What makes a better driving game? Realism or fantasy

 Better than fiction?

I'm holding off of stepping into the genuine question right off the bat here because I have to be clear and open: The racing/driving genre isn't exactly my forte. In fact, that's putting it lightly. I haven't been able to fully jump into or enjoy a single racing game to the fullest for a ludicrously long time, and even when I try to, I fail to latch onto that 'hook' which keeps the racing spirit alive for most of the driving game audience out there in the bustling community as it exists today. Maybe they just hail from a genre that fails to speak to me, that could very much be the case. But regardless I find myself fascinated by them and the developers who make them, because how could I not? They have the best peripheries, (those racing wheels and chairs always look so much fun) they have the most rapid fanbases, (You rarely here about new series entries underperforming) and their developers are typically some of the most detail-minded in the industry. (Either in technicals, visuals or sometimes even both) But there's always been one question that's bugged me, and that's what makes the better racing game; the one's that shoot for ultra realism, or those that embrace the silliness. I think both offer much to the player, so I'm going to have to break things down.

Mario Kart, or kart racers in general for that matter, certainly never try to hit you with the realism card at any point. And that's likely because they derive their very concept from the casual bumper karts attraction that you'd see in plenty of carnivals across the world but avoid because the lines were ridiculous. (seriously, I'd always seen them more packed than the roller coasters) So in hailing from an activity built for kids it makes sense that this genre of racer would be more kid oriented, but that doesn't mean they're not hugely competitive. In fact, Mario Kart's power-up weapons often makes it one of the most competitive racers you can play, because screwing up the opponent is an active decision on each player's part. There's a gladiatorial zeal from Mario Kart that speaks to the soul, deeply and personally, feeding upon our base desires of conquest. It's also an utterly bizarre and crazy game that uses it's source material to set stages upside down, in space and underwater. That's one thing that all Kart racers do well, utilise the world to make some of the interesting racing stages possible. No matter how much traditional racers take off, there may never be a racing track quite as iconic as the infamous Rainbow Road.

Speaking of traditional racers, how about I touch on Forza for the time being, as I've always considered their entries to be the pinnacle of such games. Of course, you could substitute this for any racing game out there that devotes insane amounts of resources to nailing the sounds, materials, tracks and everything else connected to the world of racing. Every new entry I'm blown away to see the miniscule details thrown in, adjustments to traction, distortion of engine noises, the impeccable gleam of the light off the hood, diffusion through the window pain, rain peppering the side mirror, it's as though the Forza developers are actively attempting to supplant reality with their attempts at recreating an unmatchable racing experience. Their dedication to accuracy is such, in fact, that during the height of the recent Pandemic, when no racing events could be held, Forza remained the one outlet through which Racers could continue their sport in exhibition matches. (It also allowed them to try out a newly constructed track which none of them had the chance to try out in real life yet.) If you want to feel like you're racing around in that car you've always seen from afar, Forza and it's ilk are the exact games for you, making them the ideal must-own for any and all car geeks out there.

But steering back towards the fantastical angle, (hah, unintended pun)who remembers the explosive 2010 action racing game Split/Second? (Known as 'Split/Second: Velocity' in Europe. likely to differentiate it from the 1992 movie that no one remembers. And which I know have to watch, it has Rutger Hauer in it.) Split/Second was an action movie distilled into a video game racing shell, complete with all the streaked out camera effects, overblown reaction cams and huge explosions. It aimed for realism in base presentation, but in gameplay it was all about wrecking you opponent in huge fireball incidents which, and lets be fair, probably kills them. You could lump this type of game in with Burnout and Flatout, for games where the sole purpose is carnage and destruction, with racing making for a fun afterthought. Damaging modelling and spectacle thrive in these types of racing games, and though none of it is realistic, do you really care when it's still blood pumping and adrenaline spiking all the same?

Bridging between those two sides of the issue we have Need for Speed, the racing game that looks impressively faithful to life at face value but has about as little interest in being 'realistic' as Mario Kart does. Typically focused around bringing big and powerful super cars to the hands of the sensibly-challenged, NFS has a tendency to air towards a style-over-substance approach to the overall package. Which is completely fine if all you want to do is feel cool for a little bit. Hitting top speeds and pulling of drifts allday, the purpose of Need for Speed is to serve as the racing genre's equivalent of a power trip, which it serves admirably making it a great entry point to racing games. In fact, the first racing game I ever played to completion was a Need for Speed. Although I wonder if their zeal might have faded off in the decades since the 90's, because that certainly does seem where their particular sense of 'presentation' was birthed from. Regardless, casual fans will always have time for a new NFS entry, as long as one get's made. (It's been a hot minute, hasn't it?) 

And then there's Driver. What is there to say about this game? Driver was a driving, crime drama game that, once upon a time, was looked on upon as a competitor to GTA. Perhaps its most lauded entry would be 'San Francisco' which abandoned any vague pretence to realism that the series might have flirted with through natural association of it's subject matter and celebrated bizarre surrealism instead. These developers took every opportunity they could think of to come up new and interesting situations for a car-themed racing title to go through, such to the extent that it remains one of the most unique games of it's type to this day. Jumping into the minds of other drivers in order to assist your main objective, or racing through a city of frozen pedestrians is just the tip of the iceberg. 'Driver: San Francisco' offered a glimpse at how truly diverse driving games could be if only they weren't so stringent, which would make it a must play if it was actually actively sold anymore. Which it isn't.

Finally there's the DiRT series, a collection of games themed around Rally racing across dirt roads and dedicated to nailing the feel of off-road racing as much as humanely possible. I actually remember the genesis of this series and way in which the big feature to blow as all away was the manner in which mud accumulated accurately on the rally cars chassis' as they roared over wet mud tracks. Since then they've really perfected those visuals and worked on bringing the physics and handling of various terrains to a degree of realistic replication. DiRT introduces a very atypical side of racing to gamers but with comparable levels of fidelity that you'd see from traditional racers, demonstrating how even when following the straight and narrow driving games can be different and distinct from one another.

Of course, my comparisons are slightly contrived as the genre of racing/driving games is big enough to satisfy all comers no matter what it is that they look for. And, naturally, the question of which approach yields the better game is subjective at best and asinine at worst; but what fun is it being part of a nerdy fandom if you can't host pointless and stupid death matches against oneself? Thus when I weigh up the benefits of the realistic approach against the fantasy approach, and taking into account this is my personal opinion, I have to say that more often than not realism equals a better end product. Perhaps that comes from a certain design ethos of the teams who make each respective game, put I just think it comes down to the fact that making a fantasy driving game epic requires unflinching creativity and dedication, whereas making a realistic racing game just requires dedication. It that an oversimplification? Undoubtedly. But it does look good under a summary, now doesn't it?

Gotta go fast!

"Ka-Chow!"- A sentient demon car

Today I decided to focus on something outside of my traditional wheelhouse; the ever-so-humble racing game. I'm usually a player who likes to take their time, as indicated by my favourite genre being; Stealth games, so you'd imagine that a game which tasks me with speeding about a course would the absolute opposite of fun to me. Not so, it would seem, as I always come back to the noble sport of racing now and then. Not that I'm good at it, oh no, but I always give it a shot whenever I get the opportunity. (Maybe it's the masochist in me.)

Games that simulate racing go back a long way in video gaming mythos, all the way to the original home console: Atari. (Discounting all those portable Pong machines that were developed.) Who remembers 1982's 'Pole Position'? It was an F1 racing game with some of the best graphics that the system had to offer, you can genuinely make out what the game is. I'm not even being facetious here, compare what this game had to offer to the original Mario Bros, the difference is night and day. (It seems that visual fidelity has always been a hallmark of racing games.)

I have always held a huge amount of respect for racing in videogames, when done right they can be some of the most creative games on the market. I suppose it comes from the need to differentiate oneself in amidst a library of seemingly identical games; You either become the best at making racing games, or pick one heck of a gimmick that people won't soon forget. I harbour love for both of these choices as even the roughest racing games can have some little charming glint that manages to touch my stoney heart.

Unlike modern sports games, the leaders in the racing market seem to actually dedicate passion behind their craft to amaze audiences with either ingenuity or fidelity. I suppose that is what attracts me to games like these without being a huge car nut myself; I'm just drawn in by the undeniable talent under the hood. Somehow, despite never definitively learning what it means to 'drive stick', I have developed a history with racing games throughout my gaming life, and therefore I have just enough incidental knowledge to take you through a few of my favourites from over the years.

When I mention having 'pride in your craft' I think that few games personify this as perfectly as the Forza franchise. Ever since 2005, Turn 10 Studios have been creating newer renditions of Forza Motorsport to wow the public. Each game, alongside all the the racing game industry leaders, manages to exploit the latest in tech to be one of the most beautiful games of their time, much in the same way that you find in system launch titles. The difference comes from the fact that system launch titles are generally more of a tech test, whilst Forza Motorsport never skimps out on the gameplay either, despite how tempting it must be to do so in the modern age. Nowadays, Forza games play like a more accessible racing Sim, with all the complexity and fidelity of a dedicated simulator mixed with the fantastic controls and handicap tools that one would expect from a pick up and play game.

Turn 10 have also spent their time working on the Forza Horizon spin off series since 2012. This is a game that is all about revelling in the beauty that comes from racing cars in some of the most visually arresting locations in the world (Like England! but mostly France, Australia and Colorado.) Horizon is certainly more of a game for hardcore car enthusiasts who want to spend their time taking screenshots of their favourite supercar plowing through a cornfield as the light hits in the perfect angle, but that core Forza codebase makes the game a blast to play for anyone. I have my own grips about the subtly insidious nature of the story behind the Horizon festival, (I'm not joking, but I'll get into in a dedicated blog.) but none of that takes away from the blind fun of a dedicated racing game.

Earlier I said how I like racing "Whenever I got the chance". Well, that isn't just in reference to my available play-time but to indicate that I will race whenever the game offers it. Many open world games have tried their hands at providing racing mini games, even when their driving mechanics may not be as solid as dedicated efforts. Grand Theft Auto has displayed some degree of racing in it, for years, ever since the original. (Although in that game you were racing against a time limit.) San Andreas was the first game to turn this into a fleshed out mode, however, even instituting a mini tournament in one city.

Other open world games have jumped into the mix since then. Sleeping Dogs has some great driving mechanics that work towards a street racing mini game for players to do when they're bored of slamming Triad members into fish tanks, Far Cry 3 and 4 (and probably 5, I haven't played it.) have some clock racing minigames that force you to dash around the map under some thinly veiled pretense of story; and Watch Dogs 2 manages to spice things up with go kart racing (Because apparently that's a thing in San Fransisco) and yatch racing, which certainly takes some patience to get to grips with.

Wait a minute, did I just mention go-karts? Well there is only one logical place to go from here, and that's to the world of Nintendo for their storied competitive racing game Mario Kart. Since 1992 Mario and his friends have been at the forefront of online racing games through their unique blend of fun imaginative map design and power-up based gameplay that has the potential to shift the balance of any race. Fans come back to this series time and time again for it's accessibility and timeless Mario style that is forever immune to the rest of the industry's death march towards fidelity.

And now I get to pull my wild card. On behalf of those wackier racing games that I mentioned earlier, as well as to pull a gaming deep cut, I direct you to one of my favourite PS1 games from back in the day; Micro Maniacs. In this game you played as one of several distinct racers (who, in hindsight, look somewhat horrific) that appear to be pintsized test tube monstrosities cooked up in some evil genius' lab. (I never followed the story.) In the vein of that premise that I may or may not have made up, the player is then tasked with racing across little 'mouse maze'-esque courses that have been built over table tops and work surfaces. This means that you'll spend your time dodging pencils and erasers as you hoard boasters and fire powerups to get ahead. My favourite element of all this, however, is the fact that the racers come without vehicles, the manics must run with their little spindly legs and a satisfying momentum mechanic to win out at the end of the day.

Racing games are one of those staples of gaming that's been around forever, and when you look at the games that the genre has produced, you can see why. Unlike some other genres' (Sport) racing games have never started to relent on quality and the pursuit of improvement. Although, that has meant that we have fewer wacky titles, (No more Split/Second or Burnout) it does mean that racing game fans are rarely without a high quality effort to sink their teeth into. I may not be the die hard racing fan that some others are, but I remain interested enough to follow with curiosity and a little bit of passion. Now, if you excuse me, I've just noticed that Red Dead Online has horse racing...