By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net
SINGAPORE - Nobody gets tired of a good racing game especially if it gives the player total control over the entire car’s functionality. At the 2009 Games Convention Asia (GCA) in Singapore there was a deluge of racing sims that undoubtedly tried to outdo each other both in the gameplay and graphics.
Two of the racing sims were Turn10’s much-anticipated Forza 3 Motorsport for the Xbox 360, which is considered perhaps as the most realistic racing simulator for the console. Forza 3 is being put in the same plane as the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 for the PlayStation 3.
The Microsoft Xbox booth at the GCA was huge and featured no less than a dozen Xbox 360 consoles featuring the latest games. The most notable, of course, was the Forza 3 set up that included a racer seat, a wireless steering wheel and three LCD screens. The widescreen TVs are best used for the in-car view, which lets the player see the car’s dashboard and virtual steering wheel.
In an interview, Turn10 Content Director John Wendl said the new in-car view would give hard-core racing simulation fans the closest they could get to a real driver experience.
Aside from the new view, he said the company made Forza 3 even more realistic by adding new tire physics that will make the car go on a roll; the game also has 10 times the number of polygons to make the cars more realistic; players can also paint the cars; and there are new cars in the game such as the Audi R8 (the same one driven in the Iron Man movie).
Wendl also noted that the game will be compatible with the new Fanatec ultrarealistic racing wheel, which will compete with Logitech’s G25. The Fanatec controller will have 900 degree turning radius, a clutch, and an H-shift.
But Turn10 only showed the demo version of Forza at GCA, with only about a dozen cars and three tracks. Nevertheless, the experience of driving the R8 using a steering wheel was something new.
Not to be outdone, Electronic Arts doubled up its efforts by showcasing Need for Speed Shift (NFSS) and Need for Speed Nitro (NFSN), two games targeted at different audiences and different consoles. The NFSS is for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Windows while the NFSN is for the Wii.
EA overhauled the gameplay for NFSS and made it more realistic than the arcade racing style that the series is known for. A professional mode is available to make the game more realistic and as such, would require an ultra-realistic steering wheel such as the Logitech G25.
Of course, the arcade racing style is still there and would only require a controller, which would not make a player feel any better than if he had a steering wheel. Too bad they didn’t’ have that in GCA.
Still, the graphics for NFSS is equally impressive and the audio - provided there is an available surround-sound system - gives players the closest they could get to be inside a racing car.
One nifty addition to NFSS is the blurred vision whenever a driver hits a wall or bumped by another car. This makes the player feel like a nauseous driver after a bad crash.
NFSN, on the other hand, goes back to the series’ arcade roots. Because it is only available on the Nintendo Wii console and DS handheld NFSN can be enjoyable to younger people.
The graphics for this game is cartoony with real-life cars simulated to look like they came out of a drawing. Controlling the cars are nowhere close to the real thing. As it is, NFSN is more of a kiddie game than for the serious gamer.
The racing game genre is getting a little crowded these days especially with some of the major game developers getting into the fray. The upcoming Gran Turismo 5 will essentially fuel the competition among racing game developers.
The GCA is but one of the places where these companies will try to outpace - if not outrace - each other. Obviously, the racing simulation market will continue to grow and for sure, the realism will increase.
