Driving is awful, why does everyone praise it?

[Shodan]

No, I'm not here to talk negatively about the game, in fact I think it's a pretty good game, other than some minor issues like optimization, mouse dead zone, constant camera centering on foot, weird camera position when driving and so on, but whatever.

However, driving in this game is simply awful and the reason why I'm posting this is not even driving itself, but the scary amount of pretentious idiots who go around saying "it's just realistic, learn to drive" which is really ironic.

I don't understand the "logic" where awful handling equals realism. No, not everything that is absurdly difficult is necessarily realistic, you know... That's a really stupid way of thinking which confirms that people who make such assumptions have never actually driven a car.

I actually drive outside of games, I have driven plenty of different cars and I have enough technical knowledge about cars, so I'll explain what makes driving in this game objectively awful:

1) Understeer - all cars, even sports cars suffer from this, at minimal speeds. Staying on the throttle or getting off it doesn't make a difference, trail braking doesn't make a difference, the only thing you can do is slow down until you've almost completely stopped. Speaking of which, stopping power is awful too.

2) Cars feel like boats - again, whether it's an old, generic SUV that would be considered a typical "grocery car" or a sports car that resembles a Porsche, it doesn't even matter, because all cars feel like boats, also at really low speeds. No car should do this at such speeds, especially not a sports car.

3) Skidding out of control at low speed and without rain - after I just started moving from a stop at a traffic light and immediately tried to make a turn in a junction before even properly accelerating, the car turned a little and then it just continued to slide forward for ages. Eventually, it crashed into pedestrians and then into a building. In real life, this could only happen if you were driving on (pure) fresh snow / ice and your wheels (summer tires, no 4WD) locked up.

Now, in GTA: SA (which I find to be a hilariously overrated game by the way), every car handles differently. You can instantly tell which car is FWD, which car is RWD, which car is a "grocery car", which car is a sports car and so on.

Trail braking actually works, getting off the throttle ahead of turns in both FWD and RWD cars actually makes a difference (in FWD cars it prevents understeer, in RWD cars it prevents oversteer) and cars generally understeer only at higher speeds which is how it should be. Some cars understeer a lot (old, bulky, front engine, FWD car) while others understeer only in extreme conditions (sporty, rear engine, RWD car).

Don't bring up GTA V because that's a whole different issue. Here, all cars feel like boats, but in GTA V all cars feel like sports cars (but it's still way too arcadey regardless).

[DPAR]

it's fun, it's a videogame. That's why I like it

[Shodan]

CRAZED MERC a écrit :

it's fun, it's a videogame. That's why I like it

I don't find it fun to have cars that feel like boats and can barely turn at all unless you've almost completely stopped. It's not even realistic or challenging, in fact it's the complete opposite, not only of realistic, but challenging too. There isn't any challenge involved since it's awful no matter what you do.

[soysauce]

fr bruh its feels so clunky like turning and drifting

[AV Augmented]

Yeah, the tires feel like sticks of butter lmfao. But it is a fun game nevertheless.

[solidap]

We like that the cars are physical objects with weight and gravity and suspension. They're satisfying to drive and to crash into things. As opposed to the whimpy little RC cars some of you seem to think is superior. This is a GTA game, not a LEGO game

[Jedster]

I had also diven a car IRL and I can tell you none of the games I played was even remotely realistic, at least here the cars have beliveable weight, momentum and inertia. The car doesn't go from 100 to 0 in 2 seconds and physics is actualy a thing in this game. I like the driving cos it's extremely satifying once I learned to master it.

[Vex Hilarius]

Why does everyone praise it? Cuz THEY like it? The same reason you don't like it, because YOU don't like it.

[quintosh]

It's an old game and people didnt like it even when it was first published, what's your point? They are not going to change it just because you made a random topic about a subject that has been discussed a few hundred times past these years.

[I AM BAYTOR]

Drive the classic cars, they feel much better than supercars (or any other car) in 4. The boat feeling goes perfectly with the Peyote.

[anton]

how are this many people ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about the driving its one of the funnest elements of the game lol

[Vomit Heart]

You get used to it, in time it's great

[Turd King]

The first car sucks. Specially since most people are "learning"

However. It took me a whopping 2 mins to remember the mechanics from back then and.. Id say its actually easy to learn.

[Maxz85]

use controller when driving cars for more control over steering, gas and brakes, driving feels great in this game.

[Dave the Spooder]

It's Realistic, i can feel the weight of the car, i can feel the suspension is working, though i must agree, it sucks for a video game like GTA (Don't compare it to GTA V it's way ahead of its time). In Certain situations i like the car the way it is, and if it's chasing scene thats when i hate it, because the one that i "chased" have more tire grip than i had lmao. It's like there is a duct tape in their wheels that the can take a sharp corner easly which is pisses me off because i cant do that.

[Shodan]

Update. It's not my first time playing the game, in fact I played it around launch, but it just takes a little to get used to the driving. Anyway, I'd like to make a correction to what I said. I understand why so many people say it's realistic and praise the physics, but I figured out what the issue actually is and it's that the "realism" should be toned down a little because real cars handle way better than these. If it was only toned down, it would be really amazing. Yesterday, I got a car as a mission reward that I believe resembles a Lamborghini and it still has awful understeer at pretty low speeds which is just not accurate at all. So, the physics are definitely there and they really are amazing, especially considering the kind of a game this is, but the values are not adjusted properly, it's a bit "too much". Oh and, collisions and overall damage are brilliant. Less understeer and stiffer suspensions should apply to all cars, especially sports cars, that's where it becomes evident how weird it is.

I can drive perfectly now that I've been playing for a couple of hours, I figured out exactly how much handbrake, brake, throttle and steering input is necessary. That being said, you shouldn't need the handbrake to be able to make low speed turns downtown.

The physics should be praised, but not the realism, and that's only because some of the physics should have been toned down a little, not because it's poorly made at the core, far from it, it's amazing, but just not properly configured.