If Only Real Life Looked As Good As Sega Racers...

I really want to talk about racing games again so here goes.  Thank me very much...

I play a lot of arcade racers, particularly Sega ones.  If there's one great thing about video games, it's that you have the liberty to embellish this fantasy environment all you want.  Hence why I prefer colorful & vibrant games over dark & depressing ones (I figure if you're going to an alternate world, it might as well make you happy).

But then along comes real life.  Now I'm a car aficionado but NOT that much--for instance, I don't watch every race on TV or tune cars in a garage.  Maybe I should, I don't know.  But when you compare real life racing to video game racing...the differences become apparent.  Please note that I didn't alter any of the pictures in any way besides adjusting the resolution...

 
Sega Racing Video Games:

Daytona USA 1 & 2, Scud Race, OutRun 2 

 

Real Life:

Road Atlanta, Silverstone, Sebring, Suzuka, Laguna Seca, Twin Ring Motegi

I hope I'm not committing heresy by saying this, but...a lot of these tracks with little/nothing over the horizon are just boring.  This has nothing to do with the track layouts themselves which are actually memorable in that I still have the overhead view of tracks like Laguna Seca and Suzuka burned into my head after all these years...

I remember back in my Forza 3 days trying to compete on these real-life tracks like Silverstone and Sebring and it was fun to drive, yes, but the landscaping was just a buzz kill.  I almost wish I was playing Sega racers instead.  Even the fantasy tracks in games like Forza/GT were more interesting, like Special Stage 5, Autumn Ring, Trial Mountain, etc.

Granted, there ARE good-looking real-life tracks out there.  Monaco comes to mind but that's because urban courses are usually very captivating (they better damn well be...they're blocking city traffic for this).  Also Nurburgring, Monterserrat, la Sarthe, anything with a greenish hue, lots of trees, and elevation changes.

Herp derp, I know there's a difference between real-life and video games.  Real life obviously goes for efficiency since the NUMBER ONE aspect of any race course is to make sure the racers are focused on driving and safety.  Obviously, if you were in a 800 hp car, I don't think you'd be looking to the horizon for any trees or bright colors...your adrenaline would be hyped to the max already.  That's why there's no races through art galleries, I suppose.  To the casual observer, though, it can be uninteresting so that's why they prefer to play colorful video games instead (racing games that aren't colorful, however, already suck and no one likes them).

Hey, maybe real-life tracks could adapt more interesting visuals...tracks like Monaco prove that you can pack in a lot of clutter in a small space so what's the harm in adding a few landmarks to these bland courses we have?  Oh, that's me and my stupid "Mario Kart" mentality getting in the way.

I wonder if fantasy video games have dulled my appreciation for real-life racing.  I wonder what real-life race drivers/fans think of fantasy courses like these.  Well, if you're going to make a video game, you might as well make it colorful and pleasing to the eye.  Just something to think about.  Real life is depressing enough as is so might as well make the player happy.  If I ever did get the chance to drive a real race car, I'd have fun regardless of where it is.  Two different worlds.  At least everyone has access to one so let's make it worthwhile...

Oh, and one more thing about real life that's not fun--crashes where people die.  Just ask Ryan Dunn (of Jackass fame) who recently died drunk driving in his Porsche GT3.  So if I want my video games to be a little different than real life, well...you know where I'm coming from.

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