Games set on the road?

briany

Does this exist? A "Road game" genre? We have movies that are set on the road and they are a well liked film genre but there seems to be a dearth of games that are set "on the road" where it's just you, a car and some exciting adventure. I will admit this whole idea is pretty much because I've seen both Vanishing Point and Duel recently.....

I've played games like Half life 2, Far Cry, Crysis and the Grand Theft Auto series that all have exciting driving sequences. You're driving along and you notice something on the side of the road and and you pull off to go and investigate. For example, I remember in Half Life 2 ,the Highway 17 chapter, driving along and pulling off to investigate an old derelict house and being ambushed by combine forces and rollermines and running back to the buggy and that was one of the more exciting sequences in the game for me because I love the idea in any kind of adventure game of having a car to make a desperate escape if things go pear shaped. Does anyone have any examples of games that are set "On the road"? (No one say racing games....)

Retr0gamer

Outlander on the 16-bit consoles is the closest I can think of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egu12t6MJTA

SugarHigh

The new id game "Rage" is an fps with a lot of emphasis on vehicles.

"Full Throttle" is a pretty famous adventure game set on the road.

you should probably stay away from "Desert Bus"

Wossack

while doesnt involve cars by any stretch, red dead redempion has alot of random encounters that are pretty good

Retr0gamer

Would interstate '76 count?

humanji

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Would interstate '76 count?

That's the first one that came to my mind (and then it's sequel). There's always things like Fallout 3, which doesn't have driving, but does have you wandering around and investigating things you find. I'm sure someone somewhere will develope a car mod for it.

Fallout New Vegas might be quite good with the Hardcore mode than requires sleep, food and drink, so it seems a bit more of a struggle on the road, and you'd have a need to investigate the things you find.

Vegeta

Road Rash sprang to mind, not because it suits your description very well but just because I loved it when younger

briany

Outlander on the 16-bit consoles is the closest I can think of.

Played that but didn't really see much in it. Just seemed to me to be driving along and running motorcycles off the road. Not really a whole lot happening all in all but I didn't play it for very long.

The new id game "Rage" is an fps with a lot of emphasis on vehicles.

"Full Throttle" is a pretty famous adventure game set on the road.

you should probably stay away from "Desert Bus"

Yeah I have some high hopes for Rage, mainly because it's been a while since I enjoyed an FPS game. The last one I enjoyed was STALKER call of Pripyat and again that had some of the journeying elements that I like so much. Desert Bus was a funny idea anyway. It would be, coming from Penn and Teller and their team.

while doesnt involve cars by any stretch, red dead redempion has alot of random encounters that are pretty good

Wouldn't mind playing that game at all only I don't currently own an Xbox 360 or PS3, just a PC Probably will have to get one though because let's face it, the big time portion of PC gaming seems to be fading....

Edit : A game that I enjoyed back in the day that had "road" elements was Body Harvest on the N64. There was always a car around to get into (or tank or plane or flying saucer) and the maps were huge for the time. Always really great when you got the alert that there was an alien attack in progress and you had to hop into your car and drive through the winding roads of the landscape to make it in time. Excellent excellent game.

ShiverinEskimo

Grand Theft Auto?

EDIT - missed the OPs mention of GTA.

I could argue perhaps and say Mario World and it's ilk? Technically you're on a road but I think you're referring to free-roaming games.

I'd imagine the next step for GTA is to go inter-city - probably not until the next generation of consoles however.

Skerries

Sam and Max had a road game

briany

I'd imagine the next step for GTA is to go inter-city - probably not until the next generation of consoles however.

Didn't GTA San Andreas go inter-city? That game passed me by but didn't it feature three cities in a fictional county separated desert you could travel through and rural towns and villages too?

I suppose you could say I am referring to free roaming games but maybe not pure sandbox where you can go back to the start point at just about any time you want. I like the game to keep progressing through different locales . A road/driving game set in a dystopian desert setting (ala mad max), visiting locales where the story is advanced, picking up hitch-hikers leading to side missions, bit of shooting here and there and being harassed by a big bad truck at random points (ala Duel) would make for a great game I think.

ShiverinEskimo

Sounds like Oblivion/Red Dead Redemption/Fallout minus cars really. Especially Oblivion and RDR since you had a horse.

An sandbox-style full throttle would be epic.

VenomIreland

humanji wrote: »

Fallout New Vegas might be quite good with the Hardcore mode than requires sleep, food and drink, so it seems a bit more of a struggle on the road, and you'd have a need to investigate the things you find.

Try the mod "Fallout Wanderers Edition" for fallout 3, it adds everything HardCore mode does and more.

briany

I wish that I could like Fallout 3 and to a lesser extent Oblivion because they both seem immersive games and all but well Fallout 3 has always felt like an RPG with a poorly implemented FPS mechanic and I don't really like RPGs but I love the right kind of FPS. So that and also something that it shares with it's sister game Oblivion is that everything in the open world seemed hostile (why the hell is this witch lady chasing me across half the map?) without much reason. I'll probably revisit Fallout 3 at some point though because sometimes these things just take (alot of) time and understanding. It took me about 4 reinstalls to really get to like the first STALKER game.

Sabre0001

The one that came to mind for me was 'Full Throttle' aswell

KilOit

Borderlands is kinda like a road game, it's very Mad Max lawless type game, it's an fps with rpg elements but you use a car to get everywhere.

briany wrote: »

I've played games like Half life 2, Far Cry, Crysis and the Grand Theft Auto series that all have exciting driving sequences. You're driving along and you notice something on the side of the road and and you pull off to go and investigate. For example, I remember in Half Life 2 ,the Highway 17 chapter, driving along and pulling off to investigate an old derelict house and being ambushed by combine forces and rollermines and running back to the buggy and that was one of the more exciting sequences in the game for me because I love the idea in any kind of adventure game of having a car to make a desperate escape if things go pear shaped.

This happens alot in Borderlands i think you'll like it

ShiverinEskimo

Good shout Kaidan - I knew I was missing something when I saw mad max mentioned. Borderlands is great as a game and has some fantastic DLC too.

Repeat plays are essential as the weaponry you find levels with you so on your second run-through you find some insane stuff.

Overheal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3MXiTeH_Pg

Wossack

Overheal wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3MXiTeH_Pg

"This video contains content from Vevo, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."

CiDeRmAn

A road game?
Hmmm....
I quite enjoy Test Drive Unlimited from time to time, ok, so it's in a supercar driving mode, but you can set up your own challenges, pick up packages to deliver to the far side of Oahu, taking an hour, or even try to circumnavigate the whole island.
The game is all set on the road, but the missions/races must often be found by driving past them, so much exploration of the highways and byways is needed.
A much underrated game is TDU, can't wait for the sequel.

briany

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

A road game?
Hmmm....
I quite enjoy Test Drive Unlimited from time to time, ok, so it's in a supercar driving mode, but you can set up your own challenges, pick up packages to deliver to the far side of Oahu, taking an hour, or even try to circumnavigate the whole island.
The game is all set on the road, but the missions/races must often be found by driving past them, so much exploration of the highways and byways is needed.
A much underrated game is TDU, can't wait for the sequel.

That looks good! I never said I didn't enjoy a good racing game too and the open world aspect is intriguing. That's it, I'm coming here for my game info from now on.

gizmo

Big +1 to Borderlands. I've played through it twice at this stage and I still find it weird how it can just suck me in for hours. As for that screenshot, I had forgotten how different it looked before the art style was changed so dramatically.

As for other games, one of the first I thought of was a game from back in 1999 (which may make it a little long in the tooth for you know unfortunately) called Redline. It was part Carmageddon, bar Interstate '75 and part FPS and while it wasn't the best game in the world it was still a hell of a lot of fun back in the day.