I was observing how I do not buy racers anymore, just rent them, because almost all of them to surface this gen, are either too generic, too formulaic, or have forgotten the purpose of racing in the first place - the desire to go suicidally fast.

When I look back at previous generations, at racers like Rallisport Challenge, Daytona USA, Gran Turismo 1 - 3, Burnout 1 - 3, Outrun 2, Ridge Racer, Test Drive: LeMans, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, SuperGT: S.C.U.D. Race, Speed Devils, Manx TT: Superbike, HydroThunder, WipeOutXL, Super Monoco GP, Rock & Roll Racing . . . and the list of truly classic racers goes on . . . the things that were most fun about racing was core to each and every last one of those games.

Developers today seem so caught up in the technical details of how to make the most "perfect" racing game ever devised, that they have forgotten all the things that made racing (in videogames as well as in real life) so damned fun in the first place - driving recklessly fast, across some of the worlds most gorgeous scenery . . . and rubbing your opponents face in it, when you leave that fool in your rear view.

Nowadays, it's all about having the most perfect physics engine, the most accurate damage models, and all the stuff that even real race drivers don't want to have to think about when they get the rare moments where they are allowed to just drive fast just for the joy of it.

I guess all that stuff is great if you have a pretty authentic racing wheel to really bring on the immersion, but most gamers play with a controller not a wheel. There are several extra degrees of separation there, and racing developers used to understand that, and focus on the universal aspects of racing. Fun and a delight to the visual senses, should be the focus of the game. And most racers today, simply have forgotten that fact - and compared to their predecessors from previous generations, most modern racers, whether they be arcade or sim-based, come off boring by comparison.

Literally, the best racer I have played in years was Black Rock Studios' Pure (and I don't even like ATV games). But Pure brought all the things that people who love to go fast, love about going fast. That was Black Rock's mission statement, and this generation, they have succeeded at that better than anyone else (sorry Motorstorm series, you're good, and your focus is definitely in the right direction, but you still got some catching up to do). And Black Rock looks to be doing it again, and raising the ante considerably with their upcoming racer, Split/Second - which is the game that Burnout Paradise should have been:

If modern racers are not selling very well compared to classic counterparts, considering how boring modern racers are compared to those classic racers, it is no wonder.

I'd love to see an arcade racer that evoked the beauty, style and grace of a Daytona USA. I'd love to see a sim racer that evoked the sheer love and passion of racing like Ferrari F355 Challenge: Passione Rossa. I'd love to see a futuristic racer with the chops to take on WipeOutXL or F-Zero GX, or a street racer with the style and finesse of Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2. Or even an openworld racer, with the sheer, unadulterated, crack cocaine, crystal meth addictive fun of Crazy Taxi or the original Twisted Metal. I'd really love to see a return to all of these things, yet developers still talk more about their physics engines when they show off their new games, than they do about what they are doing to bring the fun back to the game. So long as they stay purely focused on all the quantifiable aspects of the game, and not the qualitative aspects, then modern racers will never be as good as their predecessors.

Racing games used to be about going fast and having fun. Now they are just about who's got the better physics engine. No wonder they can't seem to barely give them away any longer.

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Not to mention that Criterion are constantly supporting the game like with the newly-released island.

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i still fondly remember being a teenager rollin around in that game jammin to identity crisis. i related to that song so well.

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