Racing Games in the Current Age: Optimistic or Fighting a Losing Battle?

Terronium-12

Terronium-12

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I've tackled this subject and its many possible facets multiple times before in the Rewind of old, but I've never particularly opened up the topic for actual debate and discussion; which is precisely what I'm going to do now.

To preface, what is it that attracts one to a racing game? Is it wanting a virtual recreation of the pride and joy vehicle that you drive on a daily basis? To prepare for an event in the real world? Or is it simply the opportunity to do what one feels they'd never be able to do (without sufficient circumstance) in the real world?

A more riveting thought is this: what if it's none of the above? What if it's simply the endless chase of finding that one game, that one developer, that one moment that can, without fail, recreate that feeling when you played through the game responsible for the initial interest in the first place? It is entirely possible that the current age of racing games falls short of high expectations because many of us are still attached to what racing games used to be.

A great number of us grew up playing racing games and with that comes a natural attachment to the way a world was recreated and presented to us, and a perfect example of this is Gran Turismo 2. For many, GT2 had it all and then some, a fantastic soundtrack, a wealth of variety, plenty of tracks, events that you felt compelled to run multiple times just to obtain the one car you wanted, and most importantly it had an identity and didn't divert away from that identity. In the grand scheme of things however, it was a never-ending grind that simply did not come across as such.

Why is that?

Gran Turismo 2 stands as the pinnacle of the series, a point in time where the game was exactly that - a game; it wasn't outright attempting to serve as a portal, a breakthrough in to the real world of motorsport. It took on enough to serve its purpose and left your mind to wonder what could come next. Now, it seems almost commonplace for racing games to be built using this almost stereotypical archetype that it must blur the lines of what's real and what isn't as much as possible, to engage in partnerships with governing bodies of the motorsport world to bring challenges racers would compete in in real-life to your living room, to obtain as much "data" from tire, suspension, and engine manufacturers to simulate the entire experience of any one vehicle as closely as possible and to give you an experience unlike anything in the past.

Make no mistake, advancements are inevitable and are simply the nature of the beast, however, as a result "fun" is often at the discretion of individual interpretation and not as an absolute, and a video game, in any medium, should be fun first and foremost. Shouldn't it?

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Consider this a unique conversation in the sense that you don't have my entire viewpoint, therefore having to form an opinion based only on what's available and extrapolate from there. I'll update this post again on Friday and every two days thereafter until it's completed.

Discuss!
 
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I guess this all depends on what is believed to be the right path for racing games to move forward in. Currently studios have been going the graphics and/or physics route, of course. I think this is a huge problem that leaves all of them lacking in the actual game play department. I could excuse something like the Forza Horizon series, and probably Need for Speed in general but they've been doing their own thing for quite some time. Any other game is basically a track-day, which in a fair light isn't that bad but not enough. Basically, from my standpoint the measuring contest between Forza-GT and PC (Assetto, PCARS) games is ruining the racing genre. It's good to have games likes GRID and DriveClub around, they know how to make a racing game.
 
I've always loved cars and a good race, even before playing games so that's out for me. Considering that from my very limited experiences Super Mario Kart is about the only actual RACING game I've played, I'll leave earlier gaming alone.

As for the current, in short I'm as pessimistic that another genuinely great racer will come to us ever AS ever. In long...*sigh*...please don't ban me for the following awful thought processes.

The biggest problem I see right now is that there is no cohesion within the genre. There are more wars within the racing genre, and lets put the 'driving' genre in here as well for various reasons, but more wars, battles, and conflicts have been seen in the "action-adventure" genre, the United States with a war on everything except war, and the continent of Africa combined. Trying to get a cohesive effort in the genre feels like standing dead center of a Mexican standoff involving a million people...or getting the elected officials in the US to work together. And the separations aren't small, arcade people and sim people live on different planets altogether, and you can go down the list and prune people into continents, nations, etc. Don't get me wrong, there are some good "racing" and driving games out there, but because of all these divisions, the one thing that falls through the floor...of the ocean...is genuinely good racing. Want to see bits of this, take three headache pills, then go look at the "Suggestions" for GT. I swear I've seen every feature from every other game ever made at some point hanging around here, and for the life of me, even with the arguments on GT5 and 6 AI, I sit here and think to myself," This doesn't change the racing that much, if at all.". I'm certain someone has said something profound, but it's all lost in the endless noise. That said, the best games I know for racing, and this is single player only, are GRID, DiRT 2, DiRT 3, and NASCAR Thunders 2003 and 2004.



.....Wait a second. Those are also in my top 10 overall. No GT games here though....and that is because while good racing games, most aren't that great for racing.
 
I like the idea of this thread. Personally, I play racing games because they create incredible scenarios and events that only this type of genre could provide. There's not many genres that can provide you with the overwhelming sense of achieving that racing does. My first example of this is actually a far-out choice but a stand-out none the less. WipEout HD Fury was an insanely difficult game to play and master, the amount of hours required to reach the top players in the world was just maddening but the absolute spot-on physics kept me going back and back. With it being unique as an anti-gravity racer(a genre that has very much 'lost the battle') the controls and mechanics were absolutely sublime, just when you hit your skill barrier there would be an epithany that made you go 'so THATS where I'm weak' and bang, the process of finding the fastest lines started again.

400 hours playing time later, I've never felt such joy as I blasted my opponents and previous lap times off the track. The crowning moment for me was getting a 13th in the world, behind 12 good friends I had forged bonds with in my pursuit of excellence. Realistic sims offer a totally different approach to time-spent equalling reward but the motive is the same. Learn, learn, learn and achieve. There's a truth to the battling within the genre because for as long as sim-elitests ignore how technical arcade titles can be, they will never prosper and neither will niche sim titles.

There are casual racing games for sure, but I would gladly challenge anyone who thinks that the only racing games worth their salt are sims to try and become a top class player at SEGA Rally, WipEout, Mario Kart 8, Driveclub or the like. There are plenty of video games that share a common concept, and I believe the pull in racing games is that you get to re-learn and get the feeling of reward over and over again each game with a new mechanic comes out. For example, I had a go of the Ride demo on PS4 and at first I was totally miffed and confused but 2 laps in I suddenly grasped the game and stopped trying to play it like a regular racing game. Low and behold, it was fantastic fun. If this genre is to survive; the fans themselves need to remeber that diversity is not a bad thing.
 
I play racing games mostly because I will never get to drive 95% of those cars, or even see them on the street or at an auto show. I haven't played a true racing game in a while (I don't count GTA V as a racing game, although some will disagree), but racing games are very appealing to me because it's so exciting to get the perfect lap or win a difficult race. I like to learn where I make my mistakes and improve upon them. Then there's the small things, like being able to push a stock Mazda Miata flat-out through Schwedenkreuz on the Nürburgring (I swear, it never gets old) or making a risky, yet satisfying pass.
 
One of the most important things to consider is physics, IMO. Arcade or simulation, physics are best when they're intuitive, with a clear sense of cause-and-effect and enough flexibility to effectively navigate all possible circumstances within the game. My first racing game to really exemplify that quality would probably be the original F-ZERO, which taught me about oversteer and the racing line at an early age.

On that note, if there's anything wrong with racing games today, it's that too many racing games want to be "simcade", with mixed results. Believable handling manners in an accessible arcade-style game is a good thing, but a crude/arcade-y physics engine that's "realistically" demanding or punishing is just an annoyance. There's a lack of pure arcade experiences, which has directly inspired indie efforts like Drift Stage and The '90s Arcade Racer.

Also, the biggest names in the genre have become complacent in terms of game design, or are struggling because reasons. Polyphony Digital can't seem to get a grip on things, and Turn 10 seems content to pump out the same old formula over and over again. Mario Kart 8, as sublime and polished as its gameplay may be, is rather basic in terms of what it offers. PC sims that aren't iRacing tend to be directionless sandboxes that lean on mod support for content. Codemasters is having a rough time, Need for Speed is past its expiration date, and Ridge Racer is dead.

I'm not necessarily saying that we're in a bad place now. Thanks to the industry's growth spurt in the '00s, I think everything is better than it's ever been because there are so many options, including the rise of indie games, which have been quietly filling the holes left by major publishers. The problem right now is waiting for indie racing games -- like Drift Stage, The '90s Arcade Racer, FAST: Racing Neo, Project CARS -- to actually materialize...
 
I have to agree with Wolfe. To me, the best NFS (4, Hot Pursuit 2, HP10) had intuitive arcade handling, where there was a consistency to your inputs. The Run, Most Wanted and Rivals physics are wishy-washy and unsatisfactory. If an arcade games feel good, I'm more than happy to play them.

I'm more inclined to Forza these days and with the introduction of Horizon, we now have an open road game with decent physics and this is a good thing. I also look forward to Ride, because after nearly a decade, it's about time there was a new game in the Tourist Trophy, which is so good I keep my PS2 to play it to this day. In short, I think it's a great time to be a racing game fan, possibly the second golden era after a lean Noughties period.
 
I tend to play racing games to just simply kick back with my favourite cars that I simply wouldn't get to drive. I don't care about gaining the perfect lap times or playing for days on end to try and get into some silly competition to become a real racing driver.

WARNING: Unpopular opinion inbound - The problem I see with simulator racing games, is that as the developers strive for more realism in terms of physics and graphics, many racing games have lost the charm that they had in the earlier generations and simply don't have the main factor that makes us play games in the first place: fun. I think Project Cars will probably do well when released, but it looks completely soulless and doesn't have any sort of character to it that'll make it fun. Yes, evolutions in realism are a good thing for sim games, but sometimes it feels more satisfying to divulge in a bit of fantasy racing every now and again, no matter how unrealistic it may seem.


This is why I'm leaning back towards arcade games like Driveclub because they help give a feeling of escapism where you can take your favourite hot hatch/sports coupe/super/hypercars for a drive through your favourite locations. The Crew also gives a feeling of satisfaction for taking a road trip from Miami to Seattle in a muscle car tuned for off-road use.

I feel that the in-fighting between sim-or-nothing fans and more casual fans with a broader interest in both arcade and sim games is absolutely idiotic and is driving the community apart when fans turn against each other in a place where they are supposedly united with a common interest. People need to stop taking their favourite racing games so seriously and think about what they're saying to people of another racing game who might not agree with their opinion.

I'd rather see a racing game community united together for the genre than seeing said community split up into different racing areas due to the massive amount of in-fighting.
 
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The current state of racing games is pretty good IMO, the only issue is that on Current-Gen consoles they are very limited (Especially on PS4). What attracts me to a racing game is how fun it is. If a game feels fun doing hot laps in a Mini Cooper then I will play that over a game that isn't fun driving a Formula 1 car. I love games like Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport because they have the perfect balance of realism AND fun while simulators and arcade racers go in separate directions. I do like playing sims like rFactor but I would much rather play Gran Turismo or Forza. Games like Need For Speed and Forza Horizon are on the other side where they are less realistic and, usually, more fun. Now, onto what I think of modern racers.

ARCADE

Arcade racing are primarily focused on fun, but it seems these games are focusing on graphics over gameplay. They are still very fun. The car lists are sizable and usually comprise of street cars, ranging from the Honda Civic to the Bugatti Veyron The pinnacle for these games, IMO, is stuff like Need For Speed Most Wanted, Test Drive Unlimited and Burnout.

SIM-CADE

This is the middleground between Sim and Arcade. This is where the likes of Gran Turismo and Forza currently are. They are made to be realistic and focus mainly on high performance street cars, which means they stay fun due to the huge car variety. They are made to give you a huge number of cars and tracks and go collect them, tune them up and race them to earn more Credits to earn more cars and win more races. The cars range from the Vauxhall Corsa to the Audi R18 LeMans Prototype. The career modes are similar, with the player starting in low end cars an working up to the high end race cars. The pinnacle of these games are Forza Motorsport 4 and Gran Turismo 4.

SIM RACERS

These are the pinnacle of realism, with hugely complicated physics engines and a small car an track list compared to other titles. While GT and Forza ask you to collect and tune a huge number of cars, sims ask you to choose a small number of cars, and perfect them on as many tracks as possible. The car lists usually comprise of racing cars, with small numbers of road cars available in some titles. The cars go from the Ford Focus RS to a Modern Formula 1 car. The career modes usually follow a championship or a racing career. The pinnacle of these games are GTR2, rFactor, Assetto Corsa and Project CARS.

CONCLUSION

Racing games are good and getting better. They keep looking better and feeling better. They are a always huge fun to play and the only downside is that not many are available in this generation of consoles, yet.
 
I've updated the first post with more of the article. I'll chime in with the discussion at hand later on today.
 
To me it's really quite simple. Basically there are 3 key ingredients I look for in any racing game:

Cars + Tracks/Location + Physics

Everything else added is a bonus. However, a game can nail the 3 above factors and still fail if it doesn't have a unifying factor. It's the reason we all play games in the first place: FUN

I started gaming with the PS1 generation. GT1 and GT2 were the initial spark for my passion for cars and racing in general. 80% of my time were probably devoted to those 2 games. However, I also enjoy a wide variety of other racing/driving games. As long as it has a car on the cover, I'd buy it. NFS, Test Drive, Ridge Racer, TOCA, Colin McRae, Driver, F1, NASCAR, Hot Wheels, CTR and even Twisted Metal. You name it, I got it. Those games were simple and didn't have much content compared to games of today, but most importantly they were engaging and FUN. I'm not looking through rose tinted glasses here because I still give those games a spin every once in a while. Still puts a smile on my face like it did 10 years ago :)

I skipped the PS2 generation and dabbled a bit with PC. This was the era of NFS Underground/Most Wanted/Carbon/Prostreet. I also played an old sim called Viper Racing and got introduced to the concept of "modding". Games were still FUN and because of the simplicity the amount of user generated content was enormous in that era. So far so good :)

Then around 6 years ago I welcomed the PS3 generation. GRID and Burnout Paradise instantly got me hooked. IMO those 2 games are still in the top 3 best racing game on the PS3. Ridge Racer 7 and NFS Undercover was lukewarm for me. Looking back now I could see that this was probably the start of the downfall for those 2 franchises. I played a smattering of other games while waiting for the BIG ONE: GT5. The hype surrounding the release was insane back in 2010, it's like the second coming of Jesus or something. Then the game dropped. Having missed GT3 and GT4, I was very impressed with GT5 initially. For 3 years I don't think the GT5 disc ever left my PS3. So the fun is still going strong in the early PS3 gen.

During those 3 years when I was completely oblivious to other games the landscape changed. There were still good games coming out (DIRT 2/3, NFS HP 2010, MW 2012 and I even enjoyed Blur and Split/Second). But on the whole the genre was getting stale. Because of the increased development complexity most devs just recycles cars and tracks from previous games and slapped together a rushed career mode around it. Codemasters, EA and Polyphony are all guilty of this. And don't forget releasing unfinished games with numerous bugs at launch. The increasing monetization of games with day 1 DLC, microtransactions and season passes also made me sick of console games in the last few years. Even GT6 only managed to hold my attention for half a year. Then came the announcement that PS4 will not support Logitech. And the borked launch of Driveclub and poor reviews of The Crew. I was quite close to giving up on gaming altogether. It no longer feels fun :indiff:

One day out of curiosity I decided to try PC again. I've heard of Simbin and rFactor throughout the years, but never paid them any attention. So I got their games, plus RBR and GSCE for good measure. I also know that AC and PCARS was coming, but my PC isn't strong enough to run them, so I got these old games as a "tester" to see if I'm willing to invest in a new PC. And damn it was the best decision ever. The driving on PC is on a whole other level. Plus the amount of mods available...the sky is the limit really. Suddenly the FUN is back :D I'm saving up for my first gaming PC now, and by the end of the year I'm hoping to run AC and PCARS with everyone else :D

TLDR: Consoles were my gateway to discovering the world of cars, racing and gaming, but for one reason or another the devs have lost their spark amidst the increasing commercialisation of gaming. I'm grateful to them for the memories from the past, but I feel that in the moment the golden era of racing has shifted to PC (for sims at least). Arcade and simcade markets are a bit rough at the moment, as NFS and Codemasters are having trouble reinventing themselves and none of the new players seem established yet (Forza Horizon is probably the most promising, but it's not multiplatform). Will console racing games ever recapture their glory days? I don't know. In many ways I feel the PS4 generation is a transitional era and how devs handle games this generation will determine the path for the future. Maybe PC and consoles will even become one in the future, what's with Steam and Alienware Alpha blurring the lines already. Whatever it is, as long as new cars are being made and races are still being run in the real world, I think it's safe to say racing games will always find a way survive 👍
 
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In my humblest of opinions, a racing game that focuses only on how realistic it can be without focusing on actually making those features appealing isn't one I'll spend a wealth of time with, innovative or otherwise.

I'm realizing there isn't much I can actually contribute without going into song and dance, which would in turn make the entire point of this thread redundant, i.e. I'd be saying here what I'm saying in the first post.

I'd think it's best if I set out until after I've written out the entire viewpoint. :P
 
BKGlover
.....Wait a second. Those are also in my top 10 overall. No GT games here though....and that is because while good racing games, most aren't that great for racing.
Click to expand...

I'd like to amend this bit and add that while they may not be great for racing straight up, GT1 and GT2 are just so much fun I can go back to them anyways. Fun is essential, but I still feel that rock-solid racing goes a long way toward making a game fun.
 
I play on console but the truth is console racing has gone so stale.
PC in the over hand has a wealth of old and new games. Both sim and arcade. The beauty about PC is people can make a game they love and not worry about needing large sales. As result the racing on PC is large and diverse. Then add mods and you can make a old game feel like new.

Ultimately I think much of this issue comes down to the expense of making a video game. Devolpers in this day and age can't afford for a game to flop as result they take less risks. This has meant many Indies now do the innovating.
 

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