| Out of curiosity, what do you feel the differences are between a
| racing GAME and SIM?
Racing sims are programs that attempt to model actual performance,
Race protocol, and opponent characterisitics.
Racing "games" or "arcades" take full liberty to ignore actual car
characteristics, race protocol, and opponent characteristics in order
to maximize features like "sense of speed" and "the adrenaline rush"
possible in the illusion of racing. Arcades tend to do away with less
exciting stuff like yellow flags, detailed car-setups, innate car
instabilities, potentially big leads, etc.
In terms of use, the sad fact is that people who favor arcade racing
games tend to hate sims, finding them to be "boring", with complaints
like "it seems slow", "car setups are tedious", "it is too easy to
crash", "the car is too hard to keep stable on the road", "too hard to
pass", "too hard to catch opponents", etc. In general, I think they
would say they are just "too much work."
As a sim fan, the main reason I don't use arcade games is that (for
me) they lack the sort of depth that would keep me interested in them
for more than 1/2 hour. I also am a racing fan, and it is extremely
interesting to race simulated tracks that you actually watch as a
racing fan, and to get a feel for just how complex and difficult, and
yes, even occasionally tedious (like when you spin and the field
passes you, never to be seen again for the rest of the race) actual
racing can be.
Lastly, an interesting fact I've noticed about sims versus arcade
racers is that the sims actually improve my real driving. In fact, it
is known than some NASCAR drivers actually use the Papyrus NASCAR sim
to stay sharp on aspects of individual tracks, and Jacques Villeneuve
made a statement this past summer indicating he used GP2, and that is
was possible in some part responsible for his success on several
tracks he'd never raced before.
Anyway, the *only* reason I bought a PSX was because the sim F1 by
Psygnosis came out, and the only other software I've felt obliged to
buy for it since was NASCAR. It was sorth the money, and I hope the
new arrival of sims is a trend.
BTW, I'd consider Andretti racing a "sim", but it has some pretty
basic interface problems (like not being able to calibrate analog
input devies); I was dissapointed with that, it looked pretty good.
