For all their sales figures, enormous followings, and ever-chugging hype trains, cyclical IP such as Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, Forza and Need For Speed share a common problem: they're iterative. And once again the racing genre - even new IP that genuinely build upon previous titles - has proven particularly susceptible to dulled luster. Point-and-clicks by their script, sandboxes by their vitality, shooters by their gunplay: Every genre and niche has its sticking point, its essence. For racers, unsurprisingly, that comes down to the drive, the hopefully inviting meeting of asphalt and rubber. However, with so many competent games already available, it takes more than tight handling and proper physics to surpass competency and hurtle into excellence. That's where we find new race types, smoother UI navigation, henceforth unseen vehicles, new and original tracks and much more. Racers, too, need to stop iterating, to stop playing it safe and start taking the risks their players are after. Remember, we're taking that turn at 60. What do you want to see more of in racers? What should they stop doing?
A freelance games writer, you say? Typically battling his current RPG addiction and ceaseless perfectionism? A fan of horror but too big a sissy to play for more than a couple of hours? Spends far too much time on JRPGs and gets way too angry with card games?
Well that doesn't sound anything like me.