Staring at the Menus 001

I am finally sitting down to do something that I have been meaning to for some time, and that is introducing this new kind of post that I am thinking of making relatively frequently. They aren't reviews in any sense of the word, rather, they are simply going to be me talking about video games. No specific topic. I'm just going to sit down and write about whatever I feel like sharing. Needless to say, a great many of these will sound very opinionated and ranting.

The name originates from those times that every gamer gets where you find yourself sitting in front of the TV, paging through the menus of your favorite game, and having absolutely no idea what you want to play. However, if anyone has a better idea for a name, please let me know at any of the three ways to contact me that I've helpfully arranged to the right of the column you're reading right now.

For my first opinionated rant, I want to tackle common themes in racing games. Specifically, the complete denial that anything but complete realism exists. Not all games are a victim of this trend, but I see fewer and fewer non-sim racers every year.

I grew up on racing games, and became a fan of Gran Turismo shortly after playing the first game, so it's not that I just plain don't like sim racers, but I do prefer the now much more rare arcade racers that used to fill most of my time. Blur is one of those rare arcade racers that still fills a good portion of my time.

Forza is the perfect antonym to Blur; there's nothing that shouldn't be in a pure simulation. In this, there is a certain beauty to it. However, this is also a shining example of most racing games that have released in recent years. Think back and try to remember the last big non-sim racing game that isn't Blur or Split/Second. Hard, isn't it? PGR is the only one I can think of, and even that series was closer to realism.

One big area of difference regarding racing games is in download-only titles, where they are smaller, quick-fire style games that are generally simpler and more arcade-y anyway. These games tend to have arcade physics, favoring quick acceleration, forgiving crashes, and grippy cars over their more realistic counterparts.

It's not that sim racers don't have a place in the market, but I want to know where all of the arcade racers have gone. Even Need For Speed is becoming cold and realistic. Is the problem really that games like Gran Turismo and Forza are as popular as they are, so they're muscling arcade racers out of the market? Or is the industry just so caught up in making everything look next-gen that they've lost sight of what makes a game fun? Only time will tell if arcade racers dies out, but I'm going to enjoy the ones we have for now.