How This 20 Year Old Racing Game is Still King...
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This is Richard Burns Rally a game originally released on Playstation2 and Xbox original, that is still regarded as the most realistic rally simulation on the market. So just how does a 18 year old video game hold this title? And how is it managing to beat multi million dollar games such as the Dirt Rally and WRC series year on year?
To start this story off, we need to go back to 2004. After the witnessing instant success of former team mate ,Colin Mcrae Dirt. Richard Burns wanted to try his hand at creating his own rally video game. But art imitates life, and the accessible Colin Mcrae’s Dirt overshadowed the more realistic and difficult RBR with gleaming reviews and higher sales figures.
A review by gamesrader even read that RBR was “too unfriendly to be any fun, and therein lies the rub. When you hit the ground, everything goes tits up”, which seems like a terribly long winded way to call yourself a pussy.
Back then, it may have seemed far too realistic for the average gamer. But little did those weaklings know, it was about to get a whole lot worse.
If you go back and play the original PS2 version, the physics are certain to be underwhelming by todays standards. Additionally, It featured just 8 cars and 36 courses. RBR was also a singleplayer only experience, without the option of mods on the windows version.
Despite this, richard burns rally continues to enjoy great respect and admiration from the sim racing community, so why is this?
Well the bottom line is, it’s all thanks to the efforts of a dedicated community of modders, whose main goal is striving to evolve and expand the initial RBR offering, and ultimately, keep their favourite rally sim alive. Their labours have resulted in a simulation that attracts the most enthusiastic of rally fans (like Jimmy Broadbent, who has made a couple of RBR videros) – of which the vast majority will tell you that, thanks to these mods, this 18 year old racer is still the best available to this day.
But, what have they done to the game that makes this comparatively ancient sim better than the brand spanking new offerings such as Codemasters’ Dirt, or the officially licenced WRC?
Well for starters, a modder known in the community as Workerbee has made a couple of plugins that totally overhaul the physics engine, known simply as Next Gen Physics. NGP meticulously overhauls the archaic driving model the game shipped with, with the gritty, and difficult physics that are renowned as the most realistic in simulated rally. The first time you throw a car into a cambered compression at insane speeds is a feeling that sticks with you – and it’s outright addicting. The cars behave convincingly, and require a careful hand to negotiate the roads. It’s not just the car’s physics either. Jumps, potholes, water hazards, bridges and tree stumps litter the roads, and are a real hazard, that will quite easily end your rally if you are unlucky enough to stray even half a metre off-line. Speaking of which, the damage model is surprisingly realistic too. All the dents appear where you’d expect. Wheels can sprout a wobble, you can blow up your engine. Your brake lines can fail, or you can even grenade your gearbox.
The over-engineered physics behind the NGP mod utterly convince you that this is what it feels like to drive a rally car, for real. In comparison, when I’m driving the Dirt Rally or WRC franchises, I just don’t get the same feeling. The cars feel like they’re floating on top of the road rather than being a part of it.
But could an 18 year old game still be considered the absolute creme of the crop with just a physics rework? Probably not. It doesn’t end there. In fact, that is just the beggining. With the overhauled physics engine, this allowed other modders to start creating new cars and stages for the game. There are literally hundreds of stages you can download. In fact, there’s literally a lifetime supply of stages, more than a mere mortal could possibly learn before they keel over. AS you’ve already seen, there’s not just gravel either.
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