Paul Jeffrey
Premium
What is a perfect racing simulation? RaceDepartment have a think on the subject and invite you to share your opinions...
The sim racing scene today is arguably as strong, if not stronger than it has ever been, with many varied and interesting simulations available on the marketplace for us all to enjoy across a number of gaming platforms. If you like trying your hand at the great and the good road cars from across the decades, or want to simulate a real life DTM championship, or sample many of the colourful and unique racing series from around the world then you can, sim racing today pretty much has something for everyone.
For those of us who enjoy large scale online racing careers with professional broadcasting, real world drivers and a complicated rating system to help encourage clean racing, then you can join up to one of the many iRacing events and have your fill of road and oval events. If building up a dream garage of expensive performance cars is more your thing then Forza Motorsport is the perfect solution to scratch that itch. What about mods? If you love collecting cars and tracks lovingly created by the sim racing community then Assetto Corsa seems to be the current 'go to' choice in today's market. What about recreating a season in the World Touring Car Championship? Well that would be RaceRoom Racing Experience. Or how about day to night transition on a dynamically changing race surface? rFactor 2 is for you. Unfortunately despite some truly outstanding elements across the whole spectrum of sims, not one seems to be able to pull all these things together under a single tidy package.
As with all the sims available at present, and with the one's we know about coming further down the line, sim racing is in a bit of a boom period at the moment. But does that mean we can definitively say we have access to a sim that covers all the bases in terms of what a modern sim racer wants? Probably not.
It has been chronicled and debated many times about the different shortcomings of each and every sim that is available both now and in the past. We've debated about things such as missing "essential" features, to differing physics interpretations, from over complicated and sometimes lacklustre force feedback results all the way to the actual approach to the game design itself. Do we want road cars and massive car collection achievements? Do we want a physics sandbox and let the modders fill in the gaps? Do we want real life championships recreated or do we just want a selection of cars from a specific specification of racing such as the ever popular GT3 class? Many sims have some or all of these areas covered to a greater or lesser degree, but the question is - what do YOU consider to be a complete racing simulation? What do YOU want to be made in order to consider that title YOUR "go to" simulation of choice?
Would something a bit different like the ability to free roam around the paddock and spectator areas of the track add some value to you? Would the ability to play different roles within the team, such as team manager, chief mechanic or race engineer be of interest? Could the inclusion of such things as fully working 3D pit crew be enough to tip the scales in favour of the sim? The list is endless, from improving on what we have already, from joining together several things different sims do right into one package and from thinking totally outside the box and bringing in something brand new to the genre, the potential is literally endless.
I thought it would be fun to give us the opportunity to write down in the comments section exactly what you want to see in order to build the ultimate racing simulation game. Don't hold back on your desires, just pop down into the comments and tell us everything you think a complete racing simulation in 2017 should look like. Please do remember though, this is a theoretical exercise and not an opportunity to start a "my sim is bigger than yours" argument
I know for a fact that many of the sim racing developers read this website and will no doubt be watching the comments in this thread. For those of them that don't, I'll make sure with a gentle push that they do! This is our opportunity dear reader to go out and tell the people who make the games exactly what we want to see in the future! Don't waste this chance, with a bit of luck and a fair wind someone with the power to make the decisions might be listening and take some of what we say on-board....
Ok, over to you!
Last edited:
