Recommend a Relaxing Driving Game

altair21 said:
My father got me this cheap ass steering wheel and accelerator/break paddles. I used to play the shit out of this game just zooming around like an idiot in that yellow beetle that was the default car.

Never won a race though ;)
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I don't even know if there was a race mode. I would just do timepass in San Francisco. And many times end up with "Sleep with the fishes".
 
raksrules said:
I don't even know if there was a race mode. I would just do timepass in San Francisco. And many times end up with "Sleep with the fishes".
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yeah those were the good times, and the mall buildings were fun too, smashing through the doors to go through the buildings. And the race mode was crap, either the AI was too hard or I was just unskilled but those cars always left me in the dust if I didn't just smash through
 
Black_Hawk said:
Man this is so beautiful! This is gaming + therapy... so relaxing for the eyes and mind to just drive through such mesmerizing terrain.
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Precisely. I reserve the wheel for simracing and play FH4 with keyboard: sometimes racing, sometimes just exploring. And with photo mode, I try to capture some nice shots as well. Above was a single unedited screenshot, here's a HDR from 3 different exposures to recover details in shadows & highlights:

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Great recommendations! I've played some of these games, so would like to add my view here -

BeamNG.drive - Simply fun, especially to tinker around. I think this best suits OP's requirements; this and ETS2.
FH 4 - Overall great package - visually & aurally pleasing. But requires some "grinding" to obtain cars & currency for upgrades.
Assetto Corsa - Sort of between BeamNG and Forza, thanks to the impressive mods from the community.

SnowRunner - The main reason I wanted to post this. This game is a bit of an 'odd one out'. It's not the most pleasing, visually or aurally; not the best game to tinker with; not even remotely exciting considering the speeds &terrain that you'll be driving in; requires completing game-chores to access maps AND parts of those. Yet I'd argue that this game is the most rewarding! Not that it can't be relaxing; you may find your real LIFE plenty relaxing after stranding your truck, hours into a tedious trial. This is not the drive you're looking for after a long day of work; but it could help making the long day of work look not so bad. SO, if you're looking to eat a frog and make peace with the rest of your day, try Trials from SnowRunner (full access and cars/trucks given by the game right away). If you then happen to find yourself being into this meaningless masochism, try rally games like Dirt Rally 2.0.
You may even get basic cardio done with a wheel!
 
You won't relax faster in a fast car :p
The game looks beautiful even in the free starting cars ;)
But yeah, it's ironic that you will drive your favourite car for shorter than you did others. But even life is like that - by the time you have enough money to retire and "relax" you won't have the time/energy to actually do it.

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As said by others ETS2 and ATS . But i would understand why this requirement .Just to chill .If your GPU allows I would recommend try flight simulator and try propeller planes basically free roam the world and fool around absolute fun. The day light changes going through the clouds weather diversions etc are soo fun.
 
Also OP, if you have the GPU horsepower, give forza horizon 5 a try, better graphics and that soundtrack is something else, specially that intro menu song. I have spent hours just playing it back to back on YT, I just wish they had released it officially as a song so I would have something better than YT quality for it.
 
n1r0 said:
Precisely. I reserve the wheel for simracing and play FH4 with keyboard: sometimes racing, sometimes just exploring. And with photo mode, I try to capture some nice shots as well. Above was a single unedited screenshot, here's a HDR from 3 different exposures to recover details in shadows & highlights:

View attachment 184925
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And Enable Legos expansion pack for some fun.
 
altair21 said:
Also OP, if you have the GPU horsepower, give forza horizon 5 a try, better graphics and that soundtrack is something else, specially that intro menu song. I have spent hours just playing it back to back on YT, I just wish they had released it officially as a song so I would have something better than YT quality for it.
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It is not about horsepower. FH4 has far better scenery and seasons which is great for a relaxing game. Also liked the physics in FH4 better and it is far less cringeworthy that FH5 which is too much in the face. Also, driving on the "right" side of the road.
 
t3chg33k said:
It is not about horsepower. FH4 has far better scenery and seasons which is great for a relaxing game. Also liked the physics in FH4 better and it is far less cringeworthy that FH5 which is too much in the face. Also, driving on the "right" side of the road.
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fair enough, for me I loved Mexico more, specially those forests, Playground Games gave outdone themselves with their use of photo gammetry to recreate that lighting among the foliage unlike the dumpster fire that turn 10 has put out. Plus for me the soundtrack was also better in fh5 but to each their own.
 
imran_chennai said:
Beam NG.drive

Home

A dynamic soft-body physics vehicle simulator capable of doing just about anything.
www.beamng.com www.beamng.com
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I had never heard of this game before- bought it out of curiosity this Steam sale and man, I've never had more fun and immersion in a sandbox like this before. I'm not one to play racers (not that this is one) but I've already crossed 20 hours). Ty for the suggestion! Feel like buying a steering wheel just to play this!

Does really put my PC on overdrive though, on max settings with all the sims and AI stuff enabled.
 
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