going and likely to release new games in the future. PGR2 and Rallisport Challenge 2 'were' my favourite Racing games on Xbox, but today feel & look dated so I would rather play FH5...
Forza Horizon is the best racing series, PGR4 is one of my favourite racers of all time, wish it was backward compatible.
In the end I voted PGR, but for me Burnout is at the same level.
So many memories playing PGR 1-2 and Burnout 2-3-4!
Outrun should definitely be there, I still play Coast 2 Coast regularly (on PC... 4K 🤤)
And such a shame that we didn't get GP4 on Xbox! probably my favourite F1 game ever.
@EvenStephen7 Agreed.
Hi there fellow gamers,
Of all the different options, I had to go for PGR series.
Still remember playing PGR2 on my OG Xbox while listening to songs from my favourite band Linkin Park, because the system would allow to play our CDs. It was one of the coolest features of the OG Xbox, wich I also used on my 360 as well when I got it at launch with PGR3, Kameo: Elements of nature and Perfect Dark Zero. The I got PGR4 and it was by far one of my most played racing games, just like GT3 on my PS2 and Metropolis Street Racing on my Sega Dreamcast. The good old days.
Cheers, stay safe and happy gaming weekend to us all
@EvenStephen7 @Eleventy8 Hi there friends.
Have to agree with you on that. Test Drive Unlimited was something quite special at the time. One of the few titles that I got the full achievements on my Xbox 360. The idea of having a full island of Oahu to race and explore, creating and customizing your avatar, doing errands like driving people to certain locations, kinda like Crazy Taxi in a way and the very first online comunity racing game as well. And the best part, just like PGR4 you cpuld drive both cars and bikes. It was great.
Cheers, stay safe and have a good one both of you
To me, if you take into account when the games were released PGR4 was the best racing game ever for XB. If you look at overall quality of the game as measured today Forza Horizon is on top.
Essentially Forza Horizon is PGR on steroids. It is like measuring Call of Duty 2 or the original Call of Duty Modern Warfare to a Call of Duty today. Tech has evolved and you can do more. The old shooters and racers set new standards that are given today. But, when playing them they often feel like they did not age well because almost every racer and every shooter today uses features that made those game great.
I disagree with y’all dissing on Gran Tourismo. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. GT has more responsive controls and the music is good. I still love Forza, but rn I am loving GT and having more fun with it.
1. Forza Horizon 4/5
2. Blur
3. PGR2/3
@BBB I had read that GT was generally harder to play than Forza. I am about average at that game and wanted to try out the series with GT Sport since it is much cheaper, especially with the sale they had. I think Forza looks better and in a lot of ways is more realistic in appearance, But GT seems to be far smoother as far as handling and control. Plus the music is pretty damned cool.
@RaZieLDaNtE Thanks, mate. Have a good one too.
Ive loved entries in several series but never the whole series. I loved the first Horizon but the rest have been disappointing since. I loved TOCA race driver 2 on OG xbox but didn’t get into the rest of them. Forza Motorsport 3 and 4 were great but that series fizzled out as well. And Burnout 3 and Revenge and Paradise were the highlights of that series. Xbox has been a great place for racing games over the years. I hope some of these series can get back on track.
I'm a rally fan so DiRT is always high on my list, but Forza Horizon wins on the fact it's an experience.
Voted Horizon, but loved PGR and would love to see it make a comeback (or rebrand it as "Forza Urban"). The one unique thing it had was the garage's where you could store your cars and take photos etc, given how every game has a photo mode nowadays it amazes me no one has copied it.
PGR for me. They need to reboot it.
@Zochmenos Indeed, loved thes series on Xbox! So underrated! (like Split/Second)
With PGR, FH, FM, ... so many good racers available!
Assetto corsa has two iterations on Xbox. I've got into ACC the last couple of months in a big way despite it having annoying crash to dashboard and behind PC version (1.8)
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