Drag Racing Games - DoubleJMix965's Blog

DoubleJMix965's Blog

Drag Racing Games

Posted on May 14, 2009 at 12:57 PM.

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I'm going to take a break from my normal Road to the Show blogging action to talk about another sports game genre that I love: Drag Racing! It seems that drag racing gets overlooked. My hands down all time favorite game is Burnout Championship Drag Racing: Players Championship Edition. I'm a big fan of the local bracket style racing. I work at a 1/8th mile track in Southeast Missouri where I live and so this has become a big part of my life over the years. My father has worked there for over 20 years as the track announcer and I started about 10 years ago working upstairs with him. So in a way, more-so than the racing aspect, its a family time. But that's just a bit of the lowdown there. Burnout PCE encompasses everything that I know about racing at this local leve. Taking a classic car, crankin up a motor and racing on a time index. There's alot that goes into the index racing. Not only do you have to be good off the starting line, but you've got to have a consistent car to hit that dial-in time. I still play this game, even though its got to be about 9 or 10 years old at this point. As I go to to different tracks, I learn about different rules that I can incorporate into the game, such as only racing on 10.5 tires, like street classes do, or only having a 4-speed transmission like some stock classes have. NHRA, the biggest founding body, has put out some good games. Alot of people like NHRA Top Fuel Thunder with its modding ease. I'm not a fan. I did like NHRA Drag Racing 2 and its sequel, that featured the Pro Stock Cars and Trucks, which was called NHRA Main Event. There were a couple good games on the PS2 as well, the NHRA Drag Racing and its sequel, NHRA Countdown to the Championship. IHRA even put a decent game on PS2 with IHRA Drag RAcing 2. It was similar to the Burnout with its bracket style and in-depth building, but was overly clunky to play. I guess my point with this rambling blog is to wonder, why is drag racing getting overlooked? I mean hell, if they can make the bike gp style racing games, and make them look good, why can't the same happen to NHRA? NHRA has some big sponsors backing it, they're covered on ESPN2 for each race, shoot, they're just impressive! Maybe its my ultimate fan-dom that makes me feel this way. I know that NHRA obviously doesn't have the mass market appeal as NASCAR. For whatever reason, that sport has gone mainstream. I'm not knocking it, it just bores me after about 5 laps haha. PLUS, I DARE you to find someone that can rival the charisma of John Force, who just turned 60, in NASCAR. Sure NASCAR is loaded with younger guys and all, but why can't NHRA get its fair shake? It seems for all the NHRA games, they're developed by a 3rd tier developer. They look decent at best but have SO much more potential to them. Maybe there's some bitterness behind this rant too. I'll leave that up to anyone that reads it. But its just hard being a fan of something, something that has a big fanbase, get passed over in the gaming community the way that it does. Is it that the tuning doesn't make sense to people in the game? I can see that the games may not be very user friendly to non-racing people, but that can always be remedied like on NHRA 2, where you can opt to just race and not have to worry about tuning the car on your own. The opportunity is there, someone out there needs to take advantage of it. I would just like to see one good game with graphics that are up there with Forza or Gran Turismo that captures the energy of the sport and the charisma of the drivers, even implementing classic race-cars and drivers too. Maybe have a "re-create this moment" where you can make "The Pass" again that Tony Schumacher made to win the Championship in 2006 or maybe win a championship with John Force in 1992, over Cruz Pedregon to completely dominate the 90's. Something along those lines, that is if someone would wnat to put the time into it. Please, someone, help us drag racing fans out! Well, thats all for now, and til next time GO CRAZY FOLKS, GO CRAZY!