difference between simulation and arcade?

[artoodeeto]

So I've been playing Grid and a few other of the Codemasters games, and while I'm having a blast, I see that they're usually termed "arcade" style games rather than simulations. What would a "real" simulation have that these games lack, or how would it be different? Is it a matter of something like being able to fully customize the car and see changes in how it handles, vs. the way Grid is designed where there's a bunch of cars, but you can't change anything about them? Not to mention the difficulty settings...on "normal" I have to admit I feel like I'm driving a tank when I hit other cars...

[Luke122]

Simulations tend to be as customizable and realistic as possible. In racing games, this would include damage, physics, wear, fuel consumption, speed limits, driving etiquette, tuning, etc.

Arcade type games are more "get in and go", and generally very forgiving of crashes.

[NightrainSrt4]

The actual handling of the cars is entirely different in a sim vs. arcade. Even between sims the different way they implement physics, weight distribution, tire + track composition, changes the feel entirely.

Generally sims use realistic calculations of various forces to determine how the driving experience should feel. Arcade is more about getting it to feel right, to feel fun.

Hard to explain, but more easily shown. Grab an arcadey game like Grid and play for a while. Then try and play the same way on a sim and you will feel the difference.

[artoodeeto]

yeah, it completely makes sense. In a way, I prefer games like Grid that don't have a manual thicker than a phone book (ever play the flight sim Falcon 3.0 back in the day? awesome sim, but good lord the manual was bigger than War and Peace...), I like to be able to just jump in and play without having to tweak a million things first, at least half of which I'm clueless on. :)