What Makes A Good Car Game

What makes a good car game

by

Jason minousi

Chances are, if you re in any way a gamer, you can list off your top five favourite games by heart. And chances are, one of those games will either be a racing or car game. There s something automobiles, whether it s a classic black Citroen used by mobsters, a German Panzer tank eating up treads in the African desert, or a futuristic version of the Batmobile, that just rings a chord. What is it about driving that has established such a solid and unremitting fan base with gamers?

1.Variety Is The Spice Of Life

This is a given, but video games allow us to vicariously experience what it would be like to take the wheel in vehicles we ll never get to drive in real life. The best driving games I ve ever played were ones that tried to recreate the feel of classic automobiles or invent an entirely new experience. I still recall Lucas Art s Episode I: Racer as one of the most unique racing games I d ever played by giving me the ability to pilot one of the infamous pod-racers on alien worlds. Racing games have this open-ended capacity to evoke the imagination, and I think successful ones utilize this opportunity to design vehicles we ve never seen before.

2.Tough Opponents

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C62Hco9TeE[/youtube]

There are plenty of racing games that fall short of expectations because they failed to include gameplay that offered balanced opponents. If an opponent is too easy, there s no stakes and the game becomes dull. If the opponents are too hard, you risk frustrating your players. The best racing games tend to factor this in by having matched opponents, or by including opportunities (in the form of power-ups or penalties) to give an advantage to the player.

Online racing games are the most fun because you are actually competing against human players instead of computerized or automated bots.

3.Speaking Of Powerups

Most car games nowadays have picked up on this hook whether it s Need For Speed or Mario Kart, including different and varied bonuses, that when activated alter the gameplay, have become core elements. These can range from everything to heat-seeking turtle shells to stun your opponents to bursts of speed rewarded for achieving certain milestones .

4.Crank That Playlist

Just as driving a real car demands music, so too does a virtual car ride. Car chases and fast music are forever on their honeymoon, and though it may seem like a secondary element to a game, the soundtrack invariably sets the pace for any racing simulator.

I particularly enjoy racing games that take some creative liberty with their inclusion of music for instance, giving the player access to a selection of fictional radio stations with different styles.

5.Location, Location, Location

Yes, you enjoy the clipped time-sensitive win-by-a-nose stress of racing against other desperate speed-hounds, but a substantial part of any car game is the course. If you were zipping around a flat Indy-500 concrete loop, you d get bored which is why the hallmark of any good racing game has as much to do with setting as it does with vehicles and speed.

Whether it s blazing deserts, freezing tundra, or a heavily populated metropolis, the environment of these games is just as crucial to snaring our attention and dragging us into the action. If it s a setting we recognize the streets of L.A. or Paris or one that s completely foreign to us a gigantic alien forest we react to it the same way. And the best games account for this by utilizing the environment as an antagonist, each with its own technique for stopping you in your tracks (from lava flows to hidden traps to constantly shifting courses).

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What makes a good car game