Since Justin has admitted to thinking about picking up GT on the PSP and there’s so much buzz about the–currently available–Forza 3 and the upcoming release of GT5 I think some ground rules are in order. In fact, we need to eliminate bad habits before new rules can take place. So to help everyone get out of Mario Kart and Burnout and into a simulation racer here are some mindsets of arcade racing and their sim racing counter parts:
1. Replace: “I really don’t need a brake at all, just a gas pedal and mad skills” with: “I need to brake before a turn so my car doesn’t end up in a ditch somewhere“.
Most arcade racing games teach you that a brake button is merely a piece of plastic on your controller you don’t use. Trust me, if you want to try a sim racer, and not hate the game at the first corner, learn to brake in a straight line. Most new racing games have some sort of suggested driving line you can activate. Do so, and make sure you follow what it says, if it’s turning red, you probably need to brake. You also have to apply the brake like you would in real life, which brings me to point 2:
2. Replace: “I’m activated my NOS and turbo booooooooost!” with: “I’m gradually going to apply throttle until I reach full acceleration”
Nothing makes you slower in real life than a burnout, slapping your fat fingers down on the accelerator will do the same thing that your daily driver does when you floor it on snow. Since the cars you race in these games are 5-10 times more powerful than your real life automobile it takes less slippery conditions to make the car feel like it’s on a sheet of ice. If you learn to gently press the controls you will enjoy the game much more.
3. Replace: “I’m going to floor it and grind this outside wall like Tony Hawk to get around this turn” with: “Must touch nothing, must go faster”
Colliding with anything is a major no-no in a sim racer. It generally slows you down to a halt ruins your car’s performance and in the case of some online sim racers causes you to get additionally punished by an automatically cut throttle. While you can slam into the back of someone else to assist your car in slowing down enough to take a sharp corner. You aren’t going to get very good at the game when you’re in first, when you don’t have any cars to slam into to slow down.
4. Replace: “I go faster when I drift around a corner!” with: “If I accidentally drift out a little everyone behind me will pass me on the inside”
Unless you’re palying a drift mode or goofing off drifting is a bad idea. It looses tons of speed and control and takes incredible skill to master in a simulation racer. Just like in real life (go figure). We’re taught by most arcade racing games that doing “cool” things like drifting not only don’t penalize us, but reward us in some cases. Which brings me to the final mindset to change, and the biggest one:
5. Replace: “Oh man, did you see me drift around that corner while activated my slo-mo turbo mode?” with: “Oh man did you see me take the corkscrew at Laguna Seca almost perfectly, I took 2 seconds off my lap record!”
The hardest part to enjoying a simulation racer is being able to submit to learning a new skill. Most arcade racers only reward split second timing, you only have to have a fast reaction time to succeed. In a sim racer you need that and you have to know when to accelerate, when to pass, when to slow down and try again another corner. It takes a while to get good at that. And you definitely need a strange definition of fun to enjoy the experience. To me carving the perfect corner is just as much fun to me as jumping accross the hoover dam while on fire through a t-rex as he explodes. And I accept that I’m weird. Are you?
