[snip]
As a player with PS/2, N64 (remember them!) and a small PC based network all
for playing racing sims & games I'd like to comment.
On the face of it, I'd agree with your comments, as what is now often touted
as a ground breaking sim is more an arcade game with deformable cars. This
is a shame, as for many of us the only chance we're going to get to drive
motorsport cars is inside a few hundred /$'s worth of kit...
The reason I see this slide is due to two reasons:
1. Like it or not, there's a sizeable majority that don't have the budget or
inclination to invest in quality PC gear, so revert to consoles. And the
nature of console *** is turn on, disk in, and go... This get-up-and-go
culture can be seen in mainstream motorsport television, adverts everywhere
in a race where anything might happen at any time. If the average consumer
was unhappy with this, there would be a change. Anyway, playing an in-depth
racing sim on a console puts the unit outside of it's comfort zone. By
this, I mean that for a game like GT3 (arguably the best sim on a PS/2) to
really get into it you've got to invest the value of two games to get a good
quality steering wheel. Then you've either got to get it set up in your
living room or have another TV... The case against having something in depth
and complex that takes hours to get into (even GT3 was easy to get started)
just can't be made, after all, who wants to miss their favourite TV program
because of some race game - except me! ;o)
2. I believe that the standard of sim racing games has been raised so high
that developers would rather introduce a gimmick into their more lax racing
game and try and sell that rather than try and break into an almost closed
market. What I mean by this is that NFSHP2 could quite easily done without
helicopters dropping bombs (good as that may be) or, waste of all wastes,
Shox - this game has one of the best rally car line-ups I've ever seen, and
it's blatantly an arcade game, complete with boosts and power-ups (yugh).
I know I'm treading on hallowed ground by bringing GT3, GPL & SCGT into it
(I love them all dearly) but as a development company, the risk of going
head to head with games of this calibre, and this level of following would
weigh heavily against putting out some novelty factor and selling that.
Better to push to the large percentage of gamers who want to crash out after
a days work and be entertained by something whacky happening.
Having said all this, there are luckily some exceptions on the PS/2 &
probably out on the PC which should rock the boat a little:
TOCA Race Driver (with the "Sim" & "Damage" codes in and on) - Even this has
some questionable feedback on the steeringwheel when using one.
This game has some drawbacks, such as short races and a certain amount of
float on the steering, but for race thrills and tactical driving it's one of
the best!
CMR3 - Here's hoping, but it is being touted as a Focus WRC sim. Some
reports look good, some say it's too arcady.
Interestingly EVO mag did a review of WRC when it was released, and in that
they said that they'd had to reduce the length of the stages (too long for
most), widen the tracks and dumb down the physics of the Imprezza so that it
was driveable by the more average person... And what makes it worse, is that
in making that game they gave feedback to Prodrive on the cars setup as the
had a car model that was that accurate!
Personally I'd like to have had the option to turn on sim handling on every
driving game, and maybe that's the way forward (like TOCA RD), appealing to
a broader audience.
Anyway, enough rambling. Happy driving!
Regards,
AndyC
