Oh yes they most certainly have changed if you look at games such as Out Run from your local arcade venue. Technology has changed so much over the past 20 years. Of course video game technology is more real and complex nowadays. I have a few video games that are almost like movies.
To be honest, a lot of newer games that I was looking forward to (not just racing games) haven't lived up to expectation. I think much of it is down to the fact that we do set our expectations too high and also the nostalgia drawing us back to the old days. I don't agree when people say games have gone downhill as I feel like they're overlooking many great titles. They won't even give new games a chance. I've had fond memories of a game before just to go back to it and find that it no longer feels so good next to newer games. There are still a lot of great older games of course. Game developers are always under pressure to create ever better looking games and this takes time and money away from other aspects of development. For example, artificial intelligence was lagging behind graphics for a long time as it can't be placed on the packaging to sell the game. If you don't consider graphics to be important then the rest might feel lacking by comparison. It seems to me that driving games pursue better graphics and physics over everything else, and in that sense they have changed a lot.
Outside of graphics, Grand Turismo hasn't changed all that much. The driving physics have pretty much remained the same. It makes sense since driving physics are pretty much the same now as they were before.
Yes, that's exactly the same way I feel, nowadays it's all about earning for the gaming industry, all they care about is money. I remember back in 2005 or something like that, when we could only unlock cars by playing more missions in NFS.
I feel like the general physics have stayed pretty much the same but the difference in handling of each car has gotten a lot more specific and realistic. I'm not too fond of realistic racing games though so admittedly I don't play these a lot but I have noticed improvement the most in that area.
Aside from the graphics, as a lot of posts mentioned already, I can't think of any other major change. Well, of course, the controls got smoother, the drifting mechanics and physics got better and more realistic and a lot of other things added. But I think "change" is not the correct term for that. "Evolved" seemed better. Racing games today are just based of the 90's games. They have the same idea and mechanics, but only "evolved".
They've changed, a lot. From graphics to physics and AI, everything has been constantly evolving, becoming better with every new release. With VR just around the corner, it can only get better.
They have changed. I think the problem these days is they all look alike so it's not really appealing to buy them anymore.
Oh yes they have changed significantly from 15 years ago. The graphics has changed so much that you can pretty much say that the current racing games are realistic and the game play have switched from being traditional to nitrous filled action.
They have changed a lot due to the graphics, enhancing engines for the ports and stuff, theres a lot of racing games so I couldn't say they have really changed but they have really improved over the these past years, some of them are really starting to look alike and that's a turnoff for me because they visually look the same. I'd like some really innovative game like NFS Carbon again but with a twist.
In my opinion, the racing games have not changed much. The basic concept and the structure of the racing games are almost same in every racing game. The only thing which has evolved is the graphics. Now, several games are available in 4K (4 times HD).
I haven't seen much difference apart from the fact that there's been this exponential increase in the whole graphics section. There's this awful thing in NFS called catch on which I really hate and didn't see that particularly in the older games. But, other than that I haven't seen much difference in the gameplay.
The fundamentals stay the same, but in an industry where you have to be unique to be on top, of course racing games have been changing. That's really all there is to it. The one thing I could say is a serious deterrent is the addition of in-game purchases, forcing you to pay money AFTER buying the already-expensive game to unlock things. The worst games are probably the mobile ones, which introduce a pay-to-win element; spend money, you win the game. Otherwise, I don't see the complaint.
I don't think that there's any doubt that racing games have changed, but that can also be said for all the other genres of games aswell. Racing games in gameplay, will always be the same and your racing to try either try and best your opponent or the clock, so the only thing that's really changed is the cosmetics of the games.
No, racing games have not changed much since Need for Speed: Carbon. After the race movie Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift came out, racing games have not gotten any better. In a sense, racing games have reached their max with the options available in the game. Racing needs a change of scenery. I think that is where racing games should be headed. Otherwise, people are going to stop buying racing games because it’s not bringing anything new. The only thing that can be changed in racing games now is the location.
I think that people are guilty of thinking of racing games and strictly speaking about games like Burnout or the need for speed franchise when there's more to the racing genre that games like that and the street racing scene. What about the F1 series of games and the MotoGP games that have had good reviews? They're still racing games but just more official ones.
Racing games have changed in graphics and performance. Now, I hate the fact that some games do not let you tune your car to the max. But, the graphics in racing games look much better than previous racing games. The performance in racing games have improved by allowing players to tune old cars to be as fast as new cars. I think racing games have improved except for one aspect. Performance, there are some games that do not allow players to tune their car to the max. In Need for Speed: ProStreet, players can tune their car so much that can make the car flip in the air. In Gran Turismo, players can tune their car to the max as well. But, in most street racing games players do not have the opportunity to tune their car to the max. It’s a problem because any car that is tuned right can be as fast as another car. I didn’t think that was possible until I played Gran Turismo 3.
When it comes to tuning your car in games though, I think it has to be done realistically and a lot of games that tried to offer that failed at first. That's now beginning to get better though as the game developers now realise that people who play racing games, usually actually know a lot about cars aswell.
I didn't play old racing games, it's nice to have an insight to those people's opinions and experiences who did. Thanks for sharing everyone.
They've changed into simulators more than just the purely fun racers of the past. With that said I don't see why you can't enjoy newer games like Mario Kart or Sonic All Star Racing if you don't care about the simulators.
