Starters Orders Classic Horse Racing

Just finding my way through this game being a big fan of horse racing. The commentary is very accurate but poor, the voice over is enough to make me reach for the volume and turn it down its very weary. The form mechanics of the game feel realistic. If there was options to choose different voice tones that would be a big plus. However Horse racing games are limited for PC users the people that produce these type of games are good at it. its come a long way since the days of Stablemasters. I have experienced no crashes yet whilst playing this game.

This game is a bit of a mess. The interface is terribly confused and confusing. The race graphics are basic at best being reminiscent of racing games in the 80s. Worst of all the game has a habit of crashing and although it appears to have an auto-save system it seems not to work, with the last saved game being reloaded instead of the stage at which it crashed. Way too many problems for far too little enjoyment.

top Racing Manager game except for some horses that run consecutive G1 races on one day which is impossible and need a fix.

I love this game. The scope, the challenge, the options and the entire breadth of the game is a phenomenal tribute to the the creator of the game. Could some things be better? Sure. The interface is clunky and outdated, certainly there are improvements that could be made to the layouts of the various screens, as retrieving information can be a clickfest. But this game is freaking amazing. People say the game is too hard. Yes, the game, in its entirety, is HARD. But it should be. To fully appreciate everything the game has to offer, it takes patience, time, failures and experience. There is no winning or losing - there is no set goal, no mountain to climb. You stop when you want to stop, you achieve as much as you can to keep it interesting. Then you can start again, or just keep on going. Yes, there are cheats available to give you a bit of a head start, perhaps, but in the long run, there is no secret formula and no "if you do this, you are guaranteed to win" suggestions. If you want a basic horse racing game that gives you flashy graphics and a system you can manipulate to win, there are plenty of those. If you want an incredibly exhaustive stable management / horse breeding game, this game is what you want. Period.

The best Horse racing / horse breeding simulation game out there and there is not much debate on the matter. Essentially, this is the Football manager of the horse racing genre.

I've always liked the Starter Orders series, especially 5. I enjoyed this version but don't like the commentary, the old version was much better. Also occasionally have a bug where a horse will clearly get a win/placing but the results will be incorrect.

Good

Horse

I like that you have mostly total control over your operation. From training, buying, selling and entering races. Don't like that you cannot scratch a horse from a race (not that I have found) if your horse isn't ready to race that day. The betting for other than "to win" is foreign to the US. We use Win, Place and Show. Easier to lose your money that way, I think. We also don't do many hurdles or have that many strangely built race tracks. And the Left hand racing is just normal for the US. Most are dirt or synthetic surfaces and I don't see many turf races shown here in the US. So, if you like horse racing and want to see what it would be like to own such an operation, this game is for you.

good fun if you like horse racing