Racing Games: Do you play 1st person or 3rd?

How do you play racing games?

  • 1st person/cockpit all the way

    Votes: 25 47.2%
  • Mostly 1st person, but depends on game

    Votes: 9 17.0%
  • Mostly 3rd person, depends on game

    Votes: 10 18.9%
  • Always 3rd person

    Votes: 9 17.0%

  • Total voters
    53

spine

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 4, 2003
Messages
2,715
Just saw this comic over at Penny Arcade and got me thinking...

i-8wvbhwr-2100x20000.jpg


Personally I can't stand 1st person, but that mostly because I find it so much more difficult than 3rd so it's never worth it imho.

I get it if you've got the whole steering wheel setup, but if on a gamepad, it just makes no sense.


I mean I'd drive my own car IRL via 3rd person if I could!
 
Last edited:
in forza motorsports i prefer bumper cam but for some reason i can't stand how it's implemented in other racing games including forza horizon so i typically use third person view.
 
Cockpit view, all the time (joystick or wheel). I can't feel how the car is moving and where it is actually pointed in third person.
 
3rd only. Whenever I try first person it just feel like I can't see what I want to see quickly enough. It also just feel unnatural and just not right to my senses. I guess if I had some kind of 360 degree cockpit it might be different, but with a normal TV/monitor setup I just can't do it.
 
1st person Always. Cockpit on/off depends on the game. But I was raised on the Papyrus sims. ICR2, GPL and NR.
 
3rd mostly.

1st racing simulators only when u have dedicated cockpit. VR is also more use than bigger or wider LCD:adollars:
 
The problem I have with 3rd person is that the camera is so detached and latent, I can't feel the immediate effect of my actions or feel how the car is working. If the camera were LOCKED to the car via an invisible rigid boom, I'd have no problem with it.
 
3rd person, dont have an immersive setting for cockpit view otherwise i would
 
If you are using a gamepad, that means you are playing racing games on your consoles, so 3rd person view makes sense.

If you have a PC with force feedback wheel, then you should be using cockpit view.

If you have a PC and have racing games with a gamepad, then SHAME ON YOU!

Personally I don't like racing games on the consoles. I can't ever get a smooth turn out of a gamepad, like I can on a wheel.
 
3rd person. Have tried 1st person but just doesn't feel right for me.
 
It depends on the game for me. Games that are more arcadey I usually use 3rd person, but games that are more of a sim I go for cockpit view.
 
3 screens specifically for 1st person racing (and flight sims). Though I don't play many racing "games" on my computer.
 
The problem I have with 3rd person is that the camera is so detached and latent, I can't feel the immediate effect of my actions or feel how the car is working. If the camera were LOCKED to the car via an invisible rigid boom, I'd have no problem with it.

That's an interesting point. I see the car as an object in the game that I manipulate, whereas I guess you sort of are the car and not having the camera linked means you can't feel it.

I've never even paid attention to the fact that apparently it's a racing game standard that for 3rd person mode, the camera follows the road and the car moves within that view. I remember the first Need for Speed on the Playstation1. The camera only faced forward and if you turned around, you'd just be driving towards the screen with no idea what traffic is coming! :p

Though that was just purely lazy programming.
 
The comic. How smug. I mean, who the fuck has personal preferences, right!? What kind of person is that!? It's a cheap visual gag as a punch line that only works if the title of the strip is known since the text in the panels read first-person perspective and not cockpit.. Not well thought out at all and very poorly executed.

Stupid comic aside, I play in cockpit view in Forza Motorsport because it is easier to gauge turns and speed and it has a nice feel to it, more than the floating hood or bumper camera views.

In the Horizon series I tend to play third person because the car physics are more tolerant and there appears to be rubber banding in play so you can get away with shitty turns. And the FOV seems more limited in Horizon cockpit than in Motorsport.
 
Last edited:
If you are using a gamepad, that means you are playing racing games on your consoles, so 3rd person view makes sense.

If you have a PC with force feedback wheel, then you should be using cockpit view.

If you have a PC and have racing games with a gamepad, then SHAME ON YOU!

Personally I don't like racing games on the consoles. I can't ever get a smooth turn out of a gamepad, like I can on a wheel.

They make amazing forcefeed back wheels, stick shifts, and pedals for console as well.
 
If you are using a gamepad, that means you are playing racing games on your consoles, so 3rd person view makes sense.

If you have a PC with force feedback wheel, then you should be using cockpit view.

If you have a PC and have racing games with a gamepad, then SHAME ON YOU!

Personally I don't like racing games on the consoles. I can't ever get a smooth turn out of a gamepad, like I can on a wheel.
One word: Fanatec.
 
first person all the way on racing games.... main reason why I can't play games as Burnout or even GRID Autosport with the shitty and blurry interiors.
 
If a racing game can't be played properly with an internal cam, then it is a shit racing game. That's all there is to it.

Of course this only applies to racing games specifically. Games where the focus is not entirely on racing are a different category, there external camera is not just permissible but necessary.

For example if I randomly fool around in BeamNG I'll use 3rd person view. But if I'm trying to do a proper time trial in the same game I'll use internal camera.

I don't think it is even possible to do a proper timed lap in a sim using a 3rd person view. So I don't consider it cheating, just stupid.
 
1st Person: Big Ultrawide or triple monitor setup, or VR
3rd Person: Single Smaller Screen TV/Desktop/Laptop, or more arcade style genres
2nd Person: only in my dreams, in the back trying to control the car by reaching over the seats, cannot slow down, going up complex on/off ramps and skyscraper-high sonic-style loop-de-loops, out of body experiences... very awkward, I wouldn't wish for this IRL
 
1st Person: Big Ultrawide or triple monitor setup, or VR
3rd Person: Single Smaller Screen TV/Desktop/Laptop, or more arcade style genres
2nd Person: only in my dreams, in the back trying to control the car by reaching over the seats, cannot slow down, going up complex on/off ramps and skyscraper-high sonic-style loop-de-loops, out of body experiences... very awkward, I wouldn't wish for this IRL
IRACING only allows the cockpit view. So I have gotten use to those view on my triple monitors. But sometimes I like driving Forza 7 in 3rd person just for a change of pace.
 
Controller and third person. If I picked up a wheel then I'd switch to first person.
 
Back
Top