Sunday, November 20, 2005
I'd like to see a pure driving sim video game
As I've gotten older, I've noticed my gaming preferences have changed. I come from the old school of Atari 2600, 16-bit Nintendo and the original GameBoy, so I'm easy to please. I'm amazed at the graphics, sound, atmospherics, speed and AI baked into today's video games. That having been said, I largely play sports games and racers these days. I was really into I don't have time for RPGs anymore, although I did devote a certain percentage of my free time to Final Fantasy X a couple of years ago.
And with no hope for SimCity or Roller Coaster Tycoon anytime soon for the PS2 (my console), I'm likely not getting expanding my pallette. I've mentioned previously my longing for an indoor voleyball title just concentrating on playing the game. No Dead or Alive-derived mini-games or titillation, just high-action vball.
Although I can't remember the title, there was a simple driving - not racing mind you, but driving - game on the Apple IIe circa 1986 that had you trek cross-country. You literally had to sit there and let the car drive for hours, routinely stopping for gas, not crashing, navigating turns, manipulating only a handful of controls (acceleration and braking) and occasionally playing a "night mode" which was in the dark and featured the car's primitive headlights. I'd like to see another game based on that concept, but with today's technology.
After having played the various versions of Gran Turismo, I'd like to see a game with detailed rendering and pinpoint attention to detail in a scenario where you're not racing against a 90-second clock to pass checkpoints, but merely driving through major U.S. cities. The concept could be making deliveries, taking the kids on vacation, or something to that effect (pick your scenario, or maybe make this the levels..."Play in a number of challenging roles, each with its own obstacles."). Just have the objective be getting to some point in some amount of time. The conflict would be that a driver would be forced to deal with stop signs, stoplights, gridlock, the rising cost of fuel, and such. So there's the resource management challenge in the vein of WarCraft.
But it's just about driving, and obeying the law. Penalties would be applied for speeding, running red lights, failing to signal properly, tailgating, etc. The AI would be really cool...Grand Theft Auto-style switchable radio programming, perhaps the console making live Internet calls to obtain near-realtime traffic data, to accurately display construction and accidents, forcing the driver to map out alternate routes, a la Microsoft MapPoint.
And with the business making it harder for smaller publishers to be relevant, I'm quite sure this is an undertaking that many big-name developers wouldn't put atop their demand list. This is largely niche market, and for the majority of gamers these days, probably boring. but hell - it worked for Flight Simulator, didn't it?
And with no hope for SimCity or Roller Coaster Tycoon anytime soon for the PS2 (my console), I'm likely not getting expanding my pallette. I've mentioned previously my longing for an indoor voleyball title just concentrating on playing the game. No Dead or Alive-derived mini-games or titillation, just high-action vball.
Although I can't remember the title, there was a simple driving - not racing mind you, but driving - game on the Apple IIe circa 1986 that had you trek cross-country. You literally had to sit there and let the car drive for hours, routinely stopping for gas, not crashing, navigating turns, manipulating only a handful of controls (acceleration and braking) and occasionally playing a "night mode" which was in the dark and featured the car's primitive headlights. I'd like to see another game based on that concept, but with today's technology.
After having played the various versions of Gran Turismo, I'd like to see a game with detailed rendering and pinpoint attention to detail in a scenario where you're not racing against a 90-second clock to pass checkpoints, but merely driving through major U.S. cities. The concept could be making deliveries, taking the kids on vacation, or something to that effect (pick your scenario, or maybe make this the levels..."Play in a number of challenging roles, each with its own obstacles."). Just have the objective be getting to some point in some amount of time. The conflict would be that a driver would be forced to deal with stop signs, stoplights, gridlock, the rising cost of fuel, and such. So there's the resource management challenge in the vein of WarCraft.
But it's just about driving, and obeying the law. Penalties would be applied for speeding, running red lights, failing to signal properly, tailgating, etc. The AI would be really cool...Grand Theft Auto-style switchable radio programming, perhaps the console making live Internet calls to obtain near-realtime traffic data, to accurately display construction and accidents, forcing the driver to map out alternate routes, a la Microsoft MapPoint.
And with the business making it harder for smaller publishers to be relevant, I'm quite sure this is an undertaking that many big-name developers wouldn't put atop their demand list. This is largely niche market, and for the majority of gamers these days, probably boring. but hell - it worked for Flight Simulator, didn't it?
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