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Richard Burns Rally |
CG rating |
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Developer: SCi Games, Producer: Warthog System requirements: CPU 2 Ghz, 512 Mb Ram, 3D video card with 128 Mb DirectX 8.1 compliant Game: Richard Burns Rally Genre: Racing |
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Richard Burns Rally
| Posted by Wiggins on 23-Sep-2004 16:41 |
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"Speed isn't everything. If you feel like you can't control the car, and you're crashing all the time, you're probably going too fast! Slow down, and you'll end up with much better stage times. Professional rally driving is about knowing your limits, and curbing your natural tendency to push too hard."
Now why don't all the racing simulation games give these kinds of tips during loading screens? Perhaps if they did, most of today's arcade racing fans wouldn't find racing simulators so hard and frustrating instead of fun. Or maybe we should blame the gamers' eternal fascination with numbers: going at 300+ km/h, having a "level 5" NOS installed, winning 1.000.000 virtual monetary units, etc. Of course, Hollywood is always an important factor in determining these trends. And since the gaming industry has surpassed Hollywood in terms of income, they must be getting pretty darn good at selling dreams. Just imagine: you finally won your custom Nissan Skyline (packed with speakers and auto-related logos) that’s illuminating the whole neighborhood with its neon’s while it poses for the Hot Rod magazine. And talking about hot, what about that gorgeous babe just waiting to jump into the arms of the no. 1 street rebel! Yes, I know she’s virtual, but damn, does she have some fine pixel shaders. It's easy to understand why a game like this appeals so much to the average gamer.
Now back to what I believe video games should be all about: the challenge. If I want to see some nice cinematic sequences, I go watch a movie. No question about it, you have to be in a right state of mind to play a rally simulator, because it's hardly relaxing (I would even say it’s an exhausting experience). Your attention levels need to be at their highest if you want to set a new personal best time, but then again so is the real thing. Nevertheless, after you finally succeed in beating the best time on a certain track, you just can't stop looking at the replay and feeling good about yourself.
But if you set that record time in Richard Burns Rally, it's guaranteed that you’ve also gained some real driving experience. To put it shortly, this is the first rally game that I have played in which I actually recognized and was able to apply the stuff that I learned from driving my car in real life. If you really want to understand why this rally game is so different and outstanding in terms of simulation, there is simply no other way but to go into the technical details. And if you truly are a simulators fan, you probably don't consider physics as being some boring nonsense reserved for mad scientists. After some hours of documenting myself and some good tips on where to search (thanks staniol), I was able to catalog all the main features of the physics engine.
Now why don't all the racing simulation games give these kinds of tips during loading screens? Perhaps if they did, most of today's arcade racing fans wouldn't find racing simulators so hard and frustrating instead of fun. Or maybe we should blame the gamers' eternal fascination with numbers: going at 300+ km/h, having a "level 5" NOS installed, winning 1.000.000 virtual monetary units, etc. Of course, Hollywood is always an important factor in determining these trends. And since the gaming industry has surpassed Hollywood in terms of income, they must be getting pretty darn good at selling dreams. Just imagine: you finally won your custom Nissan Skyline (packed with speakers and auto-related logos) that’s illuminating the whole neighborhood with its neon’s while it poses for the Hot Rod magazine. And talking about hot, what about that gorgeous babe just waiting to jump into the arms of the no. 1 street rebel! Yes, I know she’s virtual, but damn, does she have some fine pixel shaders. It's easy to understand why a game like this appeals so much to the average gamer.
Now back to what I believe video games should be all about: the challenge. If I want to see some nice cinematic sequences, I go watch a movie. No question about it, you have to be in a right state of mind to play a rally simulator, because it's hardly relaxing (I would even say it’s an exhausting experience). Your attention levels need to be at their highest if you want to set a new personal best time, but then again so is the real thing. Nevertheless, after you finally succeed in beating the best time on a certain track, you just can't stop looking at the replay and feeling good about yourself.
But if you set that record time in Richard Burns Rally, it's guaranteed that you’ve also gained some real driving experience. To put it shortly, this is the first rally game that I have played in which I actually recognized and was able to apply the stuff that I learned from driving my car in real life. If you really want to understand why this rally game is so different and outstanding in terms of simulation, there is simply no other way but to go into the technical details. And if you truly are a simulators fan, you probably don't consider physics as being some boring nonsense reserved for mad scientists. After some hours of documenting myself and some good tips on where to search (thanks staniol), I was able to catalog all the main features of the physics engine.
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