Edge Feature: Is Racing Gaming On Its Last Lap? - The makers of PGR, MotorStorm, Sega Rally and Dirt tell all

MK_Red - 659 days 10 hours ago

I don't know about them but 2008 is already showing the promise to become one of the best years for racing. It started with excellent Burnout Paradise and the sequel to the biggest racing game of all time, GT5 is coming out along with the stunning RaceDriver GRID. Let's not forget about MotorStorm 2 or the new series, Pure.

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name - 659 days 10 hours ago

This article is full of fail.

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edonus - 659 days 9 hours ago

Racing games arent ineresting enough thats all. They are competing aagainst new genres that can stretch as far as mind can go. Wheres the Bioshock of racing games? If they want to compete they need to start thinking outside the box. For instance if I were to design a racing game I would make it Cannon ball run style. The main game would be based around long races maybe through realistic cities and you would have to keep track of your gas and how your engine uses it. Imagine how crazy that would be if you just took of on somebody but you know you gotta refuel with in the next 50 miles so youre looking for the closes station so you can try an maintain your lead, or how someone will be kicking there self when the car they chose was a fast gas guzzler and need constant refueling. Throw some cops in there trying to stop you here and there and there you have it.

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Animal Mutha 76 - 659 days 9 hours ago

hmmm

I mean from a next gen perspective I think things have moved forward along with other genres and we racers are spoilt for choice. The best games I have are mainly racers. I never had so much choice when I was PC only. TOCA race driver and GTR being the best. Although Grand Prix legends has a special place in my hard drive.

My case:

Forza - The best physics simulation in any racing game IMO. Online is a blast. Highly customisable game.
PGR3/4 - Evolutions graphics wise and a solid damage model in PGR4. Again strong online. Massive single player.
DIRT - Fantastic graphics, Highly detailed damage model but online sucked. great choice of vehicles - I mean the Buggy's common!
Test Drive U - Not the strongest graphics but the most massive sandbox play area, great sounding motors and evil online duels.
GT5/p - promising the best graphics but the rest remains to be seen.

What we need is a racer that combines all of the strengths that these games have - graphics,damage,online,customi zation,lots of vehicles, large play area/tracks. If a racer came along that did everything the above games did then we petrolheads would probably sell our souls to get it and never venture outside again.

I really hope that GT5 pushes the genre forward and I'm not just talking about the graphics. All the polygons in the world are no good If you can play bumper cars off the railings whilst doing 200mph backwards in a Skoda.

Racing mostly is about A-B the quickest so the whole career/tournament/stage/drifti ng/hillclimb thing isn't likely to change that much unless F1 suddenly adopts bonus points for who can ram Fernando (bad loser) Alonso into a wall with the most style.

Edit - I forgot to mention Race Driver Grid. Given how good Dirt was I am expecting this to be the suprise racer of the year. Them codies sure know how to make a racer.

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devi8i - 659 days 8 hours ago

The last Need for Speed sucked! Thats why it didn't do well. PGR4 was far superior to PGR3. In fact PGR3 left such a bad taste in gamer's mouths that they passed on PGR4...although all true racing fans should pick it up. Dirt is great, and Paradise is amazing. GT5 is definetly going to be a must buy.... I think this article is totally wrong. I what appeals to the average gamer is having an arcade racer, as opposed to the simulators that we have seen lately. Most gamers want to jump in and race around for a while bumping off corners and other cars with total disregard for physics and damage. I believe if we llok at sell numbers we would notice that arcade racers generally outperform sim racers handily in teh money department

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Leathersoup - 659 days 5 hours ago

Whoever wrote this article obviously is not a racing fan.

As long as their is somewhere to go, As long as there is virtual gas in the tank, As long as there is a vehicle waiting to be played like a musical instrument, I'll be ready to play a symphony.

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Cyrus365 - 659 days 3 hours ago

I don't think it's saying Racing titles is DEAD, but rather it's not drawing as well as it use to, and people seem to be atleast over here into the Shooters, that have a story line, as well as good online play.

Like for example back in the day before shooters were super popular on PC, RTS games were a huge boon, there use to be like 100's of RTS games and clones coming out, now how many can you say have come out C&C, Supreme command, AOE III,

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LeShin - 659 days 3 hours ago

I remember the day I bought Gran Turismo 3 (for £70 quid!!! Japanese import) It was like an event in itself. When I saw those graphics on my tv screen, that was it. I played that game to death. Completed 98% of it endurance races and all.......with my joypad.

Here's the thing...

After completing that game, I thought I would not buy a Gran Turismo game again since I felt extremely burnt out from GT3. It just got boring. I got GT4 as a present from a girlfriend and that thing sat in it's case for a year and a bit! But something happened after that period......I got the Driving Pro Wheel then EVERYTHING changed! Could not stop playing GT4 after I connected the wheel up, it was like playing an entire new game. When I got the GT HD demo on my PS3, my dad saw it in passing and wanted a go....played it for a week continuously (had to kick him off) EVEN my mum wanted a go at xmas when she came round........she's 60!

Then I realised something. Do you remember the feeling when you first saw those racing games at your local arcade with the force feedback steering wheel and the enclosures? That's the feeling most people get when they play any racing game with a similar home set-up, it just adds about 80% to the fun factor, whether it's an arcade game or simulation. The dev's are right, most casual gamers would not fork out for a steering wheel, but if they did I know racing game sales would easily pick up.
After I got my HD TV & surround sound tallboy speakers, I'm in racing paradise lol

Going to buy the G25 wheel in two weeks :)

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