We've all been there: you're playing your favorite racing game, going at not-so-legal speeds, only to crash on a corner and think to

yourself, 'Bro, I wasn't even going that fast!' Except you were. This is true for a good chunk of

racing games, especially hardcore simulators such as Assetto Corsa, iRacing, and most of all, Gran

Turismo. Gran Turismo was my first actual racing game—what a way to start, eh? And I

remember really liking the game for its graphics, track selection, and the sheer amount of cars you could mess with. Like,

coming from Mario Kart, that was next level for me. But when driving, I always felt that something was off; that

it felt kind of underwhelming. But then one day I went to a friend's house, and well, that lucky bastard had a PS4. By the

way, sorry for the lag, but anyways, the point is, he introduced me to DriveClub, and holy sh—

was that the complete opposite of what Gran Turismo felt like! Yes. DriveClub is more of an arcade racing game,

but just look at the difference. Like, that evening I fell asleep playing Gran Turismo. [Music]

But why exactly do some racing games feel slow initially? I thought that it had to do with FOV, but the more I looked

into it, the more I realized that there's so much more that goes into giving the sense of speed. So it is now time to go

into WatchMojo mode, where I will list the top five ways of conveying the sense of speed in racing games. Keep in mind

that this is mostly based on opinion, and you have all the rights as a viewer to disagree with me. Kiss

my AR. Let's start with the obvious: FOV. So it is true that the wider the FOV, the more it seems like you're going fast.

Just look at this comparison; it is a little extreme, but still, it proves the point. For example, in Mexico, for Horizon, I play with the far

camera instead of the regular one, and yes, it does feel faster. Next up: motion blur—no need for words.

Here, actually, let me plug some [__] in the meantime. Up top, you'll see channel

members, and if you want to support the channel, have your name in my videos and use my horrible emojis during

streams, make sure to press the join button. Also, make sure to join my shitty Discord server, as well as my Twitch,

because I am planning on also streaming there soon. And finally, if you're enjoying this, I invite you to

like and subscribe. Anyways, I'll shut up now. I feel like he is about to crash. What [Music]

[Applause] What? Then there's the camera. This is the main problem with racing sims: the camera

doesn't move. It's actually not as bad in Gran Turismo as it is, for example, in

Forza Corsa. Like, in that game, the camera is nothing but a massive pile of shit. It stays still when you turn; it stays still

when you brake. You can't [__] orbit it around the car in third person; you

have no idea what your vehicle is doing. It's so bad that it makes me motion sick. First person is decent, but

you know, some people also enjoy looking at the car's ass while driving it. Also, camera shake and the distance of the

camera relative to your car should be an option in all racing games. Camera shake may be cringe [__], but it does make

you feel like you're going fast as [__] and having the camera lag behind the car.

When you accelerate, it conveys an incredible sense of power. A game franchise that has done this really well

is Need for Speed. Even though it has kind of sucked at everything else, in particular, Need for Speed ProStreet feels

quick in a rather unhealthy way. I mean, just look at this! I acknowledge the fact that hardcore sim racers hate thrills and the

camera shake could make them miss the apex by a few centimeters or something,

but having the option to enable/disable these features would make it so that everyone gets what they want. Moving on,

there's sound. This may have been kind of unexpected, but hear me out. Let's say that you get

kidnapped, and this is how it's done: shoved in the trunk of a first-gen Mercedes A-Class and blindfolded.

Question: how do you tell how fast you're going? It's probably wind noise or just the feeling of the car

rolling. You wouldn't believe how effective a good, and especially loud, wind noise would be at making you feel like

you're going fast. And on top of that, a good Doppler effect and whooshing sounds for objects you speed past just augment the

feeling of speed. Here, the argument that it would affect the cornering ability of hardcore sim racers is just nonexistent.

So please, can we go from this to this? Okay, maybe turn it down a bit. Perfect! And finally, there's road

wideness. The wideness, or rather the tightness of the roads, has, in my opinion, the strongest effect in making you feel

like you're going fast. This isn't really addressable in the majority of racing sims, since, well, you're always driving on

race tracks, and it's not like the developers can just tighten them while these tracks are wide by design, so that

You know, you can actually race on them, so in this case, you're going to have to resort to the other methods I've spoken

about. Also, if you can think of other methods to convey the sense of speed, please let me know in the comments, because I'm

stupid and I probably missed something. But for open-world racing games such as Forza Horizon, which, to be fair, does feel kind

of slow, as another YouTuber called Jake MB said in his video regarding the subject, this could really bring them to

the next level. I'm aware of the fact that having completely faithful road dimensions would be [__] for playability,

but come on, do highway lanes really need to be that [__] wide? This is why GTA 5 feels [__] quick,

even though the fastest cars can barely reach 200 kph. And it's not like you can't race in that game, so I can

confidently say that something in between real-life road dimensions and the current Forza Horizon wide roads would

be the best of both worlds. But why? Why care so much about the sense of speed? Is it just so that 12-year-old Muya doesn't

fall asleep while playing Gran Turismo 6? Well, actually, yes, but not entirely. Right now, I am in the process of getting a

driver's license, and every time I get behind the wheel it feels kind of scary, even if I'm just going at 30 km/h.

That's because of the intrinsic risks of driving; anything could go wrong. This may sound slightly pessimistic, and it is, but

it's actually kind of good to be a little afraid of something. It makes your heart beat faster; it releases those good

brain chemicals.  B-roll is like, so much fun is good, but kind of scary fun is even better. Just take roller coasters as

an example; the sketchier and faster they are, the more fun you have, until you wake up in an emergency room. You don't really

I have this feeling while playing most racing games, like, what's the worst that could happen? Another good thing

about having a solid sense of speed is knowing your car's limits. This is also linked to realism. If drivers knew

nothing would happen to them if they wrecked their car into a wall, we'd have some seriously impressive lap times.

records. This is why BeamNG Drive, which is an open-world sandbox game, actually terrifies you when you're going above

200 kilometers per hour. When you're really immersed in the driving, the mere knowledge that you could potentially end

up wrapped around that tree makes you feel things that most other racing games just can't. This is also why GTA 5,

despite its low-poly cars, feels a lot more engaging than proper racing simulators. And that's not considering

the fact that you can also... yep. Anyways, sorry for the various tangents. I just... racing games scare the crap out

Why Racing Games Feel Slow

Why Racing Games Feel Slow

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