Favorite POV in racing game

I’m playing RBR now on my pc. First racing game I’ve played for more then 5 minute other then NFS:Underground (PS2). I’m having a great time with it. The tutorial alone was worth buying it. Anyway I’m curious about peoples preferences in POV. I like the driver’s seat the most cause it makes it feels more real, but I’m sure that looking from above helps driving allot.

Car interior if the game allows it, otherwise hood or bumper. Driving while hovering 10 feet behind the car feels unnatural.

Also, you are very brave to be taking Richard Burns Rally on as your first “serious” driving game, it’s pretty unforgiving :)

I don’t play many driving games, but when I do I usually favor medium-range external view. However, I find I drive much better with an interior or bumper cam.

Not good, mind you. Just better.

I feel like I have a better sense of how wide the car is (how close I am to the sides of the track) from above the car. Well, actually, it’s the only way I have any sense of that at all. I like the view inside the car on PGR3 of course, but I can’t bring myself to use it very often.

For me it really depends on the type of game it is. For the more arcade-ish games, a close behind and slightly above view is almost always easier for me. For the more simulation ones, inside the car is mostly better, depending on how well it’s done. If not that, then the bumper (bumber) view works best. Basically, arcade = see my car and surroundings. Sim = see the road ahead.

Yeah, I’ve tried to play PGR3 from inside the car but it’s just not suited to that because of the arcade-like speed of the game. I love the view and often will hop in when I’m zipping across the Brooklyn Bridge, but for most of my play time I’m outside the car.

Usually though, I take the in-car view and in any simulation I always stay in the car. Grand Prix Legends, GTR, EA F1 games, Papyrus NASCAR games, etc… all were in the car for me.

I’ve played an awful lot of RBR, all of it from the drivers seat using my TrackIR. There really is no other way.

Hey, how is that TrackIR? I saw it advertised in the GTR manual. That was my first contact with it. It sure looks neat and the ability to just look around anywhere seems to be a neat enough feature to consider getting one down the road, especially for someone like me that plays a lot of racing sims.

I definitely prefer the driver’s-seat view in general, but not every game has a driver’s seat view that is useable in a practical sense. It works better in widescreen, of course, and it works even better than that if the game automatically aims the camera into your turns (which feels very natural, since we tend to turn our heads slightly in the direction we’re turning just by reflex).

I use mine predominately in flight sims, where it is nothing short of essential (can you say “helmet mounted sight on a Comanche”?), however it has it’s uses in driving games, where you can just move your head to glance left and right. Once you get used to it (takes about 5 minutes), using the TIR is very natural and not at all awkward.

I only have a TIR 1, and while there’s many newer versions, I’ve felt no real need to upgrade. I have my sensor mounted to the end of my boom mic, so there’s no need for silly hats or other contrivances.

I can’t say I was “brave”. I just happaned to see it in the bargain bin for 10$ and remembering ppl giving it a very high thumbs up I picked it up. Shortly after my birthday came so I got me a wheel and pedals and now I am a racing sim fan!
After playing it for a couple of weeks now, I tried the CMR2005 demo but didn’t like it much. I guess I got used to RBR car handling. Not that I’m any good yet, but I can feel a difference between the two games.

RBR is the sort of driving game that sneaks into your house in the middle of the night and smacks you up the side of the head with a small sledgehammer - as long as you’re aware of how difficult it is, you’ll enjoy it.