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The Pros and Cons of Arcade Vs. Sim: Racing Edition

Forza Horizon reaching new heights thanks to big tires

The Pros and Cons of Arcade Vs. Sim: Racing Edition

It’s a pretty widely accepted fact that video games provide an escape. People play to escape the real world and experience places that are at times alien and at other times not unlike real life. However, there seems to be a sharp difference of opinion over just how realistic this escape should be. Some fans hope for video games that get closer and closer to realism, while others prefer something a bit more on the arcade side and over-the-top. Last week, CheatCC took a look at the sports genre and the pros and cons of arcade vs. simulator. This week it’s time to examine the two sides of the racing genre.

Pros and Cons of Arcade Games

The king of Arcade Racers

First of all, arcade racing games are fun. There’s no way around that fact. Encompassing everything from Mario Kart to Project Gotham Racing to WipEout, it’s an extremely diversified sub-genre. Racing simulators, by comparison, are limited to a few variations of road, circuit, or rally racing. In an arcade racer, traveling to an alien planet and racing at 400 kilometers per hour upside-down while drinking an orange soda can be considered a routine experience. Pitting an opponent (and, in some cases, completely destroying them) is usually perfectly legal. It’s even encouraged. This is not true of sims. You can’t use turtle shells in Gran Turismo 5 or a sub-machine gun in Forza 4. Ramming another car will even get you an authentic penalty in F1 2011.

Mad Driving for Mad Games

Driving like a madman is also encouraged in arcade racers. Think about it: has any player ever sat down to discuss the finer points of cornering in Extreme G? Of course not. How about the intricacies of throttle/brake balance in F-Zero? Not likely. The most complicated decision ever made within an arcade racing game is what color the jet ski should be. This means that anyone who’s inclined to play any of the many arcade racing games can do so without earning a bachelor’s degree in quantum physics. That’s not to say that these games aren’t technical or don’t require any skill, of course; there are even leaderboards for Mario Kart games now, indicating there is some room for a professional approach to arcade racing games.

It’s not all good, though. Arcade racing games have almost limitless potential for mediocrity. An overly dry presentation for a simulator is almost expected and slightly more excusable as a result. Generally speaking, racing sims are made by teams with enough experience to know how to present a game. Arcade racers, on the other hand, might end up being pieced together by a slightly less experienced team, resulting in a stewing pot of bad gameplay gimmicks and poor design choices.

The Simulator Effect

Honda doesn’t just make indestructible commuter cars.

Simulators are a different breed entirely. Absolute realism is the ultimate goal, and everything else, including ease of use, takes a back seat. As a result, the fans of these games usually end up being rabid, irritable, demanding—I’m sorry, “passionate”—types you’d meet on an Internet message board. They’re usually concerned with the camber of corner three at Spa and whether it’s properly represented in their game of choice.

Regardless, if they’re able to immerse themselves in the experience, the racing simulator can be as viable an escape as an arcade racer. Why is that? Well, let’s assume you’re a gamer who’s also a car lover who loves red Italian cars—the Ferrari 458 Italia, to be specific. MSRP will be around $225,000. Adding in options could easily push the price up to $250,000. If players happen to purchase one of the 458s that isn’t prone to spontaneously combusting, they might just be able to enjoy a track day or two before they need to change the ridiculously expensive tires. This, of course, goes without mentioning that supercars are extremely temperamental to begin with, which is easily glossed over.

When playing a proper racing sim, though, players don’t have to worry about the inconveniences of supercar ownership. Pay a one-time fee in the case of console games and most PC games and you have access to some of the greatest vehicles ever imagined, with none of the headaches attached. That goes without even mentioning the mortal danger tied to motorsport either. What a good simulator does, then, is replicate all of the good bits associated with owning a supercar—or, for that matter, anyone’s favorite car—without any of the drama. It’ll also allow players to travel to some of the most storied race tracks in existence without buying a plane ticket.

So which is better?

Chances are that if the player doesn’t care much about realism and is much more into having fun than motorsport, they’ll side with the arcade racing game. It’s not a bad choice either. It’s one of the widest-ranging sub-genres around with some truly amazing titles. However, if they’re even remotely familiar with who Ayrton Senna is and where to find Imola, chances are they’ll fancy a simulator.

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central. This week’s is also purely a work of fiction*

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