{"id":5670,"date":"2010-03-29T10:16:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T08:16:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T22:00:00","slug":"racing-simulators-suck-here-s-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/5670-racing-simulators-suck-here-s-why","title":{"rendered":"Racing Simulators Suck: Here\u2019s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

As usual, the opinions expressed in this column are the author’s alone, and do not reflect those of MyGaming<\/em><\/p>\n

In the world of video games, there is one genre that is sharply divided between two opposites that are alike in name only. They both feature racing, to be sure, but the Simulator’s insistence on accurate vehicle physics, handling responsiveness and attention to detail stands in stark contrast to the Arcade’s reliance on over the top handling, insane drifting and sheer speed. Both feature vehicles and racing, but there can only be one which stands as the leader in the genre.<\/p>\n

That leader, to anyone with a brain at least, is the Arcade Racer. Allow me to enlighten you.<\/p>\n

There are more Arcade Racers out than Simulators<\/strong><\/p>\n

A hallmark of a good quality title, is that it actually exists. When we look at one of the biggest Simulators in the business, Gran Turismo 5, it is conspicuous absent from my Blu-Ray drive. The game doesn’t even have a proper release date yet. And yet, there is a multitude of Arcade racers out and available to play. Burnout Paradise, TrackMania, Midnight Club, Juiced and the multitude of Need for Speed titles are just some titles that you can play right now.<\/p>\n

Some will argue that Forza 3, Project Gotham Racing, the Colin McRae series and Race Driver: GRID are also all available to play, but even Wikipedia says the latter three they are “semi-simulation-style racing games”, which “stand in the middle of the spectrum”, and Forza 3 is classified as a “Racing role playing game”.<\/p>\n

Simulators are Boring<\/strong><\/p>\n

If I wanted to control a car that has realistic physics and handling, with amazing graphics, I would go and drive my car around the block a few times. It would be the most accurate, real driving experience I could have. And let’s face it; realistic driving simulators are about one step away from   Traffic Jam: The Game, where you have to fight through rush hour traffic to get to an important interview on time. No thanks.<\/p>\n

More Arcade Racers are being made than Simulators<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s do some logic and maths. Good games sell well; I think we can all agree on that. Therefore, good games are more likely to be developed, because they will then sell well, and developers and publishers want that. So, we can make the assumption that all developers are working on good games. And how many big-name Arcade simulators can you name off the top of your head that are being worked on? I can name four different ones, Blur, Split\/Second, ModNation Racers and Need for Speed World, but I’m sure there are more. In contrast, there is only Gran Turismo 5 on the horizon for the Simulator fans, and as proven above, this means that Arcade Racers are four times more awesome than Simulators. You really can’t argue with the math.<\/p>\n

Arcade Racers sometimes have weapons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Weapons! What more is there to say? Making other people crash, get crushed, blow up and roll, flip, spin and generally wipe out is so much more fun when the violence is over-the-top and caused by a missile or mine deployed from your very own car? If you still have doubt, see my second point.<\/p>\n

Arcade Racers have such cool names<\/strong><\/p>\n

Split\/Second. Burnout Paradise. Blur. Need for Speed. Midnight Club. All these names sound cool, dangerous and a little edgy (Midnight Club sounds like some drug dealing syndicate). If you compare them to the realistic Simulation games, you got boring stuff like people’s names, numbers, the word racing and some licensed dreck that is sure to make a poor video game.<\/p>\n

Simulators are licensed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some may see this point as a negative; but in-game cars are so much better when you’re not examining them rigorously for differences and similarities to their real life counterparts. I’d prefer to skip all that eye-straining toil and just race into something that’s fun, crazy and over the top.<\/p>\n

For all those still unconvinced and adamant in your misplaced Simulator faith, I’ll make sure to spare a thought for you while you wait for Gran Turismo 5 (if it ever launches) while I’m enjoying playing Blur and Split\/Second.<\/p>\n

Discuss racing simulators<\/a> in the forums<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Arcade Racers are blatantly better than Realistic Racing Simulators<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}