Quality of racing games regressing?

[Speedster911]

I feel that we're on a downward spiral. So many disappointments:

FM 23
FH 5
EA WRC
Ride 5

I think we had it really good in the Xbox 360 and Xbox One days. What do you feel it is? Lack of passion and determination? Not enough motivation?

Lack of funds and resources? Unrealistic timelines? I'm really irked by this and feel that the Xbox Series X is not being fully utilised to produce some incredible racing games.

Maybe AC Evo will change my sentiments.

 

[PletdeKoe]

No it’s not. It’s just that your experience is becoming saturated. People who play the current racing games as their first, will ask the same thing in 15 years.

It is a matter of accepting your own experience.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

My opinion: The PS1-PS3 (and equivalent competitors) era (and especially PS1 & PS2) was characterized by an explosion of creativity in game design (PS2 had 4,000 titles, PS5 has on the order of 20 exclusive titles) which then established a host of winners and a lot of losers. The risk-reward balance of exploring new ideas (at least in triple-a titles) has shifted significantly since earlier days because games now require massive resources to even make (GTA 3, a genre-establishing game apparently cost just $5m to make. GTA VI reportedly has a $2bn total budget - I doubt it will be 400 times better), so I think developers play it safe and just do what has worked before, leaning on visuals or amount of content to standout. There has also been massive consolidation, with big developers getting even huger, buying up smaller studios, going public, putting business boys in charge etc. I disagree with handwaving away the lack of creativity in gaming over the past 2 generations, I think it's absolutely a thing.

 

[kjb]

I do agree that creativity has decreased due fear of losing money in the AAA space but I think in the AA space there's a lot creativity going on. That's where you can find some good retro type titles and games like Drift CE. It combines car mechanic simulator, and drifting into one game. It costs 30 dollars. Graphics are not the greatest but some one like who is a gear head and I like drifting this is a great game.

 

[Nielsen]

Codemasters purchased Slightly Mad Studios after Project CARS 2. Then Project CARS 3 ruined everything.

EA purchased Codemasters after DiRT Rally 2.0. Then it became WRC and lost its way.

Digital Bros purchased Kunos Simulazioni after Assetto Corsa. Then they got a bit too ambitious and launched AC Competizione on previous generation consoles, which struggled with the switch to UE4.

Microsoft purchased Playground Games after Forza Horizon 4. $$$ really started to dictate things after this big success.

Turn 10 relied on contractors to develop the rebooted Forza Motorsport. More greed.

Polyphony Digital remains the same business they were since the PS1 days, and over the years Gran Turismo has generally done well. Guess why? Corporate stability behind the scenes.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Polyphony Digital remains the same business they were since the PS1 days, and over the years Gran Turismo has generally done well. Guess why? Corporate stability behind the scenes.

And, importantly, one person's vision being carried out...as flawed as that can be sometimes.

 

[MroczMR]

And, importantly, one person's vision being carried out...as flawed as that can be sometimes.

Yes. But you can’t deny that GT is unique and have it’s own personality in the sea of same and bland racing games. Look how Forza’s atmosphere had regressed since FM4.
You may like or not but this one person’s vision is what makes GT game a GT game with all it’s flaws and good sides.

 

[m355y]

Personally I'm not sure. If you'd shown me, as a kid playing Colin McRae Rally, DIRT Rally 2.0, I'd have cried for three days straight with happiness. Ditto the F1 series, it gets a lot of stick but is generally a high quality game season after season where the quality of them used to go up and down (remember F1'98?) every year. Just about every top level racing series out there, with Formula E the exception that comes to mind, has a high quality official game. Then you have more niche stuff like ACC, which I see as basically the modern day TOCA - a highly detailed, more niche title - not to mention AC Evo, iRacing, that kind of stuff, with Ian Bell also loudly readying another next year or so.

Then you have the really big players - Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, Forza Horizon. This is where it maybe falls down a bit because those games probably don't quite offer the same AAA experience they used to in their earlier days. They're a bit samey now, maybe a bit superseded by the likes of Assetto Corsa in terms of simulation. But ultimately they're still good games and again, of you showed a ten year old me the current Forza Motorsport, my head would have exploded.

There's a definite lack of risk taking and a lot of these games are increasingly very familiar which makes them feel less special with each passing year, but I do think the overall quality and level of choice and coverage of different types of racing have never been so good. Add in the opportunities for such easy online participation which generally weren't there in previous generations unless you had a high end PC, and I think that's been a good thing too.

Arcade racers, though - the likes of Ridge Racer, PGR, WipEout, they've basically died out entirely haven't they which is sad. Unless you're Mario Kart.

 

[Veinz]

Games in every genre have gone down in quality. Tbh I thought the 8th gen console era sucked too, that was the real turning point for me. This era I had enough and bought a PC.

Games may look and sound better, but they’re mostly dumbed down, grindy and try to squeeze as much money out of players as possible. Just look at how many times Microsoft has dropped the ball over the years.

These big “aaa” publishers and developers see what people are willing to put up with in mobile gaming and that garbage ends up on console and pc. The best games now a days come from the smaller independent studios, the people who actually care about the ip they’re working on, not just some contractor who’s probably already looking for their next job.

I can say the same for movies and tv series. They mostly can’t even do a good story when there’s lore already available to use. The writers are more concerned with doing their own thing, like pushing some kind of social issue. 🚮

 

[inCloud]

I feel that we're on a downward spiral.

Last NFS was better than previous 3, FH5 isn't drastically worse than FH4. The Crew Motorfest is waaaay better than The Crew 2.
Midway did two awesome Hot Wheels games.

Codemasters need one more iteration for their titles to regain.

 

[Ande3200]

For me the only 2 current racing games that still holds good quality in many regards is gt7 and fh5,

 

[Meythia]

(GTA 3, a genre-establishing game apparently cost just $5m to make. GTA VI reportedly has a $2bn total budget - I doubt it will be 400 times better)

And who knows how the budget is spend...
Looking at quite some "cheap" indie games jewels that are not lacking into any category one has to wonder if 90% of the budget isnt outright CEO pocket.

 

[kjb]

And who knows how the budget is spend...
Looking at quite some "cheap" indie games jewels that are not lacking into any category one has to wonder if 90% of the budget isnt outright CEO pocket.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't go to the hard working devs who are actually putting in the work to get these games out

 

[MroczMR]

Arcade racers, though - the likes of Ridge Racer, PGR, WipEout, they've basically died out entirely haven't they which is sad. Unless you're Mario Kart.

Did play yesterday on emulator some Ridge Racer V and PS2 Hot Pursuit 2. Oh those games are blast. Was trying to test how emulation works right know and ended up playing 3 hours in Hot Pursuit.
I miss those simpler yet extremly fun arcade racing games… now every game must bu huge open world or super realistic and complicated… Just give me good old simple NFS with closed beautifully crafted tracks and police and it will be perfect!

 

[Meythia]

Just give me good old simple NFS with closed beautifully crafted tracks and police and it will be perfect!

To me (though Im not playing it) the most fun racing game was Grid Legends.
Only comparing to GT in aspects that are compatible:
in my opinion it looks better and sounds better + it runs smoother.
As a more "story focused" game it also feels less grindy.
The only real matter of taste is the more arcardy nature of it.

 

[strela]

If someone asked me today what racing game I enjoyed the most the answer would be Out Run on arcade. No other game can bring back the joy of a 11 years old child playing with his friends in a local pub.
But if someone asked me today what is the best racing game I would say FH5. Because FH5 has the best handling, the best car list, best online experience and the most options(custom racing, tuning,event lab).
So when someone is saying that racing games are in decline is probably because of personal feelings not necessarily because the game is actually bad.
Of course just my personal opinion.