In multiplayer, hanging back at the start and keeping out of trouble rewards you with a car that still works when everyone else is hobbling around like a crippled spider. You can rip a corner off your car if you aren't careful, and that has a real effect on the gameplay. Race Driver GRID's damage is the best we've seen in serious racing games on console, a logical evolution of TOCA Race Driver 2 on the original Xbox. And heavy knocks should have the potential to adversely affect the performance of your car. Debris needs to blossom and wheels need to be ripped off. As a result, a good racing game can be totally undone if its damage modelling is poor because we know how crashes are meant to look. Obviously there's a safety aspect in real life, but racing games don't need to worry about loss of life. Games that do it wrong: Forza 6, Supercar Challenge, Gran Turismo 5, Sumo's handheld F1 games. Games that do it right: GRID Autosport, DiRT 2, F1 Championship Edition. That is 'racing' - and very few 'racing' games contain it. It means sometimes allowing a car through on the inside, because you know you'll have a faster exit and be able to retake the position on the cut-back. Defensively, racing means being able to hold a car behind you. On the attack, that might mean setting up your car's racing line a few corners before your move, to make sure you have the best exit speed onto a straight, outbraking your opponent or even going around the outside on a fast turn. Motor racing is all about outfoxing the car in front or the car behind. You need some leeway in their coding to make it possible to catch and pass them, otherwise races would just be a procession which is no fun at all. AI drivers need to be of extremely similar or totally equal performance, otherwise there's a mismatch and it isn't a fair race. Too many games stop short of offering true competitive artificial intelligence to race against. Driving games can still contain all of the other facets of racing game design (and be great games too), but their non-player vehicles are mere obstacles. Racing games differ from driving games because of the element of competition with the other cars. Games that do it wrong: F1 2015, Gran Turismo 5, The Crew. Games that do it right: Driveclub, TOCA Race Driver 2, Mario Kart 7. The game is a brilliant racing experience because the best two types of competition - against yourself and other people - are woven into everything you do. It breeds competition and the framework is now working properly. Driveclub works beautifully in this respect not because its traditional online races are great (they're not), but because it combines multiplayer with ghost mode and leaderboards, encouraging players to challenge each other. This is best when the players are evenly matched in terms of personal skill and start with identical base machinery to test them. The second-best competition is human vs human - in other words, multiplayer. Your opponent's skill level perfectly matches your own, because it is you. The very best competition you can race against is yourself, which is why ghost laps time trial can make even a mediocre racing game enjoyable. In order to have a good race, you need to actually be racing against something. Games that do it wrong: Forza Motorsport 6, Gran Turismo 5, Supercar Challenge. Games that do it right: Ferrari 355 Challenge, Need For Speed: Shift 2, Ridge Racer: Type 4, Race Driver: GRID. Finally, while music can really enhance the atmosphere of even a simple game (take 1986's OutRun for example), but it certainly can't make a dull race exciting - Forza 6, I'm looking at you. And the 3D, rolling clouds and diagonal rainfall in the wind gives the environments a real sense of place. Project CARS' 'rain on the car roof' sound effect really makes you feel like you're cosy and warm inside your car during a rainstorm. It doesn't need to be unrealistic/arcadey to convince, either. Winning a race should be a celebration - it's the whole damn point of racing. Look at the difference the post-race fanfare of Gran Turismo 6 made compared to Gran Turismo 5's lame, apologetic 'FINISH' text and results graphic. A cheering crowd, flags waving in the stands, confetti thrown onto the track, fireworks going off it all adds immeasurably to the feeling of the race actually meaning something. The best atmosphere can give you a real emotional connection to a game. Imagine if the Superbowl took place in an empty warehouse on a rainy Tuesday, with no half-time show, commentary or national anthem.
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