Why is it so hard to make a good rally game now?

[cosmicpanda]

How many good rally games have come out in the last few years?

The last good one seems to be WRC4, although I can't remember if it came out before or after RBR.

Why is it so hard to make a good rally game now?

This is going to turn into a bit of a wishlist. Personally, I would like a game in which:

1) Each event has a substantially different character, as seen in the real life rally championships; this could mean each event having a different number of stages, stages of different lengths (eg. a Rally NZ could have fewer but longer stages, whereas a Rally Jordan would tend to have more but shorter stages). Each rally should also have different numbers of stages between services.

2) There is an option between 'pro' handling and 'arcade' handling. Personally, I don't want to have to buy a wheel and pedals to play a game.

3) Night stages would be nice.

4) Some replicas of real life stages. El Condor is about 15 km long, which is realistic in a game, as WRC2 showed. Ouninpohja would be nice, perhaps split into two stages of roughly 15 km if there is this limit. They could then do a similar thing with the Whaanga Coast as well. I can dream.

[Bruce D]

I think the problem recently with games has been the trade-off of better graphics and lengths of stages. Especially with PS2s there was a limit to the amount of disc space available and therefore if you wanted fancy graphics you could only have shorter stages. Look at Mobil 1 Rally Championship - not so fancy graphics, although good for its time, but looonnggg stages. (40+km in some cases).

[306 Cosworth]

Rally Championship - Pundershaw with none stop driving for over 20 minutes!! That was a challenge!

[Rat]

Rally Championship is one of the best rally games made. I remember looong nights at the wheel trying to stay on the rutted and narrow tracks, it was worth it! If only I can get it to work properly on XP, it would be on top again.

[pino]

If you guys are talking about Mobil1 Rally Championship then I totally agree :D

[AndyRAC]

It should be a lot easier to make a realistic game nowadays, as so many Rallies are identikit - 3 stages , service, same 3 stages repeated. You'd only need 7-9 stages per Rally. As for the length, WRC2 had longish stages - (10 - 15km), and on Expert level they were run twice.
Imagine a WRC game based on the 'glory days' - pure gaming porn!!

[Rallyst3ve]

Ive got Mobil 1 Rally Championship on PS1 as well and what i can remember it was an excellent game with night stages as well :D
In fact im going to dig it out now and play it for first time in bout 8 years or so :D .

I would like to see a rally game based on the old RAC Rally with replica stages of say Grizedale that would be awesome 17 miles of pure class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bruce D]

Rally Championship is one of the best rally games made. I remember looong nights at the wheel trying to stay on the rutted and narrow tracks, it was worth it! If only I can get it to work properly on XP, it would be on top again.

You can get it working on XP if you run the Patch 6 - you can get it and lots of others here http://explosiveracing.net/rc/ and that will make it run on XP no problems.

Amazing how we start a conversation about rally games and 2 things pop up every time - WRC and Rally Championship! I'd think the developers should get a hint then - current cars with long stages. Or as I once said somewhere else that this was discussed - Rally Championship stages with RBR physics! =D

[richy]

I liked the early wrc games, thought they were really good. CM Dirt was let down by being too many non rally aspects in my opinion, would have been far better all rally with more countries etc.

Heres a thought, how about a new wrc game where you start in the jwrc, working your way up to group n then into a works seat. As of next year this would easily be viable i.e. youd have more manufacturere 2 teams such as adapta, van merksteijn, munchis etc etc.

[lugnut_usa]

Funny how this comes up...I just reinstalled M1RC last week. :D

I can't even begin to count the number of hours spent with that game...

Now if I could figure out a way to get my Driving Force Pro to work with it, I'd be set...but it doesn't seem to recognize it.

[AndyRAC]

Ive got Mobil 1 Rally Championship on PS1 as well and what i can remember it was an excellent game with night stages as well :D
In fact im going to dig it out now and play it for first time in bout 8 years or so :D .

I would like to see a rally game based on the old RAC Rally with replica stages of say Grizedale that would be awesome 17 miles of pure class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine how good that would be - Pundershaw, Boltby, Hafren, Wass, Sutton Park, etc

I'm going for a lie down,...can't take all this excitement!!

[JRodrigues]

All other rally games < Network Q RAC Rally < Rally Chmapionship 2000 < Richard Burns Rally

[Frozzy]

you could now with both Xbox 360 and PS3 having downloadable content and harddrives have more cars in the games with more downloadable skins/ stages when needed so really if there was a new game it could be continually updated as the new seasons come

[woody2goody]

WRC 4 overall was a better game than Rally Evolved because of more stages, but Evolved had excellent handling and was fun to drive. Just a shame each rally was only 3 short stages. I was really looking forward to doing a championship on that, but after 3 stages the opening rally was over and I was disappointed.

I mean why do you go to the trouble of dishing out service penalties and implementing the super rally rules if any penalty of even 30 seconds gives you no chance to catch up!

At least if the rallies were WRC4 style 6 stage rallies then you could still maybe get a point or two with a penalty or a super rally retirement.

My ideal rally game would be 8-10 stage rallies, with each stage 5 to 10 minutes in length. All the works WRC drivers plus as many independents as possible (actually competing in the rallies), and the option to do a championship as yourself, and maybe create your own team.

[Langdale Forest]

Mobil 1 Rally Championship was probably the best rally game ever.

[Allyc85]

Yep, Codemasters should take good hard look at that game before releasing a sequal to McRae Dirt which was poor IMO.

[pino]

Yep, Codemasters should take good hard look at that game before releasing a sequal to McRae Dirt which was poor IMO.

I totally agree, unfortunately Codemasters don't care about what we Rally-fans think/want :(

[woody2goody]

I totally agree, unfortunately Codemasters don't care about what we Rally-fans think/want :(

Those aren't rally games, they're 'off road racing' games.

Rallying is supposed to be about you + co-driver + car vs. clock + the stages. Not racing 10 or 20 monster trucks or whatever.

[PuddleJumper]

Simple answer: Money.

As seen with Richard Burns Rally, sales of something more akin to a simulator than a game are not strong, and there isn't a justified return on an investment which needs to be considerably more than for a basic, arcade game. It could be argued that a developer could incorporate both a simulator and arcade style, but this would still require the extra investment which wouldn't justify the extra few thousand sales to the hardcore rally nuts.

I would love to see a new rally simulator developed, but sadly I don't think we'll see anything of the calibre of RBR any time soon. I'm just glad that RBR was made at all, because on PC, with a wheel and pedals, it's incredible. And the armchair computer experts are continually making new cars, skins and textures, and even the odd new stage, which keeps it fresh and interesting.

[Langdale Forest]

Rally Championship is one of the best rally games made. I remember looong nights at the wheel trying to stay on the rutted and narrow tracks, it was worth it! If only I can get it to work properly on XP, it would be on top again.


I have it working on XP.

[steve_spackman]

Any demos lurking around the net that i can download?

[lcd]

I think there Is a contradiction rising, each time this Issue Is brought to discussion:
How Is It possible gaming companies claim they don't make realistic (sim) rally games because of low sales, when hundrends of thousands gamers worldwide continuously asking for something like that? :confused:
And don't tell me because of piracy thing, as piracy's related to all kind of games out there...

Is It maybe because rally racing Is considered out of fashion or because the wrc has lost its prestige?
Or Is It my Idea that there are many gamers that like rally sims while there are much more who like the arcade style better?