Upcoming Racing games 2016

As of 2016 there are a few racing games that are highly anticipated. Some of the games have an established history and are just expanding the franchise, while others are just entering the market.

One highly anticipated game is Gran Turismo Sport which will be the seventh installment in the Gran Turismo series. The previous games was released over three years ago for the PS3 and the next one will be the first one available for the PS4. For this game polyphony digital the developer of the games has partnered with FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile). They are a governing body for motor sports world wide, and represent 80 million road and track users from 141 different countries. It is the first game to be certified by the FIA, which gives them access to racetracks so they can be recreated.Gran Turismo is an established franchise and is known for its realistic game play, so Gran Turismo Sport should be a success and further the franchise. 

Trailer

Project Cars 2 is another highly anticipated game do to the initial success of the first installment. It will feature 50 different locations, 200+ different courses including snow, gravel, mud and dirt tracks. It will also allow you to race in different disciplines from rally to hill climbs. There is a co-op mode where you can be the driver and another player can be the spotter or co-pilot just as you would have in a rally cross race. The one thing that differentiates project cars from other games is that it is funded and created by the community. So the testing process involves the community and uses their feedback to improve or fix bugs in the game. 

Assetto corsa is a game that is already available for the PC but it will be releasing for the PS4 and Xbox in June. It is similar to Gran Turismo and project cars as it is also a racing simulator. It features a physics engine that simulates heat cycles, aerodynamic simulation, and energy recovery simulation. It also has licensed cars that are reproduced in the game with the help of the car manufacturers such as BMW, Ferrari, McLaren, Pagani . In addition the tracks are lasers scanned and include famous tracks such as Monza and Silverstone.

The future of racing games

Racing games have evolved very rapidly of the past few years in terms of graphics, controls and are very realistic. These games try to emulate the racing in the seat of a car as close as they can to the real thing. The graphics have definitely improved from the early pixelated arcade games to sophisticated games today where you can see reflections in the paint. The controls have improved as the technology has vastly improved to allow you to get the full racing experience. Their are racing wheels that you can connect to your console or pc to allow you to play the game with a steering wheel, pedals and a gear shifter.

Now their are companies that produce full cockpits including a racing seat that you can attach your racing wheel and pedals to. This usually connects to a PC so you can attach multiple monitors so you can get a surround feeling, with the left and right monitors showing in your peripheral vision. This is similar to what you would see out a real car when navigating a race track, as you would use the rear view mirror and door mirrors to navigate.

http://obutto.com/gaming-cockpits/ozone-gaming-cockpit/

To further your experience there are cockpits available that tilt and move to simulate the g-forces you experience when breaking, turning, or accelerating. This is great for drivers that want to practice since they can practice on several different tracks without going to the track and they don't have to worry about the gas or tires. It allows them to focus on improving their skills and removes all the other variables that can limit a drivers track time.

Currently these cockpits are expensive but as time goes on it should bring down the price so that consumers can afford it. They may also integrate it with a VR headset to decrease the cost and give the player a full 360 degree view which will make the experience more realistic.

Modern Racing Games 2011 - 2016

Modern racing games have evolved tremendously from the early arcade games. They have much better graphics due to advances in technology. Gameplay has evolved to allow players to race online, and become more realistic in terms of how the car handles. Gaming franchises such as Gran Turismo go to great lengths to make the experience as real as possible. They scan some of their tracks such as willow springs so they can capture all the imperfections of the asphalt. Because the game is so realistic it is possible to used by race car drivers to practice. As a result Gran turismo launched a program called the GT academy in which people around the world race around a track in the game to get the best possible time. Only the top 20 out of about 400,000 make it to the second round. This is followed by a national finals, an international race camp and then you get to race in a 24 hour race. Through this program you can go from racing a car in a game to actually driving around a real race track.

Gran Turismo 6 vs Real Life - Ascari Circuit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4SqdKrbZN8 

http://jalopnik.com/how-the-creator-of-gran-turismo-changed-the-culture-of-1506326698 
http://www.nissanusa.com/gtacademyshow/ 


Project cars developed by slightly mad studios in 2015 and was released for the PS4, Xbox one and PC. It is focused on providing a player a realistic driving experience just like Gran Turismo. The game was funded by the community and the developers unlike traditional games. But it differs in the sense that it allows you choose between different Motorsports. The game can also be played in virtual reality so you can fully immersed in the experience. The game featured 4 different modes online, solo, career, and community. It also gives you the ability to tune cars, you can change the tire pressure, ride height, down force and sway bar. It gives you infinite options to tinker with to get the right setup for the race track you are racing on.

VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUeu5MhPxjw 
Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHIrzzPY2eA



Forza 6 was released in 2015 a full ten years since they released the original on the Xbox. The newer hardware of the Xbox one allowed features such as wet weather racing which would actually affect the cars driving. Another improvement was the lighting which allowed them to release a highly requested feature which was night racing. The physics engine was also improved to make it more realistic.

Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZBJ9sdp45M

Racing games of late 2000s (2006-2010)

Racing games of the late 2000s had better physics engines which allowed for more realistic driving and some even had damage models so a car would look damaged if it hit something. Also off road racing games were introduced to the market. Off road games such as MotorStorm and Dirt  were released in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

MotorStorm was developed by Evolution Studios and was released exclusively for the PS3. In the game you have a choice of vehicle including dirt bike, ATV, rally cars, racing trucks, and big rigs. What made this game unique was that you raced against different types of vehicles instead of everyone having the a similar vehicle. Some vehicles are better than others under certain conditions so you have to choose the right vehicle for the track you are racing on. The dirt bike is able to accelerate and maneuver through spaces that a rally car or big rig can't. However it is easily damaged unlike a big rig which can take more damage but it can't accelerate fast like the dirt bike. Another unique feature that the game had was that the track would change from every lap since it was a dirt track. It made game play more interesting since you would have to doge obstacles left behind from the other racers. The larger vehicles have more traction due to their weight and would create larger holes on the track compared to lighter vehicles like the ATV.

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-UT7564phs


Dirt was developed by code masters for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2007. It was a rally focused game which much different from the games released prior. The single player mode consisted of three different modes career, championship, and rally world. The career mode had 11 tiers which had a varying amount of racing events and points were rewarded based on what position you finished in. Some events required a certain number of points to unlock. Events included rally, hill climb, crossover, rally cross, rally raid and championship off-road racing. The events also required you to have the right type of car for the race, and you had 46 cars available to buy.

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wPemD1f0J4 


Forza motorsport 3 was developed by Turn 10 studios and released exclusively for the Xbox 360. It was the Xbox counterpart of Gran Turismo which was exclusive to the PS3. It was a realistic game that gave you a choice between 400 cars from 50 different manufacturers including production and race cars. The single player mode consisted of 200 different racing events including drift, circuit, drag, oval and timed events. One differentiating feature of this game was the ability to rewind and correct mistakes you had made before. You could use this feature as many times as you wanted but you would have to wait 30 seconds after using it.

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew_qh1LT8AE


Gran Turismo released their fifth installment for the PS3 in 2010. It allowed you to choose from 1000 different licensed cars and allowed an unlimited amount of customization. It was the first game in the series to have detailed damage model. It featured 31 different locations and 81 different track layouts, the tracks were accurately modeled after actual tracks like the Nürburgring. One thing I liked about this game was the ability to buy and collect cars. It allowed you to experience a car that you would never be able to drive and experience in real life in a simulation environment. The graphics combined with the realistic tracks made the whole experience of racing around a track realistic.  

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bEqYlwMsNM 

Racing games of early 2000s (2000-2005)

There were many iconic racing games that were released in the early 2000s. Games such as Midnight club, Burnout, and Need for speed were introduced. These games were heavily influenced by the car culture of the time. At that time Japanese import cars and car modifications were very big and this directly influenced the type of games that came out at that time.

Midnight club: street racing was a game based on street racing which was very big at the time. It was developed by Rockstar and was released in 2000. It had an open world feel since the track had a flexible route as there were shortcuts. It was the first game to introduce illegal street racing to the video game industry. This game was based on a Japanese street racing gang that was called the midnight club. They meet up at gas stations at night and would race down the Wangan highway in japan in speeds in excessive of 200 mph. The environment of the races were modeled after New York and London and contained pedestrians and traffic. It had a split screen multiplayer mode in which you could play capture the flag.

Gameplay-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTWSjsk-2K4

Burnout was developed by Criterion games and was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. It contained a championship mode that consisted of various events that had 3 or 4 races each. In each race the player is pitted against 3 other cars. The races get more difficult as you progress and thus you would have to upgrade to faster cars in order to win. There was also a time attack mode in which you would have to finish a lap before a certain time. 

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsTbwNIoIh8

Need for speed was created by EA and there were various titles released in the early 2000s. There was Porsche unleashed released in 2000, Hot pursuit 2 released in 2002, underground in 2003, under ground 2 in 2004 and most wanted in 2005. They all had similar game play, you had to win races in order to unlock vehicles and tracks. The games had differences as hot pursuit placed an emphasis on evading police and underground was focused on street racing.


NFS: Porsche Unleashed Gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3shI88-xVD4


Hot Pursuit 2 Gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHUu2PjE3xE


Underground Gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crWTd0es99Y

Racing games of the late 90s

Many of the racing games we know today were introduced or influenced by games of the late 90s. Part of the reason is due to the release of the PlayStation 1. It used CDs instead of cartridges which allowed developers to create more sophisticated games compared to the cartridge. CD's held more data and were cheaper to produce which lead to a change of game medium. Games such as Twisted metal, Gran Turismo, and Driver were introduced.

Twisted Metal is one game I remember playing on the PlayStation 1 as a kid. It was developed by 989 studios and singleTrac in 1995.  It was a game like no other it took two different types of games and mashed them together, which was racing and shooting. It allowed you to choose a car which had its own persona such as the ice cream truck.  The concept behind the game was basically a demolition derby but with weapons. In order to win or advanced you had to destroy all the vehicles on the level. You are given three lives in the game and the length of each is dependent on how much damage you take. Throughout the map there are health power ups and weapons including missiles, land mines, tire spikes and oil slicks. By default everyone had machine guns which would overheat if used for to long forcing you to wait until they cooled off.

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wys3Aj__Un4 



Gran Turismo is a game we all know today as  a hardcore racing game was released in 1997 and was developed by Polyphony Digital, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Arsys Software. It was a very revolutionary game as it contained 140 cars and focused heavily on creating a simulation experience as its tagline suggest " The real driving simulator". The cars were modeled after actual cars unlike other video games so it made it more realistic. It had racing events that you had to qualify for by earning drivers licenses. In order to enter into certain races you had to have a certain licence. In order to obtain a licence you had to go through test involving cornering and braking which were timed. Depending on what time you achieve you got a bronze silver or gold trophy. Another revolutionary thing that this game had was the ability to modify your car from the exhaust to tires to the engine. No other game at the time gave you the flexibility to modify a cars performance. Also as you won races you were awarded cash prizes which you could use to buy others cars to put in your garage. You could have a huge inventory of cars and choose what car was the best for what track you were going to race on. It was a revolutionary game since it introduced things such as the modifications and actual cars from manufacturers.


Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJIVU8teu64
License Test- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOnc0vj3GF8
Dealership- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z240bve_QJE
Modification- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWQ00BLd03o

Racing games of the early 90s

The early 90s was when racing games really started to change as the better hardware allowed better graphics. F zero was a racing game that was created by Nintendo for the super Nintendo system and released in 1990. What made this game unique was that it took place in the future, so you raced in futuristic cars. It used a technique called mode 7 which is a graphics mode on the Super Nintendo that allows a background layer to be rotated and scaled to create different effects. This technique simulated 3D environments which was revolutionary since most consoles were restricted to 2D graphics and static backgrounds. The player had to beat the opponent to the finish line while avoiding obstacles on the track. The player would also receive a speed boost for each lap that they completed, the use of boost decreased the energy which could be replenished by going over recharge strips. In addition you could attack other players with your car.


Game play- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5u9nD_I0I 


Top gear was a game developed by Gremlin graphics for the Super Nintendo and released in 1992. It featured a grid of 20 cars and had a split screen functionality.  The player has the option of 4 controller layouts, a choice between manual and automatic transmission and a choice between 4 cars. If the player choose manual they would have to shift the gears in addition to steering the car. In the race they player would have to stop in the pit to refuel to prevent the car from running out fuel and stopping which would disqualify you from the race.

Game play- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCuOSrBKlrU



Super Mario kart was another revolutionary game that brought the Mario character into a racing game. It was developed and published by Nintendo in 1992 for the super Nintendo system. It was different from other games as it involved go-carts. The player go to choose from a variety of characters from the Mario franchise. Another thing that distinguished this game from others is that it featured weapons such as koopa shells and banana peels. Which could be used to slow down the opponent allowing you to pass them. These weapons would show up while you were navigating the track. In addition to the weapons there are power-ups such as the mushroom which give you a speed boost. The weapons combined with the power-ups made the game very exciting since the positions changed quickly.

Game play- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZkxJhsP384

Racing games of the late 80s

The racing game industry shifted in the late 80s since developers started to create games with different themes and different types of racing. Turbo Espirit of one of those games that was very different from its predecessors. It was released by  Durell Software in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. It introduced a whole different type of game play, it allowed users to roam around the map like in a open world game. It also allowed you to change between the cities you were driving in. It influenced later games that were open world such as the infamous grand theft auto series. Another revolutionary concept that this game had was a plot line. The player plays as a special agent, and as this agent you must travel around the city looking for drug smugglers. As you drive around the city a message would pop up giving you the location to an armored car. The player had to capture or destroy the armored car, which could be done by the built-in machine guns or by ramming the car. However you got more points for disabling the car rather then destroying the car, and points are deducted for hitting objects while driving. 

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CIEHfVIEMM

Screenshot

Wec Le Mans was another game that was revolutionary as it simulated an actual racing event which as its title suggest is 24 hour race called Le Mans. It was developed by Konami and released in 1986. It had features that tried to recreate the experience of driving a race car. It allowed the player to counter steer to prevent the car from spinning out while cornering. It had a force feedback system that simulated all the bumps and dips in the road and this was achieved through vibrations in the steering wheel.The game was available in three forms the regular cabinet, cockpit, and one that could spin around 360 degrees. 

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Vmxi_wMCU

360 Cabinet 

Racing games of the early 80s

The 80s can be considered the golden age of arcade games as they were starting to become more popular. One game that pushed the boundaries was called pole position. It was designed by  Tōru Iwatani who is responsible for the world famous PAC man game. This game was released by namco in 1982 as a arcade style cabinet. There were two styles of the arcade cabinet one was the standard upright one and the other was more like a cockpit. The cockpit cabinet had a seat to make the player feel like a driver and it also included 4 speakers 2 of which are located on the sides of the seat.  It featured Japan's Fuji racetrack which made it the first game to feature a real race track in a game. It was a major success making tens of millions of dollars which made it the highest grossing arcade game of the year. The game began with the player competing a timed lap to qualify for a F1 race on the Fuji racetrack. After that race the player raced against 7 other computer controlled cars. The player had to avoid crashing into the other cars as well as the billboards on the side of the road and going into the grass reduced the cars speed.

Cockpit Cabinet

Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeYZGtwydIA 3:15- 4:27

Regular Cabinet

Pitstops II was another revolutionary game that was developed by Epyx released in 1984. It was the first 3D racing games to feature a two player split screen. The players of the game raced against each other while maintaining there tires and fuel as its name suggests. It was more realistic since the car could run out of fuel or wear out the tires while in other games you wouldn't have to worry about that. When you went in for a pit stop the player had to click the gas guy or the tire guy and take control over them. As the tire guy you could walk over to the tire you want to change and put it to the side and put on a new one. The game also gave the user the choice of the number of laps which was 3, 6 or 9 and a choice of 3 different difficulty levels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn6ytoaMdvE 4:45-5:20 (video showing a pitstop)

The first racing game

The first racing games were introduced into the video game market in the 70s. One of the first games was Speed Race as it was known in Japan was released in 1974 and then a year later was introduced to the US market as wheels. It featured sprite graphics which is a type of animated 2D graphics. In the game the user was able control the speed of the car and allowed them to steer left and right to avoid other cars. The player gained points based on how long they could drive before crashing and they accumulated more points based on how fast they were going. It was the first games to have scrolling graphics where the car remained in the middle while the track seemed to scroll downward with other cars coming down as you drove by. Other features included collision detection where cars could crash into each other and end the player’s streak. The game was played in arcade cabinet game and the controls consisted of a wheel, pedals, gear shift, and a speedometer. It interesting to see how fast the video game controls advanced from the knobs that were used in pong just two years before.

Video Clip of Speed Race- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BRDxZiK-1s                                                         

    Another game that also introduced in 1974 was Gran Trak 10 by Atari. It was similar to speed race in that it was an arcade cabinet with a wheel, pedals and gear shift. But one difference was that it did not have scrolling graphics but showed the entire race track on the screen. Also the player had to race against a timer to get the most number of laps. It had obstacles such as oil slicks which would appear on the track as black patches which made the car uncontrollable momentarily. One reason it became famous was that it was a game that was played by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. He said he got so good at the game that he went to a pizza parlor that offered free pizza to the person that got over 36 points and he won twice so they end up taking out the game.

Video Clip of Gran Trak 10- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPSnhHx1s5w

These early games where both rudimentary but advanced for their time because they had steering wheel controls and advanced graphics. But both of these games where in black in white and had limited steering control.

Introduction

Racing games have changed tremendously since the first racing games were introduced. Early games had very little detail and were unrealistic in terms of how the cars handled. On the other hand modern racing games give you the feeling of sitting in the cockpit of the car. Another advancement in the genre of racing games is the controller technology. The controller technology has advanced a great deal from the joysticks to a setup consisting of a steering wheel and pedals. Early racing games were played in arcade cabinets that had rudimentary controls such as joysticks. There have been many technical advances over the years that have allowed game developers to create a full racing simulation. These advances have improved racing type games in terms of graphics, controls and the physics of how the cars handle in comparison to real life.