Where the former enthusiasm of arcade races disappeared

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The races have changed.

Once, in 1974, it all started with a schematical races of pixel structures in abstract circles. Years flew by, decades have passed. Modern technologies allow you to create large -scale festival competitions in the open world, simulators are taught to drive, and one of them is close to becoming an official motor sports discipline. All this is just great!

Says another. The races have reached a lot, but at the same time we have lost a lot and many. I already wrote about which episodes I miss, but even more I miss the former enthusiasm of racing games, especially arcade. I want to talk about this.

How the races changed

Before answering the question posed, I rush on the history of racing games with a bullet.

The founders of the racing genre are considered Speed ​​Race From the Creator Space Invaders Tomokhiro Nicikado and Gran Trak 10. Both left in 1974 and-then still very schematically, in black and white pixel schedule,-reproduced a sprint and arrival along the ring track.

► Gran Trak 10

In the next fifteen years, the rags of racing games were formed. The first simulators appeared, and one of them, Indianapolis 500, Already in 1989 he showed a rather believable physics so that the Formula 1 riders train in it. Then the beginning of the cult series of Outrun and Test Drive was laid.

► indianapolis 500

► OUTRUN (1986)

The flowering of the genre fell on the nineties. Gran Turismo, Need for Speed, Ridge Racer, Twisted Metal, Colin Mcrae Rally, Driver, Super Mario Kart – all these famous series from that time. It was the time of experiments and bold solutions. Then the most cruel and most crazy races appeared.

And for simulators, time was also good – Grand Prix Legends They still remember as one of the most difficult races in history.

► Gran Turismo

► Twisted Metal

In the next decade, the genre continued to boil. Midnight Club Even before the "Furious" she turned to the topic of street racing, and then grabbed it and popularized it Need for Speed: Underground. At the same time, the NEED For Speed ​​series seized for several years, becoming almost the main arcade race in the industry.

The Burnout and Flatout series developed the topic of spectacular accidents and survival competitions. The first online race appeared Motor City Online. “Half -sides” developed, like the early parts of Forza Motorsport and Project Gotham Racing. Motorstorm beat the susals with difficulty and forced to memorize its variable routes, and the series Trackmania did the same for short, but intricate, like American slides, tracks.

► Need for Speed: Underground

► MOTORSTORM

Now the rows of arcade races melt. The last Driver was released five years ago, the last Burnout – eight. Flatout was not in those hands, but the future of Twisted Metal and Midnight Club is vague. Successors, alas, is also not visible. It’s good at least Mario Kart, Trackmania and Need for Speed ​​continue.

But new curious things appear like Assetto Corsa, Project Cars, DriveClub, The Crew and series F1. Yes, and old simulators feel good – Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport is still in order.

In a word, the genre passes the same period of formation as others: it narrows, and the developers take out popular and winning formulas.

► Assetto Corsa

What have we come to

Today the simulator era has finally come. They are obtained almost more than arcade races. They cover almost all disciplines of motorsport and offer physics of different levels of complexity and realism.

It pleases me. I myself have comprehended the basics of driving in the first parts of Gran Turismo and since then I have not removed the steering wheel. I get it to rush through dangerous special stages in Dirt Rally, ride a Ferrari on nürburgring in Assetto Corsa and disperse the Naskarovsky car in IRACING. In these simulators, a very plausible model of car behavior, and therefore just driving in them is nice.

In the same way, thanks to primitive, but peculiar physics, it was pleasant to ride in old arcade "races". Each had its own style. And now they almost do not do it, and this can no longer please. Simple entertainments are also needed, and arcade races are increasingly equal to simulators. Of course, the car in the arcades should slowly slow down where necessary, and the clutch with the road on sharp turns cannot be lost, but still the behavior of the car should be realistic.

Arcade races lose their individuality, “tactile” feelings from driving do not change from the game to the game. Around pseudoralism. And we need it?

► Four screenshots from popular races of recent years. Everything is like a selection! Only now you will guess these games?

Take at least Forza Horizon 2. It has an unimaginably picturesque open world and a sea of ​​classes: from searching for rarity cars to racing races with a train. At the same time, physics with some simplifications is transferred from the older simulator series Forza Motorsport. The cars are heavy, clumsy and instead of the joy of management rather cause problems in crazy competitions. Here we are competing with trains, what these difficulties? The fun dies, not having time to really begin. And if there is no fun, then why at all to mess with a cut copy of Forza Motorsport?

The counter example is the last Need for Speed. The game uses a hackneyed but proven approach to arcade physics of machines. Those here very easily go into sliding and allow you to go through all the turns in a spectacular controlled skid. Of course, there is no Outrun or Ridge Racer fuse, but the trick still works and takes for living things due to the availability of mechanics. In addition, looking into the game from some Forza Motorsport 6, You instantly feel the difference. You feel that this is a completely different game.

► in the Asphalt series, with the general similarity of the concept with the Burnout concept, licensed machines. For obvious reasons, they almost do not beat. And it all spoils.

But everything does not rest on the physics of cars. Most genre games have recently suffered from another common problem – they have become too serious. The fun replaced the ice pathos. All arcade races today is exactly the same: pokatushki on brand new expensive cars against the backdrop of gorgeous "open" species.

Almost all racing games in our time relate to cars exclusively as expensive luxurious products. They have a brand, a manufacturer, maybe even history and other boring things. The developers care about these “products” look tasty and sexy, so that we admire them and photograph them against the background of some beauty.

In a word, they sell us cars.

What we lost

Previously, arcade races were not shy about showing cars as anyone saw them in childhood. Before I bought myself one. Before he began to think about practicality, comfort and economy. Once in four-wheeled transport, we all saw Bibika, which makes a “ruma ram”, flies from the kitchen table and smashes to smithereens against the wall.

Exactly the same "Bibiki" cars were in old arcade races. They crushed into an accordion and provoked mass accidents in Burnout. They knead dirt in Motorstorm. They climbed with their powerful engines in Driver and entered the turns, stunning the tires with a wild screech and releasing smoke from under the wheels, as in the films of the seventies, such as the “disappearing point” and “Detective Bullita”.

► But several screenshots of past races. Even if you do not know them, you still immediately understand that these are different games.

Modern races lack courage. Incommonsile guns and deadly guns are no longer appropriate in them – goodbye, Burnout and Twisted Metal. The smearing of pedestrians on asphalt in the new Carmageeddon no longer seems so brutally cruel and does not excite the blood. Even the driver does not fly out anywhere through the windshield (the last part Flatout I don't want to remember).

In the current races, it seems, there was no room left at all to Zador and Frame. In them, taxi passengers do not pay for crazy driving without https://bof-gb-casino.co.uk/ rules, as in Crazy Taxi. In them you can’t ride a girl with a breeze on a convertible, like in Outrun. What can we say about the stupid bonuses scattered along the highway, as in Blur, Mashed or Rock N ’Roll Racing.

► The situation is partly saved by the living series of Mario Kart, but it is the concept of cars as toys to the absolute.

► Games of the Trackmania series are still able to amuse their fantastically inventive tracks. In addition, these are one of the last races with an offline cooperative.

It seems that today the races are made for, sorry, major, rich businessmen and other people dressed from couture and a needle. But not all the motorists are like that. There are big children among them too. You look at the former leading Top Gear. They are also loved for how they fool. These old dunce (two of them are already over fifty) in each new issue came to life (and continue to do this in The Grand Tour) teenage dreams: burned rubber, competed with sunrise and simply broke cars in the trash. Few people will be able to do this in life. And now it fails even in games.

* * *

I'm tired of overly serious races, from sexy sleek cars with glossy buildings, from pathos street raising. I want more stupid things. I want bonuses from Mario Cart, superheli from Midnight Club, crazy tracks from Trackmania, difficulties from Motorstorm. Spectacular accidents, finally!

If you, like me, yearn for old races, share your sore in the comments. Tell us what you lack in modern. And let's cross your fingers together and hope that the Finns from Bugbear will soon finish Wreckfest, Reflections will take Driver, and the new Three Fields Entertainment project will look like Burnout.