That's a rather narrow definition of the term "simulation", which btw translates just fine into "representation" in my dictionary
Because, by your definition,
no consumer equipment has the processing power at this moment in time, why should we even bother to discuss these games?
You just don't get a "physics" engine right now, that's why I prefer the term "game engine".
It should in my view recreate the real life as good as is technically possible with the limited help from visual, aurel and tactile clues from the monitor, speakers and a FFB wheel. I agree, a sim racer should have an emphasis on how a car probably reacts at 160 kph going into a sweeper. But it also should represent that as believable as possible, because otherwise: why bother playing the game?
Being a skilled video gamer doesn't mean being a skilled real world racing driver. And the opposite is also quite true.
I have no problems whatsoever that T10 and PD each have their very own approach and thus each game has a distinctive feel to it.
I just wonder if the folks at T10 really do know the quintessence of racing. In Dan's world it's all pimp-my-ride land. They simply don't
know. It's really hopeless - judging from what I've learned so far from FM3, it's an all singing, all dancing, all shiny wonderland. It's not about
racing, it's hardly about the cars because they have no respect whatsoever for those wonderful pieces of engineering.
I tried hard to get the most fun out of FM2 and played it countless hours. It could be done to have a good time racing (online), no painting, tuning, selling, amassing ludicrous amounts of CRs. But it was never the main focus of the game.
On the other side, there's Codemasters. They
know. Shame really the game engine isn't more of a challenge. But as far as simulating races, Grid still is the best choice. But a bit too blunt even for my standards. The constant pressure was huge fun and the damage handling put the stakes very high. THus the rewind feature made a lot of sense - where in FM3 it somehow doesn't
So what's left? Gran Turismo. A very sophisticated approach. I like sophistication. The whole franchise breathes it.
Online play was really what kept me coming back to FM2, but there's something about GT which makes it unique. They maybe
don't know , but they
understand.
So if the experience gets reduced to "physics" I'm forced to listen to the PR chaps of each company. Which I hardly ever do anyways, because, you know, they usually lie to you.
