Motorstorm 3 dev: "Racing genre is stuck in a rut"

Even FPS could be argued to be advancing. For example mainly recently with the original MW taking a almost MMORPG style progression to the multiplayer. That vein will be explored and exploited for a long time. Another area of improvement is in destructible physics like we see in Crysis, Crysis 2 and Battlefield BC.

 

Yeah, there's something VERY wrong with that...debuting in UK at 29 and not making NPD top 20...IIRC we also got a leaked Moto 2 first NPD number back then and it was ~30k. And as for the old "rest of Europe" excuse, we get charts for that too and I'm sure it didn't burn them up.

Those are very similar stats to Blur, which was called a huge bomb.

The million must have meant shipped, obviously, and 800k of them must have been sitting on shelves. Maybe eventually sold at $20 or thrown in bundles. Maybe.

 

They've advanced considerably since last gen, adding cover, RPG elements, cooperative gameplay, new toys to play with, and now we're looking at natural aiming through Move. Racers now are virtually identical to last gen save eye-candy and an underlying physics upgrade that Joe Public probably doesn't notice, and there's not much of a way forwards either.

 

Personally... Modern FPS has story and exploration. It's an evolving and discovery experience.

Racing runs around in a loop over and over again. Unless you're bent on winning the race (which I'm not usually), you may get sick of it after a few packaged games.


I like MotorStorm because the physics engine and terrain provide an interesting platform to experiment with different paths. Modnation Racer (and to a certain extent, Mario Kart) are cute, filled with goodies, and user generated content. Not so sure about other racing games.

 

I think arcade racers somewhat target the same audience as shooter fans, and with such a large selection of shooters this gen (and arcade racers), people are buying these arcade racers less often.

Sim racing games seem to be doing just fine. Forza didn't do too well in the US, but AFAIK, it's selling well in Europe. I have no doubt that GT5 will sell well, too. There is far less selection of good sim racers out there and there's a strong following of the two big console sim racing franchises.

 

Yeah it's a shame we don't see games like Interstate '76 anymore.

 

Racing has been a staple of computer game fare since oh right down to night driver and pole position and the like. The competitive aspect makes it a very natural match and also the fact that it is relatively straightforward to implement helped.

Fast forward to now and plain old racing has become well.. rather dull, for most of us. Sure there's always gonna be a few hardcore simulation jockeys but for the rest of the world they've needed to resort to piling on the weaponry and free roaming and what more.

Frankly, these days I get enough racing kicks already using escape vehicles in GTA and Just Cause, as part of a much larger sandbox setting, and the Dirt 2 which I got for cheap on Steam bores the crap out of me.

 

I can't complain at any game selling a million, but I definitely think it deserves to sell as much as possible. Pacific Rift and Burnout Paradise are both criminally underrated showcases which deserve huge sales IMO.

The racing game market does seem to be smaller than before, Gran Turismo is guaranteed to sell forever but everything else is fighting for its share, and unfortunately I think there's a question of whether an average gamer's library supports more than 1 arcade off road racer? At least I hope for most people it's Pacific Rift and not the abysmal Fuel.

 

Actually, I wouldn't mind playing a simple objective-based racing game from website to website (like The Last Guy). It's a discovery experience.

Something like that will make me sit up.
[size=-2]Reminds me of the Amazing Race[/size]

 

There are more than just a few simulation jockeys... there are millions of them out there. Can't say the same for arcade racing fans.

Like I said, you can't group racing sims and arcade racers together. They might as well be in a different genre.

 

Well GT5 will of course be a flagship title and positioned as a platform pusher but other than that are there any succesful racing simulators of late? To the casual observer this category seems to be headed the way of the flight sim?

 

There is a severe lack of sim esque Rally games. I am talking about A->B tracks that re a represenation of the real one and sim engine.

Also where is my Interstate 2010 and Carmageddon 2010?

 

I would consider Forza to be fairly successful. Those two titles seem to have a strong following and are really the only two true sims on console.

 

So people are only really interested in car porn and mario kart?

 

Maybe the solution is to put guns on the cars?

 

Can pretty much blame EA for driving the series into the ground (NFS). They've treated that series far worse than Activision will ever be able to do with COD, IMO.

Used to be a diehard NFS fan waaaay back when (10+ years ago). Now I don't even bother to look at the series anymore.

Regards,
SB

 

I'd rather Interstate 76 remix. Best driving combat game ever. Everything else is but a pale shadow.

Or even better an Interstate 8x with an 80's feel ala Mad Max. The era of post apocalytpic movies and wastelands. Yeah, I'd buy that in a heartbeat if it followed the I76 formula. Ditch the fro's and bellbottome and butterfly collars of the 70's and bring in the net shirts, parachute pants, leather jackets, shoulder pads, and flourescent colors of the 80's.

Regards,
SB

 

There aren't even that many futuristic racers that haven't been sequeled into the ground. Those could add real creativity in track design and mechanics.

 

IMHO, it's more interesting than running in loops. ^_^