Recently, the more racing "sims" I play, the worse they feel, and here's why. It's something I've been pondering for a while.
A game like Gran Turismo tries to be a simulator, but it can never really succeed. It may have realistic physics and handling, but you can never really simulate what driving a car is like. For example, if you're driving with all assists off, it's not like racing a real car. You will never be able to match the competition. You will never be able to drive the car like you'd drive a real car, for several reasons.
One, you're using buttons. You're trying to simulate a foot or so of pedal travel using a millimetre of button travel. You will never be able to accurately adjust acceleration or braking to counter things like wheelspin and wheel lock-up, nowhere near the extent to which you'd be able to in a car.
Two, you're not in the car. You won't be able to feel the wheels spinning because the back is sliding out, or the lock-up because the steering wheel is shaking. What's more, you have a much less detailed idea of what the car will do, because it's not acting upon your body.
This means that, with assists off, the competition has an edge up. They know what the car is doing better than you can.
How do you fix this? Obviously, a steering wheel with pedals helps, but it can never represent the G-forces of a real car, which is half the problem. GT uses assists to make it easier, but as impossible it is with the assists off, the cars don't feel anywhere near real with the assists on.

I'm not saying racing sims shouldn't exist, that they're inaccurate, or that GT is a bad game. I love GT. It's just that it seems, logically, like they couldn't possibly work.
One example is that I'm playing GRID at the moment. It's probably not as much of a sim as GT, but the same problems exist. I can only race on beginner, or normal, because if I raise the difficulty any higher the AI will beat me. I can't possibly hope to control the car as well as I would be able to in real life, because I'm not in it. It's just not the same.

Very well thought out post. I agree completely, about the aspects of not being able to feel the actual driving of a car. To add on to this discussion in some way, I'll just say that although GT describes itself as a real "Driving simulator", I've never been able to consider it one, for your reasons listed above. I have, and always will, consider Gran Turismo no more than a racing game.

Good post. I have been thinking of this too. Like some cars in real life you can not drive out of a corner with 100% throttle. And you can't apply 100% brake pressure into a corner but you can in GT (and other games). In real life you would lock the rear or front brakes (depending on situation) if you were to do this.

But its a video game, and no game will ever be like real life, or 100% simulator. Maybe 10 years from now it might happen.

But the fact is, GT5P and GT5 will be one of the best and most realistic driving/racing games created so I guess we've got to take what we get!

Also if you compare it to GT1 for example, GT5P is pretty damn impressive in respect to the car physics.

My main issue, which I didn't really illustrate, is that cars never feel good. With assists they feel dead and just plain wrong. Without the game is too hard, and the car feels harder to drive than it should anyway. This makes games like Grid or Test Drive: Unlimited look good, because they strike a balance. The cars feel pretty good, but it's not impossible because the AI is balanced to compliment the difficulty level.
The result is that a good arcade or semi-arcade game can be a good deal more fun than any sim, while providing a real experience.

the point of a simulator is to try and make it seem like a real life situation whilst obviously not being real and theres always going to be limits on games consoles. the best possible experience your ever gona get is if you have a full cockpit set up (top of the range) they will never ever get it like real life but they're not sayin they want it like real life, they want it to be a simulator.

Interesting post. Of course you can never feel like your in the car, but you can make a bit more realistic if you get a good racing wheel, this does solve the button problem.

And they always release a wheel designed specifically for the game around the time it is launched. There will be a GT5 wheel as well. And if you want a more realistic feel you can build a simulation cockpit. I had a teacher that did that one year with a flight simulator. He had 3 air pistons driving the movement it was quite cool.

You don't have to get that fancy of course. You can just go with the look of the inside of a car witout all the pistons and such to facilitate motion. But that is up to you. Point is that the game can feel as real as you want it to depending on how you want to set it up. If you go with the bare minimum standard setup then it will feel like a game. If you want to go crazy with the full cockpit rig then it will feel as real as it can get without racing a real car.

Personally the thing I like about the game is I can race a million dollar car plow it into the wall and then hit reset and do it all over again. No matter how unrealistic the game feels I could never do that in real life.

Wheels are good, especially the game designed ones, but they're also very expensive. I've also seen videos of things that simulate movement and all that, but they're generally made for only one game, often a game designed for them, and they cost 5 or 6 times the price of my car.

I also love driving around disgustingly expensive and powerful cars...but, to me, that just makes sim-racers look boring in comparison to games like TDU, and even NFS HP2. I can't see why you'd want to race on a track, when you can live out your ultimate fantasies by thrashing them around on public roads, just like you've always wanted to in real life? TDU even lets you see the interior of the car, and wind down windows and all that to enhance the noise of the car better.

I had the PSP version. It had the fewest features, but I still loved it to death. I need a 360

Why not say what you really mean. You don't like sim racing and you prefer arcade racing. That's fine. I personally prefer sim racing. I don't want to drive a car around recklessly in a public street. If I wanted that I would have modded my car and gone street racing years ago.

Nope if I had the money for it I would love to take my car down to the track and race it around for a while. Lot of tracks have ameture nights. Just costs a lot of money to get in. Not to mention my car is getting a bit to old for racing.

Maybe you're right. I do like the idea of it. It's just the way it has to be implemented on a video games system that doesn't work. It's not like I'm going to stop buying GT and other sims because of it, it's just a problem I've identified with them.

I think what you're looking for is called "Actual" reality, not virtual reality.
If you want the real thing, get off the couch and go drive a real car

Easier said than done. Motor racing is expensive, especially when you put the car into the wall! Thats the great thing with GT games (and other racing games) you can race awesome cars and not be afraid to wall it!

Hell even without racing driving in and of itself is just far more expensive than a video game. I cost me $600 for the PS3 and GT5 will be $60 that's it period.

My car on the other hand cost $15,000 and I have to put $25 worth of gas in it every 2 weeks with normal driving plus oil changes every 3 months at $20 a pop. Then new air filters and belts about every year or so. Standard maintence without any major problems or breakdowns alone cost more than a video game ever could. And then if you want to race you're going to quapruple the costs of maintence. And that's without destroying the car to the point that you have to repair or replace it.