We enlisted YOUR help to decide the racing games YOU think should return. In this podcast episode, we discuss the games that the Traxion community replied with upon asking the question.
From Diddy Kong Racing to Ridge Racer and everything in-between, we had a shedload of incredible answers that sent us straight down memory lane, and some that resulted in a quick Google search as we frantically tried to remember obscure titles from the past…
We discuss some of the answers that caught our eye, and then run down the top-seven games that Traxion followers voted for.
Listen to the episodes to find out where your suggestion landed, and feel free to let us know in the comments below if you’ve thought of some more ideas.
If you enjoyed listening, please Follow or Subscribe on your preferred podcast platform as it helps us to make more episodes in the future.
Hosted by Thomas Harrison-Lord and John Munro.
Listen and subscribe via Apple Podcasts
Listen and follow via Spotify
Listen and subscribe via Google Podcasts
Listen and subscribe via Pocket Casts
Listen and subscribe via Podcast Addict
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Below is the full transcript of this episode. It’s auto-generated, hence why it’s completely random…
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Hello and welcome to The Traxion.GG Podcast, how are you doing John?
John Munro:
Very good. Thanks, Tom. How about you? Yeah, really
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Good. We’ve got an interesting and different concept for this episode. So we’re going to talk about what racing game would you bring back and I mean, you, yeah, you, the listener, because we asked on social media, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram a few weeks ago, what the community would like to see from racing games, bring being brought back from the dead, even if I can get it out. And so we’re going to go through some of the best posts interest in where it is the most popular responses looking forward to it. John,
John Munro:
I am actually, yeah, there’s a lot of really good games coming up in a lot of franchises I’d forgotten about. So we’re very much looking forward to seeing what you guys think.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. So I think we’ll divide it into two main sections. Um, the first one is going to be sort of interesting games that we hadn’t heard of for awhile, or maybe have never heard of before. And then we’re going to look at the most popular ones. But before we do that, John, I noticed that you replied on social media to do what you’d like to tell the audience. What a couple of games you would like to bring back from the dead that are no longer around.
John Munro:
I did. I mean, I didn’t know, obviously that time the podcast was going to happen. So I’ve put myself in a difficult position here, but no, I’m happy with my picks. I stand by them. I said, Richard Burns rally, which although a lot of you guys listening to the podcast will know that I am in love with that game. And I also said, talk touring cars as well. So these are just two games from my childhood that I absolutely loved. And I think I see my childhood. I still play some of them today. And so I just feel like there’s a place in the market for a new version of those games to come back. And obviously with the, with talking to your, in cars, we do have, you know, a bit of British touring car games coming at some point soon, which is very exciting. But with the co with the Richard Burns rally, of course we’ve got alternative rally titles, but nothing’s quite hit the mark in the same way. So, um, it wouldn’t happen, but I always bring up, we’ve talked about it so much. The podcast, we don’t need to go,
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Oh, I can’t disagree with it. Either choice there though. So they’re both, uh, really interesting and games that I would also like to see Bree being brought back. And speaking of being brought back, which are very difficult to say, apparently is that, um, we’ve covered on a previous episode, sort of remasters of remix. What’s a remaster is what a remake is. What we’d like to see a risk is we’d like to see be remastered or remake. This is slightly different. This is more, uh, franchises or series that don’t really exist anymore. So what series would you like to see a new game and also it’s community led. It’s just not just our own sort of internal monologue spouted out onto the internet. So, uh, let’s get going with one of the first responses that caught my eye. This was on Twitter and this was from, uh, some brights. He said, did he come racing? So have you heard of I’ll play? Did he come racing, John?
John Munro:
Yeah, I’ve heard of Coleman racing, but I have never played it, unfortunately.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
That’s all right. I mean, Mario kart is the first sort of cart racing game you think of when it comes to Nintendo? I think I remember I never owned it, but I played it on a friend’s house and uh, obviously Mario kart was a sales success and carried on, right. Because there would be a come racing game. So I was rung by enjoyed it. I mean, could
John Munro:
You play Diddy Kong as a character on Myra card at that time? And could you play Mario as a character in Diddy Kong because that would kind of make it a bit interesting.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
I am not sure. It would make sense to be able to play Diddy Kong in the Morocco. Right? Certainly you can these days. Anyway, I think on the recent [inaudible] podcast, we mentioned, oh, well, would that be a new America? And unfortunately it wasn’t, and it doesn’t look to be one, but maybe Nintendo please could solve into another Diddy Kong game in between this current market in the next one. That’s wishful thinking. Anyway, it was a good one. And unlike Barakat at the time it was proper 3d and you had a story mode and you could fly planes. So good shout that some, but I think you’ve got another one John.
John Munro:
I do. Yeah. And this comes from Eunice, Ravi on Twitter. And I do actually know Eunice quite well. I’ve been teammates with them at a couple of summaries in teams before. So this is one for more of the SIM fans, but I know he used to love a game called flip for speed. Now, lift for speed. For those of you who don’t know is kind of like an original SIM is one of the first proper Sims that was out there with realistic physics and stuff. And it was so honestly, so far ahead of its time, I think in some ways it was kind of like the circuit racing equivalent to Richard Burns rally. But the difference is that with circuit racing games, people have gone and made, you know, newer games with your technology and, and move the world on a little bit. Whereas Richard Burns rally hasn’t really had someone do exactly the same thing.
John Munro:
So I think, you know, lift for speed kind of got lost a little bit with all the new technology coming in, but genuinely the physics in that game are absolutely fantastic. There’s so many cool fictional circuits. There was even, um, you know, there were so many things you could do with mods that made it almost like a sandbox game. You could have servers where you could have jobs and make money and you could be a police. You could be hired police driver, or you could be a recovery driver and recover people that have crashed their cars into the gravel trap. So there was so many different angles to this game and it’s a bit of a shame that it kind of, you know, isn’t isn’t as popular anymore. It hasn’t been remade because I think if you were to upgrade the graphics and stuff and the technology, it could be a, you know, phenomenal success. Does it still sound up today? I think the physics do I think the physics, I think the graphics don’t think of it a little bit, like beam in the it’s kind of got that soft feel to it. Uh, yeah, it would, it would need quite a lot of revamping, but I’m pretty sure there are still communities that do use lift for speed for some racing and stuff. So it’s still going.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. I think you can still play it. Right. Uh, and this was just to clarify on only on PC, right. And like you say, one of the O G Sims. Yes. Nice. Well, I could just jump in with the next one, if that’s okay. Um, I’ve got one again from Twitter that caught my eye right. Called total driving. But without the G, because it’s cool. This is from 19, I’d say it was on the first PlayStation. So this was kind of, um, a circuit racer, but you used like rally cars predominantly in gravel circuits, but there was nothing licensed. So there was something on the cover that looked like an escort Kasi. Right. Which I’m sure you’ll have a bit of escort cause of action. Right. Don’t we all. Yeah. But there was also like some asphalt trucks that had like a fixed formula, single seater as well. And I remember it being good fun bucket and we were playing a demo. Um, but when you go back and watch the footage, um, hasn’t, hasn’t aged well, but this was from a Matt w H on Twitter. So good shout. Thanks for the memories.
John Munro:
Absolutely. We’ve got to be a bit, you know, and nice as well about that are quite old in terms of the graphics, because things have moved on. So, so far when you look at, you know, PlayStation two and three games now compared to compared to the modern day. So yeah, I think it’s, it’s really easy to look at old games and say, oh, they look a bit naff, but the physics look a bit naff, but if you remember them being fun at the time, then you know, chances are, they were pretty good at the time. And
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
We’re also saying, Hey, like bring back. So like, it could be an all new version with the current graphics and physics. Don’t have to be like a remaster. So exactly.
John Munro:
We did have a few people speaking about need for speed. Now this is a bit of a tricky one, because need for speed. Isn’t really a dead franchise, you know, need for speed still going. There’s a new one coming out, for example. So this people saying, bring back need for speed. I think while a lot of people were referring to is bring back old games, AKA make remasters and stuff like that. And I don’t know if you would agree with this, Tom, but I’m not sure that’s really the best way for needs to be first bit to go. Because for me, you’ve got to try and attract a new audience with, you know, whether there’s young people with people that are interested in the kind of street scene and motor sport. And I think that bringing back these old games is not really going to hit the mark in the same way. I think there’s a time and a place for them. And I don’t, I wouldn’t want it to ruin the nostalgia, but it’s not really a dead franchise. Is it? Yes.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Leave speed is still going. It’s just, hasn’t been one for awhile. They pause this used to be next year while they finish work on the criteria and finishes work on battlefield. Um, and then of course, we’ve got this whole thing about Ian’s Codemasters. So who knows if some of those team members will be reinvigorated the series, right. Uh, interesting to see that people did want certain need for speeds. Uh, was there any one that stood out from the response? It was interesting to in CSO,
John Munro:
Somebody, um, looked at and for speed pro street, which I thought was interesting. Um, for me, I like, I think the nostalgia pro street is quite strong in that it was kind of strange game. It looked a bit different and therefore I’ve got quite good memories of it. But to be honest, I think when you look back at it, it doesn’t look like the best for speed game ever made in terms of the quality and the immersion. And it slips a bit, the colors, all look a bit funny and stuff, but it’s weird cause I have good memories of that game, even though I’m kind of aware that it wasn’t the best. So that was an interesting one. We obviously had the usual popular choices, underground, underground to most wanted, which is my own personal favorite. So yeah, there was just a good variety there and no, no mentioned a pop pursuit though, which was interesting.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Huh? That is interesting. And also the Daniel wouldn’t mention w were there two more than one mention of any particular need for speed or was it all just, everyone’s going to run different favorite, right?
John Munro:
Yeah. It seemed to be that everyone is more of a, you know, everyone’s got their own favorite, so there didn’t seem to be any gathering momentum behind one particular title. So that kind of shows you what we were talking about. You know, it’s, it’s difficult to just bring back an old game, just make, make some good new stuff.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. That’s probably why he hasn’t gone back because people like, oh, I must want did 2005 underground too.
John Munro:
Yeah. Whichever game you pick, it’s going to be one community that really won that game and then five other field communities about a different game complaining about it. So no, one’s going to be happy.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. Um, moving on from NIFA’s speed then, because that is a, uh, well, I dunno, difficult scenario subjects based on our responses there, everyone has a different one. There was a bunch of, uh, US-based racing games that a lot of people wants you back. So now it’s games are still happening. Folks, either NASCAR games or games like Iris in that have, uh, officially licensed NASCAR content. But someone did mention, uh, Sony yep. On Twitter, uh, image the quite a few games, which we’ll cover later on, but you mentioned India heat, which that is a obstacle game. So there isn’t an official IndyCar game or just dedicated to India at the minute. So that will be nice. This one came out in 1991 on the arcade, the amiga and the Nez. So I’m going to say John, you’ve not played that because I definitely have not that predates us, but um, maybe I’ll check out some points. Certainly it was like this top-down thing. It reminded me a little bit of some of the modern games we’re getting through at the minute. And there was a mention of world of Outlaws. Are you aware of this spot, John?
John Munro:
I have heard about it again, but it’s something I’ve not played. So I’m getting a lot of education here.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
That’s all right. So this is an official world of Outlaws is a mud spot in America and I’m not going to spend too much time talking about it because I probably will get it wrong and I can only apologize, but seeming whenever we do social media posts about, oh, what would you like to see about this world of Outlaws comes up? So there was an official sprint car games. This is a sprint car racing on dirt tracks, uh, you know, the unruly close racing. And there was a game on the PS three and X-Box 360 about it, which does look quite good. I’m afraid we’re both quite ignorant to it, but I’m sure some of our American colleagues, uh, will be very up to speed with that. And speaking of American colleagues, I just want to quickly mention that just in melanoma, our colleague, Ian mentioned the, uh, NASCAR race in 2003, it looked to see something like that. Yes. How have you played that?
John Munro:
I, I know all of it NASCAR 2003. Um, just through everyone else that I’ve been with, always talking about it, you know, and hoping that that came like that can come back. So, you know, we’ll hopefully the future is bright for NASCAR games, but yeah, that’s not scripted as in, three’s always the go-to one for, for people. So yeah, Justin. Yeah. Good show. And I do have another show they’ll taking it slightly away from that. And we had a, I think it was a Facebook comment from rah rah Ballantine who says big red racing. Yeah. Big red racing. Now I didn’t know anything about big red racing, but our colleague get traction. Darren was very excited to see this game, uh, on the list. And it’s, it’s a kind of old arcade game, but it’s just completely chaotic, you know, there’s split screen racing, you can race choppers cars.
John Munro:
It’s absolutely mental the kind of game that you just don’t see very often anymore. You know, everything’s so serious nowadays. And this game was just ridiculous. Unfortunately it didn’t, it hasn’t aged too. Well. I think there’s quite a few well, there’s, there’s a lot of stereotypes in their accents and stuff that made it just uncomfortable. You wouldn’t get away with it today. Yes. It’s a politically incorrect game and rightly so, you know, I went back and watched some footage of it and it does make you very much wins, but I mean, a lot of old games give you that feeling, you know, even talking to each driver three, which I’ve been playing a lot of recently, half of the stuff that Rick says just makes me cringe a little bit. So he’s pretty bad for that actually he is. Yeah. But he doesn’t really like nationality and country into it. Whereas this game is just a little bit, I don’t want to talk about it too much, but it wouldn’t, it would be different if there were to bring it back nowadays, but it’s clearly just a crazy fun game.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
They’ll bring it back without the, uh, mild racism. Okay. That’s good. So that was sort of the weird and wonderful so to speak. Um, now we’re going to go to the, to the big ones, uh, just before I do that, I will just rapid fire run through a list. I’m going to read of other games that were mentioned. If you did come in without, you know, we can’t put every game in this podcast, there was so many, but some that stuck out for me were ultimate, at least to which we mentioned on a previous podcast. Remember that one? John? Absolutely sounds great. There was project Guston racing, but each person had a different one. The first one, the second one, the third one, the fourth,
John Munro:
1, 3, 3 for me three for
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
You. Nice one. But community a there’s no consistent voice. They’re like new for speed. Um, same for wireless bot challenge. There was a comment for the first one that comment for the second one, a couple of people mentioned Sega. Uh, I would love say go rally in some form, but the world has moved on a bit from that set up to be like a small download title or something. Right. Because you’d only have a few tracks. Um, twisted metal is a good shout. That’s a Sony exclusive game where it was car combat. I don’t know if you’ve ever played any of those John.
John Munro:
No. I mean Sega rally, project golf and racing we’re were great for me. I’m kind of the Sega rally thing. I kind of agree with you. It’s perfect because of what it is. You wouldn’t really want to destroy that or kind of ruined a bit. So you’ve got to be careful. I wasn’t aware of the last one though.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Just the vessel was on light PlayStation. There’s a PS two one, and there was a pier three one, and the, the latter was a big online multiplayer car, shoots them up sort of thing. Um, and as we’ll cover later, mild pilot, there are plenty of other Sonja exclusive games that don’t exist that we’ll talk about. Unfortunately, uh, then there was a, I mentioned for Ridge racer, uh, for blur, which was kind of like Mario cart, but with licensed cars, I enjoyed that, but it didn’t sell well enough where wave race 64 and hydrophone Thunderbolt both Walter racing games like jet skis and uh, like a wipeout, but in the ocean. So, um, so I think what we’re saying here, there’s a gap in the market developers out there for, or Walter race boats of based racing games. Oh my God, I can’t speak today. Um, and so thanks very much for everybody for applying.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Uh, they’re some of our highlights. Now, if you’ve not heard your game yet, we still might mention it in the second section, which as I say is the most popular and we’ll do this in reverse order. So there’s quite a few games that got a lot of mentions. In fact, the most popular one got a huge amount of support, but we’ll start off with, um, two games, which were on a similar level and they would drive club and destruction Darby. So John, I believe you’ve been playing a bit of a drive club recently. Do you want to explain what the game is and why it was so popular? Yeah,
John Munro:
It was good to go back to drive club actually, cause I never really gave it a chance when it first came out. And obviously we’ve talked about this before drive club was fundamentally flawed because the whole selling point with it was the multiplayer aspect and the club aspect. And it didn’t really work when the game was first launched. Right. So yeah, the game was flawed from the beginning and therefore it was always difficult for them to get to get up on their feet. However, having played the game again recently, it actually stands up really well. Like honestly, as a fun arcade racer, it’s a little bit like the racing you would find in Forza horizon four, right? So it’s, it’s, you know, it’s on the streets, it’s a bit of contact. It’s a bit drifty, it’s not exactly simulation, but at the same time, it’s not ridiculous.
John Munro:
Arkady they’re like you do have to drive in the way that a racing driver would drive a car. It’s just, it gives you a little bit of assistance and even the front wheel drive slower cars at the start with game, they’re really good fun. The graphics are phenomenal, especially when you consider the age of the game. It was very, very early on in the PlayStation. I still stands up now with the full-time ward and stuff. Phenomenal. They even have bikes in the game, which sadly, I’ve not been able to try it because you’d have to purchase it still. But, um, honestly the game stands up really well. It sounds good as well. And it makes you, it rewards safe, clean driving as well. It gives you points away when you go off the track or hit other people. So I guess you could call it like a sophisticated man’s need for speed. Um, but it’s good. I like it. It’s good. Fun.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. Uh, well I’ve talked about it too much, so I work on it, but um, it’s when it was working and was the pastor all up and done the DLC, it was one of the finest racing games in a generation. And like you said there, um, you still have to brake and the front wheel drive cows feel like front wheel drive cars, the rear engine cars feel like we were engine cars and they all sound the look unique. And so there’s more detail than perhaps you would get from a normal sort of art kid. It’s right in the middle of there. Um, it’s designed, it plays best with a controller, but you can use it with, uh, with a wheel if you want it,
John Munro:
It doesn’t need it. You just use the controller. It feels good. And as you were saying, like the front wheel drive cars, even though they do drifts and stuff, you’ve, you’ve kind of got to drift them in a front wheel drive ways. So you want to hit the brakes, slide them in, pull the hand brake and then the front comes back around. Whereas the rear wheel drive, you give a boot fill, you can get it sideways. So genuinely it does. It does do well. But yeah, I was still somehow surprised to see so many people request drive club, because for me it just lacks a little bit of immersion. Maybe that’s just the offline part of it talking and maybe the online parts where all the funds up, but it just doesn’t feel like it grabs you in quite enough or at least it didn’t at the time. And, and I guess that’s why we haven’t seen a reboot of it. So yeah.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. I think the problem there was, there was so much distinct for you with the online not working at, um, th th those Metacritic scores never improved with the game, which is a big debate for another time. Um, obviously they still did the DLC in the VR version, but it’s sellable enough on that. And that’s why, uh, one of the reasons why I also think just the name, how to stigma then at that point. So it’s hard to come by, but I’m losing battle the whole time, but so I’d love it. I don’t think realistically it would, it would happen, um, destruction dabbing that the hunt that’s a childhood memory thing where it was smashing cows up for me. I kind of feel like, okay, it feels different, but breakfast has got that market sewn up. So not sure if you agree or disagree with that. I love destruction. Darby. I’m happily satisfied with breakfast.
John Munro:
Yeah, I think so. There’s a lot of games that have a similar flavor to them. They’re all, they all have their own unique quirks to them. You know, you’ve got this, the flat-out games and your burnout and stuff like that, but yeah, as you say, rec Fest for me, it scratches that itch enough. Um, so yeah, I, I I’d be interested to though if they were to bring something like that again, whether you know, how different it would be from the original or whether they would try and use influence from rec Fest to try and improve it.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
That’s why I just think it’s a tricky spot because someone is already occupying that market space in my opinion. So, uh, yeah, a nice idea, but I’m quite happy with, with breakfast and hoping that they do some SQL to that or a multicell seats, keep it going. Um, the next one then in terms of popularity, is the aforementioned Toca. Joan, would you like to explain the differences between different tokens and the most I mentioned of grid as well?
John Munro:
That’s where it gets a bit confusing because yeah, well, a lot of people interested in Toca, but it’s a mixture of different things within Torah talk is like the, the kind of overarching organizing series, but you have talker touring cars. We then had Toca race driver, which wasn’t just touring cars at single seaters at everything. And of course, if you’re invested in that, we do have a Toker reached over three play through series on the traction, YouTube channel cheeky plug there, uh, aside from soccer race driver, until you talk to your in cars, we also have Toca race driver grit, which then took over from and became just grit eventually. So I kind of took over from, from race driver and it was kind of the similar kind of thing to race driver, but I would say it aimed more at the slightly more casual market where there was more street racing and more chaos rather than focused on the kind of hardcore racing series that you would know and love today.
John Munro:
So, yeah, there’s, there’s a bit of a distinction there and I think a lot of people want some form of Toca back, but they don’t really know what part of took it back, if that makes sense. Well, my favorite would arguably be race driver, but I think Toca touring cars is the one that would really be good to come back. Grid was a bit disappointing. The original grid was really good and then it kind of went a bit downhill for me, but I kind of feel like grid. The original grid was the good thing about it was it was like race driver, but with this really cool new damage model, you know, that you could, you could hit the tire wall in the time, fly away. And at the time the damage model and grid was so incredible that it made it, this is a really exciting feature of a game and flashbacks and everything was, were so wicked, but nowadays you’ve got so much of that, that, that kind of the whole thing that made grids so good is kind of not there anymore. For me.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
I really enjoyed the first one first grid. I quite like all of them, but the first ones where it’s like someone did specifically mentioned grid, but only if it’s like the first one exclamation mark. And I would agree with that in some respects. But what you’re saying there is the world is sort of moved on and while it was sort of an innovative thing at the time, now all the games have got similar features. I did like how, when you started the game, I love the menu aesthetic. So like it says your name when you launched the game, which was kind of cool. And the online, yeah. The online was great. Although that did start with race driver three, which is great online. I remember it in lots of oval races in that. Um, yeah, for me also a restaurant or three, how the story element, which grid and territorial, cause didn’t really as well. So some sort of combination baby there, I don’t know.
John Munro:
Talk all-stars racing, championship, everything together. Yeah. Give us that.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Basically. We’d like Codemasters to do a racing game. That’s not a hardcore SIM, but it is still serious. And has rail racing in it and modern features.
John Munro:
Yeah. Lots of disciplines and a story mode rec version two, that’s more PC everything. Do it code masters right
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Now. Thanks please. No problem. I mean, interestingly formula 1 20 21 has the breaking point story mode. So the company is still doing stuff in the area. So it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. I think it just might. Yeah.
John Munro:
Yeah. All they need is just, even if it’s little cutsie, it doesn’t even need a full story, but it just needs a little bit of cut scene for every series so that you feel like you’re actually part of something, you know,
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Multidiscipline racing game would be absolutely fantastic. I think, um, absolutely fantastic. There’s a stereotype of a description for something. So moving on quickly from that, um, just wanna Riddick quickly, I’ll go back to Dr. Goldman blur. I would like to point out that, uh, P three away on Twitter. I mentioned to Dr. Cooper. He was a first and then quite a few others followed on. All right. So in, for Toca for popularity was split second, all split second velocity in some markets, I believe. Um, I don’t think you’ve played this one, John, but you have watched a video about it. Right?
John Munro:
I ha exactly. I was one of the people that everyone would say to you. Why haven’t you played split second? Why don’t you know about split second? And obviously rich made a video on the traction channel because he loved that game. And uh, yeah, I watched the video and honestly, I, I really would love to play that game. It just looks so much fun. It just looks like it’s totally away from anything serious. You can just relax, you know, chill out and watch some crazy stuff happen around you while being part of a more racist. Yeah, it’s cool. Yeah.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
I really, really enjoyed this one. And I would say that Johnny it’s okay. Not to have played it because ultimately it didn’t sell well enough for it to be a success. So therefore not a huge, huge number of people have played it. I know there’s lots of people out there and I know now I’ve said that they will all tweet me, but that’s fine. The reason we have the video neutral channel about it is to sort of show light on, Hey, this was this cool game came out in 2010. It was published by Disney. And unfortunately there was never a SQL and it never really got the marketing support that it needed in my opinion. And I wonder why there wasn’t a SQL, I wonder why. Well, yes, footy should mention that John, I’ve got a quick story about that. I’d been reading a press reset by Jason Schreier.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Who’s an investigative journalist, which just came out very good book about feeder game development. And in here he talks about when Disney had these, uh, heads of department who were really interested in trying to make their franchisees into PC and console gaming. Um, another one that covers mainly is epic Mickey, which came out on weight and split second was developed at the same time. But unfortunately, before the, both these games came out, they acquired a Facebook game. Uh, I don’t Farmville. That was a thing for a minute. Right. So they, more than a minute. Yeah. Yeah. So they acquired a Facebook developer and mobile app developer and they decided that actually that’s the future of PC console gaming is dead. So the games were at least without enough, fun, fair. And then the SQL never, well, I could make a golf SQL, but it was rushed. Split second was dropped. And so that was all a big shame really. Um, but anyway, it’s still available on steam. So there’s someone somewhere at Disney is responsible for tracking the sales figures a split second. So there’s always hope.
John Munro:
Yeah. Let’s just hope. Let’s just hope, right.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
We’re into the big ones now. So this is the top three most popular games. So let’s just go through these, um, in a number three, uh, is white power and white power is a Sony exclusive game with sort of spaceships flying around. I think the term is anti-gravity racer and I really enjoyed these. Um, I don’t know if you’ve played any form of anti-graffiti safe and if it was like, uh, F zero or pacer, perhaps
John Munro:
Definitely some, some games from when I was really young, because there was a bit, there was a bit of a, there was, there was a time when there was lots of those kinds of games around. And I remember going to my friend’s house when he first had a PlayStation and I didn’t have a PlayStation at that time and playing all sorts of anti gravity racers. I cannot remember anything about their names now, but honestly I would love to go and find them for all. I know it could have been something like this. It’s probably
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
The first one. Why part, I think, oh, this is, I’ve not done research on, this was the first game I think, to have in-game sponsorship and it was red bull. Oh, nice. Oh man. I hope that’s right. Fact check me later. Uh, yeah,
John Munro:
It’s fine. We’ll just add,
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
So wipeout was originally it’s known for being on PlayStation, but I think that was in 64 version, which is a bit weird.
John Munro:
Also played play the game on, by the way. Sorry guys. The console, I first played Nancy gravel racer on. So,
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
So it could have been a white partner. It could have been an F zero. Awesome. Something else, I guess. Um, then also, but it was mainly PlayStation PlayStation two. Then there was a really couple of good couple of games on the PSP and the PlayStation Vita. And then there were sort of HD upgraded and stuff for the PS three version. And then there was a PS4 version in 2017. They’ll make a collection which took the V2 game and the PS three one, which also the PSP stuff into one package with VR, which worked really well. And so that was the last wipeout gave me head, but certainly did at least put effort into a big collection. And so I think he did well, but I think one reason why it didn’t do amazingly well is because they fear into wipe out. Like I’ve been, I’ve sort of played all these these games before they were all like remasters of remakes of, of revisions.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
So I’d love to see another pop game. And thankfully, thanks to this social media bubble that we’re in. Apparently I’m not the only one, so that’s good. So that’s, that’s wiped out. Um, um, and I agree and I’m Jeb or F1 under Scott javelin Twitter was the first sort of mentioned that. So shout out to you, Jeb. Thanks for your suggestion. That’s good. So the top two now, like I said already, the number one is so massive. We’ll cover extra bit on, but very quickly touch on motor stall. Now that spurred this Bonnie, I’m not sure of the answer. Have you come across any of the mud spot games before
John Munro:
I am in love with? Yeah, absolutely. But I needed reminded of it. It’s one of those ones where it sits in a secret place in the back of my brain. I’m sure to everyone, of course, that that gave more star dimensions. Do you go CRS there? I think he also got given a mention. We’ve got our crazy Dale as well mentioned that. Oh yeah. Nice. Um, but the motor storm games for me were like the flagship fun racing game of PlayStation three era. I think that the soundtrack was phenomenal energy to that game game gave was just something that you don’t really see that often nowadays it takes a lot to at least match that in terms of the actual energy during the races. I don’t know about the physics. I would need to go back and play it or watch a little bit. I can’t remember if they, how they were, but I just remember the vastness of the roots and the fact that you could go three different ways over certain streets. He had bikes up in the air doing jumps. You had big rigs on the ground taking the lower routes. Uh, and just the crashing was crazy. The way that the bits would fly, the cars would fly the bikes, everything. And as a kid, it was just so much fun. As I say, the energy, the feeling that it gave you was absolutely phenomenal. So I don’t know how it would stack up well, if it was stuck up that well today, but I have really, really good memories of this game.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. Wow. You’re making me feel old that as a kid, you bed mode system,
John Munro:
Brilliant. Uh,
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Um, uh, well, you’ve touched on one interesting point that wasn’t good. I mentioned that, which is a really great thing about these games and that was the different routes. And yet how they had bikes, cars, monster trucks, big rigs, quads, quads, all in the same race and you could win a race in either. And the skill was learning, which route was quickest for that particular type of vehicle. And in particular, the second one Pacific rim really took that to the extreme, the number of routes you could take and how they all balance that just hurts the brain as to how they would develop that. That was really a strong point. And you don’t see that much these
John Munro:
Days. And you say balance, that was another key thing about this game. The balance was perfect because there was never a race that I thought was too easy. Every race was challenging, but at the same time, I felt like if I just spent a little bit of time and learned my roots to learn the track, did it once over, I felt like I had a chance anywhere. And you had to kind of experiment with, you know, it does, it does a bike work well, this circuit, well, it does, but only if you take the right hand side lane on the back stretch and it, and it was, and it would all depend on how the AI behaved as well, because they could block you off. They, you know, so there was so many elements to it that made it a really interesting tactical game, as much as anything else. So when you then add the energy and stuff to that, it just became a really kind of immersive fun experience.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. And, and also that was a really good PSP version called Arctic edge, which you think was like a small little spinoff, but was just as detailed just with lower rates graphics. And that was all set in the snow. And the final milestone was the RC spinoff, which was like, this is the overmold control calcium of both which originally on the V2, but then did come to PS three as well. So double platinum trophy guns, but yeah, uh, I really do miss them. Now, the team that made the mudstone then made drive Glip. So they’ve got two evolution studio games in our, in our top seven. Um, but then after the sort of disaster drive club and a weird move code, masters bought the entire studio and they made, onrush now going to play. It’s very different to my style. But when you just look at it visually in the videos, you’re like, oh, that’s kind of like a spiritual successor, but sort of that’s the last sort of mudstone mish game if I didn’t quite well. And it’s, it’s a bit of a shame. So we’ve already mentioned twisted metal. We’ve already mentioned drive Cooper. We’ve already mentioned wipeout. We’ve already mentioned mudstone. These are all so de exclusive our Kadish races, which are great in their own. Right. And so please, Sonya, this is an appeal. Can you make something alongside GranTurismo? That’s a bit less serious and a bit more explosive and I’m sure there’s a market for it. I’m sure of it.
John Munro:
Definitely. There’s a theme emerging here. Isn’t there tell them it’s like most of these games is like a forgotten market almost where we’re all reminiscing of these games from 10 years ago from even up 20 years ago where we just had fun and just didn’t really care about how realistic everything felt. And nowadays you’ve got so many really serious games then that’s fantastic. But no, we, we we’ve changed our, our, I guess what we actually like as a consumer, we’ve changed what we look for in a game and if something doesn’t handle quite right, or realistically, we complain about it, I’m talking about me personally, I’m talking about the society in general. I feel like that’s taken away from what could have been, you know, just as just a casual market of games where people just go out and have fun with their friends any age and just, yeah. Yeah.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
I would say that there are a few games that still fit that bill, but just not as many as they used to be. Yeah. So the crew and need for speed and false horizon and D five are all trying to do that thing. And they’re all different in their own race and in good and bad or indifferent, if it depends on your opinion as well in certain areas. But I just, I feel like there could be more now, ultimately we don’t run video game companies do each one. So maybe this is why maybe we want these sort of games that don’t sell well. But ah, just looking at this just makes you yearn for a few more titles like that. So here’s the big one then to finish off, this is as contentious as it gets, by the way, this is gonna set the internet on fire, I think in the comments and that is burnout. John hit me with your burnout opinions and then we’ll go through some of the people who mentioned certain things.
John Munro:
Well, first of all, did you mean that pun with the fire and the burnout thing?
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Because I didn’t. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah, totally did. Yeah.
John Munro:
I just want to give you credit for that one. Um, in case you missed it. No, I, I am again, great show. Thank you to everyone who said in a bit burn and we kind of knew this was coming, right? Because we even talk about this on podcasts. When we’re talking about games that we would like to see back. And whenever there’s a subject that in some way revolves around this burnout gets brought, it gets brought back to the table. So, you know, are we going to see another one there? There’s the, the big thing with burnout as well is there’s different facets of burnout that people like. You’ve got the kind of OpenWorld paradise where people say that no one’s ever done paradise. Like, you know, no one’s ever done a game like paradise since that’s had the good, good stuff to it. But then you’ve also got the, the more structured crash based games, you know, the, the revenge, your take down, which is a totally different game in terms of the way it’s laid out yet, we have just as many people asking for that one as well. So what are we going to do here? We
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Have to choose. Yeah. I feel that we should do a separate episode, not to Dodge the question now, but we will, we’ll do a separate episode at some point this year about burnout, but just dip into it. For example, Matthew Turner on Facebook said burnout, paradise burnout, paradise needs to be brought back. It was an incredible game to play. I don’t disagree. I think it’s one of the finest open world racing games, probably ever. However, if you’re deep, deep into burnout law, like the take downs, the dominator was it gold and the revenge and first and second game, uh, people want to see a lot of people want to see games that are like that. So they will not open world. They were mission structured and they had also the dedicated crash mode, which burnout paradise. You could kind of do that. I think if you press the two sticks down at any point, but it wasn’t quite the same. So, uh, what we’re going to do well, what rarely to solve this you’d need to have two burnout games coming out, right? Yeah. That’s probably not going to happen dirt
John Munro:
Style with dirt five and dirt rally 2.0 or, you know, it’s that, it’s the same kind of split room, but it’s weird though, right? Because with burnout, you’ve got two different facets of fan groups that clearly love the game arguing with each other, but which one should be brought back and say, well, we really want this, but we don’t like the other one. And obviously it’s good to, everyone’s so passionate about it, but it’s tough, isn’t it? Because whatever you do, if you bring out one kind of, are you remake or do a new version of one of those games, you’re going to upset a lot of people as well. So it’s a tricky situation. But as you say, if we could have two then great, I was personally more of a fan of the, the mission-based ones because it kind of fell OpenWorld. Anyway, there was enough immersion there. The world tour mode had enough of an immersion Mersive feel to it that it kind of fell OpenWorld, even though it wasn’t and you kind of get used to the cities and stuff, but of course, paradise has its own massive fan base as well. And a lot of people would disagree with what I’ve just said and say paradise. Yeah.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
I feel like I’m balanced that you’re in the majority there and I’m in the minority because I prefer paradise because I feel like it brought, it was way bigger than burnout because it revolutionized how online works in video games. Like there are elements in that fault. So Ryzen five trailer, which are from the paradise copy book, and this is many, many years later, I’m not saying that they’re the same game over very simple. I’m just saying a couple of specific online elements come your passions. It’s all good. Um, I mean, Daniel Barry had an idea here, which is to combine all of them. So it was, but not take down was my favorite. I wish they’d make remake take down, but with the mall, real-world like vehicles from paradise and then maybe out a free remote to go around wrecking in the city. So, and Linea game. But with the option of an open world, interesting idea. I don’t know how you would
John Munro:
That well, what I was saying, well, I would say is have the, the missions and stuff of, of take down and even the crash structure of take down. But instead of selecting it from a menu, you just have to drive to that particular mission. And on driving, doing the driving, you can have crashes. You can, you can make money, you can maybe buy the cars instead of fostering them through races. So you can kind of combine the race element to the open world. And then when you actually get to the locations, turn it into the kind of more structured mission-based game and then everyone’s happy, right?
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Oh right. Okay. I’m on board with that, John and Daniel. So cheers to that. I’m
John Munro:
Going to, I’m going to quit my job and start a game development company and call it burn, burn a or something
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Brilliant. I mean, the thing is, uh, ultimately I think what really happened to the burnout franchise was that, but at paradise was a success and on by AA, they were struggling at a time to try and wow, what we’re going to do with the need for speed franchise that was coming off the back of pro street. There was the two shift games. There was the run. Ooh, they’re all kind of all over the shop. Really. So EA took that team and that technology and the OpenWorld and the crushing mechanics changed them, of course, added weapons and branded it with licensed vehicles. And it was called NiFi speed, hot pursuit. And then there was most decent speed. Most wanted, not the 2005 one that came after that. So, so really there were this spiritual successes, um, uh, more maybe what sequels to paradise could have been, I think for now though, even though EA released paradise and switch in 2020, which is quite recent, I feel like they would just be focusing on need for speed versions right. In the future cause criteria. And he’s working on the next new for speed game. So he is hoping that is something that appeases some burnout funds in some way.
John Munro:
Absolutely. Yeah. And I think it’s the crashing elements. The only thing that’s really missing from need for speed in that sentence. But as you say, that’s why we’re talking about it. Right. So yeah, I see, I agree with you. And let’s just, let’s just hope.
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. And burnout like just to touch on again, got more than double the amount of the second place game, motor stall. So that is the clear winner. So the welder spoken video game publishers, the racing game community would like to see a new burnout. And on that note, that neatly wraps up this episode. I think John, thanks for joining us. Hopefully you’ve had a good time reminiscing about some games there.
John Munro:
I have. Indeed. Thank you very much for having me, Tom. And, uh, yeah, it was lots of good, good stuff to dig into. So I’ll, I’m sure I’ll be getting out the old PlayStation and some of these themes, like a, you know,
Thomas Harrison-Lord:
Yeah. Um, I think we’ll definitely revisit some of these games that I mentioned for more in depth talk for now. Keep listening. Thanks very much. Uh, for taking part, everybody in the questions, we’ll keep an eye on our social media. We’ll do more of these in the future. It’s attraction, Gigi on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Be sure to like, and subscribe on YouTube or follow us, subscribe on your podcast platform of choice because it really helps us out visit traction DG on a daily basis. And that’s the end of the plug. Thanks very much for listening. See you next week.
