Video games are a form of art.
When a developer has a vision of what he or she wants to achieve they create a picture in their mind. It’s their talent that ultimately decides what the finished product will be but if they wish to sell then it is equally important to how they choose to display it to others.
I’m no artist and if I myself attempted to paint a picture then the final painting may not quite match up with the vision I had in my head at the start. But I can appreciate art and how it’s presented to me has a bearing on my final opinion on whether I like something or not.
There’s no doubt that initially the developers want nothing less than their artwork to be seen in best possible location in the gallery with the best possible lighting to show it off in a way that’s close to the original vision. So it’s surprising then that we see ACC here on current generation consoles.
All that hard work that goes into creating your masterpiece counts for little if the frame you eventually show it off In doesn’t do it justice.
And for me at least it’s the frame it’s in that that lets ACC down.
When driving solo around Misano in the 488 GT3 with the thunderous roar of the engine in my ears i found myself thinking about the person or persons that had created the virtual recreation of the track.
There’s no way that they would want their artwork displayed to me in a frame skipping, frame dropping, jumping mess.
They no doubt they poured hours into its creation and so it must hurt them to see it presented in such a way.
ACC has potential. It’s physics are up there with the best as are it’s engine sounds which are arguably the pinnacle of what we’ve ever heard on a console.
Graphically, if the title ran smooth it would match other similar titles. I’ve no doubt about that but unfortunately it doesn’t run smoothly at all, in any circumstance, regardless if there’s 20 cars on track or just me hot lapping at mid day without a cloud in the sky.
It’s this that lets it down. Sure there are those people that will tell you that we’re lucky to have it on current generation consoles and the FPS and graphics don’t really matter.
In my view it matters greatly. We’re sat in front of our screens trying to shave milliseconds off our lap times and all we have to go on is what we see, feel and hear.
Out of those what we see has the biggest effect on our experience our performance and ultimately our enjoyment of the game.
In the case of ACC the idea was great but it’s the way it’s finally been presented to us that lets it down. For sure it’s not what the developers intended so maybe there’s another reason why we see it on current generation hardware as opposed to next.
Maybe a patch will bring it up to its intended
30FPS in which case it will be perfectly playable like the many many 30FPS racing titles that have gone before it.
However in it’s current state this particular piece of art doesn’t run at 30FPS not a chance it’s locked at 30FPS anyway. It’s suffers from frame pacing issues with large jumps so in this case this particular piece of art seems to be let down by the quality of the frame it’s in which doesn’t seem to be up to the job.
However, other titles with complex physics and detailed graphics run perfectly fine on this generation of console so maybe the engine the game was built on is the issue.
Unless a patch is released I’m unsure if this a game I will persevere with which will likely mean that my wallet will stay tucked firmly in my pocket when the DLC drops in the autumn. For now I’m sticking with it but it’s frustrating with the frame pacing issues.