I've enjoyed a variety of racing games over the years. In fact the first videogame I ever played was Night Driver on the Atari 2600.
The first simulation type racing game I played and enjoyed was Revs (BBC Micro). The game was a Formula 3 simulation with very nice pseudo 3D graphics. I seem to the recall the game being very difficult to learn and rather unforgiving which would put a lot of people off. You even had to use a clutch when changing gears (press the C button), but the game was highly rewarding when you got the hang of it. If you came any where in the top 6 cars you'd definitely earned it as the game took large amounts of concentration to put in good lap times and move up the field
In those days (the 80s) I would go to the Arcade on a regular basis and would always head to latest racing game as these tended to have massive custom cabinets with amazing graphics. A couple of arcade games spring to mind - Outrun, pumped plenty of 20p coins into this as game looked and sounded amazing. Then there was Monaco GP - again this was appealing for the awesome cabinet (complete with F1 Paddle Shifters) with force feedback etc.
Sega Rally and Daytona are probably my all time favourite arcade racing games. Both games blew me away when I first witness them running. This was not the first time I'd seen a 3D racing game but the first time I'd seen 3D graphics looking so polished and moving on screen so quickly and smoothly (must have been 60 FPS). The force feedback from Daytona took the game play experience to the next level and added massively to the immersion. The only problem with the game was it was 1 a go and this was 1994 which was a lot of money to a student in those days.
At home there were not that many racers to get excited about. As they failed to recreate or come close to the feeling of immersion created by a custom built cabinet. I found games like Gran Turismo to be sterile and overly complex, in fact this game did nothing for me. I bought it and thought it looked amazing but once I'd watched the intro and been blown away by the amazingly realistic replays I found the game dull and uninspiring. This is one of the few games which Edge magazine game 10 / 10 but left me feel cold.
The only games of the mid 90s that did much for me on the home consoles were Ridge Racer and Mario Kart. MK was a classic from the start - for me the SNES version was the best as I loved the mechanic of picking up coins to get a boost from the engine. The game was perfectly balanced and had some fantastic tracks. Ridge Racer was pure arcade and very well done. It's the only game that came close to recreating the arcade feel in the home environment, the way you could throw the cars round corners with spectacular power slides was a marvellous racing mechanic - I spent many a date trying to best the White Angel car (very tough).
Coming more up to date it's apparent that the racing game no longer holds the place in my heart it once did. Maybe I've seen everything the genre has to offer but I also think that a lot of racing games have become too hardcore and too bloated. Hundreds of cars and loads of tracks doesn't do much for me. Neither does the focus on realism and career modes. The racing games seem to have lost some of their pick up and play compactness when compared to the racers of yester year (rose tinted glasses firmly in place at this point). There are some exceptions. The burnout games have been a breath of fresh air and lots of fun. Getting back to the arcade style of racing and adding spectacular crashes has been a minor revolution for the genre - Burnout 3 then added the takedowns which again took the gameplay to another level. A truly wonderful series.
Then there's Forza 2 - which seems to have the perfect balance between simulation (rewarding following the racing line and breaking at the right time) and approachability. The game is very much a GT clone but does the GT thing without feeling so clinical. When you hook up the 360 force feedback wheel and bolt it to a table you have a very good racing game. A game which looks brilliant, it runs at 60 FPS which makes all the difference in a racing game, and sounds fantastic. The game also has a good online mode. It can be picked up very cheap now so it's a game worth checking out even if you don't particularly like racing games. The best thing the game adds to the racing game canon is the on track corner / breaking guide. Chevrons on the track show you where to turn in and when to break. This is great when trying to learn a new track and gets you on the racing line without removing the skill from the game, and of course it can be switched off if you want more of a challenge / more realism.
In terms of the future - there's nothing on the horizon that's looking to do anything new. Blur looks like it might be fun but in all honesty I'm not that excited about it. I will have a look at Forza 3 as I do rate the F2 very highly. GT5 - I'm sure this will look amazing but I still don't like the style of presentation in GT games so will probably give it a miss.
