AMUSIX said:
Thank you for your response...I guess it was exactly what I was looking for to help me fill in some gaps. However, I'm still a bit sketchy on some. It seems that what you're saying is that since ABS/TCS/Auto exist in real life, they're accepted in the game...but so many of these cars don't have these features in real life...and a lot of racing series simply don't allow them.
Yes, but you can understand there's a huge difference between providing traction control for a car that didn't originally have it, and giving the ability to rewind time to all 400+ cars in the game.
Say time travel became possible in real life. Would we have people without TT-equipped cars being competing against people
with? I can just imagine the shit-talking before the race:
The thing that still sticks with me is that anything where the game take an active role between the player's input and the control of the vehicle is a hell of a lot more like cheating than allowing a driver to take a do-over
Racer 1: I have Time Travel!
Racer 2: Like that's gonna help you against my car's traction control!
(something that has been in every game, racing or not, since the coin-op days). Continue?
It'd be more like Braid, because in most games with a Continue function you have to replay a good portion of the world.
As for racing lines, there's a massive difference between them and guidance from your pit boss/co-pilot. Of course it doesn't give you the perfect line (I don't think it changes any if you modify your car...does it?) but it does feel like one step away from Disneyland's Autopia. As someone who's logged literally hundreds of hours out at Laguna Seca and Buttonwillow, I'd say that, if any of these assists were 'cheaty', the racing line would be it. It provides so much data and so much direction that it's practically hand-holding the player around the track.
All it does is equips you with a basic knowledge any experienced racer would know. It's very helpful in learning a track, but I turn it off after that period of time because it can be distracting, and it isn't always the best route or brake/accelerate timing anyway. It's kind of like how in MLB The Show you have batter and pitcher strike zones to help you know that player's strengths and weaknesses. They study their opponents before the series and can use this data for coaching their team.
If rewind ever became an option in sports videogame, that'd cause a similar ruckus. Say hello to perfect seasons! Games will no longer be about hope, but about getting an early lead and just rushing half-assed through the rest of it like it's a chore. I mean, if I had the power to rewind a game-winning grandslam in the bottom of the 9th, I'd do it because why would I want to lose if I didn't have to? But I'd also have no sense of accomplishment whatsoever, and would quickly lose interest in the game because lacks the challenge necessary to keep me motivated.
I stop using the assists in a racing sim when I become skilled enough that I can be faster without them. But at no point will rewind become something that hinders your driving. Just knowing it's at your fingertips will subconsciously destroy any sense of risk you normally would have in a sim racer. And since it's so tempting to use it, that is why I don't like that it's even an option.
SP (which I also play all assists off and in cockpit view, it's an awesome little sim!).