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What is it that makes driving games so incredibly popular? Barring sports sims, because that covers such a wide range of games, there are always more driving games on a console than any other genre. Why is this? Surely the vast majority of gamers would like their games to be a nice even spread ñ a few sport sims, FPSs, RPGs, beat ëm ups and so on. Are there enough people who focus purely on driving games to justify the amount there are?
Lets have a few examples of this. At the moment there are about 200 games out on the PS2. Of these, about 45 are racing games of one sort or another. That is a staggering percentage ñ just under a quarter of all games are racing games! When you consider how many other genres there are it is amazing. What about Adventure, action, strategy, arcade, beat em up, FPS, platform, puzzle, RPG and shoot em up games? More and more developers must be pushing these games to the side so they can make driving games.
A further problem is that when you look at them, very few driving/racing games are any good. Of course there are the amazing SSX and GT3, and a few other notable ones such as Moto GP and Formula One 2001, but what about the endless games such as Lotus Challenge (anyone who played the demo will agree with me on that), Star Wars Super Bombad (I was unlucky enough to own that for a while), Flintstones Viva Rock Vegas, Driving Emotion Type-S and so on and so on and so on.
The main reason I can think of why this is is that Driving/Racing games are relatively easy to make ñ say if you put a low amount of effort into a FPS and the same effort into a racing game, I would imagine the racing game would be more fun. This is because in a basic racing game there is relatively little to do. Press one button, vehicle moves forward. Press another button, vehicle stops. Bung in the left and right movement and some reasonable graphics and youíre pretty much home and dry. It would be much harder to apply this kind of simplification to another genre ñ OK, maybe platformers only have the 3 main commands ñ move, jump and attack, but you know what I mean. This is why I think why many developers opt for the easy way out of making a game and churn out yet another reasonable yet completely uninteresting racing game.
Of course, there is always the other end of the scale. Games like GT3 really let you see why racing games can be so popular. Amazing graphics, brilliant car physics (the first thing lazy developers usually leave out), hundreds of cars and the addictive GT mode that so few games bother with ñ having your team rack up points over a season does not count. Of course, a tremendous amount of effort was put into GT3, and that is what so many other racing games lack.
Another point to consider is this: With GT3 out now and WipeOut Fusion coming soon there is relatively little space in the racing genre that hasnít been filled with a great game, so there is little point in bringing out a sub-standard game. Maybe this will make the developers pull their socks up and start making titles that actually compete with the greats, instead of trying to scavenge their success. Maybe, but probably not.
Lets have a few examples of this. At the moment there are about 200 games out on the PS2. Of these, about 45 are racing games of one sort or another. That is a staggering percentage ñ just under a quarter of all games are racing games! When you consider how many other genres there are it is amazing. What about Adventure, action, strategy, arcade, beat em up, FPS, platform, puzzle, RPG and shoot em up games? More and more developers must be pushing these games to the side so they can make driving games.
A further problem is that when you look at them, very few driving/racing games are any good. Of course there are the amazing SSX and GT3, and a few other notable ones such as Moto GP and Formula One 2001, but what about the endless games such as Lotus Challenge (anyone who played the demo will agree with me on that), Star Wars Super Bombad (I was unlucky enough to own that for a while), Flintstones Viva Rock Vegas, Driving Emotion Type-S and so on and so on and so on.
The main reason I can think of why this is is that Driving/Racing games are relatively easy to make ñ say if you put a low amount of effort into a FPS and the same effort into a racing game, I would imagine the racing game would be more fun. This is because in a basic racing game there is relatively little to do. Press one button, vehicle moves forward. Press another button, vehicle stops. Bung in the left and right movement and some reasonable graphics and youíre pretty much home and dry. It would be much harder to apply this kind of simplification to another genre ñ OK, maybe platformers only have the 3 main commands ñ move, jump and attack, but you know what I mean. This is why I think why many developers opt for the easy way out of making a game and churn out yet another reasonable yet completely uninteresting racing game.
Of course, there is always the other end of the scale. Games like GT3 really let you see why racing games can be so popular. Amazing graphics, brilliant car physics (the first thing lazy developers usually leave out), hundreds of cars and the addictive GT mode that so few games bother with ñ having your team rack up points over a season does not count. Of course, a tremendous amount of effort was put into GT3, and that is what so many other racing games lack.
Another point to consider is this: With GT3 out now and WipeOut Fusion coming soon there is relatively little space in the racing genre that hasnít been filled with a great game, so there is little point in bringing out a sub-standard game. Maybe this will make the developers pull their socks up and start making titles that actually compete with the greats, instead of trying to scavenge their success. Maybe, but probably not.
Nik_96 wrote:
> I think that car games are popular because they have such good cars and also the
> tracks that you can get and also to see whether the surrondings are any good if
> they wern't what would be the point in playing without a good background or
> forground picture it just wouldn't look real
This s why GT3 is popular, not driving games in general. An outstanding game in any genre will always be popular.
> I think that car games are popular because they have such good cars and also the
> tracks that you can get and also to see whether the surrondings are any good if
> they wern't what would be the point in playing without a good background or
> forground picture it just wouldn't look real
This s why GT3 is popular, not driving games in general. An outstanding game in any genre will always be popular.
Triple_H wrote:
> 200 games on PS2 out right now???Hmmmmmm.
Count 'em :)
I think that driving games are
> popular because they try and recreate the speed of real cars. Many people want
> to drive cars that they will never drive in real life
That is a reason, but it doesn explain the vast numbers unseen in other genres. Almost all games are based on letting the player do things they cant in real life, so why is this so prevalant in Driving games?
> 200 games on PS2 out right now???Hmmmmmm.
Count 'em :)
I think that driving games are
> popular because they try and recreate the speed of real cars. Many people want
> to drive cars that they will never drive in real life
That is a reason, but it doesn explain the vast numbers unseen in other genres. Almost all games are based on letting the player do things they cant in real life, so why is this so prevalant in Driving games?
I think its because they are one of the easiest types of games to make. If the developer can get some decent gameplay, add some good graphics and the usuall extra cars and tracks, it going to sell.
Its harder to make a good RPG as you need a good story line you follow. If not, no one is going to buy it.
Its harder to make a good RPG as you need a good story line you follow. If not, no one is going to buy it.
200 games on PS2 out right now???Hmmmmmm.
I think that driving games are popular because they try and recreate the speed of real cars. Many people want to drive cars that they will never drive in real life
I think that driving games are popular because they try and recreate the speed of real cars. Many people want to drive cars that they will never drive in real life
What is it that makes driving games so incredibly popular? Barring sports sims, because that covers such a wide range of games, there are always more driving games on a console than any other genre. Why is this? Surely the vast majority of gamers would like their games to be a nice even spread ñ a few sport sims, FPSs, RPGs, beat ëm ups and so on. Are there enough people who focus purely on driving games to justify the amount there are?
Lets have a few examples of this. At the moment there are about 200 games out on the PS2. Of these, about 45 are racing games of one sort or another. That is a staggering percentage ñ just under a quarter of all games are racing games! When you consider how many other genres there are it is amazing. What about Adventure, action, strategy, arcade, beat em up, FPS, platform, puzzle, RPG and shoot em up games? More and more developers must be pushing these games to the side so they can make driving games.
A further problem is that when you look at them, very few driving/racing games are any good. Of course there are the amazing SSX and GT3, and a few other notable ones such as Moto GP and Formula One 2001, but what about the endless games such as Lotus Challenge (anyone who played the demo will agree with me on that), Star Wars Super Bombad (I was unlucky enough to own that for a while), Flintstones Viva Rock Vegas, Driving Emotion Type-S and so on and so on and so on.
The main reason I can think of why this is is that Driving/Racing games are relatively easy to make ñ say if you put a low amount of effort into a FPS and the same effort into a racing game, I would imagine the racing game would be more fun. This is because in a basic racing game there is relatively little to do. Press one button, vehicle moves forward. Press another button, vehicle stops. Bung in the left and right movement and some reasonable graphics and youíre pretty much home and dry. It would be much harder to apply this kind of simplification to another genre ñ OK, maybe platformers only have the 3 main commands ñ move, jump and attack, but you know what I mean. This is why I think why many developers opt for the easy way out of making a game and churn out yet another reasonable yet completely uninteresting racing game.
Of course, there is always the other end of the scale. Games like GT3 really let you see why racing games can be so popular. Amazing graphics, brilliant car physics (the first thing lazy developers usually leave out), hundreds of cars and the addictive GT mode that so few games bother with ñ having your team rack up points over a season does not count. Of course, a tremendous amount of effort was put into GT3, and that is what so many other racing games lack.
Another point to consider is this: With GT3 out now and WipeOut Fusion coming soon there is relatively little space in the racing genre that hasnít been filled with a great game, so there is little point in bringing out a sub-standard game. Maybe this will make the developers pull their socks up and start making titles that actually compete with the greats, instead of trying to scavenge their success. Maybe, but probably not.
Lets have a few examples of this. At the moment there are about 200 games out on the PS2. Of these, about 45 are racing games of one sort or another. That is a staggering percentage ñ just under a quarter of all games are racing games! When you consider how many other genres there are it is amazing. What about Adventure, action, strategy, arcade, beat em up, FPS, platform, puzzle, RPG and shoot em up games? More and more developers must be pushing these games to the side so they can make driving games.
A further problem is that when you look at them, very few driving/racing games are any good. Of course there are the amazing SSX and GT3, and a few other notable ones such as Moto GP and Formula One 2001, but what about the endless games such as Lotus Challenge (anyone who played the demo will agree with me on that), Star Wars Super Bombad (I was unlucky enough to own that for a while), Flintstones Viva Rock Vegas, Driving Emotion Type-S and so on and so on and so on.
The main reason I can think of why this is is that Driving/Racing games are relatively easy to make ñ say if you put a low amount of effort into a FPS and the same effort into a racing game, I would imagine the racing game would be more fun. This is because in a basic racing game there is relatively little to do. Press one button, vehicle moves forward. Press another button, vehicle stops. Bung in the left and right movement and some reasonable graphics and youíre pretty much home and dry. It would be much harder to apply this kind of simplification to another genre ñ OK, maybe platformers only have the 3 main commands ñ move, jump and attack, but you know what I mean. This is why I think why many developers opt for the easy way out of making a game and churn out yet another reasonable yet completely uninteresting racing game.
Of course, there is always the other end of the scale. Games like GT3 really let you see why racing games can be so popular. Amazing graphics, brilliant car physics (the first thing lazy developers usually leave out), hundreds of cars and the addictive GT mode that so few games bother with ñ having your team rack up points over a season does not count. Of course, a tremendous amount of effort was put into GT3, and that is what so many other racing games lack.
Another point to consider is this: With GT3 out now and WipeOut Fusion coming soon there is relatively little space in the racing genre that hasnít been filled with a great game, so there is little point in bringing out a sub-standard game. Maybe this will make the developers pull their socks up and start making titles that actually compete with the greats, instead of trying to scavenge their success. Maybe, but probably not.