Bang Bang Racing Preview, Review, Compliments

Hi guys, so there's this Steam sale thing going on right now so let's take a look at the games.  Oh, what's this, a racing game called Bang Bang Racing, let's check it out!  Videos:

Right now, Bang Bang Racing costs 3.39 in United States Dollars.  Even if this game's a dud, can you really complain about paying that much?  Besides, from one "Indie" racing game dev to another, this one's for you.  Seriously, I'm in need of a new racing game and I'm not touching Ridge Racer: Unbounded with its $30 price tag.  And personally, I think I had more fun with this $3 game than I did with games worth ten times the price.  It's a "Bang" Racing Game for your buck.  *noshameinthatpun*

So a quick rundown about the game: There's twenty cars in four classes--five muscle cars, five GT cars, five Le-Mans cars, and five Indy/F1 cars--each with slightly different characteristics.  There's also eight tracks which spoof existing locations--Daytona, Laguna Seca, Long Beach, Monaco, Nurburgring, Bahrain, Spain, and some snow level.  Because of the game's cartoony style, the tracks have been greatly embellished to give you lots to look at, such as palm trees, Japanese cherry blossom trees, fake billboards, buildings of various sizes, overpasses, and numerous elevation changes.  In other words, it's a damn good looking game.

The thing that ultimately makes or breaks the game is the camera.  It's kind of like R.C. Pro Am except the camera actually attempts to face parallel with your vehicle at all times.  At first, turning left and right can be massively disorienting since it takes a while for the camera to catch up, leading you to blindly drive in some direction besides straight (think Grand Theft Auto's driving camera) but in all honestly, you get used to it after a while.  Sure, no close-chase/first-person cam sucks but you get a better view of the action happening all around you so that's good.

Now about the cars. There's nitrous boosts that charge up automatically over time and when you drive through the "pit stop" (PRO TIP: Hit the pit stop as often as possible even if you're not damaged just for the turbo boosts alone.).  While turbo boosts are a common racing gimmick, here they're used well because it can give you a tactical advantage.

There's also the ability to brake which becomes phenominally important at higher speeds.  You can't powerslide Sega-style but it's still good fun to sling the car around, plus it's not an easy game by any means so it is rewarding once you get a hang of it.  Left, right, gas, brake, turbo.  Five buttons is all you need.

There's also oil & water slicks that inhibit your ability to turn for a brief time as well as a few shortcuts too.  Fortunately, there's no Mario Kart weapons present so it rides the fine line of being goofy fun as well as a truly serious racer.

I should mention this game can be played with the keyboard or an Xbox 360 controller.  The keyboard controls are okay but still tough to use.  Once I plugged in that 360 controller, my skills doubled and I enjoyed it more.  So be sure to get a joystick before playing.  This goes for every PC racing game, obviously.

I think the game's great but there's three caveats that must be said:

1. Having "beaten" the game in about four hours, I'm still left wondering what to do besides time trials and racing the computer over and over again.  The CPU's tough on the harder difficulties without being broken cheap (no rubber-band AI) so that's great.  There's split-screen multiplayer but no online multiplayer which is a bummer.  I question the game's replay value but c'mon, it's just a $3 game.  Though some of you may get better mileage out of this game since I'm so "good" at racing games or something.  The first two tiers of cars may be too slow but the game picks up when you get those LeMans/F1 cars, pshyeah.

2. I think the game personally errs too much on being "cute."  While I don't mind driving Micro Machines around cartoony tracks, it would be great if they took a few cues out of Sega's playbook and made the racing more "intense," such as meaner engine sounds and car rumbling at top speeds.  But I don't know for sure if that would make it better...I'm not a game PRODUCER people, I'm just a lowly programmer who does what he's told.

3. Come on, enough with the dubstep, let's get some ROCK AND ROLL in this joint.  Something that really KICKS.  No really, the music in this game is ok but that definitely-not-autotuned lady says (I think) "moooonayyy" or something like that too much.

Kind of like Days of Thunder (now rendered null & void thanks to Daytona USA) and 3D Pixel Racing (didn't play it but gameplay looks similar), this is an Indie game that pops up out of nowhere and exceeds your expectations so PAY DA MAN for actually making a racing game that entertains me.  FUN FACT: There's about 30 people that worked on this game and almost all of them have an accent in their names.  In other words, this isn't a US-made game.  It hurts me to say this but as an American, Europe & Japan are leagues ahead of us in driving games, sorry.

I think the game is great and that you should buy it now.  You have until July 23 to buy it at such a low price so do it now.  Just do it...

REVIEW SCORE: 9.0 out of 10.  Also check out my friend Dave's post on this game too.  It predates my post by about a month so props to him too.


BTW, Super Sprint is still better.

EDIT: Also be sure to buy Renegade Ops off the Steam store for under $4 too!  Do it for Sega!  Or buy four copies (one for you, three for friends) for under $8!  Wow, ya gotta love Steam!!!

Days Of Thunder XBLA Review

So now that I've played through the game for a few days, got 200/200 gamerscore, unlocked everything, and played online, let's talk about the game for real.

First of all, on all the social sites, everyone was running out saying how terrible this game was.  Now that everyone has given the game a "second chance," they don't think it's so bad after all.  I think it's that "NASCAR is stupid" mentality that the mainstream gamer has.  Dude, WTF people.

Now for the racing.  Initially, the controls may be a bit sensitive.  It's really easy to whip around and lose control.  But hey--is every racing game supposed to be easy?  Go play Mario Kart or Cruis'n World and give me a break.  But there's two reasons why handling may suck--one, because tires get worn out over time and two, because you can upgrade your tires if you play into the career mode a bit.

Racing is rather intense and the sense of speed is good.  It's really easy to get into pileups, but it's also easy to straighten out.  Your car has some forward momentum at all times so you aren't automatically down and out.  Be careful because too much car damage leads to an explosive wreck.  Quick pit stops remedy car damage and tire wear.

 Obligatory screen shot

There are two powerup bars to fill--the hammer and focus.  Hammer is basically a turbo boost that speeds you up by 60+ mph.  You get it by drafting and passing other cars as well as by running clean laps and leaving the pits.  Focus slows the game down and makes it easy to dodge crashes.

Now most of the turns in the game can be taken at full speed (even at max stats) so practice dodging cars and staying off the grass.  Use hammer on the straightaways.  The AI cars in this game are as dumb as bricks as they often "die," laying there in the middle of the road doing nothing.  It's kind of funny to see Cole Trickle himself in need of the ambulance.  There's a few competent cars per race, but you can usually make a good run for first because the rubber-band AI usually goes in reverse, making it easy to catch up.  Once you pass the AI though, they rarely catch up if you race well.

 Unfortunately, there are no Mello Yello ads in the game.

You can create up to six cars of three models.  You can apply basic paint jobs and numbers as you would in a PS2 game.  You get a sense of ownership over the car but not much since it's nowhere near Forza 3 customization.

The rest of the career mode is boring though because it's a bunch of long-winded races in a row.  The races get longer and if you're like me, you'll blow through them easily.  Three of the ten tracks are big ovals that you can basically take at full throttle and once you're in the lead, it's just easy sailing.  Best way to get through career is have two cars, one for ovals (top speed & fuel), one for road courses (tires & durability).  After you beat the career (some 5-6 hours later), you unlock the Rowdy Derby where you smash into other cars and I only did that a few times to get the achievement.

 Hey, at least you're not playing the NES version

I really like the quick pit feature.  You drive into the pit, mash the A B and X buttons as fast as you can to repair and refuel the car, then you get out of there.  Reminds me of Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat.  If only you could refill one bar at a time it would increase game strategy but since you can refill all three, pits only last a few seconds.

Online isn't too bad.  You can have up to 12 players.  Regardless of your career car's stats, you're maxed out online so all cars are on the same playing field.  Problem is if someone gets out way ahead, you can't draft or catch up to him barring a huge mistake.  That's where the dumb AI cars come into play--use them to fill your hammer and catch up.  But if you find some players of equal skill, it can be fun.  Good luck trying to find more than 4 players though since online doesn't seem too active.  You can't join games in progress though so just be patient at first.

I'm just about done.  There are ten tracks in the game and the graphics are okay.  The color palette is a bit dreary but I'm fine with it.  The soundtrack consists of some Southern rock that's okay at best.  The pit chief says stupid stuff like "Fill that hammer real-quick-like" in that stupid voice so I just shut him up.  The Las Vegas oval is a subtle hint to Daytona USA considering it has the same layout as Daytona's beginner course as well as the casino/slot machine theme going on.

 Sure thing, gramps!  (not an actual screenshot)

Oh, and one more thing that's kind of stupid.  If you smash your car into the wall at an angle, sometimes you "hit a brick wall" and lose all speed which can be really frustrating on tracks like Atlanta Road.  Usually happens if you clip the inside wall of a turn which I've always had a tendency to do in racing games nowadays.


This ought to give you a good sense of what the game is like.  Just skip around and ignore the guy's voice since that isn't mine.

When you consider this being worth 800 MSP, it's not so bad.  Really, you can nitpick about it, but it's a cheap little game so screw it.  If you practice the game, you can zip around the tracks at nearly full speed (215+ mph) and that's pretty fun--as close as you're gonna get to Daytona USA in a loooonnnnngggg time).  It's exciting at first but I can see it becoming old if you don't have online buddies to play with.  Maybe this game will get a DLC track pack, but I highly doubt it.

Review Score: 8/10 I guess.  A real hit-or-miss kind of game.  BTW, there's a Playstation Network game of this that looks better, not sure how that game plays though...

Psssh...WEAK, we got the lame version of this game.  Go play PSN version.

Days Of Thunder XBL Preview

Oh, this one I heard about days ago, but it slipped my mind until now.  There's a Days of Thunder game for Xbox Live Arcade.  It's 800 MSP.  From what I heard, it is pleasantly average.  I should've downloaded the demo but I was too busy playing Pro Keys on Rock Band 3, please forgive me.  I'm sorry--Rock Band is that engrossing that it can distract me from paramount news.

Going for the edgy Burnout angle here...whatever.

Kind of strange that they went back 20 years to get the Days of Thunder license, but at least they bypass the NASCAR license which isn't too bad.  The game has both oval and technical tracks which is nice cause it keeps in line with Daytona USA tradition.

I'm guessing the framerate sucks because of the recording.  Actually, this video does suck so ignore the FPS.  No way you release a game with 5 FPS nowadays unless you want to the lynch mob to knock on your front door.  Pwned.



Actual in-game footage.  It looks better than I expected...  To be fair, the game looks like it has potential cause it looks loose and free-wheeling.  I also noticed how you can go up to 220 mph (354 kph) which is certainly nice compared to the lame-o 190 mph races of real-life NASCAR.  Too bad you can't powerslide.  I doubt it'll ever live up to Sega racing expectations though.

Game sucks on GameFAQs.
Game sucks on Joystiq.

I hope this game is good, really, I do.  I assume I will post further opinions when I actually play the demo.

EDIT: Just played the demo, I thought it was good.  Controls are a bit fidgety but this isn't like Mario Kart, it's a bit tougher than that.  Will post more about this later.

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Obligatory movie footage, rubbin' is racing, yada yada yada...let's get an actual movie clip in here, something for you to analyze:



PLEASE DON'T GET DELETED FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

Down and dirty racing...  Now make a Talladega Nights game next, lololol.

"If you ain't first, you're last."

SHAKE AND BAKE

P.S. Why does Internet Explorer suck so bad.

The Forza 3 Experience

NOTE: Added the crash video

Now I may have gashed Forza in a previous time.  The reason why is because I played both Forza 1 and 2 and thought they were actually quite boring.  Forza 3 is good though but that doesn't mean it's flawless (I already talked about that).  The main hook for buying this game was that I could make those Daytona USA 2 cars (which I did of course) but as for the rest of the game itself, it finally caught on.  I played it quite a bit Spring/Summer 2010 so this was over six months ago, I presume.

First, it's worth mentioning to get into the racing mood, I ALWAYS play some music off a USB drive during the game.  This is part of my Racing Soundtrack which is meant to enrich the racing experience...something a few game developers fail to do.  It's so vital that I bolded this entire paragraph for that reason.  What music is on this list?  I may mention it someday, but until then, here's a little hint...look at past blog entries, there you go.

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Anyway, let's talk about online play.  So you can have up to eight players.  You have lobbies splitting up the cars into those of equal performances (R1, R2, R3, S, A, B, C, D, E, F) which is determined by the car's PI rating.  Now I briefly talked about the PI ratings before, but it's widely believed that 4WD cars are overpowered because the game assumes that the weight increase negates the drivetrain swap.  If anything, 4WD cars are much more stable and have better acceleration.  But I'm not going to go into that much--it just sucks because you see people abuse the same damn cars, like the Audi S5 or the Dodge Viper (with 4WD).

Now obviously, you want to buy parts to raise your car's PI rating to the class ceiling, whether it be 500, 700, or whatever.  I must admit it was a romantic notion to choose the parts you wanted.  Want to be safe and race a car with good handling (easy level car)?  Just buy better tires, suspension, and brakes.  Want a fast car and run the risk of a wreck (hard level car)?  Just tack on engine upgrades.  Of course, in the lower classes, you should err towards power more than handling regardless.  No use having racing tires if you can't drive over 70 mph/112.7 kph, now is there?  That was kind of fun, but I see that it's nearly impossible to balance PI ratings in the first place so I gotta give Turn10 some credit for trying.

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But anyway, racing online was fun for a while.  It was fun to play the role of pit chief while you were driving:  "You can overtake this guy, he has a bad braking line,"  "Look out, wreck ahead, stay to the left,"  etc.  Cause if you ever get into the position of gunning down another player, it's quite good.

I can't say I've done very well in my Forza 3 online career.  I've had some good wins, but a lot of times I'd just get my ass handed to me by the community which consists of two different types of people:

1. The pros.  Seeing as a lot of normal people like me would've fled from the game due to bad first experiences, it's no surprise they're the only ones left.  My first races were in the R1 online class (Le Mans cars) which were embarrassing to say the least.  I was so close to turning off the game at that moment.

 WOAH, look out...I'm a dumbass.

2. The damn noobs who think this is a destruction derby/Mario Kart more than anything else.  Since Forza has to incorporate realistic physics, all it takes is one or two errant moves and--bam--cars goes flying.  In almost every race, I would inexplicably get clipped by some dummy which sent me into the grass/sand, killing any momentum I had going before.  It would tack on at last 15 to 20 seconds on my lap time and I would have NO chance of winning barring a miracle or everyone else disconnecting.  Thankfully, car damage meant nothing in this mode so I was able to bounce back reasonably.  Usually I would end up zipping past the noobs who held me back which further compounded my frustration.  It's like if they can't win, they take out someone else.



Because of the tendency for wrecks to occur, it is no wonder that Forza is dubbed "as frustrating as real-life."  No really, I've had bad stories where wrecks would occur and it would come to personal exchanges that would make FPS gamers look tame.  Like one time, I was in the A-class lobby driving an 4WD Toyota AE86 with a ChuChu Rocket design (I am not making this up).  We were playing the full Maple Valley course and I had the pole position.

First turn, I realize the 4WD AE86's brakes were crap as I fought for the inside which meant I bumped off this guy in a Porsche, leading to a four-car wreck.  I got out unhinged but since this guy's car was so well-tuned (I'm not about to use skill as an alibi just yet), he catches up to me and magically rams me off the road while he drives off.  Then back in the lobby, he and everyone else have me voted off the server.  How's that for entertainment?

Another time the tables were turned.  I was driving my light blue Ferrari 288 GTO on Laguna Seca and these 4WD cars behind me were trying to make a move.  So I drive defensively by swerving in his way.  However, he zips by and I accidentally give him a shove into the wall.  I get away while he crashed and burned.  He proceeded to call me out although I didn't mean to do that.  Is there a difference between driving defensively and driving dirty?  Hey, rubbing is racing...?



Of course, there really is no way to determine if a wreck was deliberate or not, so people always assume the worst.  When it comes to wrecks, I eventually decided that the less words said, the better.  No use dealing with idiots.

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To make things a bit easier, there's a "Professional" lobby where you can play with realistic car damage (damage slows you down) and without driving aids (stability and traction control).  I actually did become quite proficient in driving without aids (this includes anti-lock brakes) although I did use braking lines quite often since I wasn't in the mood to relearn every car's braking patterns (lame, I know).  Now in this lobby, drivers were a lot more tentative.  No auto-brake noobs (just hold the gas, car automatically slows down).  Unfortunately, it's limited to A class which means you can only use stuff like Corvettes, Porsches, and other high-performance sports cars.

I had more fun in this mode.  I ran some good races with no wrecks.  However, there was one instance that just made me rage.  I was on Sunset Peninsula in a Spyker C8 passing up some yellow Porsche.  The guy in the Porsche rammed me into the wall while he drove off into the "sunset."  Of course, my car was battered so I just chugged along for the rest of the race and came in dead last.  As a result, I subtlety send him a friend invite as a means of letting him know how I feel about the situation (I wasn't about to start a debate, I was a bit pissed though).  He accepted it much to my chagrin and went on playing like normal.  Touche.  I removed him a few days later.

NEW: QUICK, EMBED THIS VIDEO FOR GOOD JUSTICE!


And get this--there's another race mode specifically for stock cars.  You only race the three ovals and there's not many people playing, but it gave me a chance to try out my Daytona 2 cars.  Since the stock cars are stuck with a PI from 710 to 740, they are nowhere near competitive in their respective class.  If I wanted to drive the D2 cars, this was my only option.

All I know is that I took my Scorpio Plasma MT out to the Sedona Raceway oval for one race.  There were two Jimmie Johnsons, a 420 stoner car, a Predator car, another black car with skulls and bones on it, an old Richard Petty Car, and a blank (no paint) car.  I was off to a good start but was wrecked by noobs at least five times and came in 6th out of 8th.  Like I couldn't have smashed up the car any more if I tried.  Sadly the 420 car won.  You can see the replay in my Forza 3 Storefront if you check it out.

The other tracks I lost because I needed to buy the right tuning setups.  Oh well, that's the end of that.  No more stock car races.  If they had more races on technical courses, I'd probably play it.

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There's one more aspect of Forza I have yet to talk about--car tuning.  Yes, playing all these arcade racers never merited car tuning, but here, it is a vital part of the race.  I'm going to say something that may shock a lot of people--I'm not that knowledgeable in car tuning.  Sure, I know about downforce, gear ratios, tire compound/pressure, but when it comes to suspension, the crap hits the fan.

All I know is it comes down to whether you want your car to be floaty or rigid...understeer or oversteer.  That I could do with the regular spring settings.  But then you get to anti-roll bars, camber, dampening, differential...oh geez.  I could learn it if I really wanted to, but I didn't have the patience.  Mostly because it's a lot of trial and error--modify the car a little, take it out for a drive, repeat a million times until it perfect.  It differs per track.  You can download tuning setups from other people in the Forza Storefront which was a good stop-gap if you're lazy.

You can always use this if you don't know how to tune a car...just enter the car's weight, drivetrain, etc. and have at it.  I haven't tried it but you tell me if it's good:  Forza Motorsport 3 Car Setup Tool

Come to think of it, because games like Daytona and OutRun skip the tuning process, it comes down to one thing...driving skill.  It's quite interesting in that regard.  Enough talk, let's race.  Yes, you can pick the easy or hard level car, yeah, that's good, fine by me.  They both have their pros and cons so it's fair.

Leave the tuning to these guys.  I'll do the driving.

Anyway, that's about it.  Like in Gran Turismo, I would hoard a bunch of cars but since then, I've grown tired of the game.  Once again, it pisses me off that if you're not using these pro tuning setups from the Storefront (which cost a lot of in-game money), you have no chance online...  Anyway, that's it, I had fun, now go drive to McDonald's or something and don't crash.

Jerry Was A Race Car Driver

This is just for show

This was something I read off Kotaku.  Ever heard of this iRacing game?  It's an online racing simulator that's arguably one of the most realistic.  You can drive stock cars, Formula 1, and other miscellaneous road cars.  You have to pay for online subscriptions though, just like World of Warcraft.  Except this is a thousand times better than WoW if you know what I mean.  I don't know if I would get on-board with this because my computer sucks, I don't have a steering wheel or money, and I don't think I'm in the mood for a hard-ass racing sim right now.

http://www.iracing.com/

Now, what about it?  Well, I've always wanted to be a real race car driver.  However, that's not easy, especially to be a Formula 1/Le Mans driver for the undesirable factors behind professional racing: tons of practice and car tuning, motion sickness, extreme G-forces, grueling body conditioning, possibility of a wreck/injury/death, the pressure of competition, and so forth.  I talked WAY back about the dangers of racing.  And on top of this, it takes a lot of skill and a bit of luck to even reach a level of racing where you can do it for a living.  Then again, Cole Trickle jumped off the motorcycle and became a stock car racer just like that, but that's the movies we're talking about.  Okay, so what?

Well, make way for Greger Huttu who is arguably #1 at iRacing.  Just some normal gaming joe schmoe from Finland.  Since he won, he got the chance to drive a real Formula 1 car around Road Atlanta (a track I've played enough of in Forza to hate it).  Click for the article/slideshow to see what happens:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/geek-rebooted-2010-11-26?imageNo=0

He does fifteen laps.  His best lap time is 3 seconds off the benchmark time, which is pretty damn good for someone who's never driven professionally before.  However, he throws up halfway through his run and has to change his helmet and down some medication.  Then after that, he does a few more laps until he is physically worn out and has to stop.

Dammit, and I thought I could pull a John Daly and cruise right into professional racing without having to undergo a professional workout regimen, but that's not the case.  Of course, this is Formula 1 we're talking about--maybe try something slower like go-karts instead?

Huttu is only 30 years old and it's already "too late" for him to condition his body for racing.  Now this isn't entirely true because if Brett Favre can still play in the NFL then anything goes, I guess.  Well, that just sucks because it's another instance of "you can't do this when you're old."  Football, basketball, tennis, Starcraft, you name it (the only exception to this is golf and shuffleboard).  Life isn't fair.  I'm only 22 and even if I wanted to drive SOMETHING, I better start getting prepared now, but with college and computer science calling, there's very little room to maneuver.  And when it comes to "racing," my options past getting an old muscle car and taking it out to the drag strip is nonexistent.

That leaves two options:

1. Skip Barber Racing School!  Yes, this looks like fun.  It's like college in that you can take lessons in  a wide variety of areas.  However, the price usually goes for $1000+ a day which means I could save up for a Daytona USA 2 cabinet instead.  The closest courses from where I live would be Sebring (Florida) and Road Atlanta (Georgia).

http://www.skipbarber.com/sessions/

 2. 24 Hours of Lemons.  You take a car that's $500 or less and race it around for a few hours or something.  This one's really stupid...only if I'm extremely desperate.

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/

Well, when you compare real life racing to...say, Daytona USA or OutRun or whatever, they're two different things.  You can be a good real-life race car driver but you may suck at Daytona USA.  That's what makes these games fun, because they're games, not simulations.  I'd like my Sega racers to have a lick of realism in them (and they do to a certain extent...gotta hit the braking lines, control the sensitive pedals and wheel, and so forth) but I like them how they are.  Real-life driving and Sega racer driving are two different worlds.

Now, would I rather be a paid race car driver or work for Sega and make a new Daytona game?  Which would I pick?  I would like both, but give me Daytona USA--make all the people happy, deliver justice, and SAVE VIDEO GAMES AS WE KNOW IT...  Sega first, then race-car driving later.  Besides, you can press the restart button in a video while in the race, you just crash and die.

Racing Is Scary

We talk about racing games and how fun they are to drive fast and stuff.  Lest we forget that real-life racing that games are based off of can be fun but also very terrifying.  As someone who wants to drive cars as a hobby or a career, sometimes it can make you think twice.

Toshihiro Nagoshi, the producer of Daytona USA, said that he gave stock cars a shot because they are more suitable for "rubbing and racing," unlike the Formula 1 cars from Virtua Racing which seem to be the most fragile of all cars.  Wrecks are there to light a fire under your ass to not screw up.  Isn't the most important part of any race not to crash?  The notion of avoiding damage and cutting off other drivers is one of the facets that makes driving games fun and exciting.  If you do accrue damage, you ward it off and keep going.  It's there to make you play better.

It kind of reminds me of the movie Days of Thunder, except nobody gets hurt. By the end of that movie, the cars were so gray from being bashed and rubbed repeatedly.  I'm guessing Nagoshi watched this and was intrigued by it.

A running gag is that NASCAR fans only watch for the wrecks.  While wrecks can be fascinating, that;'s not the reason we watch.  In my opinion, car damage can be fun, but wrecking not so much.  Some games specifically sell on the basis of wrecking the car, mostly Burnout and Split/Second which is, to a certain extent, why I detest those games.  It's insulting to my intelligence to think that I enjoy watching carnage and the death of imaginary drivers over and over again.

Here's the feature presentation.  Wrecks in real-life.  Red concrete, whatever.  Fascinating, but in a bad way.  The only good that comes from this is that it forces cars to be equipped with more safety features.  These wrecks are old so you may not see stuff as devastating as this today.  Still we've come a long way so at least be appreciative...

Dale Earnhardt, Sr.:  Died during the 2001 Daytona 500.  Trailing in the final lap and trying to fend off faster cars, Sterling Martin rear-ended Dale which caused him to fly into the outer wall.  In what seemed like a standard wreck at first, he was pronounced dead at the scene because of trauma to the head, apparently by refusing to wear a proper headrest.  In the video, announcer Darrell Waltrip's son Michael goes on to the win the race.  What was a happy moment turned sour very quickly.



Gordon Smiley:  This is certainly one of the freakiest crashes you'll see.  While practicing for the Indianapolis 500 on May 15, 1982, he loses control of his car on the third turn.  Trying to correct his oversteer, he accidentally flings the car head-first into the outer wall at top speed.  His car explodes in a giant ball of fire as several compressed pieces of debris are flung from the wreckage.  There is an infinitesimal chance for him to survive.




Roger Williamson: During the GP Holland in 1973, rolls over and catches fire.  Despite the fact the race continued on, fellow driver David Purley stopped to help put out the fire and flip his car over.  Purley claims Williamson was alive uninjured and crying out for help but was pinned down in the unsatiable fire.  Two minutes later with little to no help, Purley was taken away from the wreck as his friend died of asphyxiation (lack of oxygen).  Purley was awared the British Imperial George Medal, the second highest medal that can ever be awarded to a civilian for bravery, but all the medals in the world couldn't save his friend's life.



I could go on--there's plenty of fatal wrecks on YouTube but I don't want to watch them.  It's tragic.

Case in point, wrecks are a part of the racing and life is as fragile as it seems.  I'm not saying take out the wrecks from games because if you crash head first into a wall at 200 mph, you should be punished somehow, but do it tastefully.  Focus more on good driving controls than the lure of watching a five-second replay of yourself exploding into a hundred pieces.  That's my take--I hope you learned something.