Asphalt 8 vs Real Racing 3 vs GT Racing 2 (Android): Download and Race
I love racing games and I love the top ones Android has offered. The most popular games on the platform today are Asphalt 8, GT Racing 2 and Real Racing 3 and all of them offer something unique to the player. I have extensively played all three top racing games on Android and loved them a lot. They are one of the first games I immediately install on my new smartphone. In a way all three, Asphalt 8, Real Racing 3 and GT Racing 2 are benchmark games for any Android device and all three of them test different aspects of Android.
Related: 10 Best Android Racing Games to Push the Pedal to the Medal
Now let’s turn towards what makes these apps the best in business. More importantly, let’s see which racing app comes out on top. One thing I’m going to clear right now, all three games are racing games for Android but they offer different experiences. As all of them are essentially free to play, there is very little point in arguing which one you should get. This article is much about the Asphalt 8 or Real Racing 3 or GT Racing 2 than it is about what these games has on offer.
Note: The Asphalt 8 vs Real Racing 3 vs GT Racing 2 article features games which require a large amount of data to be installed on your Android device. Ideally I would suggest that you at least have 6 GB of free space before getting all three of the games. The free racing games for Android were tested on a Samsung Galaxy Note III smartphone, they performed perfectly. Some features will require an active connection to work properly.
Our Ratings:
Asphalt 8: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Real Racing 3: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
GT Racing 2: 4.4 out of 5 Stars
Google Play Ratings and Links:
Asphalt 8: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Real Racing 3: 4.3 out of 5 Stars
GT Racing 2: 4.3 out of 5 Stars
The Good
All three of the apps are free to install and play. This removes any pay wall which may block you from testing out the great apps in detail. Another good thing about these games is that they are graphically stunning. If you own a top range Android device, these free racing games for Android will look absolutely gorgeous.
The Bad
All three of the apps are free to install and play. You might notice the previous line was used in “The Good” part too. Well this is because if you want the full content on any of these games, you will need to shell out a large amount to obtain it. The In-app purchases are there and they are pushed aggressively. They are not in any way intrusive but there are there none the less. Sometimes if you want to play a lot, the IAPs will stand between you and some wholesome racing fun.
The Bottom Line
These free racing games for Android are a great way to spend some quality time driving and racing. There are in-app purchases which may or may not bother you that much. They bothered me in the start but I realized I can simply play another game until the time constraints are lifted from the other app. This is the power of Android; you simply have a lot of options to spend your time on. All three games offer something different and it’s up to you to decide if you prefer arcade racing over simulation.
Revving the Engine – Asphalt 8 Wins
Downloading can take a while when installing one of the three top racing games for Android. Of all the three giant games, Asphalt takes the less time to get ready to rumble. Even though the size difference is not much between the three apps, Asphalt 8 still gets the assets down quickly. I would have said that the Gameloft servers might be the factor but GT Racing 2 is also made by them.
The worst offender is Real Racing 3 which not only takes a long while to download but periodically stops gameplay to download more stuff. I mean why can’t the game download everything in one go? The initial 500 or so MB might seem little but I hate stopping the game just to see files download more. EA kindly download the full game, people usually download large games over night.
Accessibility and Ease of Use – Real Racing 3 Wins
Real Racing comes with some of the best features ever found on an Android racing game. All three, Asphalt 8, GT Racing 2 and Real Racing 3 come with the same tutorial, they teach you even before showing you the menus of the games. This is a great way to ease the player into the game. All three apps were amazing in introducing their features to the player right off the bit.
I have been playing the game for around 2 years but always left it unfinished. It was because I was constantly changing phones and wouldn’t bother downloading the app again. When I booted Real Racing 3 it seems that all my saves were lost. But I was hopeful that the app might have saved them somewhere. Thankfully the app offered to download the saves without any problems and even suggested that I use a better save from my previous device. This tipped the scale towards Real Racing 3.
Graphics Galore – Real Racing 3 Wins
When it comes to stunning visuals, the game EA made takes the cake. While Gameloft games feature some decent graphics themselves, they are nowhere near the quality which Real Racing possesses. I can go as far as to say that Real Racing 3 is among the most graphically impressive titles I have every played on an Android device.
The car models, the lighting, the ambient scenery and even the road oozes with quality. These are console quality graphics I’m talking about.
The Fun Factor – Asphalt 8 Wins
Asphalt 8 provides an extremely entertaining take on traditional racing. This is somewhat over the top and action filled racing experience. If you have been a console or PC gamer, you will instantly recognize the similarities between Asphalt and the Burnout series. The stunts, the ramming and the auto-filling nitrous are all there to make the game much more enjoyable.
The game is meant to be fun through and through. Some might argue my definition of fun and understandably so, Asphalt 8 is a fun game for those who just to have a casual racing experience without going deep into the actual driving or accurate car sounds.
The Simulation – Real Racing 3 Wins
Related: Hilarious Android 3D Games that’d take you Over the Moon!
This is a close contest between GT Racing and Real Racing. Almost all the features of both the games are same. Real Racing also takes a negative hit due to its “car repair” timer which hinders the gameplay for a substantial time.
But Real Racing really nails down the heft and weight of a car. The models are incredibly detailed and actually look and somehow drive like their real world counter parts. There are over 100 cars available for you to play and if you are patient, you can obtain almost all of them for free.
Playing With Others – Asphalt 8 Wins
Related: 10 Best Multiplayer Android Games for Ultimate Bragging Rights
This once again was a tight competition between Asphalt 8 and GT Racing 2. Asphalt only won this because more people are playing the game on a daily basis. The game practically takes only a few seconds to fill the lobby and get going.
GT Racing 2 takes a while to recruit racers to a game. Sometimes there are not enough people playing so the game takes you back to the lobby.
Real Racing 3 features a robust ghost feature which allows you to challenge the ghosts of your friends. This is not a multiplayer feature and should never be called as such.
Conclusion:
The competition of Asphalt 8 vs Real Racing 3 vs GT Racing 2 boils down to two contenders in the end. Here is what I feel in simple and easy to understand statements:
Arcade Fun: Asphalt 8 > Real Racing 3 > GT Racing 2
Simulation: Real Racing 3 > GT Racing 2 > Asphalt 8
I hope this gives you a good idea about these free racing games for Android. Now go and download the app which fancies your taste and seems like a good fit for you. I personally enjoy almost every best racing app on Android there is as long as the AI is tuned fairly. If you have any questions or want to race me in any of the games, feel free to send a challenge my way in the comments below.
I’ve played all 3 and I loved real racing the best. However it suffers from some issues that forced myself to stop playing. One of the main issues I had is that while it’s technically free to play, it’s almost all but impossible to play after reaching a certain point without spending A LOT of cash. The reason is that each league gets unlocked by receiving a certain amount of trophies from the previous league. Problem is that the developers started making the trophy limit too high to open the next league without buying the 1or 2 cars in previous league that you have to use their special currency. And in many cases, it’d take you a year to save up enough of those coins to purchase a vehicle. Thus you really had to spend cash to get more of these coins so you could buy these cars and race to get enough trophies to open the next league. Problem is that when you reach so far in the game, every league has at least 1 or 2 of these cars you need their special currency AND the cost of the vehicles are EXPENSIVE. Many of these cars cost roughly $20 to buy enough coins and this is PER CAR. So if you had to buy two cars in same league, you’d have to buy roughly $40 worth of their coins. There isn’t packs you can buy that opens a bunch of cars….. There’s no currency conversion to convert the one easier attainable currency to the special coins. Bottom line is I reached a point where I could go no further without spending a lot of money and I refuse to spend more than a game system to complete this game 100%. Cause you will end up spending years and/or hundreds of dollars to get every car and complete the game. The cost is insane and the developers are assholes for running the game this way. I’d rather spend $60 for the game upfront but have access to the entire game and content than this nickel and dime-ing crap they’re pulling. Which is sad cause I love the game a lot and did spend a decent amount of money to keep playing. But it seems the trend in games now is to prevent a gamer from accessing the full content of a game without being roped into constantly spending more and more cash. mobile games can really be bad about this, especially Real Racing 3, but even consoles are getting into it with all the dlc they release. So you shell out $60 for a game and then you have to spend more for dlc to access more weapons, levels etc. It’s like the focus is on how much can we milk out of our consumers before they get tired or broke. And the developers of real racing 3 are big offenders of this. I’d love to keep playing the game but I can no longer AFFORD to keep playing it. 🙁
Phil,
Thanks for your detailed experience 🙂 I really loved reading it. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in Free to Play games are always going to be like this. I personally prefer a pay once play all type of games where you only have to give a set amount and gain full access to a product. But if someone is a student, then they will have to grind and grind in order to get that one car lol. I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Yes Dani, I agree….. It is the world we live in and it’s sad. I realize people need to make a living and it behooves the makers of free-to-play games to find ways to get people to purchase items. For myself, as long as it doesn’t prevent me from playing the game, then I can live with it. Sadly, this game gets to a point where you cannot really get any further without making purchases. And it’s not just affordable or relatively sensible packages you can buy. You can only buy the cars 1 at a time and each purchase is expensive. If you could buy 10 of these special cars for the cost of what one does now, I could better understand their decisions. Or if they even had, which has been requested for a long time by myself and other fans, a conversion bank or something that allows players to convert their R$ points, which is easy to get relatively over to those special coins. All in all, I loved the game and thought the graphics and play was pretty stellar for a mobile racer, especially when most mobile racers are those ‘from the side drag style’ racers like csr racing. But I cannot play anymore because I’m stuck in a paradoxical situation where I need more trophies to open more leagues but the only trophies I can add need cars which would require me to spend a lot of my own physical money and I can’t afford to do that. It’s the developer’s loss though because I have spent a decent amount of money before and they will get money from me no more.
I also have an issue in calling this a “true” ‘free-to-play’ style game because I submit that everyone will get to a point like myself where you can no longer progress and keep playing the game without spending a good bit of money. I’d rather spend $60 on a ps4 racer where I can play it without worrying if I’ll have to shell out a lot more just to complete the game. Just my opinion though.
Phil,
I wholeheartedly agree. And man I’m impressed that you progressed so far in the game. Billa test the apps for quality, stability and ease of use, I highly doubt that he will invest 30 40 hours into one app just for a review type article. I know you can understand that 🙂 Thanks for your valuable input. Now that we are on the topic, Billa recently bought The Crew and it was a 60 bucks purchase on PC, sadly there were $5 cars in that too. Same went with Assassins Creed Unity, a full priced game with micro transactions. He was pretty bummed about that lol. If you are wondering why isn’t he talking here? We are doing some upgradation to the system and the comments are a bit restricted right now. He is excited to hear from you and is asking that you keep giving your valuable input 🙂
I appreciated the article, but the typos really bothered me. If you would like someone to edit your articles beyond what you are already doing, let me know. I’ll even do it for free.
Regards,
Jody
For free! yay! Are you kidding? We will try to be much more careful now 🙂 Thanks for the heads up, I will tell Billa to do 30 sit ups as punishment 😀
Lol. No, I wasn’t kidding. And push ups sound about right. Lol. But seriously, let me know if you ever need something edited. I’m a grammar nerd and also have a Master’s degree in Spanish. Anyhow, thanks for the reply.
Jody,
Thanks. I will contact you by email to edit this post. Thanks 🙂
I read your article and I want to say that that I play Real Racing 3 and I’m an ardent fan of it but the details you have given are wrong. You said that it can’t download data at once which is wrong as there is an option in settings which can allow you to download all data files at once.
Secondly, you said that the multiplayer gaming was not good compared to the other two but if you really play the game, you can see that it has weekly online multiplayer tournaments and not only the ghost challenge. So I guess that either you don’t have full information or you played the game a looong time ago.
Please don’t give wrong information. Anyways the article was nice and after this comment, I’ll share it to my friend who thinks Asphalt 8 is better than Real Racing 3.
Deepanshu,
I was not aware of that download all at once option thanks for that. But still my point stands, there should be a prominent option of selecting the full download before the game even starts. As much as we hate long waits, frequent interruptions to download that 20 MB of data really kills the mood. You are right, as you can see by the screenshots I have not played the game like you did. For a full review I take around 3-4 hours of testing, this was a VS article and I only took like 1 hour per app. I will add this information to the article soon 🙂 Send me your gamer ID and we will race sometime 🙂
You think u r tough. race me in asphalt 8 and I will show u whose boss
I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what you do but mark my works, I will find you and I will race you 😀
It was my favorite game untill its latest update.
Which has, from one end to the other, ruined the game.
I’m sure you have already heard about it, so i wont go into detail. With the audio being the mortal wound.
The game is absolutely intolerable now.
What a shame.
Kris,
Which game you are referring to? Real Racing has its audio intact.
You can put a link to this if you want?
Agreed on your assessment BTW
Out of the three i love Asphalt 8,Real Racing 3 is another lame attempt by EA to exhort money from gamers.
Tayemise,
The only decent game in recent years EA made is Dragon Age Inquisition (I’m a PC gamer who hates EA’s DLC centric mindset). Real Racing has great graphics and will keep players busy for weeks at least but after a while the pay-wall hits hard. It would have been a great game if it were a purely paid one.
I played all the three games and find something Missing which is a story line
And after sometime,I found these games little boring however enjoyed a lot while playilg all of these and now, I am a big fan of first person shooter and third person shorting games
More likely gameloft’s modern combat 5.
Yug,
Yeah man, I would kill for a game like the original Need for Speed Most Wanted on Android. Maybe one day we will have stories with racing games as well. I liked Modern Combat 5 as well and listed it in best shooting games for Android list.
After reading this article i am really
Confused because i wanted to download asphalt 8 but i think rr3 is good as well anyways it’s my problem and thanks for a good article
Hi Ankur,
You can always play both, right? =-) Im glad that that you enjoyed the information. Thanks for commenting.