Comment on EA-backed car culture site winds down, as Need for Speed series is ‘shelved’ | VGC
masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Playing the original hot pursuit on my friend’s family’s Gateway PC, is a true core memory.
The spirit continued with Burnout 2 & 3 before ultimately dying. Racing games need to focus more on destruction and less on licensing real world cars.
theangriestbird@beehaw.org 1 week ago
I don’t think “destruction vs. licensed cars” is the binary in racing games. NFS3 Hot Pursuit had licensed cars, and that probably added to the fun of the game. I think we def need more games with destructible cars and destruction-focused racing, and I agree that you need unlicensed cars to get the most out of that these days, but there are plenty of other ways to make a fun car game. Beam.NG is there for the people that want truly next-level destruction simulation, and it has multiplayer support via mods but we could use a more mainstream version of that. Wreckfest is out there, but maybe that is too “demo derby” for die-hard burnout fans. We had games like OnRush and NFS Unbound come and go, and those games were probably the closest we got to Burnout in recent times, but audiences didn’t show up for those games so they have all but died.
Forza Horizon (which I mention all the time bc it is the only modern car game I have played) is plenty fun and arcadey with a whole smorgasbord of licensed cars. The cars get smashed up a decent amount, though it obviously isn’t quite like a Burnout game. Tweaking the driving settings can make the game feel even more arcadey, if that is your style. If you want the destruction to affect how your car handles, that is a setting you can turn on. If you want a more simulationy driving experience, you can tweak the settings to turn that on, too. It isn’t Burnout exactly, but something about it scratches a similar itch for me. I know the Horizon series is one of the most popular racing series in the current scene, I wonder sometimes if its popularity and live service model are eating the lunch of those other, smaller arcade racers.