CONSUMER DESK: Coming to a screen near you: driving games can graphically simulate the more 'exciting' times at the wheel, without the dangers and the horrors, opines Garrett Rowe
Driving games have always been amongst the most popular genres of videogames and any serious gamer will have at least one driving game in their collection. The world of videogames has radically changed in recent years and driving games have been at the forefront of that change.
That progress is measured by how "real" the game is. It takes many aspects to make a great driving game but for gamers and consequently game developers the Holy Grail is realism.
But to be realistic a lot of the elements we associate with motoring in our daily lives have no place in a driving game. Although some driving games call themselves simulators none of them simulate sitting in traffic for two hours, having to fix a puncture in the rain or trying to find a parking space.
Driving games are trying to give the player a hair-raising experience not a hair pulling one. Although with some of the less than careful drivers on our roads, you never know, some enlightened game developer might yet produce a game, which sees the player try to avoid the many hazards that can entail.
Almost invariably though, driving games or simulators are trying to recreate a racing experience. There has been the odd stunt car game or the very popular Destruction Derby games where racing was more of an afterthought. But even here the main reason Destruction Derby did so well was that the damage to the cars looked real. Bumpers crumpled, smoke protruded from the bonnets and one could easily spot the weakest link.
Pure racing though is the main driving force of most car games. And while there are may aspects to how real a game is sometimes the realism reflects what you could do in real life not necessarily what you would do.
Geoff Crammond's sublime Grand Prix 3 has a welcome feature, whereby if you're not enjoying your race, have lost heart or just want a little fun, you can turn your car around and head back the wrong way around and hurtle towards the oncoming pack. When the two formula one cars collide each doing 200 mph the crashes are spectacular. A lot of testing on the physics of what would and could happen when cars collide has been built into the game so the effects look authentic.
What's more, you can view the action replay through the eyes of every driver in the race as they try to avoid the chaos in front of them, or indeed how the first car tries to deal with your act of lunacy when he sees you heading straight for him. And of course because it isn't real nobody ever gets hurt. It's not something you would do often, but the freedom to do it is there, you are not constrained by the game to do what you are supposed to do.
But there is much more to this game than driving around the circuits the wrong way. To compete at the highest level, you will need a pit-stop strategy, fit the correct tyres, (in this game the weather is random, though you do get a forecast by which to make your judgement) make sure your car is set up correctly (amount of down force, gear ratios and so forth) for each circuit. You will need to study telemetry data, to see how you can optimise your car set-up or to see where you can afford to break that little bit later.
Most racing sims (like F1, Rally, Nascar) feature circuits that are exact replicas of the real thing. Indeed Jacques Villeneuve is reputed to have used a videogame to aid him learning the F1 circuits before his first full season in the sport.
The behaviour of the computer-controlled drivers is also a factor. It is much better fun to race opponents that seem human rather than robotic cars that just go around the track at varying degrees of speed. The AI (artificial intelligence) in Grand prix 3 is excellent and when you have an opponent in your mirrors who is going faster than you, he will try all the tricks in the book to get past you. This furthers the experience of being in a real race.
How a game looks though, is also obviously very important. When Indy car racing was released some years ago, there was great interest in the attention to detail it showed because the white tyre markings could be seen to transform from a clear marking into a blurred line as your car went from a standstill into full throttle.
Today, in games like Gran Turismo 3 some of the graphics are outstanding. You can see reflections in pools of water; see the mud flaps of cars quivering in the wind and wipers clear rain from your windscreen. Splash from the cars in front of you obscures your view and the sun glares in your face Some of the cars in Gran Turismo are types you will see on Irish roads (1999 Civic 3dr SI, 1998 Lexus IS and a 2000 version of the Mercedes CL 600 for example) and look exactly, and even sound, like the real thing both inside and out.
Perhaps if you are interested in some of the models featured, you could use the game as a preliminary road test.
An optional accessory with driving games that is becoming more and more popular is the steering wheel/pedal device. The best of these have forcefeedback, which makes you feel the physical pressure on the wheel as you try to negotiate bends at breakneck speed. They are great fun (much better than pressing buttons) but won't necessarily improve your performance.
For the future, driving simulators will get more and more realistic, but thankfully it seems a long way off before you have to belt-up before taking to the virtual road.