Virtually Racing?

Can you gain any practical skills from learning your racecraft on a computer? Jules dives headfirst into the world of video game racing to find out.

Some time ago when Jaques Villeneuve was competing in his first season of F1 it was rumoured that he had used an F1 racing game on the Playstation to teach himself the notoriously difficult Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

So, with this in mind I decided to investigate whether it would be possible to boost my skill levels by playing console and arcade racing games. My games of choice would be Forza Motorsport on the Xbox and the daddy of driving sims Gran Tourismo 4 on the playstation. I also decided to try out some arcade racing games for an extra element of realism, so a day (and much coinage!) was spent at Londons trendy Trocadero playing Outrun 2, Sega rally and many others.

To see if they had any effect we visited Aylesburys indoor circuit the very next day for a half hour arrive and drive.

Back

Forza Motorsport on the Xbox

The game was played on career mode and features a couple of real world race tracks (Laguna Seca and the Nurburgring) the cars drove quite realistically and suffered from impacts and tyre wear (the latter of which could be felt quite noticeably in the closing stages of the races) I have to admit I also used the ‘racing line’ feature which draws the ideal racing line over the track in green, most unrealistic, but real helpful when you’re driving tracks you do not know. The A.I (artificial intelligence) of the other cars on the track was good, and it was nice to see the computer controlled cars making mistakes and going off line or spinning out. I quite liked the button layout on the controller which used the L&R shoulder buttons as the accelerator and brake, allowing you to effectively scrub off speed whilst keeping your throttle finger wide open.

Gran Turismo on the Playstation

The self confessed king of driving games, it is said that the games designer walked the entire length of the Nurburgring twice, once to measure the inside of the circuit, and once to measure the outside. This goes to show the level of realism in this game, with every track being painstakingly mapped to ensure accurate camber, uphill, downhill, track surface etc. All this attention to detail certainly makes the game a treat to play, with little things like the setting sun making it difficult to see your line through a corner. Having played the Gran Tourismo franchise before I didn’t need to have any form of racing line turned on, but the game was played in automatic. Button layout was not quite so instinctive as with the Xbox with the toggle sticks being used as the accelerator – brake and steering, but you can do nifty little blips of the throttle when coming into corners with this layout. As you would expect the cars handled very well with good A.I, although there was not as many mistakes from them as there was with Forza, (maybe they were better drivers?)

Arcade Gaming

With the console test complete, we took the train to London to play on some proper arcade machines. The main difference here is that 1: every go costs you the minimum of a pound and 2: you get a steering wheel and foot pedals for extra realism.
We headed straight to the Outrun 2 machines and popped in the pounds and we were joined for a four player battle by two kids who looked like they had been born in an arcade. Bring it on! The game is reliant on you drifting the car from corner to corner which is a little unrealistic, but the feel of the back breaking away and the required opposite lock throttle control is spot on. We wiped the floor with the groms and completed the game in first and second.

Time to move on. Battle gear was the next machine, and although lacking in multiplayer fun, was a very realistic game. I chose the race setting on a Skyline at Monacos’ twisty harbour circuit. You get two timed laps and the car is horrible to drive until the brakes and tyres have warmed up (just like the real thing) with the carbon brakes giving a satisfying squeal when up to temperature. There is also an over take button (think NOS) but there was no real place to use this without shunting the barriers. This is a game that needs practice to get decent results from. The last game of the day was the classic Sega rally. We used the Lancia Stratos and the last road stage in multiplayer. This game also comes with a handbrake which is great for the real tight corners, but does require careful execution if you don’t want to be biting the wall all the time! After three or four goes on this we were about as hot and sweaty as the real thing, which I think counts for a bit.

The Acid test

So, did it do us any good? After a good nights kip we headed for KlubKarts indoor track in Aylesbury. The most obvious difference between the two was the physical one, console games in no way prepare you for the beating you get when pushing a good lap, they also don’t give you the same feeling of speed that you get from real world karting and you need more awareness of who is around you (ie side to side) than you get from a driving sim. That said though I found that the games gave me a psychological edge. I was ready to go toe to toe into corners for position, I was ready for when someone span ahead to get round safely without spinning myself, and it was easier to string together lap after consistent lap. They say the brain cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality, and it is because of this that racing games will give you an edge, you will have already practiced overtaking / accident avoidance a thousand times in your head whilst playing the racing games so when you are confronted with it in reality everything will feel like second nature P.S, you don’t need a crash helmet when playing console games…