Or, The search for a decent drive.
It is apparently really hard to make a game about fast cars that go fast on a road.
Admittedly that assumption is mostly hyperbole but at the same time it's an impression I keep getting from playing through some racing games that I've purchased over the past year. Or more specifically in this case Test Drive Unlimited 2 and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit.
Now TDU2 and NFS:HP do a lot of things in different ways, whereas HP has you drifting around corners without issues TDU2 has you doing slow speed turns as doing anything else will pretty much run you off the road.
And whereas NFS has problems with feeling gimmicky TDU2 has problem with just being generally bad if not very meh.
The biggest issue I have with Hot Pursuit is that it wraps up everything the base gimmick of cop versus racers and parts of the game suffers from it. The police section is rife with multiple gimmicks such as the rapid deployment mode which penalizes you for doing any mistake what so ever and as much as bumping into anything gives a time penalty. The racer section suffer mainly from the Hot Pursuit and Gauntlet modes where both feel more than 3v1 or 2v1 fights rather than races or time trials.
But at the same time there are glimmers of a good game in there. When it clicks it really does click well as some of the tracks have some gorgeous backdrops and there is something incredibly enjoyable to do a drifting turn around a corner and just see a huge mountain range appear in front of you. Not to mention driving feels just right, the cars handle well, they look good and they sound good. It is on those points that the game works very well.
The main issue I have with TDU2 is that it feels unfinished or could've needed a rethink at places. It's promising game that manages to bumble it away by trying to do too much and never really do it well in very uninspiring environments. All this wrapped up in a shoddily executed PC port with clunky menus and a poor if not non-existent physics engine.
The game tries to be a Forza or Gran Turismo game but at the same time they decided to add an open world with free roaming alongside avatar and housing functions and then subsequently lost their focus halfway to the finish line.
The game is fun occasionally, even if its driving experience feels a bit lacking just because there isn't much room to drive on. It feels very unfinished and could've probably benefited for a lot more polish. Or possibly a rework into something more solid.
The fact that TDU2 is going to get a DLC this far late after the game's release is a nice thought but one wonders if it isn't a bit too late now.
To me it seems increasingly difficult for some developers to make a "normal" car game. While they exist there still seem to be a lack of games that doesn't try to wrap themselves up in various gimmicks or unnecessary things. Then again it seems the logical progression in many ways, especially for Need for Speed which has been around since the middle of the 90's turning the driving into a spectacle seems partly like the way to go in order to stay interesting. But at the same time it's almost important to keep in mind that the gimmick shouldn't try to take over the fact that the game is about cars going fast on roads, and considering the way NFS game has developed recently I wonder if that isn't getting a bit lost in an urge just to provide the player with an experience.
It's interesting to note that the console is in many regards having an upper hand in the racing genre with their major franchises such as Forza Motorsports and Gran Turismo. Where is the PC equivalent of those series for instance?
However there are some promising games coming out next year or so, in particular Auto Club Revolution, Project CARS and Assetto Corsa that looks to deliver a similar experience in line with what you might find on consoles but the question still remains.
Why isn't there more of them?
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