I loved Battlefield.

For me it started to go downhill with BF1, although it was still a good game, it already started trying to be a movie and not the „put C4 onto jeep, plop into jeep, drive jeep to enemy, plop out if jeep, boom“ kinda jamboree that I loved. Now it was all about getting spammed with immersive animations that just broke the flow for me. At least hardcore servers were still very enjoyable for me.

Then BFV came around and with it more animation spam on top of absolute terrible visual clarity where you had to stand still for a couple seconds and scan a room to really be sure no one‘s lying on their back in a corner (obviously you‘re long dead by then). Oftentimes I got shot by a camper and even in the killcam I couldn‘t even see the guy. As if that‘s not enough, they introduced clown skins that made you wonder if that person‘s on your side or not. Now it’s not x uniform soldiers against x uniform soldiers anymore, there‘s superheroes and supervillains running around. I hardly even played this one.

Then BF2042 came and it‘s just Apex Legends hamfisted into a BF frame as far as I‘m concerned. I didn‘t even get this until they trashed it for 2 bucks and played for like 2 hours since.

BF3 was peak, BF4 was good, BF1 was alright, then a whole lotta disappointment. I‘ll never forget the 24/7 Back to Karkand Rush server in BF3, community servers rock. Good times, sad greed made it go to shit.

I can second that, it‘s a good sim for what I can tell anyway. (Although also EA now, see OP‘s requirements)

it had a lot of backtracking which was annoying

…but very immersive on the treadmill, no? LOL

…I‘ll show myself out

You probably mean Dirt Rally 2, I meant the original DiRT 2, which is pretty arcade-y and easy.

(The one that had Games for Windows LIVE (yep lol))

I‘m happy for fans to get more, but the franchise never managed to grab me. And it‘s really hard to explain why since I don‘t have anything bad to say about the games I‘ve played. I guess they play it so safe that they‘re bland and unmemorable to me. Like it‘s less an engaging work of art and more a piece of homework by the book that‘s trying hard to be inoffensive and completely risk-averse to not upset the teacher.

But that’s just my opinion anyway, and not every game has to be for me.

Edit: There was no DLC bs in the games I‘ve played though, just complete games. I wanna explicitely praise that.

From all the racers I‘ve played, DiRT 2 and GRiD 2 are probably my favos, and Forza Horizon 4 is also really good. But the former two are EA now that Codemasters has been bought (although they weren‘t on release) and FH4 is delisted (and 30ish bucks anyway) so…