Matts Blog

Ever had that strange feeling that if you could just mash two or three games together they’d be perfect? I know I have, and a number of other people I have had the pleasure of gaming with online. Regardless of technical limitations there is no harm in dreaming, perhaps someone will be inspired to do it – perhaps not. It seems a damn shame that no one is willing to take a gamble on an ambitious project, probably because the likes of STALKER, or what it was initially promised to be – it ended up cut back and not what it was when initially announced.

Its a regular thing, playing a game and I get this little itchy feeling – I still enjoy the game, but it could be so much more. For example, Test Drive Unlimited – it features an open world that you can drive around in with 8 other players, with well over 100 cars. We’ve had barrels of fun, but where does it miss? The roads aren’t smooth, that is one thing – there is limited customisation, that is another. I’d love to be able to mix GRID, TDU and the NFS Underground games – they are far apart, graphically and technically – and the way they play.

• GRID has a fantastic damage engine, and arguably graphics – it also has closed tracks, which TDU doesn’t have (aside from one) the likes of Donington Park and Nürburgring as examples.
• Test Drive Unlimited has a huge car number, basic tuning packs and limited customisation (paint, interior, character) but does have a large area to explore and drive around in without being competitive (cruising if you will).
• Need For Speed Shift – of course it did have racing around the town, but it did lack multiplayer exploration such as TDU – though it did  have some fantastic customisation.

Beyond this, co-op has become quite a rage in the FPS ring – why not do something similar, there are competitive league tables of course in most – but why not have two players start a team up and race together against the AI (or allow player teams to replace the AI as much as wanted, like having bots in Counter Strike or numerous other FPS games). At least in racing games, its then possible for players to not be affected by going singleplayer as much as players are by doing the same in an FPS (look at Left 4 Dead or Borderlands as an example of poor ally AI).

Unfortunately I can see the technical restraints, particularly in processing power if it becomes multi-platform. It is highly likely GRID went closed track circuits to allow for more details in a small area, TDU lost detail and road smoothness for more players – also dropping customisation to keep bandwidth usage down. I have never been sure with the NFS games, it seems they don’t have enough development time to be innovative in between releases – not to say they are bad quality games, its just a different development cycle to most.

Driving games (I’d say racing, but the likes of TDU weren’t all about the lap times) unfortunately seem to be a small percentage when compared to FPS franchises, not to say they can’t be successful… they are just more riskier than a pretty safe FPS. A similar thing happens with space games, one of the few ever remotely near to being popular is EVE Online – yet once again it misses the mark for me, as do many more.

Games like GTAIV with its free-roam offer nothing but the basics: cars, guns, other players and the odd NPC to shoot. We’ve had our fun on them, but eventually the player generated fun starts to run out – the problem? Players have their fun and don’t say much more – I’d like some miniature missions, comparable to non-storyline quests of the MMORPG genre – do the odd drug run, perhaps with police, assassinate a mobster… heck, they even missed a bank robbery option (yes, all criminal acts and morally wrong, but its a blasted game!).

No harm in dreaming.