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The Rebirth of Arcade Racers -- On Kickstarter
An anonymous reader writes: While big budget racers like The Crew and Forza chase realism, in recent years we've also seen a return to the racers of old with checkpoints, a ticking countdown, little in the way of AI and banging chiptune soundtracks. As a new article points out though, they're not in the arcades any more though — they're on Kickstarter. The author tracks down the creators of three indie games that look to Daytona rather than Gran Turismo for inspiration, and find out why we're seeing a resurgence in power sliding.
I miss GT2 and GT3 a-spec. Those were my favorite console racers of all time, besides the colin mcrae rally series (pre-dirt era, dirt is a bro racer that can go fuck off).
CMR 3 may be my favorite racing game of all time (off-road category!) I agree that the series went to hell with Dirt, just as the NFS series went to hell when "Underground" came along. NFS3: HP and HP2 are two of my favorite games.
How I miss the original. I'm hoping that in 15 years Mario Kart will turn into Extreme-G with how the series is developing. Twitch controls with courses that wind and play with gravity and shooting missiles at the people racing past above you on another part of the track. After the first game, the courses and gameplay mellowed out (track design and weapon selection specifically)
When ever I see Roach from The Witcher 3, I can only think of my favorite bike from Extreme-G. With considering how abused and misused and now not used the license is, I'd be great to see someone pick this racer up.
Growing up in the 80's, I played video games quite frequently. Now, though, I find myself avoiding them.
One reason is cost. I realize the cost really has probably not gone up that significantly from the NES days, but at that time it was my parents paying for a new console and games. Now I have to figure out how to justify a $60 game.
Another reason is that I much more enjoy a "play for 10-30 minutes, have fun, and then walk away" type of game. MarioKart is a great example of this. I can play with 0-3 other people and have fun. We can play for 10 minutes, or we can play for an hour. When we get done I can put the controller down and not feel like there is more to do. The playability even remains after I have "beat the game". Commingled in there is an easy learning curve. Sure, the game might be challenging, but I do not want to spend an hour just getting the basic controls figured out.
I am sure there are more games that fit this description, but as a casual gamer I am not willing to do the research just to figure out what games are out there. It is far easier to load up an emulator and play the original Castlevania for NES.
The games described int he article do seem to be closer to the type of game I would like to play.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
"in recent years we've also seen a return to the racers of old with checkpoints, a ticking countdown, little in the way of AI and banging chiptune soundtracks."
As much as people bitch about Hollywood and it's endless sequels, remakes, reboots, and re-imagings... the reality is, that's what sells.
Have a look at the recent WRC series of rallying games, still made by codemasters, none of the bullshit introduced in CMR:DiRT, pure rallying. WRC 4 is the latest and its like CMR1/2 all over again for me. I also like the GRID series of racing games, just the right balance between simulation and arcade, especially the most recent installation, GRID:Autosport.
Check out Power Drive 2000, might be something you'd like.
You can follow their twitter here.
Some of these 'old' style games look way better than new "mainstream ones" to me.
What else do you need to know?
I have a love/hate thing with Grid autosport. I got it free from intel when I bought my haswell i5. My main issue is the handling in the drift series is wonky. I feel like each time I restart a race, the car has a completely different steering ratio and suspension set up. I never find the sweet spot (perfect balance between out of control and sliding beautifully around the apex) when drifting. That is ok though, because the rest of the game plays really well, and I like that is actually says my name when I log in. "Welcome back, Joe!" gives me a chill everytime.
I never much cared for realistic racing games... except the arcade games. Something about trying to get to the next checkpoint before the timer runs out is very satisfying in a primal, visceral way. I'm glad that the power of PCs and home consoles has let us explore the world of game design like it has, but I wish more developers would look back to the arcade era for design cues. Just about any game is worth spending a quarter to try. It's the game that get you to come back and spend more quarters that really had something going for it, and I think there's something to learn from those.
Greatest racing game of all time: Star Wars Episode 1 Racer. It is the perfect racing game. This is not a joke.
Am I the only one that finds it pretty underhanded to give us a link that says "they are on kickstarter" but doesn't actually link to one of those kickstarter projects? It's not quite a deceptive goatse link, but at this rate, I'd want links in the blurb to list the domain they point to.
I say this without sarcasm. I played through that game's entire progression and learned a lot about the physics of a car. Playing the harder races and difficulties taught me how to corner properly before I ever took the wheel myself. While I can't stand racing as entertainment, it also gave me a bit more appreciation for those guys that have to do so many laps.
There is no racing game chasing realism other than Richard Burns rally. Every other racing game on the planet has ridiculously unbelievable physics. if you want a realistic racing game on pc your options are basically zero. Calling "The Crew" a realistic game is way beyond insane. I've never seen anyone being so out of touch with reality. And i've worked in a psychiatric hospital.