2024 Was a Slow Year for Our Fastest Genre

Round this time final 12 months I criticised The Sport Awards for regularly forcing racing video games to share a standard class with sports activities video games, to compete for recognition at what’s described (by The Sport Awards) as “gaming’s largest night time.”

Up till this 12 months it was an award no conventional sports activities sport had ever really gained. The class had been completely dominated by racing video games, except for 2015 (Rocket League, which nonetheless has vehicles in it) and 2020 (Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1+2, which continues to be… on wheels).

This 12 months FC 25 acquired the gong. Only a single racing sport made the shortlist: F1 24. An incredible racing sport, little doubt, however one which’s onerous to argue was an instantly important improve for individuals who already owned F1 23, or F1 22, or so on. What else may’ve made it? Monster Jam Showdown? Good enjoyable (which shouldn’t be shocking given the developer’s current kind with the Scorching Wheels Unleashed collection) however I wouldn’t fancy its possibilities at The Sport Awards. Le Mans Final? Nicely, that’s nonetheless ostensibly in Steam Early Entry, though they’re… already promoting in-game DLC earlier than the sport’s formally “completed.” Take a look at Drive Limitless Photo voltaic Crown? No likelihood.

The unhappy actuality is there merely weren’t sufficient racing video games launched in 2024, full cease. For the primary time I can bear in mind in my almost 14 years at IGN, we didn’t even hand out an award for the 12 months’s finest racer. There simply weren’t sufficient of them to even pad out an inventory of finalists.

Unhappy stuff.

Now, for readability, I have had a variety of recent causes to slip behind a steering wheel this 12 months, however the bulk of those alternatives have arrived as updates to current racing video games I already personal. Most months of 2024 have seen an injection of recent vehicles and content material for Gran Turismo 7. As is often the case with GT, not all these vehicles have had a strong racing pedigree, however I gained’t fake I’m not no less than mildly fascinated about seeing how briskly an eight-year-old Toyota Hiace can lap the Nordschleife.

A 2024 enlargement to EA Sports activities WRC added a number of new vehicles and two new nations: Latvia and Poland. The brand new nations function some wonderful levels, and it makes much more sense for Codemasters to enhance WRC this fashion than instantly put it on a yearly, F1-style cadence (if solely the asking worth for the DLC wasn’t as uncomfortably near the price of a wholly new sport anyway).

On the flip facet, The Crew Motorfest actually turned 50% bigger without spending a dime, with all gamers having access to your complete island of Maui, added to Motorfest in November. Maui shouldn’t be a bespoke space; it’s been seamlessly injected into the sport’s current world (and developer Ivory Tower has even added a fantasy connecting bridge, which means you’ve a option to both fly, boat, or drive to Maui from O’ahu with none loading screens. It admittedly hasn’t turned me right into a Motorfest common, however there are some satisfying stretches of highway and a few good areas on Maui – which is clearly quite a bit quieter than the extra densely-populated O’ahu.

Take a look at Drive Limitless Photo voltaic Crown has grown in a similar way with its Ibiza enlargement (though don’t anticipate a bridge from Hong Kong to the Mediterranean). Photo voltaic Crown’s Ibiza map is a reasonably small part of the island which will come as a nostalgic bonus for these gamers who recall blasting across the Spanish celebration paradise in 2011’s Take a look at Drive Limitless 2, however it’s onerous to say whether or not it’ll flip round Photo voltaic Crown’s sluggish begin. The map, in any case, wasn’t Photo voltaic Crown’s important drawback.

Mount Panorama has lastly discovered its manner again into Forza Motorsport in its most-recent replace, however I’ve to confess I’m extraordinarily dissatisfied with all of the pretend sponsors used all through the monitor. It simply makes it seem completely inauthentic in comparison with Bathurst in Assetto Corsa Competizione, Gran Turismo 7, and even Forza Motorsport 7 – all of which function actual sponsors. It seems like a weird step backwards for the collection, however hopefully it may be redressed. The replace arrived together with a bunch of antipodean vehicles which have largely been seen within the collection earlier than, however nonetheless enchantment to me as a devoted Australian meathead. There’s just one new automobile, however it is an awesome one: a 1991 HSV Commodore VN Group A SV. If there’s one factor I like greater than Australian vehicles, it’s the Nineteen Nineties, so this fills each of these standards.

And talking of the ’90s, Want for Velocity Unbound simply added a motorcycle, which is a shocking and spectacular first for a collection that’s actually celebrating 30 years since its 1994 debut this month.

So, certain, there’s been loads of tinkering nonetheless occurring beneath the bonnets of many of the largest racers within the enterprise, however little or no new blood within the style in 2024.

That’s worrisome, notably as youthful generations proceed to exhibit an growing disinterest in vehicles on the whole, however I do suppose 2024 might be simply an aberration.

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