[Shotimes] (OT) Racing Videogames................. was Re: NASCAR numbnuts

[Donald Mallinson]

Noah,

REad my typing....I said I don't play THAT MANY video games. 
  Not that I am totally lacking that area of my life.

I have a Porsche game, a few Indy games (the ones from a few 
years ago that included road courses) and a couple NASCAR 
games, one of my favorites is road racing big rig trucks, 
bobtail style.  I have a Virtual Pilot Pro steering yoke 
that works pretty good with these, but I don't have a 
gas/brake pedal setup.

I do play some games, just not many.  As much as some people 
went off the deep end saying WRC is so far above NASCAR, I 
say that there is NO substitute for actually getting out and 
driving the real thing.

Autocross, driving schools, convention events/drags, etc. 
No video game is even 5% the thrill of any of these in 
person.  For the cost of keeping up with the latest video 
games, anyone with a drivers license and a car can race 
several times a year.

Now don't go all off on me and say I am proposing you give 
up video games for the real thing.  You can have both!

I have played good flying simulators, moon landers, lots of 
racing games, even shot up a few thousand bad guys, but NO 
video game gives me ANYTHING that comes anywhere close to 
real life.  It is short term entertainment, but a substitute 
for anything real?  No way.

Ask the guys that train on tanks in a video game room.  even 
with hydraulics and good sound, it just isn't ANYTHING like 
the real thing, for sure nothing like being shot at!  Good 
training for learning the controls?  Sure.

Do some pro race car drivers use video games to get a start 
at learning a new track?  sure.  Will they admit it was 
anywhere close to the real thing?  Nope.

Reality,........... a concept you can invest in!  :)

Don Mallinson
Your turn to twist the argument in strange ways!  ;)
P.S. as a gamer geek, you probably flinched when I mentioned 
the Virtual Pilot yoke...old tech by now?  Probably museum tech?

Noah South III wrote:

> Everyone should play videogames Don.  Part of what makes videogames so great
> is you get to do all the things you couldn't in real life, even if that
> means defying the laws of reality.  Even if you've never picked up a
> videogame in your life, you should at least give it a try.  You might like
> it a lot, and racing in a videogame is a LOT cheaper than racing in real
> life.  You don't have to buy things like a car, or a pit crew, or spend all
> the time trying to find sponsors.
> 
> Yet, not many games can simulate reality and be entertaining, that kind of
> goes against what videogames are all about.  A prime example of a failure in
> gameplay but a success in simulation was the entire Madden series of
> football games.  As far as a videogame went, they SUCKED.  When you played
> it, it felt like that really old football game from the 70's that had Xs and
> Os, was black and white, and you controlled with a trackball (that game was
> hours of fun by the way, because the faster you spun the trackball the
> faster you ran, I had bruised palms from play that in the arcade).  However,
> as far as a "sports simulation" went, it was the best there has ever been.
> If you wanted to play the role of a coach, the Madden games were THE
> football games to play.  In a way, they were like the perfect Fantasy
> Football games.
> 
> Rallisport is like Madden in the simulation department, except it has one
> major advantage, the gameplay is like nothing ever seen before.  It drives
> like a simulation game, but it plays like an arcade game.
> 
> If you like Rally, then you owe it to yourself to at least check out some
> video clips of this game.  I remember how my jaw dropped when I saw the in
> game footage of Gran Turismo 3 for the PS2.  My jaw did the same thing when
> I first saw Rallisport.
> 
> -Noah South III
> 
> P.S.....And yes, if anyone was wondering, I'm also classified as a gamer
> geek.