Which racing video games deserve to be remade? The Traxion Podcast, episode nine

It’s a Monday and that means time for another episode of The Traxion podcast! Full disclosure, this one was recorded a while ago, F1 2021 took us by surprise.

We hope you enjoyed our bonus episode last Thursday which saw Tom and Justin react to the F1 2021 launch. So for this week’s regular podcast episode, number nine in this season, it’s Tom and John. They discuss the differences between a ‘remaster’ and a ‘remake’ and how the lines are more blurred than ever.

Then they go through which racing video games they’d each like to be remade or remastered and get confused in the process. But that’s not all, if you’ve listened to this episode please let us know in our brand new comments section below which games you’d like to see get the 4K treatment. We’d love to hear from you!

The Traxion Podcast is also available via all major podcast outlets. Simply search “Traxion Podcast” on your favourite podcast service and subscribe to get instant notifications when the latest episode releases.

Hosted by John Munro and Thomas Harrison-Lord.

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SPOLIER ALERT!

Do not scroll down further until you have finished listening to the podcast. Below are images of each game mentioned in this episode.

TOCA Race Driver 3, 2006

John’s vote – a remake

Old Gran Turismo games

Tom’s vote – make a new game instead

Need for Speed Most Wanted, 2005

John’s vote – a remake

TOCA 2 Touring Cars, 1998

John’s vote – a remaster

Driver, 1999

John’s vote – a remake

DRIVER San Francisco, 2011

Tom’s vote – a remaster

Burnout 3: Takedown, 2004

The team’s vote – a new sequel with elements of the old game

The Traxion Podcast episode nine, full transcript

Here’s the automated transcript which we all know you love to read:

Tom Harrison-Lord (00:07):

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Traxion podcast. My name is Tom, and today we’re going to be talking about our favorite racing games that we would like remastered or remaked. We’ll discuss that more in a minute, but for now joining us today is someone who is wearing a kilt right now is John Munro.

John Munro (00:24):

And you would never know. How are you doing Tom?

Tom Harrison-Lord (00:26):

Yeah, we’ll never know if that’s true or not. Yeah, I’m good. Thanks. How are you?

John Munro (00:31):

I would stand up but I don’t want to destroy my framing here. So I think we’ll keep seated for now.

Tom Harrison-Lord (00:36):

So yeah, we thought we would talk about games that we enjoyed from the past that we’d like either remastered or remaking for current hardware, whether that’s PlayStation, Xbox or PC or Switch even. There is a trend within the gaming industry of last five to 10 years of sort of bringing out these remasters or remakes. But it’s rare to see with exceptions racing games, remastered or remade as well. So first of all, I’d like to define, and I’d like your input on this, John, what a remaster is and what a remake is, because I think with so many out there across many different genres, there’s a remake, there’s a remaster, there’s a hasty upgrade. There’s a smart delivery version on the new consoles. What differentiates the two main things remastered and remake for you?

John Munro (01:27):

I mean, that’s the thing, there’s not really a definitive correct answer to this question, cause there’s different things, but a remaster in general is when you take an old game and you improve the graphics, to bring up just to the current standards in terms of whatever console your own or whatever generation your on. And basically just give it a little boost, but it remains in essence the, exactly the same game. Whereas a remake is a bit more than that. It’s taking the essence of a game and remaking it with a few more changes than just the visual elements to try and bring it back to modern standards. Obviously it’s, it’s a lot more complicated than that, Tom, but in general terms, that’s kind of how I think of the two. And I also think it’d be quite easy for this kind of category to think, well, if we’re going to be talking about games, we want remastered and remade. It would be so easy to just say all of our favorite old games that we want to play again. But it’s not as simple as that is It, there’s a lot more to it.

Tom Harrison-Lord (02:13):

There’s a lot more to it. So I think what you said there, I can’t disagree with that. I think that’s absolutely true. And I think I will just embellish that with a couple of examples. So recently at the end of 2020 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit remastered was released that came at a very strange time because it came out on PS4, Xbox One at the time when the PS5 and Xbox series were being released. And it was a remaster of a game from the sort of PS3, 360 era. But in essence, that was the same game. The gameplay was exactly the same, but it was running at a higher resolution with actually it’s just been recently patched with some higher frame rate as well than it did before. And they’ve added a couple of small things in terms of the online play is now crossplay against all platforms, whereas before it wasn’t, but in essence, that’s the same game with the same cars.

Tom Harrison-Lord (03:04):

It’s just all the DLC and a very mild lick of paint. So that’s one of the lazier of remasters that say, but a full remake? Well, I can’t think of a racing game, but for example, there was Demon Souls on the PS5 for launch, completely takes the completely new game from the ground up, takes the essence of the original. And there was the Tony Hawk remakes of Tony Hawk 1 & 2 Pro Skater from back in the day, again, you have sort of similar mechanics, similar levels, but it’s all being coded from the ground up for new, right. So that’s what we’re talking about today.

John Munro (03:41):

Exactly. I mean, another good example that people will think of, Last of Us is obviously an infamous example of a remaster because this game got brought to life by its remastering and people really know the remastered version better than the original. But there has been a Last of Us 2. And there is of course a difference between a sequel and remake because obviously if we were to have a Last of Us remake, you’d probably have the same story in essence, but just with a new version of it and new animation and everything rather than just upgraded graphics. So yeah, that kind of sums up really.

Tom Harrison-Lord (04:07):

And, of course we’re racing games for the most part. There’s often not a big in-depth story. And sometimes that muddies the water even more as to is this a remake or reboot and go back to what I said there about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit remastered I believe there were a couple of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuits even, a decade before that. And they were unrelated, they just sort of reusing them again. So that is a really confusing thing. And that’s why consumers can be a bit confused and fans and players, it’s all a bit difficult to define, but anyway, we’ll like to go through now a few games of, that we’ve enjoyed in the past and we’ll explain why we liked those games and why we think it’s time for a remaster or remake and what sort of update we would like, if that’s fair. So I know we’ve both got quite a few games that we agree on, but let’s start with one that you’ve been playing recently, John explain what your first pick might be.

John Munro (05:06):

Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve been playing some of you that have been watching the Traxion channel might know I’ve been playing some Toca Race Driver 3 again, and I’m just starting up another play through of the world tour mode, which is going great so far. And it’s been huge fun. So really looking forward to bringing you guys that content. But yeah, that, that game really caught my attention because when I was playing it, it felt like it’s got such potential to be a classic game that people can still enjoy to this day. But the reason I think this would be a really good game to have a remake of is that it was let down in key areas. I think that the potential of this game in terms of the content, they had, the era, the style of game with the story mode and everything was so good.

John Munro (05:43):

And I think that lots of people would be dying for a game like that, especially now when a lot of the cars that were current at the time have become classics, have become cars that people would love to go and revisit, but they don’t do. I mean, we should also make that point clear because we’re talking about racing games here. It’s a bit different when you bring out a new racing game, you obviously bring out new content and cars and tracks move, especially cars, change throughout the years, right? The change a lot and other games, it’s not as if people change in the same way, maybe styles and fashion changes, but we’re still human beings. At the end of the day with racing games, I game that’s 10 years old is going to have lots of stuff that is no longer relevant for what would be a modern game.

John Munro (06:19):

So I think that that kind of also, it makes it easier to make sequels rather than remakes and remasters right, because people want to stay current for brand reasons. And for, kind of just for keeping up with things, basically the reason as I said Toca Race Driver 3 is so good is because it’s got every kind of discipline of motorsport and it’s got, it’s at the point where if you were to apply modern day physics and technology to the content that Toca Race Driver 3 had and the story mode, I think it would be amazing. The places it falls down is the physics, the physics specifically are, so I guess there’s just missed the mark so much, even for an arcade game. It’s not great for arcade or for SIM fans. Really. It’s kind of a weird mesh of both.

Tom Harrison-Lord (07:00):

Yeah. So y’all saying that it’s gotta be a full remake, not just a remaster cause actually it’s not too old of a game, but it’s the driving element that while it was okay for the time, it’s let down, especially with modern wheels and stuff like this. Right?

John Munro (07:13):

Exactly. Because they do have kind of certain advanced settings in terms of force feedback and stuff and it doesn’t really do anything. And I think that the thing that Toca Race Driver 3 misses is not just the graphics, the graphics are of its time. It’s not the best, it’s not the end of the world. The thing it misses are the physics. And also, as we’ve spoken about before, I’ve spoken about in the series that the circuits that the design is missing, the detail is missing. You don’t feel the undulation in the same way. Some of the models are very outdated. Now imagine applying modern technology of track building to a game like Toca Race Driver 3, obviously up in the graphics as you go. But I mean, main thing is the physics and the modeling. I just think you take that base, remake that game with all of those cars that are now classics, and it would be in a phenomenal, phenomenal game,

Tom Harrison-Lord (07:51):

Right. So it’d be like Toca Retro Driver 3 or something, oh no that’s a sequel isn’t it, we’re not saying a sequel, we’re saying a remaster. But yes, one of the things from watching your video series, which for the uninitiated, you can find it on the Traxion.gg Website or the at Traxion YouTube channel John’s playing through the career mode of Toca Race Driver 3, which is a really wonderful, weird and varied game. There’s track racing, there’s monster truck driving, there’s rally driving. And then there’s also this story with cutscenes. And so is it the story that encapsulating you or captivating you even I’ll speak English or is it the variety of cars or those really good elements of the game?

John Munro (08:31):

It’s a combination of the two. And I should just make it clear for anyone who might be a bit confused. It’s not technically the career mode. There is a career mode in the game, but it’s the World Tour mode we’re playing through, but that kind of feels like that feels like the career mode because the career mode that’s called the career mode is bit literally just playing through different championships and unlocking the next one’s a little bit like some modern games do. But the reason I like the world tour mode is it’s got character. It’s got soul, it’s got someone that you, Rick is your engineer, and you go along with them and a lot of games in the modern times. And we’ve talked about this a lot, but games don’t quite encapsulate that in the same way recently, there are, there are some good games with cut scenes and story modes. And when they do them, I think the quality is so high nowadays, but there’s not enough racing games out there that really push on this factor. And that’s what I feel like is missing from these. And I think, a new version of this game and you remake even if you kept the same story, I mean, people love watching the cut scenes, even if some of them have aged horribly. And I mean, absolutely horribly. It’s still fun to play.

Tom Harrison-Lord (09:25):

Yeah. Good old, Rick is it?

New Speaker (09:28):

Yeah Rick, angry Scotsman?

New Speaker (09:31):

Yeah. Well there you go, you see. That’s the only reason you like it. I knew it. Yeah. Okay. So we’ve got Toca Race Driver 3 , and as I say, you can go watch that series and see why it’s such a great game and why it’s calling out for a full on remake. One thing that I always go back to and I’m guilty of going back to this series too often, I think it’s ingrained within me to, to really like, especially the older ones there’s Gran Turismo, of course, Polyphony Digital’s masterpiece, in my opinion, now I have strong memories in nostalgia for the first six games, but especially the first four or five. And so it’s very easy to say, well, they could get a remaster. They still look pretty good now they still play really well. But then part of me thinks, wouldn’t I rather just a sequel to that game. I mean, I’ve don’t know, where do you stand on the whole Gran Turismo scenario there’s never been a remake or a remaster. And in fact, even the old PlayStation games have never been on the PlayStation store, maybe that’s licensing, but any Gran Turismo opinions. Yeah.

John Munro (10:37):

I mean, if we’re talking in general here then absolutely. In terms of this specifically, it’s a tricky one because obviously in a game like Gran Turismo, the essence of the game doesn’t tend to change too often. I’d say GT sport was maybe the thorn on that one. I think I changed that a little bit because it took away the offline elements and focus hugely on the online elements. It almost feels like you’ve got two different series. You’ve got Gran Turismo mode, the games where you focused on the story and the development of your own garage and moving through and building up your car collection. And then you’ve got the kind of online racing thing, which is totally different in my opinion. And I think that with a game like Gran Turismo. Yeah, absolutely. I think the, like if you look at Gran Turismo 5, you could argue that it is effectively a remake of Gran Turismo 4 with newer content. And I think you can do that going back quite a long way.

Tom Harrison-Lord (11:20):

I would argue that point, but you carry on.

John Munro (11:24):

Okay. Well, no, I mean, in general.

Tom Harrison-Lord (11:25):

I’m sorry. It is very much that. And then there was sort of, some fripperies on online was a big part. That was all new for it. Right. But the core game play the single player. I agree with what you’re saying there yeah.

John Munro (11:37):

The thing is as well. Like the reason I wouldn’t say as well, the Gran Turismo’s necessarily need a remake is because unlike Toca Retro Driver 3 where you had a very big flaw in a certain part of the game that doesn’t stack up well today, these old Gran Turismo games do stack up. Well today I think that you can go and play Gran Turismo 4, which was actually a game. I think it came out before Toca Retro Driver 3. This was like early to mid two thousands just before the PS3 era, Gran Turismo 4 was back in Tesla, 2003, 2004. And it actually still drives to the state brilliantly. So I mean, it might benefit from a remaster graphics wise and visually, but how would they pick which one to do a remaster off? Cause there’s so many good games.

Tom Harrison-Lord (12:17):

So have you played recently the 4th, does it still stand up?

John Munro (12:19):

I absolutely. So I actually, for my own Christmas present to myself a few years ago, I went and bought one of those Barbie pink PlayStation 2’s. The only one I could find in the whole of Glasgow and I bought it just so I could play Gran Turismo 4, because I had such good memories of that game and I’ve still not completed it, but yeah, I got a new memory card, not pink though. And I managed to, I still haven’t completed it basically. And it stacks up so well, I get all the enjoyment they used to as a kid out of it. That’s brilliant.

Tom Harrison-Lord (12:47):

Yeah. I think, Oh yeah. Gran Turismo 4. What a game I’m still remember the first time playing the Nordschleife, Nürburgring around there. And I remember GT for prologue with the DVD of Vicki Butler Henderson driving around Thruxton, great. But it’s very easy to say, Oh, well just give me Gran Turismo 4. Cause that was my favorite from my childhood or from years ago, remastered. That’s all I need, but actually I’d rather, and as we talk here, the game has been delayed until 2022, Gran Turismo 7, because the new Gran Turismo games still have old cars and old tracks. They’re just updated to the modern look. Plus they’ve got the online, plus they can do this and that. So while I love those games, that’s a game I would like to bring up and say, no, I wouldn’t like a remaster. How about that?

John Munro (13:37):

I absolutely agree. I think I wouldn’t mind. I mean, if they turn it around and on the side of everything they’re doing anyway and say they didn’t delay any new games and they just said, just so you know, we’re doing a remaster of an old Gran Turismo, which is exactly the same, but with nicer graphics, I wouldn’t complain. But the thing is with a game like that, the nostalgia is so much of, of what makes it so good that why would, if you want to play a new Gran Turismo, you don’t want a remake. You want the new Gran Turismo, as you say, it’s got new features, it’s got new everything. Why would you do a remake of a series that is literally a sequel and numbers until GT sport? I think that the remaster,would obviously bring up the graphics, but at the end of the day, I think what makes it so magic is remembering the graphics from when you were younger as well. It looks exactly as you remember it. So why would you want that either?

Tom Harrison-Lord (14:19):

Would you remaster artwork by Leonardo DaVinci? I’m not sure you would.

John Munro (14:24):

Well, you probably copy and paste it, copy, paste it and print it and make a profit, but that’s about it.

Tom Harrison-Lord (14:30):

Yeah. That analogy didn’t quite work out there. But so we’ve got Toca Race Driver 3, which I think we’re both agreeing that was a great game, but the technical aspects let it down and therefore it’s right for a remaster. And we’ve got the Gran Turismo series where the technical aspects still hold up and therefore that’s just make a new one. So let’s talk about a big series. I think we’ve both played a lot of games. There’s so many of them it’s difficult to keep track, but you mentioned before we started recording some, another Need for Speed game, not Hot Pursuit remastered either something different.

John Munro (15:03):

No, absolutely.

Tom Harrison-Lord (15:04):

Let’s see if I can remember it.

John Munro (15:06):

Yeah. The one I went with for Need for Speed is Most Wanted, and it’s interesting because a lot of people recently have actually been playing modded versions of Most Wanted. And it’s kind of seen a really random resurgence in the last few months. Yeah. Like very very meme based lots of funny mods. And I’ve seen a few videos of people doing that and basically playing through the same story, but with all these ridiculous meme cars and it does look fun. The thing about Most Wanted that I loved is it had a little bit of everything. I think the physics felt fun for racing. It had the old pink slips thing where you basically work your way through the, I guess the career mode of the game by beating the objective set for you and then challenging the, I guess the boss.

John Munro (15:45):

And then if you beat the boss, you can win their car. And then you can use that car to try and beat the next boss and you move through it like that. But the, the elements of it where you had the racing, which was fun, you had the high speed events, which were fun, you also had the police chases, which were brilliant. And I think it just, it was one of the best combinations of everything in a Need for Speed game. It was also a very aesthetic game. Like it looks a certain way. It would be very strange to see it like a modern version of it. And I think part of the magic is the weird coloring that the game had and It just, there was something a bit strange about it.

Tom Harrison-Lord (16:15):

Was it? Am I correct in thinking it was the one with the BMW M 3GTR on the front?

John Munro (16:19):

Absolutely. Yeah. It was kind of greeny Brown.

Tom Harrison-Lord (16:25):

Yeah. The whole color of the game was like, sort of, I dunno, slightly murky. It was weird. Yeah.

Tom Harrison-Lord (16:33):

Yeah. Let’s just put a Brown filter on everything. But still there were some Need for Speed games around that era as well. So that came after the underground games. Did it?

John Munro (16:46):

It came after Underground 2. I can’t remember if there were any in between, obviously it’s going back, but I mean, I feel a old, but there’s so many of those games, I totally lost track after a while. Yeah.

Tom Harrison-Lord (16:54):

Yeah. So I think came after then it was quite controversial because Underground had like the neon and the nighttime and this was maybe the brownness was trying to differentiate it from those. And I think we should stop because John has frozen or is it me? Oh, no, am I on my own.

John Munro (17:23):

Yeah. I don’t know what happened there. I could still hear you, but I guess you couldn’t hear me. Okay.

Tom Harrison-Lord (17:26):

I don’t know if we’re still recording or not. I think so. Yeah. I think so. So we’ll just then start at the beginning. There was quite a decent edit point there. So I’ll just say something, I think I was saying, Oh yeah, it was came after Underground with the neon and I suppose they’re trying to diff it. So that was quite a controversial game because it came after the underground games, which I loved and had that night time look and the neon and I suppose the brownness and the BMW were trying to differentiate a bit, but I do remember it being a really good game. And so I think I agree with you there full sort of remake would be a nice thing, especially with some online integration, right?

John Munro (17:58):

Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s another element that they could really use the modern technology to enhance the game, rather than, rather than just kind of, I guess, sugarcoat it and make it look fancier, but then take away some of the style. I think you could really add some extra features with that one. And I’d love to see it, I mean, you could say that about a lot of the old Need for Speed games. I haven’t played enough of the newer ones to really know what direction they’ve been going, but I have played at least one, which was the recent kind of story mode based game that was just called Need for Speed.

Tom Harrison-Lord (18:24):

Just called Need for Speed. Yeah. Just to confuse everybody again.

John Munro (18:28):

And that was a good game as well. I actually really enjoyed that and it had a different story element to it where it was more like you got your different disciplines and you could go down these different routes and you meet real people. It’s like Ken Block and you had Magnus Walker and that’s a great modern game. But I do feel likeI really enjoyed that pink slip element and the police chases and all the different dynamic things in Most Wanted.

Tom Harrison-Lord (18:48):

They were better games. I mean, I’m sure they’re of the era, but I think Need for Speed was better back then, even though some of the recent ones have been enjoyable.

John Munro (18:56):

Yeah. That’s another, that’s another debate all together.

Tom Harrison-Lord (18:58):

Well, maybe I’ll have a different podcasts, but I’m putting it out there. There are some good new, recent ones, but they’re Underground, Underground 2, Most Wanted, they, they were arguably more fun, but technically.

John Munro (19:10):

I agree with you.

Tom Harrison-Lord (19:10):

But anyway. Well, if you don’t agree with this though, let us know in the comments or something like this.

John Munro (19:19):

Or don’t if your gonna be really angry about it. Just pretend that you do agree with us.

Tom Harrison-Lord (19:23):

Yeah. Preferably not angry ones feel free to disagree, but not angry. All right. So we’ve already mentioned, so that’s three games we’ve covered, but that’s talk about yet another Toca game, if you will, because we’ve got the race driver three, but before then, before the race driver for the story elements, it was sort of a more hardcore single series focus game. Yeah.

John Munro (19:48):

Yeah. And I had to bring this one up on behalf of one of the video editors in the team, because they said that this had to be in this podcast. I talked to her in cars too, talking to her in cars too, is what we’re talking about here. I gave him all of his era, of course. And I think that it was, it was right at the kind of, I guess the peak PlayStation one era when these games were really beginning to fire off a quick rate, I just kinda missed the, I guess, I guess I missed the boat with the first talker to her and cars game, but talk to her in cars too, was probably the first recent game, my own Dawn PC. And I honestly think that that’s the kind of game that you could remaster and it would be great fun to play today. I think the graphics are probably the weakest part about it, but the actual gameplay itself was really good fun.

Tom Harrison-Lord (20:26):

Now that you said remaster, but do you mean remake?

John Munro (20:30):

Well, I I’m dead to being remastered because the, the graphics themselves are, are probably the weakest point. I mean, to be honest, if they had the, if they had the way of remaking it with modern physics and stuff, that would be incredible. That would be absolutely incredible.

Tom Harrison-Lord (20:43):

Oh no, that’s fine. Yeah. So every make remaster. Oh man. We’ve got confused everyone. Palin’s here remaster too. Okay. I understand.

John Munro (20:53):

I mean, I would remake it too. I mean, what do you think? Would you remake it

Tom Harrison-Lord (20:56):

Both? Yeah. I, I, I would slightly disagree and I would maybe bat for the whole full remake. And then at that point, wouldn’t you just make a new bridge story and car game with the also had some of the nineties cows, but I understand that there was this essence about Toka too, for me on the PlayStation, I played it. And you had a, a British TV host, Tiffany Dell was over voicing over some elements of it. You could put in some crazy cheat codes, you could unlock a, Oh, I’ve got it. I’ve worked out. I know. I like it so much. Cause Loch ness as a circuit was in it. Absolutely. Yeah. It comes back.

John Munro (21:36):

I, I just love the downtown USA one where you could drive down the stairs as a shortcut. That was, that was never, that’d be cool.

Tom Harrison-Lord (21:42):

Yeah. So yeah, so it was a serious game kind of SIM of its time. Right. But then you could do this fun, stupid stuff afterwards.

John Munro (21:50):

Exactly. Well, I would say a that as well. So sorry. Why would also say about that is it’s probably in terms of I’m using a keyboard and I don’t use a keyboard for racing games anymore because everyone’s got controllers and some people still use keyboards. I’m sure. But it’s actually handled very well on a keyboard. Like you could get, you could honestly say it, you could play it today and you could get the hang of it and actually still enjoy it, I think. But then as you say that the, the cheat codes that you could bring in at the end and even had Tiffany down on the rating, the cheat codes, like you could hear, obviously it was all part of the game and you could do stupid things, like make the cars very bouncy or very small or already stupid tracks. So yeah, that, that’s a great game. And I mean, to be honest, whether it’s a remaster, a remake, I don’t care. Just give me more of it or just give me a new bridge during car game because it’s going to be amazing. Yeah,

Tom Harrison-Lord (22:30):

Yeah. Right. I think also I loved that game and I fully agree with you, but I wonder about the global appeal of that game. Cause it was a British Tory card game and we are British people. So if you’ve not heard of that game go on YouTube, stick it in. It might not look too great, but you’ve got to remember it’s from it’s from the nineties. So, you know, don’t be, don’t be too harsh on it. I think this has reminded me of another game of a similar era from the same time, which has then spawned multiple sequels and that is the driver series. So driver was sort of this you know, this rogue guy driving around the thing, the first one is in America in America and you’re trying to stop people and find people and do all these missions.

Tom Harrison-Lord (23:16):

And it was really, it was really fun. There was essences of grand theft auto, but at the time grand theft auto was sort of 2d and from above was driver was a full 3d driving game with a, yeah. So it was an open world or a semi-open world, at least. And then there was a sequel which I think was in Cuba and it really pushed the technology to the max to the point where there was awful popping, you know, you’re driving along and these lampposts would appear and you just drive straight into it because it was only half a second before you’ve arrived. So give me the essence of that game with a full rebate. And that’d be, I’d be very happy with that. I don’t know if you’ve ever played either of those games.

John Munro (23:56):

I’ve never, and it would also be very tough to explain that one to the insurance company. Yeah,

Tom Harrison-Lord (24:00):

Yeah, yeah. The first one had this like tutorial in a car park and that was harder than the missions itself, but it was mandatory. So lots of people played it and couldn’t get past it. So again, remix central, because you can make that optional or make it a much easier to pass the challenges. You know, you have to do all these donuts around this Cal pocket. It was like, Oh my God, this is impossible. So, so that would, I would vote for a remake, but then fast forward, many, many years past the terrible drive three air or whatever was supposed to call it, there was drivers San Francisco on pier three PC and three 60. So two generations ago now I guess we’ll say, and that could maybe stand up to just a remaster. It was it was a fun single player game.

Tom Harrison-Lord (24:47):

You’re in San Francisco, you driving cars around. So I was showing, you know, what San Francisco is like with the big sort of drops down the roads, right? So you’re jumping around a bit, that’s fun, but it had a really good online system where you could play like fun mini games, like tag or take whatever you might want to call it. And so they could like Need for Speed, hot pursuit. We said at the start, maybe give that slight Polish and meet the online work. And I think, I don’t know if you’ve ever played you’ve played it three online, right. With some of the fun games and stuff like this.

John Munro (25:14):

Yeah. A little bit back in the back when I was doing it before, like in PlayStation three. Yeah.

Tom Harrison-Lord (25:19):

So imagine that, but in, or an element of that in San Francisco with like Supercars and that’s how, what it was like on the internet. And I still think there’s scope for that today. So give me a remake of driver or drive to at a remaster of drivers, San Francisco, and let’s ignore the games in between. So that, that would be that would be my vote. And I suppose while driver was in its bad period in the middle another game that I remember that that was good in that time was the burnout games. So which burnout games have you played and would you like to see any of those sort of remastered or remade? I think there was a, there was

John Munro (25:58):

Master of burnout paradise, I think, which I’m sure we’ll come on to shortly, but I was, for me, the biggest kind of burnout I went through was burnout three take down, which is the one where you had that crash. And there was about a hundred different scenarios and you would drive your car or bus or wherever you were choosing to be in into a scenario. So whether that be traffic lights or a ramp, and then you would just cause all this carnage and explosions and you get medals based on how much you destroy and how much damage you caused him. And it was, yeah, it was, there was a few controversial elements with that game to say the least. But it was, it was a really, really good fun game. And would I like to see it remastered remade? I think it’s the kind of game that probably could be because the cars in that game are not necessarily as tame relevant.

John Munro (26:43):

It’s not as if you’re driving, you don’t drive that game because of the classic cars from the early two thousands. They’re in the game right there just right. Yeah, exactly. They’re based on real cars, but they’re the essence of the game is not about the specific new, new, I guess, modern modernness of the cars, right? It’s about the cars themselves being fun to drive. It’s about unlocking more stuff. And it’s about all the different, amazing tracks that you could unlock. And of course the crashing scenarios and that the way the world went, the world tour mode thing, when you kind of went around the globe, that was really cool. I thought, I think that was underrated in general that particular career mode. And yeah, I’d love to see that game. I’d love to see that game redone,

Tom Harrison-Lord (27:20):

I think burn out three, take down them and what followed burnout for I’ve really enjoyed like you did. And burnout three take down is the one that probably sticks in my mind the most, but I know that revenge has its fans and they were replaced by burnup paradise, which is my opinion. My is my favorite burnout game, but I know it’s not everyone’s. And so again, let us know in the YouTube comments, if you’re listening on there or if you’re listening to the audio, then three tweeters. But burnout paradise was really good. I really enjoyed it. The online was amazing. It was an open world, but as an ELA, there’s a part of me that yearns for the non-open world mission structure of burnout three with that crash mode that you’ve mentioned because that really didn’t integrate very well with paradise. If there was one downside, it was that you could do the Showtime whenever you wanted, but burn up three of the crash mode with set scenarios, which are really good fun. And so I, what I want those, we must sort of remade. I think what we’re saying is maybe it’s been so long since the new burnout game. Can we have a new one please? No NEA. We’ll probably get burnout. Pete paradise remake in like 20, 20 fall instead

John Munro (28:37):

Would say, well, I’d say like, we want another burnout game. So we’re saying we want a new burnout game, but we want the thing is what we would love about new Burnett game would be elements of would be the, I think the nostalgia as well and bits of different ones, like like a burnout greatest hits. I think that’d be good. I think there’s an important thing we need to differentiate here because we need, you know, we need to make it clear that this is not just talking about our favorite games of all time or the best games. I love this game so much. So let’s talk about it being redone because, you know, as I said, we’d like to grant before or something, it’s like don’t, don’t break wise in broken. But I think that it’s, it there’s a big difference. Cause there’s some games that would just benefit so much from something like this or some franchises that could, could really sale a game. I think by going down this route of, instead of doing something completely different, just, you know, bringing back that nostalgia in a modern, with a modern facade.

Tom Harrison-Lord (29:22):

So you could have like a burnout yeah. Riffing on that point, which is a very good point. And thanks for reason, you could have a, sort of a new game burnout series, the greatest hits, but like some form of crash mode in the same way as burnout three with hands graphics. So it looks a bit more crazy and some sort of online leaderboard, you know, from the new age. Brilliant. You know, so you add the new elements from the modern era. Yeah,

John Munro (29:52):

Exactly. Like if you could drive, I mean, if you could have the crash mode, but you could drive to it in an open world, fashion, you know, stuff like that. It’s, it’s about adding all together the best parts of it. And I think that would definitely be redone. So what we’re saying then we’re burned out is we want to burn out sequel that has elements of the old game, not necessarily a remastered remake of any specifically.

Tom Harrison-Lord (30:08):

Cool. So we’ve had a taco restaurant for three years. What was the event on that? That was a remake, right? Remake. It was Gran Turismo. It was leave it alone. That could be one Need for Speed bus. One dude was a remake or a Buster. I think it was a remake on the opinion. Yeah, it could be both. They had driver the early ones of remake. The later ones are remaster. We had a burnout, an amalgamation of all the good bits, please as a new game, any others,

John Munro (30:45):

I mean the one that Springs to mind for me, because it w it was the kind of game that if you brought out that game with that content today, with today’s physics, today’s graphics and everything, it would be a massive hit. And it’s a game that many of you won’t have heard of, but some of you might have, and I’ll be so glad if some of you have, but it’s total immersion racing. This is the game that came out in 2002. It was available on PC Xbox and PS two. So it was like the original Xbox. It was that era. I can’t quite remember the developer of the game. I’m sure I’ll show someone or someone will tweet me with [inaudible]

Tom Harrison-Lord (31:18):

On the cover or something.

John Munro (31:19):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was, it was based on endurance racing at the time. So you had a duty class, a GTS class and like an LMP class. Right. And there was some fictional circuits on that game that were amazing. The cars and the sounds were amazing. I mean, there was a GT one car in there called the Centura, which was used in the British GT championship in the late nineties and very early two thousands for maybe like one season. But it was, yeah, it was kind of split between, like, it kind of did the end of the nineties and the start of the two thousands. Yeah. But it kind of looked like it was kind of like someone who designed the Maserati MC 12, 10 years before. Right. It was absolutely awesome. It sounded amazing. And I, I knew about this car from this game, total immersion racing from when I was a kid and I never really, when you’re a kid, I wasn’t thinking so much about which cars were racing and what, and what, how discreet they were or how rare they were.

John Munro (32:07):

And then when I rediscovered this insurer a couple of years ago and I remembered it, I remembered the name and I’m thinking, I’ve sure I’ve driven that car before. And it’s in this game of total immersion racing along with so many other incredible, incredible machines, like the QUAIF a GT class car, what the noble, M 12 GTO. It was in the key spec. All of this was in total immersion racing at a small amount of the panels. LMP was in there as well. And the front engine LMP monster that took the fight to the OTRs that all of that was in there. There was some amazing tracks. And the only thing that lets this game down is the fact that is a small game from 2002. So everything’s so old about it. You can still have fun with it, but I would just love to have that game with that content, but remade in a modern setting. I think it would.

Tom Harrison-Lord (32:49):

That is an upscale one. That’s good. Wow. They’ve pulled that from the Dicky deepest, darkest depths of your memory there. I think because people that are toasting will know it. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Well yeah, I would, I would like to see that come back to life, I think because it’s not a big publisher behind it or developer might have to start a kickstart or something. Are you any good at game development?

John Munro (33:11):

Personally, no, I can’t say I’ve got too much experience. I’m afraid you have to answer that. No, if I do. Yeah.

Tom Harrison-Lord (33:18):

Well, if I’m a good game development, absolutely not. Oh, did you mean to think of another remaster in which case? I think we’ve probably, probably covered most of them there. I mean, I think it’s something you could go on forever and ever, but yeah, that’s a good amount of games out and wow. What is it called? Tulsa immersion racing, right. Total immersion racing. Wow. That is an obscure one, but a really good, good shout. And that, I agree that sort of GT class racing was, was a great Avery buck then, but I think it’s also important to say that while we’re daydreaming about these remasters and remix, and I think we’ve covered it in, by mentioning it a few for burnout on Gran Turismo, really it’s most important to have new games on a regular basis, whether that’s a new SQL or a new type of recent game from a new developer, if there’s not new stuff all the time, then there’s not ever going to be anything to remaster, unless you do like a final fantasy thing of remaster of a remake of a re massive or remake of something. I said, you can’t keep going forever. Right. So it’s deeply important. They’re actually new stuff. But, but this is just a flight of fancy, we’re saying make these as well as something new. Is that fair?

John Munro (34:30):

Absolutely. I think there’s, it’s all about balance with these things because how do you create, how do you, you know, we talk about nostalgia for us when we were kids and the games we want to see again, but what games do the kids know it is see as nostalgia. You know, if I’m, if I’m a young kid right now and I’m blown away by a new Gran Turismo game, I’m not going to be blown away by playing grantors more too. I’m going to be blown away by playing grantors. We’re nine, our grandkids Morton. And then in 15 years time, I’m going to want to remake 10. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I’m probably 20, 60 actually the way they’re going. But yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s all about balance, isn’t it? And I think that it’s so easy to get caught up in the nostalgia thing. I think that there are, there’s definitely scope for the occasional glorious remake or glorious remaster, but I don’t think we’ll see it too often. And to be honest, I understand that, although it would be amazing. Imagine if we could just list own our dream remasters and remix and have them done. How good would that be?

Tom Harrison-Lord (35:17):

Well, I, I absolutely agree. I think it’s very important that with these remasters that if they do happen, that’s great. But as long as it’s not a cash, grab that be the main thing. As long as there’s also a development of a new game in the future, new games actually really won’t get as excited. So nostalgia is one thing, but as long as there’s something new, that’s the main thing I think. So I think we’ve gone through quite lot there. Thanks for your time, John. And thanks for joining us, everybody who’s been listening or watching. If you’re listening on your favorite podcast app, be sure to subscribe or follow the podcast. If you’re watching on YouTube, then please leave a comment below with your favorite game that you’d like to see remastered in the racing game genre. We’d love to see those. And also if you’re on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, Traxion, GG is the username. You can treaters comment and we’d love to see what your ideas are for a right or wrong. And then finally visit Traxion GG on a daily basis for the latest risk and game news and views as always keep it pinned.