Why is driving in GTA games so good

[raebbitos]

maybe It's just me but driving in pretty much all GTA games is a lot more fluid than even some racing games I've played,and I have yet to figure why, maybe they are just more polished than most games out there, but I couldn't even finish watch dogs because of the abysmal driving mechanics whereas I'll happilly replay any GTA game because of how smooth driving is.

 

this isn't just to praise GTA games I am genuinely curious as to what makes me like driving in this series so much and how that can be implemented in other games.

Edited October 23, 2017 by raebbitos

[Algonquin Assassin]

I’ve always felt GTA IV’s as good as Forza, Gran Turismo etc. It nails similar finesse to control the vehicles instead of having F1 super grip.

[Queen Elizabeth II]

It's sh*t.

 

Only GTA IV and GTA San Andreas (yes) nailed it.

[raebbitos]

I think all gta games have excellent driving ,no matter how "boat-like" you think GTA IV driving is it's not as bad as most other games out there,the same applies to GTA V ,GTA has applied to the preferences of 90 percent of gamers ,I am really interested in finding out what makes them so good to maybe make my own gta-esque game down the line it has always been an interest in the back of my head.

[B Dawg]

It's sh*t.

 

Only GTA IV and GTA San Andreas (yes) nailed it.

Pretty much.

Edited October 23, 2017 by B Dawg

[Good Hombre]

Agreed, it's way better than most, if not all, open world games out there like Watch Dogs and Just Cause.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Good Hombre

[Matrelith]

Yeah, the difference between GTA and other sandbox games like Just Cause and Watch Dogs is night and day when it comes to driving. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm just glad Rockstar made the driving as fluid and comfortable as possible. In a game where the driving is such a big part of the gameplay, it's pretty much a necessity to have it working properly.

[B Dawg]

Sadly the only non-GTA game/series that has good driving is Mafia. Every other series was pretty horrible in that aspect.

Edited October 23, 2017 by B Dawg

[Pedinhuh]

It's sh*t.

 

Only GTA IV and GTA San Andreas (yes) nailed it.

This.

 

But GTA driving was always more focused on over simplified arcade physics, IV was a push into more realism and players complained about it, I didn't because I used to have a very extended past on racing in Gran Turismo, so I knew how to take a corner and when to use the brakes(something that 96% of the player base can't do, if Online is to be believed).

 

All in all, it will never be Forza or Gran Turismo because that is not what the majority of players want.

[Roham]

because it gives you a good feeling.

 

sometimes i like to obey the traffic lights. it gives you a more realistic feeling and by the way iv's driving was the best.

[TheOneLibertonian]

I think that in terms of open world games, GTA, along with Mafia are the only ones to get driving right. Even GTA V feels very natural and intuitive compared to almost all games within the genre. Compare them to every Ubisoft open world title, Sleeping Dogs, Saints Row, Scarface, Just Cause, MGSV, etc. have physics that really do not handle good, but also feels clunky, drives like they are on ice (lack of grip), awful suspension and damping modelling, weightless, and terrible input lag from the controller is staggering. All of these games can't get it right like how Rockstar can make the player feel like they are actually driving a car, but also when it comes to vehicle design Rockstar is well ahead in that area as well. In hindsight, GTA in general not only has better driving than most games in the genre of open world sandbox, but even full fledged racing titles as well like NFS, and The Crew.

 

 

It's sh*t.

 

Only GTA IV and GTA San Andreas (yes) nailed it.

I respectfully disagree. I think GTA does a great balance of realism and arcade with almost all the games, especially GTA IV. But I think that all the other 3D era games, and even GTA V all have respectable driving characteristics that feels decently good. V might be the most arcadey in the series, but in comparison to other games in the genre GTA V is much, much better despite my lack of satisfaction with heavy focus on arcade "Go-kart" handling and dumbing down of IV's near-perfect physics modelling. This is coming from a person who is a car enthusiast and a sim racer, so I know a thing or two about how good or bad a car feels like.

Edited October 26, 2017 by TheOneLibertonian

[Algonquin Assassin]

I don't like GTA V's driving as much as GTA IV's, but it's still better than both of the Watch Dogs games, Sleeping Dogs and other modern open world games.

[DOUGL4S1]

My only complaint with 3D Universe driving is how cars lose grip way too easily, some more than others (I'm looking at you, Super GT!), and in GTA V it's quite hard to be smooth in the driving with all cars, even with a controller. Other than that, I enjoy driving in basically all games.

[B Dawg]

Super GT in San Andreas is bae. A car for the genetically superior drivers. Number One baby!

[Mulyadi]

Super GT is the worst 3D era GTA car. there's a lot better option even when they're slower, like Perennial, Sabre, or even Mule!

I have to agree that GTA driving is more-like arcade driving not realistic driving that they offer in Forza! if you want to play realistic driving then don't play GTA.

[ChengizVlad09]

Agh man, it is amazing how we have diametrically opposed opinions. I find driving mechanics to be utter $hit in games of HD Universe.

 

In GTA IV Era, every single vehicle behaves like a boat, no matter what you drive, a piece of junk old car or fastest super car, their handling is completely the same.

Wobbly all the way, you have to brake and brake and brake, just to hit the wall. Every car understeers the same no matter the class. Going just a few km/h and as soon as you tap brakes huge skid mark will be left behind. The only good thing is that you can "drift" in some way, but that's so stupidly exaggerated it doesn't make any sense.

 

GTA V is the complete opposite, but remarkably the same $hit. To be honest there are slight differences in handling in regards to different car classes, but nothing even worth mentioning. If you are going around 230 km/h - maximum top speed the game allows - you can easily brake to a full stop without even noticing. Unnecessary oversteer with most of the cars. You cannot drift in 90 percent of the time. Those 10 percent is when you do something that closely resemblance drifting, some kind of a slide or skid, whatever.

 

Now, it's obvious GTA needs to be an Arcade kind of a racing/driving game, not a Simulation. It's understandable there are some limits that cannot be avoided for the sake of integrity of the game. It's just that I cannot believe R* made such an empty and simple driving mechanics in this Universe. From those 260+ million dollars they spent on complete development and marketing of GTA V, I bet single dime wasn't spent on any kind of driving physics improvement. They just reversed GTA IV files and put them into GTA V. Most disappointing part of these games form me.

Edited November 15, 2017 by ChengizVlad09

[Algonquin Assassin]

In GTA IV Era, every single vehicle behaves like a boat, no matter what you drive, a piece of junk old car or fastest super car, their handling is completely the same..

Cant say I agree. Whilst I get the physics arent to everyones liking I spend a lot of time playing GTA IV and the difference between classes is more noticeable than GTA V and the 3D era for that matter.

 

Vehicles without performance in mind are what Id describe as handling like boats. Sedans, wagons, SUVs etc have more body roll, weaker brakes, tend to oversteer and understeer more.

 

Sports/Supercars have far more grip, brake better and in general have far less bodyroll. I mean are you really going to say for example an Infernus handles EXACTLY like a Voodoo?

 

If you do I cant really believe youve spent playing GTA IV for any considerable amount of time or youre just blinded by an inherent dislike for the physics (which like I said I get that not everyone likes them or has to) because to me this just sounds like a rather blank statement which from countless hours of playing GTA IV isnt close to being true.

[ChengizVlad09]

 

In GTA IV Era, every single vehicle behaves like a boat, no matter what you drive, a piece of junk old car or fastest super car, their handling is completely the same..

Cant say I agree. Whilst I get the physics arent to everyones liking I spend a lot of time playing GTA IV and the difference between classes is more noticeable than GTA V and the 3D era for that matter.

 

Vehicles without performance in mind are what Id describe as handling like boats. Sedans, wagons, SUVs etc have more body roll, weaker brakes, tend to oversteer and understeer more.

 

Sports/Supercars have far more grip, brake better and in general have far less bodyroll. I mean are you really going to say for example an Infernus handles EXACTLY like a Voodoo?

 

If you do I cant really believe youve spent playing GTA IV for any considerable amount of time or youre just blinded by an inherent dislike for the physics (which like I said I get that not everyone likes them or has to) because to me this just sounds like a rather blank statement which from countless hours of playing GTA IV isnt close to being true.

 

 

Yeah, I might carried that particular aspect too far in order to express my disappointment for driving physics in IV and V. You can't equal Infernus and Voodoo handling definitely, but the point still stands, during those 2 or 3 times I've beaten IV on PS3, years ago, I just couldn't escape the feeling that super class cars were unnecessary overweight, clumsy boat like cages that constantly craved for overbraking and constantly tend to spin out in corners at, what can be regarded as normal speeds. Even though I can't say I find that to be dynamic or satisfying, I'd pick IV driving physics anytime of the day against driving physics of V, even though they both seem 'unfinished' , just in different ways - and that would be the term that describes them both as close as possible. Hm, I'd say that appearance of excess body roll on super cars could be the result of some other factors tied to the game engine, but nevertheless.

 

PS: "Inherent dislike for the physics"? Pfft, I really don't tend to be that superficial. And btw GTA IV physic in every other aspect was awesome, the best franchise has to offer, no wonder they had to downgrade the physics in general it in order to make GTA V playable, there was simply to much going on that choked the system in IV.

Edited November 15, 2017 by ChengizVlad09

[B Dawg]

Supercars spin out? How? I can only see that happening if you're driving the Comet maybe. Even then, the only fast cars I would consider really tail happy would be the Coquette and Banshee.

Edited November 15, 2017 by B Dawg

[Algonquin Assassin]

 

 

In GTA IV Era, every single vehicle behaves like a boat, no matter what you drive, a piece of junk old car or fastest super car, their handling is completely the same..

 

Cant say I agree. Whilst I get the physics arent to everyones liking I spend a lot of time playing GTA IV and the difference between classes is more noticeable than GTA V and the 3D era for that matter.

Vehicles without performance in mind are what Id describe as handling like boats. Sedans, wagons, SUVs etc have more body roll, weaker brakes, tend to oversteer and understeer more.

Sports/Supercars have far more grip, brake better and in general have far less bodyroll. I mean are you really going to say for example an Infernus handles EXACTLY like a Voodoo?

If you do I cant really believe youve spent playing GTA IV for any considerable amount of time or youre just blinded by an inherent dislike for the physics (which like I said I get that not everyone likes them or has to) because to me this just sounds like a rather blank statement which from countless hours of playing GTA IV isnt close to being true.

 

Yeah, I might carried that particular aspect too far in order to express my disappointment for driving physics in IV and V. You can't equal Infernus and Voodoo handling definitely, but the point still stands, during those 2 or 3 times I've beaten IV on PS3, years ago, I just couldn't escape the feeling that super class cars were unnecessary overweight, clumsy boat like cages that constantly craved for overbraking and constantly tend to spin out in corners at, what can be regarded as normal speeds. Even though I can't say I find that to be dynamic or satisfying, I'd pick IV driving physics anytime of the day against driving physics of V, even though they both seem 'unfinished' , just in different ways - and that would be the term that describes them both as close as possible. Hm, I'd say that appearance of excess body roll on super cars could be the result of some other factors tied to the game engine, but nevertheless.

Thats fair enough, but as I pretty much play GTA IV almost everyday Im quite accustomed to the physics is all.

 

I feel the Sports/Supercars have an appropriate sense of weight. Cars like the Voodoo feel like land barges (then again its based on a 60s Chev Impala), but something like the Comet feels zippy and nimble.

[B Dawg]

Speaking of brakes, they certainly do not crave for overbraking. Maybe in comparison to every other GTA, but in comparison to any half decent racing game, not at all.

Edited November 15, 2017 by B Dawg

[ViceBoy69]

I think the driving in GTAIV is great the cars all handle differently and some need to be shown respect as flying along at full speed and expecting to be able to turn without braking and not hitting a wall is not possible. You learn to slide the big cars around bring the back end out, a lot of the time driving in GTAIV is hampered by the ped cars changing lanes or stopping for no reason , but it adds to the atmosphere of being in a real city with real people driving and going about their daily lives.

I dont dislike V,s driving its one thing i do like, full speed on the express ways its a great experience, i just wish Rockstar hadnt decided in V to make all cars spin when you try to move off fast, that isnt real life, otherwise driving in V is fine.

The driving in the 3D era is different gta3 and VC had similar handling to the cars, a bit cartoony but fun all the same, SA tried to bring a bit more realism to the driving but didnt get it quite right.

Overall driving in GTA is fun and has to be, you wouldnt walk your character everywhere, saying that though i have tried

[ChengizVlad09]

 

 

 

 

 

Thats fair enough, but as I pretty much play GTA IV almost everyday Im quite accustomed to the physics is all.

 

I feel the Sports/Supercars have an appropriate sense of weight. Cars like the Voodoo feel like land barges (then again its based on a 60s Chev Impala), but something like the Comet feels zippy and nimble.

 

 

I'm really hoping for GTA VI, or what ever comes next, to at least have driving physics where you can clearly see Rockstar has made a significant effort in making it.

Maybe that's one of the subjective reasons many people tend to like GTA IV driving physics, since the effort is clearly visible comparing it to anything before - not saying that's the only reason. By the way, in my humble opinion SA was the best driving experience for my taste. I'm not saying it has the best driving physics, far from it, but the best in sense that it perfectly fits with the surrounding environment. And hell, you can drift

Edited November 15, 2017 by ChengizVlad09

[ChengizVlad09]

Supercars spin out? How? I can only see that happening if you're driving the Comet maybe. Even then, the only fast cars I would consider really tail happy would be the Coquette and Banshee.

 

Hah, that's where the list is ending just kidding, there are like two more super cars joking again. I don't mind them being tail happy, quite on the contrary, but once you try to purposefully loosen a bit, and wiggle your tail the game wouldn't let you. That's how I felt. You'd spin out and do a 90 degree full stop.

Edited November 15, 2017 by ChengizVlad09

[ChengizVlad09]

That's what frustrates me, I'm trying to go full throttle, spin the wheels a bit kick the tail a bit to the side as well and still go FORWARD making skid marks, actually CONTROLLING the car while it wiggles left to right, and there's no way you can do that intentionally and more importantly that's totally out of the game's physics engine reach. You can't maneuver the car while trying to drift. You just spin it and hope for the best. Don't tell me it's possible. Especially in V where you have this unnecessary wheel spin just by hitting the gas ever so slightly and you don't have that same wheel spin when you need it the most, sliding through the curve. This apply on both of them actually. It's like you can't make sharp turns, I mean you can, but at the same time I can't get that in any connection with skill or something that can be perceived by the game's engine. I dunno maybe it's just me

Edited November 15, 2017 by ChengizVlad09

[🕊]

Because they've been in it since the 1980s. Technically they know what they're doing. These new developers have no clue what a good game feels like playing, but want to feature flood everything so the game is awesome and keeping up with the joneses so it can $ell! $ell! $ell! Look at the development history of Ubisoft Montreal; Ass-Creed and Far Cry are only an artificial veneer made of market-produced hype resting on a history of unambitious games which i assume were poorly designed, since they didn't need to be well designed. You can expect Ubisoft games to have poor driving mechanics because they never had to innovate or contribute to video game development historically, just match expectations and sometimes write market-passable story.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft_Montreal

 

Volition is not a licensed game producing company, and although the driving wasn't as good as GTA: San Andreas it is comparable and the auto-pilot was satisfying. Although Volition started developing around the same time as Ubisoft Montreal, their first games had to rely on innovation to sell.

[killdrivetheftvehicle]

Everybody is talking about the cars, but what about motorcycles? That's where the sh*t really hits the fan: In IV you never have enough grip, but in V it's glued to the ground and you can't lean to the sides in road bikes (not that you would have to). I think V:s motorcycles are total crap. It's like they did the SR 2 mechanics on them. But I have to agree with the OP, it's even worse with Ubisoft titles.

Edited November 16, 2017 by killdrivetheftvehicle

[🕊]

Everybody is talking about the cars, but what about motorcycles? That's where the sh*t really hits the fan: In IV you never have enough grip, but in V it's glued to the ground and you can't lean to the sides in road bikes (not that you would have to). I think V:s motorcycles are total crap. It's like they did the SR 2 mechanics on them. But I have to agree with the OP, it's even worse with Ubisoft titles.

All of V's motorcycles seem to be "tuned" for allowing off-road high speed long distance driving. Probably they knew people were going to be racing in Blaine county in Online all the time, so that's made easier at the expense of stunting. - I'd like to see more difference between how driving cars and motorcycles work; steal the weight transfer concept from Midnight Club with sport bikes, and have another class of pleasure bike for those who enjoy cruising, and leave the Sanchez as it was in IV. (Forgive me if "sport" and "pleasure" bikes aren't a thing, i don't know jack about motorcycles.)

[B Dawg]

Motorcycles were awesome in IV and TLAD. They will never get old. They got screwed up on such a major level in GTA V, they were made beeeyooond arcade and ridiculous. Couldn't they have just copy pasted San Andreas motorcycle handling/physics instead if they wanted to make it easier?

 

One thing I will never understand and will always be pissed off about, is that despite V/Online having the worst motorcycle handling/physics in the series, it has a crap ton of wannabe biker club gangs on it. Why? That makes virtually no sense whatsoever. The way they are in V, I would honestly never even touch them.

Edited November 16, 2017 by B Dawg

[JuniorChubb]

I don't think the driving in GTA is 'good', it falls along way short of the driving experience you get in 'real' driving games, what it is though is easy.

 

Supercars can drive over grass and rocks, supercars are better off-road than off roaders, you can adjust the pitch of your car in the air, the classes are a mess, you cannot drift or manually change gear, you can roll your car from its roof to its wheels, rain is not available in any races that use a stunt prop, curb boosting ruins stunt track races, I could go on...

 

However the driving in GTA is good fun, and I believe this is because it is so simplistic and has got that 'Hollywood' feel to it. Despite all my above gripes I have more fun driving in GTA than other games as it is less realistic. I can drive around doing nothing just taking in the view, enjoying the car and having near misses with NPC traffic.