The Frustration of the Racing Game Community

[@GamerAlexVideos]

Hey all, being that I'm encouraging you all to vent your frustrations in this comment section, make sure to avoid the typical 'hate train' stuff. I want to see good, constructive criticism and feedback about this genre. I will not be afraid to remove any toxic comments and people, which I really don't want to do. I really want to see what you guys are going to say, so don't make me regret doing this!

[@fordshelbygt7177]

Thanks Gamer Alex Making This Video

[@TyCal_]

One of the biggest reasons why I generally don't latch onto a lot of modern racing games is the overall lack of personality from most of them. I miss the unique experiences racing games had not necessarily from the actual driving itself but the tone and atmosphere many of them had e.g. Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport's relaxed and classy showroom feel, The first two Grid and NFS Shift games' Hollywood portrayal of motorsports, Dirt 2's X Games extreme sports vibe, ProStreet's urban duck tape and cable ties trackday vibe, Forza Horizon 1 and TDU's larger than life automotive fantasy etc etc. Nowadays it seems like every racing game is either a half hearted and childish happy go lucky festival or a pretentious full of itself "simulator". I just miss when racing games actually made you feel something and could immerse you in different aspects of car and racing culture.

[@Sharky_0456]

yeah need for speed carbon was really full of personality and when I boot up heat or unbound it just feels like I'm booting up a mass produced product because that's what Im doing. i don't know what it is about the games but something about them just lacks personality in order to appear more professional or something

[@gameboyterrorysta6307]

I'll try to make it as good as possible: 1. Basic functionality - it seems like every new racing game has less features (or at least working features) than predecessors. Games are released with high amounts of content straight up not working as intended (due to AI, technical issues or straight up lacking features), getting online to work properly is usually a chore and players have to go out of their way to get proper experience (with dedicated leagues or mods). Games that focuses on sp side of things usually suck online because of barely functional netcode and barebones multiplayer content/structure. And online focused titles usually suck in SP, as they suffer from awful AI and lack of basic race management/organising options. 2. Driving model/physics - outside of simracing genre, it feels like most of racing games are "degrading" physics with each new game released. Usually cars are way too stiff and stuck in constant understeer until you brake rear tires longitudinally with brakes or throttle. There is no "dancing" on the track or even putting effort to control the car in most of arcades these days. In the end cars are boring to drive, there is no reason to go back to slower vehicles once you progress further because only possible excitement comes out of speed, they handle bumps and jumps terribly "jittering" unnaturally. 3. Car/Track selection - We rarely see new content. Arcade circuit racing games are dead outside of Grid (that still struggles), straight up arcades are limited to indie and niche titles and all simcades/sims are focusing on GT3's on SPA. It's more common to see mismatched cars from different classes and eras than to see ANY class represented correctly. The worst offender might be "historic touring cars" which usually means putting together 3-5 machines, often from different regulations (usually missmatch of early and late group A, post '93 DTM and super touring cars) and calling it a day. We need interesting circuits that are fun to race at and fleshed out car classes. Made/arranged by someone who actually gives a fuck about history of cars and motorsport 4. Damage/collision models - We see only recess from Xbox 360/PS3 era. If you compare original RaceDriver:Grid and Grid:Legends, game from 2008 has more impressive damage model than one from 2022. It's not only about visual fidelity and "making a show". Games like Wreckfest have proven that body deformation allows better racing, as you can push or lean on opponents without "sending them to shadow realm". It's also baffling to see the most basic damage model showcased as a feature in new FM trailers while it looks less impressive than system from 2011 FM4. 5. Style - Everything tries to be the same novadays (outside of certain indie titles). There's no style, only same'ish tiles with streaming service/mobile app styling to them. Everything is trying to be visually clean but during races there's shitton of HUD/UI elements blocking the view. Games also try to be more "modern" and appeal to younger generation with soundtrack choices which clearly doesn't work, as there is no "young generation" of racing game enthusiast - there was drought during 8th gen of consoles and there are no signs of improvements. Additionally Unbound's style, that was praised by Racevick, is IMO overrated af. As much as I love animated effects, I hate characters, random wings or pizza graphics. They look tacked on, don't fit realistic looking environments and cars and lack certain "dynamic feel" that smoke and nitro effects have. Most of these effect feel like an afterthought. And soundtrack sucks ass. I don't have problem with games using newer and less-known songs/artists, but racing game music have certain requirements to be enjoyable/memorable. And Unbound's soundtrack lacks energy, rhytm and certain "speed" or "heavy vibe" that encourages you to go for 11/10's and ignore all road safety/self preservation rules. 6. Mainstream reviews - most of racing game reviews from mainstream sources are worthless. These people seem to be completely ignorant not only about the genre, but about cars in general. It's like they have never driven a car or even invested time in single racing game in their lives. Constant praise of cookie-cutter mainstream releases full of broken features, lacking ballance, endgame content/structure for neither single or multiplayer, ballance etc. Game can have the most boring and disfunctional driving model of all time and it will still get 8/10 on agregate site because it looks good and nobody cares about anything else in racing games anyways. At least according to media. 7. Lack of structure/effort to support proper racing - As Raycevick mentioned, once you experience close and hard but fair racing, it's impossible to deny it's intensity and charm. Mainstream gamers and arcade racing game fans are doing everything to discredit proper racing and basic car dynamics as sth boring that should stay in simracing. Titles like FH5 are showing it the best. In open lobbies everyone wants to race fastest cars in the game and it turns into boring time trials with random players joining as movable road blocks and torpedos.

[@sgtepicspeed3033]

On Number 4, that's now on manufacturers becoming way more strict and sensitive to car damager in video games. While in movies, some cars are ripped to shreds, it's only selected few models when manufacturers of those cars are fine to a certain extent. In video games where there are many brands, it's down to the lowest denominator, if one brand asks to not have not a lot of damage, every car including ones out of the brand has to conform to the same amount of damage to make it fair one way or another.

[@kpegc]

For number 1, I'd like to add how nonsensical it is that certain games like DiRT Rally 2.0, GT Sport/7, and now Forza 2023 require you to be online to save SINGLE PLAYER progress. This was never a problem even 10 years ago, yet it suddenly needs to be cracked down on in the most draconian way. I've heard people defend it by saying it prevents cheating. However, they have no proof of this, and it seems ridiculous that they're worried about cheating in a single player mode, where you only affect yourself. For me, it seems like racing games, for reasons like this, are a genre where they can take a step forward with graphics but 2 steps backward everywhere else. Hopefully we see harder pushes for better products in the future and this period of stagnation in the genre is just temporary.

[@pavelskrylnikov9658]

"and all simcades/sims are focusing on GT3's on SPA" THIS. I love GT3, especially on Spa, but this desire to become the next Gran Turismo is ridiculous.

[@samuelpierce2.088]

For me, the biggest complaint I have with the racing genre as a whole is the lack of…well, maybe not creativity per se, but an unwillingness on the part of developers/publishers to allow that creativity to be built on. Those pieces of concept art from Behaviour Interactive’s Gregory Fromenteau - the ones that showcase iconic rally cars in futuristic/alien landscapes - that’s the kind of stuff that I would pick up and play in a heartbeat. But because that potential game is (for the moment, at least) nothing but a series of pretty images in an art gallery, I can’t buy it. Speaking of buying things, though, that leads me to a smaller, but nonetheless important issue for racing games in general (but especially arcade racers): For many aspiring game devs (myself included), our ability to develop and publish any sort of racing game is heavily hampered by the fact that many of the things we’d need to make/publish said games (stable/fully-functional game engines, audio design tools, graphics and modeling programs, etc.) tend to either be walled off via paying real-world money, or otherwise take up a huge amount of memory on our machines (large programs like Blender, Unity, and even programming IDEs like Visual Studio can take up several gigs of storage on their own). Combine this with the fact that racing games - especially those that wanna look and sound as good as established franchises like Need For Speed - are already one of the most difficult genres of games to develop, and you’ve got a situation where even those who are truly dedicated to the art of game development are often left to spend several years (potentially even decades) just *trying* to get something off the ground, if they don’t completely quit halfway through. Now to be fair, there *are* some small bright spots that have the potential to help make this less of an issue. With regards to audio design specifically, a KZbinr named AngeTheGreat has been working on a program that can simulate realistic engine audio using fluid-based physics calculations that (from my testing, at least) don’t seem to bog down the performance of lower-end computers. And he’s currently working on an update that will add turbochargers and superchargers to the program. And while I can’t personally verify the usability and/or quality of them, there *are* a handful of assets available for the Unity game engine that lets you add arcade-style car controls/physics to your game. However, aside from the fact that both of the options I listed above have some sort of asterisk attached (AngeTheGreat’s updates are currently Patreon-exclusive, and the Unity assets are both exclusive to the Unity engine *and* require upfront payment to use), the fact is these are very small examples that ultimately can only do so much to assist those who want to make a racing game. And until we see more easy-to-use tools and resources become publicly available in a way that doesn’t require money - or at least see more devs and publishers within the industry being willing to offer more of their stuff for studying and iteration - we’re probably not gonna see things change for the racing game genre for a very long time.

[@HungryManticore]

For me the most frustrating thing is the lack of Quick Race mode, which plagues modern Need for Speed games, although other titles have been guilty of it too (Blur, TDU1 and 2, Burnout Revenge, and several others). Just to clarify, I mean a mode that lets the player choose any car, any track, set up things like number of bots and laps, time of day, weather etc. and just race for fun. Lack of it really kills the replay value for me, as there's nothing left to do in the game once you finish the career mode (I never play multiplayer modes). Replaying scripted events with predefined conditions gets boring rather quickly. It frustrates me as it used to be the most basic option that a racing game would offer back in the day, no matter how shitty it was. It also seems quite easy to program. I mostly blame Criterion Games for this. First they cut out the mode from Burnout Revenge, and when they took over the Need for Speed franchise, they also weren't bothered.

[@pfm57]

A few things that stand out to me (many already covered by Alex and others on yt): 1) Single player difficulty curve and AI behavior: Most racing games do a very poor job of giving a balanced interesting AI challenge to the player. Be it just soulless AI single file, too slow AI, badly tuned catch-up mechanics or just AI that can be easily leaned on. The sad reality is that in most games an experienced player will spend the majority of the race alone in the lead, doing hardly any racing at all. A notable exception are Wreckfest with its multiple personalities hyper aggressive AI (although it is still too slow to keep an experienced player behind). But at least the AI behaviors fit in with the mechanics of the game. GT7 seems to be experimenting with machine learning with its Sophia or whatever its called to provide some proper racing, but the results are still not impressive. Forza drivatar is another failure in this regard as it tends to produce extremely predictable racing lines, not to speak of the times it starts to replicate the take out attempts that humans perform in online races. 2) Track design and track variety and the obsession with "realism": This has been touched on a bunch of times, but one of the main reasons that the racing genre is stuck is: realistic looking tracks and cars take a lot of money to implement > Publisher needs assurance costs will be worth it > leads to a conservative game design with the same recognizable cars and tracks we have been playing with for 10 years. > rinse repeat As others have caught, even non track racing games have been infected by this cycle making all open world racers also feel "samey". Race tracks in circuit racers feel the same as we have played hundreds of times before and cars all feel familiar as well because they have to be "realistic". But alas they are NOT "realistic" in the important ways that make the game fun, they are not varied enough in the way they handle (most games just give you race cars, and the ones that have non race cars, rarely does it feel good to drive slow cars in them) Track surfaces are too flat, yes even tracks that have undulations and jumps, the polygon budget just isn't being spent on the parts that would make the tracks more interesting to drive. Arcade racers that DO feature jumps make them too big and inconsequential to the racing, like a mere setup piece to go through, but it doesn't really affect the racing at all. Again Wreckfest is the only game to innovate in this area, with tracks that have a crazy amount of little details, bumps, rocks, tire walls, barriers of different types and all sorts of dips and crests that you need to consider when battling for position or simply trying to go faster. When there is a jump, you need careful consideration of your position and momentum relative to other cars, their weight and size, your car's weight and size, if the speed you are going is enough to clear a particular tricky landing or not...etc etc the intricacy of the design is just staggering. Also most racing games have a problem with what I call "sensation of speed scale". They feature cars that can go 200+ miles per hour but in order to make that feel fast they are then unable to dedicate time to make a slow car feel fast and interesting to drive. Some games like Forza are not terrible terrible at this, but even the better ones are bad at this. Grand Turismo is notoriously bad at this, and has been forever. It was always sold on the premise of owning and driving cars from a fwd Yaris to a Le mans prototype, however none of them feel good to drive. Again, Wreckfest is a game that absolutely nails this. Going 100mph in Wreckfest feels dangerous and visceral in a way that few if any games have done before. Another issue is the obsession with realistic car brands models and their licensing implications and 3d/sound design production costs. They Grand Turismo / Forza Horizon hyper realistic fantasy is realized. That's it. But also don't forget that they keep getting remade because players keep buying them in droves.... so there's that. To move creatively fwd we need to get rid of real life brand licensing and start playing around with vehicles designed by proper creative people racing in environments designed with equal creative freedom. This doesn't mean that "Arcade" only "Trackmania" style over the top fictional racing has to be the only alternative (as the failure of Wreckreation is about to show in spectacular fashion). What about fictional racing cars and tracks using "real" physics? With proper balanced interesting racing and interesting cars/vehicles that you need to learn and understand how to make go fast? What about how racing would look like if we colonized mars or the moon and were bored and decided to go racing the surface of those places? What would that look like that is not Fzero or Wipeout? Would we have rubber to make tires there? What materials would cars and tracks be made of? Would it be fun to race cars on the moon with low gravity? Would they have boosters to steer instead of mechanically gripping tires? How would they handle the rocky terrain? Would tracks need to be leveled off first? What would people do to make it interesting? 3) Business models Sooner or later players will revolt against micro-transactions that are pay to win. Paid Car DLC's are IMO an acceptable tradeoff to keep a well designed base game generating money for a publisher/studio. AS LONG AS the car roster is extremely well balanced or well structured in classes. Paying players cannot have advantage over non paying ones. EVER. Paid track DLCs are also fair, but they have the "a shit tone of players don't own this track to play online problem". I think studios could innovate a lot in ways of selling DLC fairly by applying techniques of try before you buy, like for example allowing players to test drive cars and tracks they don't own in online events, etc. 4) Multiplayer and modes The triple A games are afraid to fragment their online populations and as such provide extremely limited variety in their online modes (like Forza Horizon, where you cant even choose what class race you want to play in next) Even Wreckfest fails at this, with very basic server controls in terms of car and class restrictions and very poor online mod support. It does get one thing right though, we need more studios giving players early 2000s style dedicated servers and the ability for players to host them independently and create their own communities. A lot of studios spend a lot of resource building cars and tracks but then fail to deliver any variety at all to the ways the player gets to PLAY with those toys in front of them. I guess this is also a consequence of the wider tendency that is making modding more and more rare as publishers buy and control more and more dev studios. Soon modding features like the ones in Asseto Corsa and Wreckfest will be a thing of the past. This, paired with the inability of players to host their own multiplayer servers will kill new modes creativity just like is happening in the shooter genre. Things like Forza Horizon not having a simple HUD Off Cruise mode select-able from a mode menu is baffling to me. How years are spent creating these amazing open vistas to drive around that we pay full price of admission for to then have the developer dictate how we should experience that open world. Having to have a story, cut-scenes etc reveals a lack of creativity and independent thought from racing game developers. Why must they copy other game genres? Or while they are at it why not copy the good ones? Where is the racing game equivalent of Half Life?

[@kpegc]

GRID 1 for me had a truly fun and engaging single player mode where you raced well enough to earn money to start your own team. You could manage it by hiring and firing drivers, signing sponsors, focusing on which regions you want to race in, and you had this sense that you were truly touring the motorsports world, embracing their cultures, and working toward being the ultimate Penske or Red Bull like operation. I haven't quite felt that way playing another racing game campaign, and this career mode never made its way to any of GRID's sequels. It seems like developers focused so much on graphics and physics they forgot that you have to make motorsports as a whole feel fun, diverse, and engaging. I guess it feels like current racing developers are making these games because they see them as just another job, not necessarily because they actually love motorsports and want to share that with others.

[@gunman8452]

One thing that I don't like about the raving community is the hate of change, an example would be the comic effects in Unbound having people giving 0-star reviews when that's one of the best things about Unbound imo. Racing games lack identity nowadays and they all look the same, back in the 2000's you could tell what franchise the game was from based on a glance, Carbon was easily recognizable for its blue-purple colour scheme. Most racers nowadays all look the same and I hope Criterion goes fully cell-shaded for the next game.

[@fordshelbygt7177]

I Never I Hate NFS Unbound But I Didn't Play Because Is Expensive :(

[@Solid_Kris]

Honestly, its the big disconnect that the studios have with the community. The community has voiced their ideas/concerns/feedback on numerous franchises, yet it honestly feels like the studios are blatantly ignoring the community, and pushing out games that the community will not like with little to no transparency or interaction coming from the studios themselves.

[@zacariascisneros6399]

I want to kinda disagree on that "the studios are disconnected with the community" With a counterargument: Need for Speed games from Ghost Games With the exception of Rivals, Ghost Games NFS games were made thanks to some "community feedback". That's why they decided to make a reboot to the series with the Underground style instead of...I don't know, making a Rivals 2/Hot Pursuit 3. Since 2015, every Need for Speed gane has a story mode. They wanted harder police since in 2015 were...well, they just exists. In Payback and Heat were harder, but had their issues They also tried to please everyone with the handling model and they ended up pleasing almost no one. The only thing that they didn't listen to, was the full removal of Brake 2 Drift mechanic that's in the franchise since Hot Pursuit 2010

[@Solid_Kris]

@@zacariascisneros6399 Ghost maybe cared to listen, but they were incompetent in doing anything else. Their b2d model is literally criterion's plugin that they didnt remove becuase they didnt know how to

[@zacariascisneros6399]

@@Solid_Kris the issue with Ghost Games' Brake 2 Drift isn't only that they didn't remove it, but also that the Brake 2 Drift was kinda shit. I played Hot Pursuit 2010, Most Wanted 2012 and Rivals. And IT SHOWS that Criterion wasn't the main studio behind Rivals, especially in its handling model. After bunch of hours played on MW12, and playing back Rivals I realized how NERFED the physics in Rivals were. And I really like Rivals, and I don't mind that much that the drift is different. But it felt less faster than before.

[@Solid_Kris]

@@zacariascisneros6399 funny thing is that rivals felt slower with b2d off. Which is somehow even more funny

[@zacariascisneros6399]

@@Solid_Kris considering the tightness of Redview County map in Rivals, Grip handling could have been a better option. Or make great again the Brake 2 Drift like Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted from Criterion.

[@lubao4276]

For me personally its the lack of creative variety in the genre, i feel like in the past we used to have such a large variety of racing games that filled various niche gameplay styles but now its mostly just simulators with a tad simcade racers sprinkled in. There are a few indie racing games that do stand out a lot and bring a lot of cool interesting ideas or revive old gameplay styles (Inertial Drift, Hotshot racing) but then cuz those games are indie and aren't the ones that sell they often suffer from lack of content or functional multiplayer. All i want is for Triple-A studios to try their hand at racing games again so we can have a larger variety of games and to stop this complacency of just making the same simulator or open world racer over and over again.

[@izk4093]

I agree, but usually games that we praise as being original and innovative were very poor sellers. Do you think things would be different today?

[@lubao4276]

@@izk4093 idk man im no marketing person, but i dont think its impossible, especially since most of the rly creative ones came from smaller studios. eitherway i dont think we're seeing a really new and interesting racing game for a while until the next car culture boom kinda like when fast and furious first released

[@izk4093]

@@lubao4276 I agree mate. Let's hope this next boom happens soon. Your point is really interesting

[@zgrazeee]

Cuz too many triple a studios focus too much on graphics and realism rather than gameplay, and its so frustrating

[@lubao4276]

@@zgrazeee yeaaaa that too for shoor, while realistic is cool some stylistic racers would be really cool and more cost effective too, i'd love to see more unique art styles utilized in racing games

[@gameovertapes]

I just need a good vehicular combat racing, man 😫 Nothing beats a good and cathartic Burnout session to relax

[@mroceanside3692]

For me, my frustration is already said in the video is the fact that most of the game series that I love have disappeared. Then it is there for another reason is the general turn and the situation of the games Already I find that there are a lot less arcade racing games and that decreases my interest for new games, already that I have more and more difficulty to be interested in the new games that are released whether they are racing games or not And the fact to see less and less arcade games frustrates me. Then there are some aspects of recent games that come on racing games when it has nothing to do there, such as "Season Pass", "Loot Box", credits to buy for shitty skins and also the fact that publishers give unfinished games. This made me change my mind about whether a new "Burnout" is coming! Because I don't want to have a bad game, made by people who don't understand the License and not to make it with passion. So the solution I found is to continue to play my favorite license, but if there are no more players, no more multiplayer, 100% finished, I'll still continue to play it!

[@calmtreee2702]

I think racing games should get a lot more experimental, it seems every racing game feels and looks the same nowadays.. (I know there are some exceptions, this is more about the genre in the public eye) I mean even KZbinrs who react to racing clips from their community like Goosiest have troubles identifying the game on the spot they're currently looking at Racing games kind of lost their soul and atmosphere, it feels like nobody makes racing games for the FUN but more for the realism and the ''amazing graphics'' and both of these things mean nothing in the long term if the gameplay loop isn't fun enough

[@BluChemical9087]

I feel like racing games like Gran Turismo 7, and...pretty much every video game as of recent, have been leaning more towards e-Sports more than ever, which leads to the single-player content to be left in a unfinished/ghosted state in my opinion. And I pretty much just want a new Burnout game at this point lol

[@Mickelraven]

I still play Burnout 3: Takedown. And it's perfect as it is! It doesn't have any bells and whistles, deep customisation, a huge open world, or a huge grandiose campaign mode with an epic story. It's just fun! As someone who used to play Gran Turismo, I've switched over to play Forza Horizon 5 when I got my Series X after the disappointing Gran Turismo 7, while FH5 is much better than GT7, it still has too many features that I can get lost in. This is what I mean by every game needs to have all sorts of bells and whistles nowadays, just for them to feel complete. But as a new player, I was just overwhelmed and got lost and could barely keep track of how far into the game I got. But Burnout 3 proves that sometimes less is better, because B3 in its core is just fun to play.

[@BluChemical9087]

@@Mickelraven I've 100% completed Burnout 3 very recently, this is the only video game I've fully completed, that's how much I deeply care for this game.

[@Mickelraven]

@@BluChemical9087 I have also done it. That US Circuit Racer grand prix is still the hardest event in the whole game to get gold medal on. But when you do win it, you feel like a god.

[@raphaelsojka2083]

I personally think that a lot of modern racing games can't make you build an emotional connection to your car, be it with memories of races in those cars or just their looks. This is because games like Forza just throw a lot of cars at you and the games that achieve the sense of connection like for exemple need for speed feel too short or incomplete or like theres something missing

[@gunman8452]

Unbound went too fast, each qualifier should've been 2 or 3 weeks so that we could get attached to our cars, and reduce the pay so that it feels like proper progression. Underground did this too well since you could only own one car but it made you attached to that car specifically, Most Wanted did the opposite by having the car you're attached to attract more police attention, which gave you two choices: risk higher heat levels or drive a car you don't like as much which was perfect, since you could modify your car to be visually different so that it wouldn't be the same car throughout, you had to change it up

[@wydua]

No it isn't the issue with ammount of cars in Forza The issue is that you do what? There is no real story, you can literally progress in it by driving around. Classes in races? No, pick whatever you want. It's not because is too much cars It's that you can't really bond because there is nothing to do. Like in Forza you got you B class cars Or the Volkswagen you start in I still remember my first 4v4 car game gave to me and it was Mitsubishi Lancer O still remember that i best Darius with maxed out dodge viper And in Forza 5 what did i do? Initial drive And then i got some random cars right away, no earning Also no tracks because you just can drive around

[@arandominternetperson4462]

My issue with newer arcade racing games are their worlds. They don't feel immersive. This is more of an issue with Forza Horizon and the newer entries into the NFS series. Maps feel like they've been designed with a checklist. -Big mountain? Check. -City? Check. -Some form of coast? Check. -Big straight road for top speed testing? Check. -Area with more wiggly roads? Check. -Some landmark at the corner of the map (usually the opposite end of where the "Main City" is.)? Check. That's a thing that's kinda've been bothering me with newer titles in the arcade genre. I don't play sims so I can't say much about them.

[@Tezuk_25]

Defacto Burnout Paradise copy pasta

[@MatthewDiLeva]

I really agree with this. Modern racing games continue to get worse by the minute, and it shows given how most of us within this community in particular are arcade racing fans, myself included. The devs these days can’t seem to place their fingers on how to properly bring back one of the shining examples not only on how to make a great racing game, but what we want in terms of quality and content.

[@shawklan27]

I bought a ps2 recently just to escape from the disappointment of modern racing games

[@low-pixeldoomguy6741]

Something that really annoys me about the fans is their hatred towards people who have difference in opinion. Take the Need For Speed fandom as an example, anything said about the Black Box era being overrated is slammed with hate and I know you covered this but it just really makes me mad to see an OPINION viewed as something wrong or offensive.

[@alexalcalaortiz368]

because fanboys see it as "overrated = bad" instead of "overrated = good but not flawless"

[@gunman8452]

No game is perfect (unless it's Midnight Club 3), BB games all have flaws that the previous game didn't (aside UG2, probably the only game to be better than the predecessor in every single way). Most Wanted doesn't have the customization and race modes of UG2 but we got cop chases and exotics in return, Carbon doesn't have the length or the focus on Police MW did but it improved customization and brought car classes. Each game removed one thing from the last but traded it with something else, some better than others

[@DJ_Thanos]

I wish Burnout Dominator had an HD re-release or at least became available under PS2 Classics. And a new MotorStorm

[@Zer0defence]

Arcade racing games need to have a comeback.

[@TheCanadianGTR]

Remember when people in the racing game community didn't take each other's opinions too seriously? I surely do miss those times...

[@TheJakeMG]

Honestly, when was this? I remember 2013 - 2014 with #CraigItUp and the whole "rootz" thing. It was a shitshow.

[@TheCanadianGTR]

@@TheJakeMG Not sure. I think it took place around the late 2000's.

[@adlibbed2138]

pepperidge farm remembers

[@Its_LMP]

I'm honestly disheartened to have to watch a racing game trailer and automatically have the expectation that the graphics shown will be downgraded and the overall experience will be littered with bugs and glitches for the first few weeks after launch. This isn't touching other issues that could pop up such as: - A lack of game mode variety - Monetization schemes - A lack of basic multiplayer features and/or PvP - A repetitive and boring gameplay loop when going through the campaign and multiplayer - No post-endgame content (compounding multiplayer issues) after said campaign's completion, giving me no reason to revisit/replay the game after the first playthrough - Lack of innovation and evolution between releases - A community so toxic and hung up on the past it's become hostile to unpopular opinions such as *visual and artstyle changes* (NFS Unbound) that could aid in differentiation from literally every other game in the same franchise, or franchises in the same genre - And to top it all off, said game being overpriced It sucks to be a racing fan when even fighting game fans who suffered some similar issues with their game franchises not too long ago are sympathising with our despair.

[@Armor23OnPatrol]

We all know that the most frustrating thing about racing games is there will never be another hot pursuit game :(

[@relatedfir]

wich is a shame, there's nothing more fun than throwing racers of a cliff in a police lamborghini

[@Sharky_0456]

i wish there would be a sequel to nfs hot pursuit 2010 that's my favourite racing game of all time. i just loved everything about it and I feel like a new map and perhaps less cars if it meant more customisation would make for a really nice sequel to a stellar title.

[@f1fan3000]

Listening to the racing game community today is something a game developer shouldn't do. They should stick with an original concept which changes the visuals qnd gameplay, more or less. Nothing more, nothing else. The community has become way too splintered and toxic. Best example is r/needforspeed where one side hates the classic BlackBox era and glorifies anything else while the other side loves the BlackBox era and pushes this extremely on the other side. Both sides can't respect the other ones opinion. A civil and rational discussion isn't possible. Same for sim-racers vs arcade-racers in general. Another dividing line are the priorities. The car community wants this bodykit and that car, while the gaming community wants good physics and skill-based, responsive competitive handling. All of these points of divisìon are each it's own spectrum with a lot of gray between black and white. But polarization is slowly increasing.

[@kingbaby9519]

Not really related but it really shows how racing games have been on a downward spiral when people are coming back to older games such as NFS Underground, Prostreet or Burnout games. And it's not like they do it out of nostalgia, people that haven't played those games try them out as well and find them more enjoyable than today's products

[@marc.silden]

My personal issue with arcady racing games is: they (the developers?) don't usually try different things, when they do, it doesn't feel like a racing game anymore (just like Onrush).

[@Tribow]

Months late to this video, but my biggest frustration is easily with the community itself. The notion that "Arcade racing is dead" or that "Racing games suck now". They talk as if it's over, like there'll never be a good racing game game again. However, the indie scene is right there! I understand that indies are usually smaller games, butthe quality of so many indies have been incredible lately. Yet, the community continues to sleep on them and complain about how all the games suck now. Do you want to do something about that? Buy the games that don't suck! Play the games that don't suck! There are a bunch of indie racing games that are more than worth your time and they're cheaper than the next big thing from a AAA studio. Indies NEED the support of this community to go somewhere big, but apparently spending the time to find a good game is just too hard for us.

[@ashman198]

My biggest problem with modern racing games is how their features fail to surpass those of racing games released decades ago. Look at Forza for instance. Horizon 5 has drip fed the playerbase older cars from previous Forza games with little to no changes, while the next Motorsport game appears to use the same terrible car and aero parts that have been the source of ridicule for years. Need for Speed is almost as bad. If your community decides that the entry that is almost 20 years old at this point was the best game in the entire series, then you need to take a step back, because something has gone horribly wrong. TL:DR, modern racing games have either stagnated or even regressed in some cases. Not in terms of graphics, but in terms of actual gameplay, features, and content.

[@toyocolla]

Midnight Club 3, Blur, and NFS World are three racing games I've played that contain both real-world licensed cars and arcade-style powerups. I just wish to see a modern racing game do this. Hell, I want another open-world racing game with physics similar to MC3. But now every racing game feels to similar; real-world cars on real-world tracks, and it's the same cars every time. I know licensing might not let this happen but I just want to see exceptionally rare cars in video games again, I'm talking cars that appeared in only one game and dipped ( like the Gemballa F355) , maybe even allow the players to control NPC traffic cars like MW '05 did. I have more gripes to list but it would make this comment longer than it already is so... idk.

[@theunchosendude5446]

Another open world racing game like MC3? Have you tried MC2 lmao

[@toyocolla]

@@theunchosendude5446 ive already beaten MC2 and im playing through MC1.

[@theunchosendude5446]

@@toyocolla I guess MCLA then, although the physics are different. Sorta sucks that the Midnight Club series is dead in the water.

[@oneradranger7707]

My frustrations are when games like Hotshot Racing come around once in a blue moon, people are quick to harp on ALL of their shortcomings and basically paint those games as bad and nothing can convince them otherwise. I know you've voiced some legitimate concerns for Hotshot Racing in the past, but you're not my point of contention with this issue. When Hotshot Racing came out, people either made fun of it for having "bad graphics" (low-poly is a stylistic choice nowadays, and is actually hard to do without the use of textures anywhere) or overblowing its faults and making it seem like it wasn't worth paying attention to or even playing. Because of this, word-of-mouth was mixed and the game died after its first update. The devs never came back to fix their broken PC port and don't even act like the game ever came out. Instead, they don't seem to even take even a little pride in their work on that game. As a fan of Hotshot Racing and what it did for people like me (being a fun arcade racer despite its jank), it still makes me angry that the game's performance tanked due to mixed signals from people who had the loudest voices. It felt like the devs got scared after finishing one post-launch update and immediately disregarded the game AND its passionate community to work on some VR game thats gonna sell even worse than Hotshot Racing simply due to that being an even smaller niche of people. I get where you're coming from with that game's issues, Alex, and they're very valid. As someone whose played the crap out of Hotshot Racing (well over 150 hours), I can confirm that there's that jank you were describing. I'm not desensitized to it, but the lack of communication and willingness on the devs' part to even try and fix things is just bothersome. Also, the PC version of the game cannot be played unless you're online for some reason. Hotshot Racing is a standout game for me because of the heart and soul I could tell went into it from its developers. It's so sad to see it fizzle out all because people made fun of the graphics, Curve Digital keeping people in the dark about it leading up to release, the terribly mixed coverage the game got upon launch, and how the devs abandoned the game not even three months after its release. It had so much potential for improvement and some fun DLC opportunities. I wish I could go back in time and make sure the game sold well and got more improvements to its physics and and a proper Switch cartridge release that had the update ON THE CARTRIDGE and not through a download (that still bothers me, even though the Big Boss Bundle wasn't really a dealbreaker for me). Really, I just wish more people would make videos on Hotshot Racing not only telling the devs how it can improve... but also saying what it did get right and just how fun it is. I do wish you'd make one more video on it with hopefully a new perspective. Not to invalidate the critiques you gave it, but maybe show appreciation for what it does compared to most modern "arcade racers". Not even Hot Wheels Unleashed could ever give me the enjoyment that Hotshot Racing has. - Ranger

[@GamerAlexVideos]

I definitely understand your frustration, as I have games that I love that people don't share the same love for (Crash Time 5 for example). Yet, I have a bit of a different perspective because from what I saw, the reception of Hotshot Racing was rather good. Even before it released, I got my ass handed to me in my first video about the game when I complained about them removing the weaponized combat. Obviously, I did see complaints that aligned with what I experienced and talked about in my second video, but it didn't seem like it was an overly negative or mixed receptions because most of the people I talked to actual liked the game. I get exactly what you mean about the developer's passion because I can see it, so I definitely don't disagree with your assessment. That's why it surprised me that support for the game was dropped so quickly. Especially as I felt the issues could have been easily solvable, I am still so frustrated that nothing was done. Like, what exactly happened behind the scenes for this to happen? And like why work on a VR game, which I haven't heard about for a while now (which is no surprise at this point with how silent this studio always was) Quite honestly, I wanted to like the game. I made sure to give it a second chance even though they removed the core part of what I was excited for the game (being the combat). Yet, to this day when I play it, I just can't get myself to enjoy it fully. Thats why I really have nothing to say to warrant a new video sadly.

[@oneradranger7707]

@@GamerAlexVideos I can respect that. I guess I've played HSR so much now that I've learned how to combat the jank. Still, I'll play HSR again before I even think about touching Hot Wheels Unleashed ever again.

[@binnieb20]

Agreed, recently I saw some people criticising the developer of Over Jump Rally simply because of a heated debate he had with another user about game optimization. The Racing Game Community is insufferable. And here’s a story for you, a racing game fan called Eric4372 joined the Furry Fandom and a guy called Twitchdawoof called him out. Because of behaviour issues that could’ve easily been fixed or resolved and also because of an Indian Headdress, of all things. Racing Game Community needs to change otherwise people will dislike them.

[@crimsonshadow1140]

my two biggest issues with the racing community, complete disregard for unique niche experiences and the sometimes blatant gatekeeping

[@shawklan27]

Buying a 6th gen console or emulating old racing games is the right way to if you want escape the barrage of disappointing racing games that are released constantly

[@DerbyshireBangers]

Lack of innovation on the aspect of simply having fun, no one is willing to go balls out and try new things now so everything becomes watered down. It's simply got to the point that I'm teaching myself game development so I can at least make a game that I enjoy. I've got 1 small simple mobile game under development atm and a actual full game planned out but focusing on the simple mobile game first as that will teach me the fundamentals and I can grow from that.

[@vitamc1213]

It seems the developers that develop these games, or someone in the process, do not tend to have much love or knowledge about cars. Criteron, the original Criterion, were different. Sure, say what you want about MW2012, but the car list and how each car was modelled and sounded was excellent. When I play one of their games, or even Black Box, I can tell they love cars. That's not even to mention the days of Need for Speed where you used to get an almost marketing description of every car, which HP2010 did. I cannot tell that the developers from modern games like cars at all. It seems secondary to them.

[@franklinnash]

Lack of originality. Back in the PS1/PS2 era, some amazingly original racing concepts came out like WipeOut, Twisted Metal and Burnout. These games took what had come before and added unique and interesting twists. These days all we seem to get are better-looking sequels or variations on a theme.

[@Ji99i3]

I really just want a modern outrun 2006 with a bit more variety

[@theunchosendude5446]

That'd be pretty nice

[@AustinOgonoski]

I understand the frustration. It's 100% warranted. Prior to 2007, racing games were made for motorsports fans, racing game enthusiasts, and people who loved cars. That's it. Even stuff like Need for Speed, which was seen as the "arcade" offering, still drove like a real car and had the features and just... things players actually wanted in the game. Other franchises like PGR, Midnight Club, etc, were built to appeal to serious racers wanting the ultimate challenge. It was excellent and they all sold pretty well. At some point, developers decided that all of the elements that made racing games awesome - the handling model, the difficulty, the premise of appealing to racers - were actually a bad thing. And they worked to remove them. I believe they got greedy after the launch of Halo 3, CoD4, and Guitar Hero 3. They wondered how they could turn these "niche, hardcore racing games" into something with mass market appeal to chase the impossible sales figures of CoD/halo, never once questioning if it would actually be appropriate for a racing game. The focus groups and metrics all told them players like shooters because they're easy, so we should make racing games easy for huge $$$. As a result, we got some really weird stuff. There was nothing actually wrong with the first Colin McRae DiRT, it was a great game. Codemasters decided all of the things that made it great, were actually a "problem", and cut them in favor of an extreme sports aesthetic and significantly simplified gameplay. The franchise never recovered and they had to start a new sub-franchise, basically to start over and get back on track. There was nothing wrong with Toca Race Driver 3. Great game. Codies cut all the sim elements, added a rewind mechanic for children who couldn't play racing games, added a demo derby mode, and shipped it. For 15 years the Grid franchise existed as a weird anomaly Codies couldn't figure out what to do with, until it died. It just kept getting worse and worse. Need for Speed, as I mentioned above, genuinely did drive like a car and was a solid arcade racer. Even the weird offshoots like ProStreet were genuinely good games. At some point EA decided the fans buying NFS games religiously every year, didn't matter, and when pivoting to Frostbyte for 2015, turned the vehicles into sleds that couldn't be drifted and had artificial forces acting on them instead of proper vehicle physics. All so little kids could drive them. Now NFS is, ironically, undrivable unless you're NOS boosting in a straight line. Which most of the game is now designed around. The formula of the first TDU was awesome - here's Hawaii, go drive around. The devs became pretentious and decided it needed a story, then rebuilt the game under a new name with an even worse story. Car upgrades became random loot boxes instead of... you know, actual car parts, because "it's what's hip with the kids" and the bean counters told them they might sell 13% more to the casual market. Whoops, both games bombed. Project CARS 3, DiRT 5, and Grid Legends all show that this mentality is still alive and well. There is this almost hatred of making a racing game for race fans. Everything must be simplified, streamlined, then simplified again because racing is HARD and SCARY and we can't have that in fear it hurts the player's feelings. Predictably, all of these games fail and now we are left with years of games that wasted our time and weren't designed for the core audience. The sweetest irony, DiRT Rally - this no nonsense sim for ultra hardcore purists, sells millions. AC becomes a phenomenon even though the game is half finished, because they mildly entertained the idea of appealing to purists. And yet this hasn't caused a massive wakeup in the industry yet.

[@sideswipebl]

Based take honestly

[@positivelycurvedpikachu]

SEGA not releasing any new racing game or at least idk Daytona Usa 1 or 2, SEGA Rally as standalone ports, more than frustrating me its a traumatic event

[@theunchosendude5446]

I want more unique mechanics. I've been going on an arcade racing binge lately and noticed just how many unique mechanics have simply never been used again. Driver San Francisco's driver swap mechanic, Midnight Club's unordered checkpoint racing, the powerplay system of Split Second, etc. There's this game I've been playing recently called Tokyo Xtreme Racer, and it has a very unique head to head racing system that I really like. I just want an arcade game that has different and unique mechanics again.

[@sammy13ificationable]

They're all the same. Profitising and corporatising has made them all the same. They look the same, they sound the same, the music sucks, the content sucks, everything is just a rehash of the last game. Nobody is trying anything new, besides wreckfest, which over 10 years old since its initial tech demo, and NightRunners. There are no more automodelistas, initial Ds, tokyo extremes, dt racing's, burnouts, blurs, or others. There are no more gimmicks that actually set games aside from one another, apart from sim or arcade. The only modern racing game studio that's actually dared do anything legitimately extreme in the last 6 years was caged element and wire games, with Grip Combat Racing, the only spiritual successor in the now over 2 decade old Rollcage duo. Were bored, and were displeased with the shotty workmanship. This shit looks like they arent mass producing the games, it looks like they're mass producing the GAMES, you know. Nothing feels like its had any actual passion in it lately, it's all just rushed cash grabs, just triple A shovelware.

[@antiquecardboard]

I just want a next-gen pod racing and Motorstorm game. That's all.

[@pfm57]

The racing genre needs to have it's Dark Souls moment.

[@KemonoMusic]

I just wanted to apologize to some people but they simply won't let me because of their grudge towards me. Well atleast i did apologize to one person who is from middle east and i'm so gladly that he accepted my apology and then decided to stay in the old DM group chat from 2018. Someone out there from Africa may not even believe me but that's his problem.

[@VenusSquid]

I miss the true love for the game that is being made everything is just money happy

[@no-hadaceur]

I've never has a good time with racing community, most of people they do ask "Why" and argue (according to FPS community as well) after expression their opinion It's Basically "Lack of humanity" Like an Gun, FPS and MOBA community in general

[@oliveluchs5132]

My biggest problem with the current racing games is that they lost their individuality. E.g. Need for Speed Heat tries to copy Forza Horizon 4, Forza Horizon 5 copies 4 and 3, Need for Speed Unboud copies Midnight Club LA (that's easy to see, if you played both games in a short time frame). We don't need more quantity in cars and tuning, we need a goal to make that worth. Modern games are missing the special feelings you had back in the days and they try to compensate that with quantity because they know, if they make (eg) a Most Wanted 2005 Remake or Underground, it will flop, because they are not able to capture the feeling and the modern factor for racing games

[@adlibbed2138]

I thought NFS Unbound tried to Frankenstein'ing the whole Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Auto Modellista with it's progression model, by having this calendar structure in Unbound and cel shaded atmosphere in the game in fact the Day and Night feature we've seen on Heat basically predated by Drift 2 where you had to work your way up to unlock more cool stuff during the night and earn some money to get these on daytime although I can certainly say Unbound is best described of these obscure racing games of the 2000s on a modern AAA title sold in full price

[@oliveluchs5132]

@@adlibbed2138 For me the handling and driving physics of Unbound remind me of Midnight Club LA, the way you use your bust and how you drift gave me that feeling plus always doing the same races over and over to progress with the car you're using as the only difference. We're getting new games that pretend to be the successor of all the old ones, but yet they lost their souls. And the pricetag of 70-80€ for racing-games is a joke

[@W0lverine1231]

One thing that frustrates me about games is the whole Pay2Win nonsense. The other things that frustrates me is the amount of tryhard players that’ll do anything to win (like cheating), and then they’ll say that the opposing player has “skill issues” like it’s nothing. I just don’t understand why games are like this…..

[@murazor007]

My biggest complaint about Racing games is that all of them look the same. Plus they are so boooring compared to older games like MW (both games), Burnout, Hot Pursuit, NFS Rivals, Blur....etc. NFS Unbound tried to do a different, but only in the visual aspect. Gameplay experience is the very carbon copy of NFS Heat and Payback except the Criterion's new Handling mechanics. There are no fun elements in modern Racing games. The only thing you can do with them is Customize your car and drive around a big, boring map. Just compare NFS Rivals with NFS Unbound or Heat. In Rivals, there were so much to do. like, chasing racers when anytime you like, jumps, head to head races, hrilling cop chases against hell pawns like cops....plus plus plus...Now, what can we do in games like NFS Unbound or Heat, after completing the campaign ? Just replay same boring races or play the multiplayer mode, or just drive around in a big, boring map. It was worse in NFS Payback. I was getting boring even before the first chapter. It gets worse when it comes to recent entries of Forza Horizon.

[@ChadSpittingTruth.]

in the future and the history repeats itself.

[@cxlciummmiv]

Lack of personality, lack of things that the community of said racing game asks for, and so on.

[@pavelskrylnikov9658]

Definitely the monetization. Other things can be up to personal preferences but selling a full price game then getting showering player with f2p MMO monetization practices (microtransactions, dozens of DLCs, lootboxes, etc) is scummy at best. Also, if you aren't buying on release, then kiss goodbye to honest advertising, because if you want the full game, the price on a store page with the DLCs will be at least twice bigger than the advertised. And don't worry, even if you didn't plan on buying them, the game will constantly remind you that you didn't bought them on every occasion. Other genres do that, but they keep it out of single player at least.

[@Sharky_0456]

my only real complaint is that arcade racers are really scarce and no triple a developers are making games anymore besides need for speed so Im forced to look to the past for good games nowadays. i just wish series like burnout would return and that maybe even developers like activision would give arcade racers a go as it would be a refreshing change from the yearly instalments of call of duty and would provide some competition to need for speed as it would be very welcome and it gives a lot of pressure to nfs to provide a huge amount of content so that arcade racing fans have something to play cause there is literally nothing else sorry for the small paragraph there but that's my opinions on the matter

[@DJKevin97]

Older franchises dying out for me. I love a lot of older racing games but as time goes on, servers shut down. I either have to play a modern title online or find something to do offline. Luckily, servers for older games are slowly coming back with stuff like Burnout 3 online and Insignia for original xbox online but it'll take a while.

[@alexalcalaortiz368]

my main complaint? i cant even buy the old games i actually like all the racers i enjoyed as a kid have been removed from stores or are console exclusives just so that the new ones look better

[@shinra2755]

Great point 👏

[@adlibbed2138]

and this is where piracy comes to play, now I don't condone piracy by any means but with how racing games are being the first ones to be delisted, I'm afraid that's your only option should that happens

[@alexalcalaortiz368]

@@adlibbed2138 i do condone software piracy and think that it is great to break copyright law completely sick of the "moralists" pretending that it is in fact stealing just because the corporations get theoretically lower profits you do not siphon 60$ off the developers bank account for making a free copy and an illegal download does not equal to a lost sale unless the game turns out to be garbage

[@adlibbed2138]

​​​​@@alexalcalaortiz368 I don't blame'cha, especially since like I've said before, due to the licensing issues, ranging from cars, music, and even aftermarket parts and product placement in some cases, made racing games tend to be the first ones to be delisted right behind movie licensed games naturally

[@shinra2755]

@@alexalcalaortiz368 You’re enjoying other people’s hard work and not paying for it, so I’m afraid to say it is ‘stealing’. If a game is out of print and the developers won’t profit anyway from a second hand sale it’s all good.

[@smokedout7129]

1. Releasing unfinished or subpar games and then giving us the full game or a better game through updates. TBH this goes for all game genres, but still. 2. Updates being lackluster or stuff that should have been already in the game. 3. Toxic racers/cheaters 4. Making games so that less than 25% of the cars in a game are the only viable options especially online. I know there's going to be excellent/subpar cars but it shouldn't be so black and white. 5. A lack of dependable series/different types of racing games. Every game is either a sim or festival racer. The only decent changes were hot wheels and wreckfest. Also midnight club needs to come back because NFS needs competition to do better regarding street racing. 6. This is strictly regarding NFS. But why brag about customization and then do annoying limitations on it? Just let us put blowers on most of our muscle cars without some stupid body kit attached to it or just doing without. Also do a better job of diversifying the car list. 75-85% of the cars are just supers and tuners with 2-3 versions of the same car.

[@fredyi54]

One of my biggest frustrations is that in terms of the culture in game design and community, the racing genre is years behind all the other genres. Things such as monetization models, esports and online connectivity in the racing genre still feel like they are in the early to late 2010s. An example of monetization is that a lot of racing games are still paid, still have DLC and even sometimes also have premium currency aspects. A more modern approach would be either full price with all the content, or free to play with premium currency in cosmetics, but that type of monetization model while popular in other genres has very rarely been used for racing games. Full price games with DLC are not necessarily a bad thing, it depends on the type of game it wants to be, but we havent seen many new games try a more modernized monetization model. That actually also goes with esports, one of the most popular esports sims is iRacing, but the monetization of that game is absolutely ridiculous. An esports game in other genres is usually free to play with premium content only being cosmetic. But then look at iRacing, where you have to pay for individual tracks, individual cars on top of the fact that the game itself is a subscription. Esports is also very far behind, but Rennsport is actually solving that problem atm with having an esports league that follows a more traditional esports approach, rather than how it used to be done in the sim space.

[@f1fan3000]

They should stick with the early 2010s model. PLEASE NOT MORE FUCKING MICROTRANSACTIONS!!! Car customization and visual changes are, for a NFS for example way more important than for a COD or something shooter-like. Paywalling this would be a death sentence to the genre.

[@fredyi54]

@@f1fan3000 okay for a NFS game I can understand that, but newer game titles should follow more modern approaches to customization. Id rather get a high quality game with solid gameplay for a low to free price range with paid cosmetic add ons than the way its done right now. 60 bucks for a game with barely serviceable physics, poor gameplay, but oh muh free customization. Whats the point of having a car look good, if it doesnt drive good? Paid cosmetics are also a great way to give a game more consistent updates, just like games like Rocket League, Valorant, etc. Then you had NFS Heat, which got like 2, Unbounds getting some more post launch, but it probably wont be for too long. Longevity is very important for games these days, and theres a reason most other games monetize like that, and it isnt a coincidence when racing games dont and die so quickly after launch.

[@f1fan3000]

@@fredyi54 People shouldn't have to expect today that good games and content updates need to be tied to excessive monetization. For most games, this is corporate propaganda. Only an indie or smaller studio/publisher should need these excessive ways if the content is extremely expensive to produce and/or sales aren't that high. But EA, Sony, etc. really don't need this.

[@fredyi54]

@@f1fan3000 dont get me wrong, its definitely not necessary, and it is sometimes a shame to watch, but it works and you cant argue with that. Indies cant get away with live services because of the sheer cost it takes to constantly create content, and indies dont have an established fanbase to buy into premium cosmetics. Unfortunately money talks, and it talks loud. It works and racing games are gonna need to catch up to other genres or its not going anywhere fast.

[@f1fan3000]

@@fredyi54 The only reason that it works is that people have smaller and smaller attention spans and have been conditioned to expect a drip feed of content over a long time to maximise the revenue of microtransactions. That this works, isn't a good thing. A catch-up to these systems shouldn't be in any consumers intention. The racing game genre won't be dropped, if this system won't be implemented.

[@shinra2755]

Lack of decent time trial modes on console racers. I don’t care about leaderboards. I want to know my time, when I’ve beaten it. This simple system is lacking in so many modern racers - it’s infuriating!!

[@LiquaFusion]

they take too many shortcuts, no pun intended simplified physics, less gamemodes, basic AI, short storylines, a lot of stuff like that where I know they could have tried a little bit harder but they just didn't

[@Tezuk_25]

I understand that some game "series" (Blur, Split Second) didn't make to second title. After all, game development is bussiness as any other and if someting is not making money, why bother? Imagine this with MCU for example. If those films were bad, there would not be such a movie universe. What I am mad about in racing genre is lack of content mostly. Both Grid and Grid Legends are great games to drive cars and race, but their lack of indepth content is throwing these games down. You can't upgrade or customize your cars like in first game. This makes every car blend in with others and you don't grow any relationship to it. In new NFS games, you have big amount of cars and customization, and while I love to customize them, most of these cars end up in storage and i just use like 5 cars on daily basis. Again, lack of indepth content. Give us car brand or model races like in Gran Turismo. Make every car unique in certain way, like Ford Raptor being good in taking down cops while Silverado would be good in offroading etc. But these differences should be seen easily, not by testing for hours. Another thing is map boringness. Every open world racing game IMO use Burnout Paradise copy paste formula: big city on the right and mountains on the left. Bring something new, like Most Wanted/Carbon style map= one big city map or one big country side with only fields, forests and mountains and no or at least small towns here and there. And most importantly, companies sh**ing on us with what we want. As Raycevick said in his last video, sim racers tempt us with stuff like tire deformation and pressure, water punddles on side of road that will make your car spin. Or EA not making new Burnout game/proper BlackBox era NFS or making remasters/remakes of games we want. Companies are doing what they want with feel it will work because people are gonna buy it anyway.... And that's the problem. We must stop. Wait for reviews to come out, wait until you see some actual gameplay of said game. Just becuase you bought game early in preorder or on day one doesn't meant you're cool. It's better to see what game is like before you decide to buy

[@c0d3n4me_rev]

Mainly I dislike what’s happened to racing games now. Motorstorm was a series introduced to me at the age of 3 and smth that I still play to this day since it feels unique and creative. I have a complete understanding that that series is not able to be copied and has a low chance of coming back but the fact that racing games such as forza and need for speed just get more repetitive as the titles are pushed out is annoying to look at. Forza horizon 5 is a good example of a game that was supposed to be this big game but got dry so quickly. Motorstorm felt different because you went from races in the desert to a volcanic island to the Arctic and then to a crumbling city being hit with earthquakes (favourite game in the series) and they all felt like they were totally different games but they kept to their core of brutal off-road racing. Racing games now just feel like nothing changes in em and it sucks

[@alphamaledriveshard]

Lack of content. This is the biggest problem. Forget new and original content. Gran Turismo 7 doesn't have nearly enough content to be played for hours and hours like Gran Turismo 5 did. Not nearly enough cars or tracks because people want to see rocks on the side of the road in 4k 120fps. Or the inside of a headlight with the filament on the bulbs visible. It takes all of 5 minutes for that to get old and they end up complaining playing the same races over and over again for the payout. I'll reserve judgement on Forza 8 until it comes out. But in this day and age, will any game have a vast selection of tracks and cars as Forza Motorsport 4 did? I'd take quantity over quality at this point. Let's put it this way. If the early gran Turismo or forza games had the same amount of content as the current games with the terrible game design (menu books) and lack of events, would it have sold well enough for the franchise to stay alive for over 2 decades?

[@Americansn1per]

A lot of modern racing games focus too much on visual customization instead of every thing else

[@aladontheinternet6363]

I just want a game with a decent career again so am waiting for the next forza motorsport

[@akimbo3479]

imo the worst thing about the racing genre in recents years its the graphics and gameplay feels boring and ugly i think its because game engines now but common most 10 to 16 years olds games looks and feels great compare nfs black box to newer entries yeah the "graphics!!!" looks betters but the gameplay its sooooo lacking that the games feel empty and dead

[@GAMIR_SFM]

Idk why people praise Forza Horizon. I play a couple of missions and then the rest is the most boring racing i have seen

[@wydua]

Games lack soul Good brainless but relatively cringeless story And simplicity of old racing games Like another NFS is just a copy of Forza map when you can jump off the track Like the latest exception i stumbled on was grid legends That was neat game You could recognize people you race with. Just like in Forza. Also When did i had last true boss fight in a videogame? Like Blacklist in 2005 Forza horizon 1v1 for car NFS the run 1v1 final race It's gone NFS unbound has literally a last race that is just like normal race and your "enemy" isn't even your enemy and in my play through she literally lost in the first eliminations

[@clutch44444]

I feel that racing games nowadays are just boring, I got bored with Forza Horizon 5 in a week, Dakar Desert Rally is bland as anything, Dirt 5 sucks, Project Cars 3 sucks

[@Blueflag04]

The games are not fun anymore

[@officialdazer]

Play Mario Kart 8. Best racing game