How come they don't make basic arcade style racing games anymore? One of my all-time favourite games is Burnout 2 on the Game Cube. You picked a car, you picked a series of races, and you raced. It was simple and fun and the controls meant that it was actually fun to play.
But racing games like this aren't made anymore. Nowadays they're all about big, open worlds, and it's all got to be online, all the time. Drive around to find your cars, drive around to find your events, and oh by the way by the time you find an event you'll likely be in the middle of a police chase (mainly referring to 2012's Need for Speed: Most Wanted here, but it applies to other games too.) I'm sorry - if I want to play an open world game I'll play an open world game. I don't want to drive around in a racing game looking for stuff to do. I want to pick a car and pick a track and go.
And I don't care about all the online stuff. By the way, does DriveClub actually work yet? Look at Need for Speed: Rivals. I don't want random people or even friends driving around when I'm trying to have a single player experience. I want to be left alone so I can race and have fun. I love the driving mechanics in the Need for Speed titles, but the open world aspect just kills it for me.
2010's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is the closest thing I've ever found to my beloved Burnout 2. You pick an event, you pick a car, and *gasp* you just race. Yes you still have all that police garbage that I'm not too crazy about, but there's plenty of just straight racing events that I'm happy to play repeatedly.
And before anybody suggests any of the Forza or Gran Turismo titles please note that I said "arcade style racing games." I enjoy Forza 4 because, like I want, I just get to pick a car and track and go, but these driving sims just aren't all that fun to play. I have a car in real life that I drive properly... why would I want to do that in a video game?
Wow I wrote a lot. I bet nobody's even going to read this (I know I never read epically long posts.) Oh well - maybe somebody will enjoy this or even agree with me before it gets lost in the shuffle. I'm going to go re-play some racer events from Hot Pursuit. I've gladly put over 70 hours into that game (all offline) because I've yet to find another modern racing game that compares to it.
My game library ranges from Mario Kart to Call of Duty to Tales of Xillia to Diablo 3 to Forza. To me gaming is about having fun - not blindly supporting only one company while thumbing your nose at "the evil other systems."
Great post, I feel your pain. I honestly think it's because these games don't sell as well as they used to. I'm a massive fan of many of the old SEGA racers: OutRun, SEGA Rally, Daytona, etc. But there's just not a market for these games anymore, unfortunately.
I think the closest thing we're going to get is the Wii U game, I forget its name... That 90s Racer or something. That looks great. I also think Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed did a pretty decent job of channeling that kind of vibe.
I agree with ya big time. I am not a big fan of racing sim games like GT or Forza or open world racing games like Need for Speed. I miss racing games from like the SNES era games like Top Gear on the SNES or Daytona USA in the arcade/Saturn.
About nowadays the closest we have to an arcade racer is Mario Kart but even that doesn't feel quite like an arcade racer due to the items, because its not how you drive in MK games its how you use your items.
There was the Project Gotham series on Xbox which I wish they would bring back but even then I am not sure I would run out and get an Xbox One for a Project Gotham 5 since the company behind PGR is now gone so who knows if it would be the same. That's why I had high hopes for Drive Club since alot of people were saying it was similar to the PGR series but wanted the PSN version to check it out, but thats a rant for another day.
I am also hoping for 90s Arcade Racer to come to the Wii U
My game library ranges from Mario Kart to Call of Duty to Tales of Xillia to Diablo 3 to Forza. To me gaming is about having fun - not blindly supporting only one company while thumbing your nose at "the evil other systems."
I'd say my most-played racing game ever was Burnout 3 on PS2, not exactly sure if that counts at the kind of arcade experience this thread is discussing, but it certainly was no 'simulation' either. I also played quite a bit of OutRun 2 on the original Xbox, as well as the original OutRun back in the day. I wish they'd make a new game in that series, or another Burnout more in line with Takedown and Revenge.
I'd say my most-played racing game ever was Burnout 3 on PS2, not exactly sure if that counts at the kind of arcade experience this thread is discussing, but it certainly was no 'simulation' either. I also played quite a bit of OutRun 2 on the original Xbox, as well as the original OutRun back in the day. I wish they'd make a new game in that series, or another Burnout more in line with Takedown and Revenge.
Burnout is exactly the type of game that I am longing for. I loved that series back in the day, with Burnout 2 just happening to be my favourite of the bunch before it went all open world with Burnout: Paradise.
My game library ranges from Mario Kart to Call of Duty to Tales of Xillia to Diablo 3 to Forza. To me gaming is about having fun - not blindly supporting only one company while thumbing your nose at "the evil other systems."
I can understand your problem. I'm a huge fan of racing games. Although I like GT and Need for Speed, it does make me sad that there doesn't seem to be racing games that are just pure racing.
One of the earliest racing games I've played is Need for Speed High Stakes for PS1. It's been a while since I played it, but I remember having lots of fun with it. I believe this was also before NFS did open worlds, so you just picked a track, car & off you went. There was police in that game, though it wasn't as prominent as later games would make it.
I think Motorstorm is the closest thing to an arcade racer that I've played, but I dunno if that would count since that is an offroad racer.
I never played Burnout, but I've always wanted to try it. And despite the mess it's in, I do intend to try Driveclub at some point. Project Cars is also on my radar. I may enjoy the deeper racing games, but I do wish there would be an arcade racer again.
"We don't get to choose how we start in this life. Real 'greatness' is what you do with the hand you're dealt." -Victor Sullivan "Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing." -Solid Snake
I feel you. I miss the Rush series. Rush 2 and Rush 2049 are some of my favorite games. I agree with get2sammyb that Sonic Racing Transformed captures that vibe. I really like that game, even better than Mario Kart 8.
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Topic: Why can't somebody just make an arcade style racing game??
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