Welcome to Blur Lines, a periodic column I write here in my GameSpot journal devoted entirely to the world of racing games. You can read the last entry in the series here.
Some nights my wife works late and, often times, those are good nights. It's not because I don't want to be with my wife, mind you, but rather that those late nights mean I get to spend a bit of my off-duty hours here at my desk playing games I normally don't get a chance to touch. Over the past year, those games include one of two titles: World of Warcraft (a habit I just kicked for the second time) and the original GTR FIA Racing.
Yesterday, I got a chance to spend some time with the SimBin folks behind the sequel, GTR 2, in preparation for today's hands-on look at the game. It was time well spent. Not only are the developers of this game an impassioned bunch, but it's interesting to hear how this disparate group of former modders-turned-developers (based everywhere from Austin, Texas to Vara, Sweden) have managed to crank out three highly respected racing sims in a market that, in recent years, has had no patience for the genre.
The things I like about the previous GTR are all found in the sequel: the laser-like focus on the physics of the car, the tires, and the asphalt; the sense of total immersion after settling into the cockpit view after turning a few consistently flat-out laps; the overwhelming mix of relief and accomplishment you feel once you've nailed the slight drift you need at Monza's Variante Ascari... and so much more. There's also a new driving school mode which seems like a lot of fun, as well as some 24-hour races which I'm in no way insane enough to tackle.
Sure there are things that need improving. I still think the menu system needs work--it's too complex and imposing--and I think the sounds of the car engines could use a bit more punch and variety. But these are the kind of criticisms that can be handled in our upcoming review of the game. I come here not to bury GTR 2, after all, but to praise it.
It's just too bad this has to be a PC game. Don't get me wrong, the PC has long been the haven of some of the best racing games of all time but, for just as long, the cost of entry to PC gaming has been a barrier against opening up the genre to a new realm of consumers and potential racing fans. Certainly, releasing the original GTR for Xbox 360 (as THQ will do sometime in 2007) is a good step forward while titles like Forza 2 and the Gran Turismo HD mean the sim-racing category is far from dead. But it just seems to me that there's more room for more.
I'll be keeping a close eye on how the Xbox 360 version of GTR sells. If I'd had the time (or, more accurately, if I'd remembered to do so), I would have asked the folks at SimBin how they felt the new generation of consoles stacks up to developing on the PC. From a hardware standpoint, are the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 viable as first-release platforms for the latest generation of racing sims like GTR 2 and its sequels, or will that forever be the territory of the PC? I wonder how their answer would stack up against the producers of console racing games such as Kazunori Yamauchi or Forza 2's Dan Greenawalt.
Like everything else in the industry, I suppose it has to do with money. While the GTR series would likely sell more copies on consoles (at least in the States), the development costs for PC games are probably lower than that on the 360 and PS3 which means that, for smaller operations like SimBin, their game debuts on PC first and, if they (and we) are lucky, is ported over at some later date. Which brings me back to the sales of GTR for Xbox 360, and how I hope it does well enough to at least afford a console version of the sequel.
Someone once said that the closest Americans ever get to a Zen-like state of enlightenment is when driving their cars. I'm not sure if the sweaty-lipped, vice-gripping, sub-vocalizing state I was in last night while turning laps at Monza in GTR 2 and waiting for my wife to call was the kind of thing that Bodhidharma was talking about, but it sure felt right to me.
GTR 2 is due for release in September 2006. Find the demo here.