2007 was a good year for racing games. Fans weren’t exactly spoilt for choice, but it was more a case of quality over quantity. There was something for everyone; Forza Motorsport 2 for the purists and car enthusiasts, DiRT for some off-road escapades and the best car damage ever, and the highly underrated and overlooked PGR4 with its addictive pick-up-and-play approach.

Like in most other genres in 2007, the Xbox 360 came out on top here was well. Forza 2 and PGR4 were exclusive to Microsoft’s console, while DiRT came to the PlayStation 3 months after it did on the Xbox 360.

But 2008 is a new year, and it’s already off to a smashing start – literally. Here’s a look at what racing fans can look forward to in 2008. Once again, there’s something for everyone – simulation, arcade and even some combat racing. And Sony fanboys can finally stop sulking now, because from the looks like it, the PS3 has got some heavy-hitters lining up on the grid.

BURNOUT PARADISE

This is the ’smashing start’ I was referring to. January saw the release of the much-anticipated current-gen debut of the Burnout series. Gone are the shopping-list-esque events and locations across continents. All of Burnout’s crashtastic goodness is now confined to one, albeit vast, city. The new approach to the game has received its fair share of criticism – no crash mode, no restart race option, poor mini map, etc. I personally welcome most of the changes Criterion have made. The mini map does what it’s required to do and I don’t mind not being spoon-fed through to the finish line with giant yellow neon signs. Burnout Paradise nicely slots in above Revenge and below Takedown in my list of favourite Burnout games. Finally, an EA-published game delivers on the PS3; about damn time!

GRAN TURISMO 5 PROLOGUE

The mother of all…no wait; scratch that. The God of all racing games is back! And while it thanks Turn 10 (Forza 2) for keeping the sim racing crown in good hands while it was away, it snatches said crown right back with GT5 Prologue. Make no mistake about it; this is a full-fledged game, no demo. I don’t need to tell you how beautiful the game is. But what is important to mention is the improvements Polyphony have made since GT4. The AI is drastically improved from the dull rubberband AI of previous games. Although it’s not as aggressive as the Forza 2 AI, it is extremely competitive and, importantly, very human-like and prone to mistakes. Online is thrilling and with set race criteria, each race is bitterly competitive and exhilarating. With car damage confirmed by way of a downloadable update in the coming months, all that’s left from my personal checklist is dynamic weather and night races. Give me that and I can die a happy man. Please make it happen, Yamauchi-san!

GRID

Codies have been harping on about how Grid is ‘All about the Race’! We can forgive them for this cheesy slogan because Grid looks like it could well deliver. I wasn’t particularly thrilled that they’ve decided to dumb down the game into an arcade style, but the promise of a damage model better than DiRT and super-intelligent AI puts Grid high on my buying list. And of course, if DiRT is anything to go by, Grid will be stunningly beautiful as well. Did I mention cockpit view? It will be interesting to see how the three locations – America, Europe, and Japan – will vary with respect to track layouts and cars and also how the drift feature will be implemented. Forty-something cars seems kinda less in this age of ‘more is better’, but what I’m most skeptical about is the Prince of Persia-style rewind feature. There’s no place for that in a racing game if you ask me. But I loved DiRT, and I’m growing pretty fond of the new and improved Codemasters, so I will lap this up.

MIDNIGHT CLUB: LOS ANGELES

Rockstar have been pretty quiet about Midnight Club: LA (scheduled for the summer); understandably so, with GTAIV right around the corner. But the genius that was Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is probably enough to have us all eagerly anticipating this game. Besides, Rockstar can be trusted not to half-ass a game…I think. MC3 came out at a time when the popularity of underground racing was at its peak and the marketplace was littered with neon-riddled, NOS-injected, drift and drag racing games. But MC3 stood out with a wonderful environment, an amazing selection of cars, and expansive customization features. It was just a really cool game! At times, I would aimlessly cruise around in my candy-painted El Camino for hours; never mind the fact that it handled like a bathtub down the highway. Coming to MCLA, two things that stood out for me from the previews that have surfaced are the inclusion of day-time races (yes, day-time races in Midnight Club) and what sounds like a really cool GPS map system that zooms in and out in real time. There aren’t too many other stand-out details available, but this is Midnight Club! Day One purchase; details not necessary.

WIPEOUT HD

The wait for WipEout HD has been so agonising, that I actually bought Fatal Inertia for the Xbox 360 to fill the void. That actually made the wait more unbearable. To be fair to Fatal Inertia, it is a decent game by itself, but it is bound to be compared to WipEout; and it is here that it falls flat on its face. And sure, WipEout Pulse on the PSP is a good game, but I just can’t get around to playing a racing game on a handheld. But the videos and previews for WipEout HD indicate that the game might just be well worth the wait. The game looks stunning and the pace looks frantic at a smooth 60 fps. Now all we need is a release date so WipEout can once and for all put all these other combat racing pretenders to shame.

MOTORSTORM 2

I still remember the chill that ran down my spine the first time I watched the now iconic E3 MotorStorm trailer. It was the only launch title that made me want a PS3. The final game probably didn’t live up to my unrealistically high expectations, but it is a damn good game nonetheless. Sure it lacks the slick menus and yes, the loading times are epic, but when it comes down to the racing itself, few games deliver the no-holds-barred, nasty, and in-your-face racing experience that MotorStorm does. So kindly give us more of that in MotorStorm 2, yes? This time around, the monotonous yellows and browns of the canyons and deserts make way for lush forests, water hazards and volcanoes. Then of course, there is the addition of monster trucks and destructible environments. How effective these will be only time will tell. Sony’s quiet acquisition of Evolution, the game’s developers, in 2007 will surely go a long way in making sure that this game makes the most effective use of the PS3’s hardware. There are a few issues from the first game that Evolution will need to address. For starters, I won’t tolerate having to wait 5 seconds for a car to load up in my vehicle selection menu; I won’t do it! If they do manage to address these concerns, then the PS3 may just have another winner on its hands.

PURE

I personally have very high expectations from Pure – an over-the-top ATV racer. It’s developed by the very capable Black Rock Studio (previously Climax Racing) of MotoGP and ATV Off-Road Fury fame. The game is all about big air; jumping hundreds of feet from cliff to cliff and pulling off insane tricks. The time that you do spend on the ground is best utilised taking your opponents out by any means necessary, before taking flight once again. The game rewards tricks and innovative gameplay with boost. The better you play, the more boost you get, the faster you go. That simple! Pure is scheduled for a fall release; don’t sleep on it.

INITIAL D EXTREME STAGE

The first name in drift racing video games is about to make its debut on the PS3 this summer in Japan. No other game has been able to capture the essence of drift racing as easily and effectively as Initial D has. I’ve never watched the anime, and I don’t have the slightest inclination to do so either. But anyone who’s played an Initial D game, knows what it stands for. Extreme Stage will be the console version of the arcade game Initial D Arcade Stage 4, and will feature online racing. CAN’T FUCKIN’ WAIT!!!

Those are the games that every racing fan should watch out for. Of course, they aren’t the only racing games scheduled for release on consoles for this year. What else is there? First off, there’s Baja by THQ. The debut trailer didn’t exactly fill me with excitement. You know there’s something wrong when 45 seconds of a game’s 1-minute debut trailer is filled with filmed footage. The remaining 15 seconds that did have game footage wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring either. But I’ll wait till I see more before passing judgment.

Then there’s Death Track: Resurrection, a seemingly story-heavy combat racer set some 10-20 years in the future. I haven’t really heard or read much about this game since E3, so it remains to be seen if it will even see the light of day.

Finally there’s Things On Wheels. Everything about this game screams “ReVolt”. For the uninitiated, ReVolt was an insanely fun RC car racing/combat game on the Dreamcast, PS One, N64, and PC. All ReVolt fans must definitely keep an eye out for Things On Wheels. For all we know, it may end up being nothing like ReVolt. But come on, its RC cars racing in giant human worlds; how bad can it be?

Of course no year is complete without the annual installment of the long-running and somewhat redundant Need for Speed franchise. It looks almost impossible that EA could take the franchise any lower than the insipid Need for Speed Carbon and the God-awful Need for Speed ProStreet did. Then again, I thought ProStreet was going to be the game that turned the series around for the better; so what do I know! As some one who grew up playing Need for Speed, I still remain optimistic. But it seems pretty evident now that EA is clearly running out of ideas.

Interesting: Grid, Burnout Paradise, WipEout HD, MotorStorm 2 and Pure are all developed by studios based in the UK. The Brits seem to have a knack of producing some fine racing titles. The brilliant PGR series was also developed by UK-based Bizzare Studios.

Original Article at HundredProofSam by Sameer who happens to be one of the founders and overlords at GamingIndians, India’s premier console exclusive forum.

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By N2H

• The Invisible Man Says:
  April 21st, 2008 at 7:12 pm

  ^^WWHHAAAAAAAATT!! arent you that polygamist construction worker in the stinkhole..err middle east who has that shady blog? and like i said MARIO KART WII WILL RULE “EM ALL!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

• Sameer Says:
  April 21st, 2008 at 9:23 pm

  Yup, that’s me!

  About Mario Kart, as i said on my shady blog, I should have added a footnote saying that only REAL racing games were considered for this article.

  Besides, shouldn’t you be blowing baloons on your DS or something? Shoo, shoo!!!

• ATV Urge Says:
  April 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am

  Sweet. That really gets my adrenaline jumping.