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Racing Games Too Fast, Furious For U.S.?

Posted by simoniker on from the rally-too-many-rally-games dept.

An anonymous reader writes "FiringSquad just posted an interesting article called 2 Fast 2 Furious For The U.S., discussing the Japanese releases of Gran Turismo Concept and World Rally Championship 2 Extreme for PS2. It's pretty interesting, since these are two games that haven't been scheduled for a U.S. release yet, despite having solid predecessors." Seems like we'll never see GT Concept in the States, despite a European release (wonder why?), and if WRC 2 Extreme can make it through the surfeit of rally titles currently clogging U.S. bargain bins, it should be a worthy buy.

9 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. It's not NASCAR! by macdaddy357 · · Score: 4, Funny

    We'uns here in the you-notted states don't like real complimicated racin' games. We'uns likes NASCAR! Mash down on the loud pedal and turn left. Yeehah!

    --
    How ya like dat?
    1. Re:It's not NASCAR! by Otter · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Well, that's what I was thinking. I have little interest in racing or gaming (and zero in racing games) but it seems like:

      1)NASCAR is wildly dominant in the US compared to open-wheel and rally racing and the emphasis on drafting and metal-bending passes doesn't translate as well into a game.

      2) 16-24 year olds in the US are much more likely to own, or at least have access to a reasonably fast car than are their counterparts in Asia and much of Europe. Plus the US offers plenty of opportunities to drive fast that Japanese only get in Hokkaido at 3 am.

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    2. Re:It's not NASCAR! by Guppy06 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "16-24 year olds in the US are much more likely to own, or at least have access to a reasonably fast car than are their counterparts in Asia and much of Europe."

      Just to expand on this, this is why I'm not all that fond of racing video games to begin with. Being a USAian, I've been driving enough to know what it really feels like to operate a car under different conditions, and flashy graphics and a subwoofer alone will never be a substitute. Racing video games require you to pay much more attention to video and audio cues to keep track of your condition in an attempt to compensate for fact that you're not actually in the car, feeling its motion. For example, gamers need to pay attention to things like the speedometer and listen for screeching tires in a turn to make sure they don't try to go through it too fast. Drivers in a real car, on the other hand, would feel the drive wheels starting to break loose before even thinking to look at the speedometer (and away from other traffic). In many ways, driving in video games is harder than the real thing.

    3. Re:It's not NASCAR! by zero_offset · · Score: 2, Informative
      I actually race Vipers on an almost-monthly basis and I have to disagree with you. I love the tiny, tiny handful of well-done racing games (of which I think Project Gotham is probably the best by leaps and bounds, and yes I've played the hell out of the Grand Turisimo series). It's possible to create a fairly realistic driving game, but it's difficult.

      Plain and simple: Under real racing conditions, if you're driving by feel, you're going to crash. Feel does play into it (an F1 driver recently said the two most important instruments were his eyes and his ass), but probably 99% of your most important input is visual cues. Hitting turns correctly requires a lot of setup which has to be done quite a long time before you get anywhere close to the turn itself.

      Based on his subsequent explanation, much of what the F1 driver had in mind was using feel to monitor the car's "health," which is mostly ignored in current video game racing titles (other than vague performance degradation from accident damage in certain games).

      I can see how you'd feel that way from regular street driving, but regular street driving isn't what the games are trying to simulate...

      --

      Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005

  2. Rally Games by NeuroKoan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As a rally game fanatic, I'll tell you why WRC 2 Extreme is desired in the States...

    Its the only rally game offically licenced by the FIA and the WRC. Sure, games like CMR3 and V-Rally have licenced various cars, WRC2 is the only one with all the drivers and all the cars from the World Rally Championship.

    Well, that doesn't really mean much for gameplay, now does it. It will be tough to knock CMR3 off its pedestal.

    --

    "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation."
  3. Licensing issues... by neostorm · · Score: 3, Informative

    Licensing issues are most likely why these games will never see the light of day here.
    This may be a ficticious memory or a past rumor, correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember the original Japanese Gran Turismo having a ton of cars (Ferrari) that were not in the US version due to similar licensing issues.

  4. Re:Gran Turismo 3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    In the 'tire wear' races (non endurance), I shoot for tires that I can run in though at least 5 laps. In the 5 lap races, that saves a pit. In the 10 lap races, it means I can push harder at the end when the rest of the field is risking things.

    My main car I drive is a RUF CRT tweaked from here to kingdom-come. The goal in a 5 lap race is to be *just* in the red with your tires when you finish, with the wear evenly distributed. Which tires you use depends on your style, the drive train you're using, your breaking system and the weight of your car. Generally, in my CRT, I use medium or mediu-soft up frontand Medium-slick or medium in back. Basicly, one step softer up front.

    My advice is to buy Medium tires first, take a few practice laps and see how they work, then go up or down as needed.

    If your tire wear is good and you're behind because you can't take the turns like you would ideally... don't worry. Chances are that AI car's gonna pit. Not always, but usually.

    The rate of decay you describe sounds like Super-Soft. I can usually get a lap in without them being red. Usually. More than one lap is iffy. In anycase, Super-Soft is WAY out, I can't make them last. Only good for showing off in those little 2-lap races, or getting better times in the 1000 yard.

  5. They do require local modifications.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I find driving on the wrong side of the road in games quite disturbing. In the interests of safety they should have made right-hand drive cars for Grand Theft Auto 3!

    This failure has affected my driving in real life.

  6. Multiple GT Concepts by nsda's_deviant · · Score: 2, Informative

    The article merely eludes to the fact that there are multiple GT Concepts for PS2 around the world. The article talks about GTC 2002 Tokyo/Geneva, but there have been previous incarnations of GTC Tokyo 2001 and GTC Tokyo-Seoul 2002. Tokyo-Seoul was just Tokyo 01 with 6 Korean cars to help Korean PS2 sales.

    I picked my copy up for $35 in Korea and I had to mod my PS2 just to play it. As a GT3 fanatic the game can be finished in a day or two, but its absolutelly worth it if you lust after the GTR35 Concept, RX8, 350z . If you get only one GTConcept you should ignore the other games and go for the article's 02 Geneva/Tokyo (VW12, Cien, ect). The dualnode is ridiculouslly fun btw.
    just my 2 cents