Amazon Games Signs PS5 Open World Driving Title from Ex-Forza Horizon Devs

Driving and racing games don't often have the best relationship with stories. I sense this will end up being more like the Mad Max game in style.

You kinda start off on the wrong foot with me when you say open world driving. I tend to not like them but of course we'll see.

Yes, because what racing game fans truly, DEEPLY desire is more story.

These companies are run by buffoons.

Wish they’d buy Criterion so we can get a new/traditional Burnout game ffs

@MFTWrecks I would argue a good story can enhance any game but it just seems really hard to do in racing games for some reason and pacing is really important if you're even going to try in a racing game.

@WolfyTn me too, would love a new burnout. I would even take a remaster of 3/revenge with the soundtracks not changed.

Sounds completely un-mainstream, but I guess we'll see...

@MrMagic I think it's partially the mentality of racing. It's so straightforward: "I want to go fast and do things fast and be the fastest."

Slowing down the action, which can be SO IMMEDIATE thanks to the technology of a videogame - it can so easily feed on that impulse/thrill, just ends up taking more away than it adds.

Could be cool but I mean ex Forza Horizon devs I mean sure good luck to them. If they were ex Bizarre Creations staff or other staff from other places even. I just want to see other ideas, not just recycle competition.

More festival stories, NFS style or otherwise pass. Yes you can tell I barely play or ever cared for these games. I prefer circuit/point to point it's why I didn't mind old NFS 2 or Gear Club Unlimited 2 besides the typical Wreckfest arcade no licenses circuit racing or the big GT 1-6 or Forza Motorsport 1-4 while 5-7 were passable or terrible.

I'd love even more touge/hillclimbs as haven't seen those since Grid 2008/Tokyo Extreme Racer or Forza Motorsport 4. If they are in open world racers I haven't seen them but I feel those games replace those modes in circuit based games and that sucks.

Besides Forza Horizon is so big yet so terrible yet people don't care it's brand name at this point more than content that's good so ex devs making a competitor will it overcome things. Pffft no. They can try but how many people care.

Same with Sims competitor in progress. Sims 4 is so big yet so bad yet people don't move on due to comfort even if it's badly mishandled and a competitor can do a good job with better ideas. Fingers crossed.

But do you know what I ACTUALLY WANT. Not an open world but a Project Gotham Racing successor, cities or other locations. None of this open world missions and more nonsense give me city layouts again and good event types.

Most of the time it ends up being just Point A to B or drifting or this and that. I don't want to 'drive' on a menu/level select around recreations of the world couldn't care less. Stop with the holiday destination nonsense.

Give players/customers an actual good game with varied modes and a menu, GOOD custom track designs with the locations, will we see the walk-able dealership or garage again, no. Geometry Wars is fine on it's own with 3 on current platforms anyways.

Burnout Paradise was fair but even then I tolerated my enjoyment besides the destination races, the takedowns/stunts events were good.

Horizon I just don't care for at all I got bored really quickly.

Tomb Raider in 2013+ hub form like Borderlands or something else of the different regions but interconnected tunnels/barriers was fair but an open world wasn't hard to see coming from there it had the open world format kind of already there just not as large scale of 'empty space' but missions/icons on the map design was already there any way so it's just a larger jump just not that different of design.

To me cutting out the holiday destination feel or 'emptiness' of these open world racers I just want menus and to jump into custom tracks.

Kind of like how I find MotoGP3 the best why because 20 custom tracks for it's challenges/multiplayer fun then the typical tracks in each season that appear that are 'fine' but to me who cares you see some there some not per game due to licenses/season appearance, wow so what there is like 100s of games or the same repeats anyways. Or GP16/Rossi the game with it's rally/dirt bike side content.

Giving players something different would be nice then ANOTHER open world racer, because the main 3 or so are "FINE" but something different would be nice every once in a while.

No, ok thanks developers/industry this is why it sucks is competition is so boring and the slight differences between games isn't exciting anymore. They are too safe and too we did this different but still made it 90% the same game.

Wow how imaginative, not.

Games used to have bolder ideas in their competition, no TOCA both PS1/2 trilogies or Gran Turismo 3 or Sega GT or Tokyo Extreme Racer or Burnout, these days they are so carbon copy it's boring and unexciting differences added to games anymore I can't barely tell the difference and the differences are just so who cares. Maybe some subtle benefits but not enough to sell a whole game on and no the location/setting doesn't count. It is marketable worthy but in my eyes are just the same boring maps set in some place more visually difference with all the landmarks, but is at the end of the day a boring open world map with buildings/spaces for trees and other gaps in it. A boring map.

Gaming when broken down yes shouldn't be said as so but it's because they are so boring that I can't not see them as nothing more than 'game format insert here aka open world in this case'. Because they are boring. The missions are boring, the maps are boring to play in. Holiday destination recreations of places in the world is boring. The layouts for point to point are boring as ever that's why the tightness of the cities in PGR were so good.

I mean I'm strict on open worlds because the maps aren't playground fun enough (it's why I only like about 2-3, that being hub ones or actual open worlds) and want have no interesting in the 'to be fancy' and boring or the missions suck. Just wow do this and that, fight these. BORING.

Give us something fun with abilities oh wait most games have basic human characters that are so boring to play as they have nothing special to make me want to play as them, their dialogue is boring, the world they play/live in is boring or boring apocalypse animals with no animal exciting moves (Biomutant, it has animal quirks but I mean no dig, no swim, no flight but we have a glider, we have 4 leg sprinting and peeing on checkpoints, what a joke). Pathetic.

I don't expect super humans but when many of them ARE the best characters for missions (Infamous Second Son finding cameras or spray painting was more fun then the boring fight enemies, do outposts talk to these people missions of the main story/other side missions pass, I beat the story/did 90% of it I just didn't catch the other people side missions and it had no dynamic elements yet the first game did wow good/bad points dynamically or scripted and boring of point counts like come on).

In Spiderman 2018 or others case are so boring only the lab puzzles or 3 side missions are fun because ground pound, laser avoidance and radar turning is FUN. The whole game sucks because nothing you do in it is using your abilities just boring stuff ANY OTHER CHARACTER CAN DO or any BORING HUMAN CHARACTER WITH NO INTERESTING ABILITIES CAN DO. Why would I want to play that.

I play games for interactivity not a movie/dialogue/visual appealing session. I find cars as characters fun, cars as dream cars are boring and that's why I hate open world racers or GT/Forza circuit entries that throw candy car rewards at players the progression sucks and the goals are boring.

I don't play games to roleplay as myself and go wow I would love to not use a grapple hook because never used one before. Games need interesting interactivity/abilities yet they push saving a cat from a tree or getting them your shopping levels of boring tasks. I'd love to pick up some garbage and give it between others. AKA basic RPG quests. They aren't fun.

100+ layouts of custom circuits and small to big circuits I never got bored and well the progression besides that, I hated 4 with the calendar/eh format so only played the arcade mode of that game really then the career. Same reason I hate Forza Motorsport 3 & 4 the boring calendar format when the event selection was much better when I chose what to do not get hand holded even if done fairly well of variety it jumps the player between of choices. People that want that got that, people that don't get to jump around the event list but still get the perks of the reward cars just none of the trophies/achievements.

@MFTWrecks That's how many people may play them is their dream cars but to me tweaking the cars, swapping them based on drive train, tires, pit stops, shortcuts, going between tracks, reverse layouts make it more challenging then normal variations. The little details make racing games fun besides just go fast the video game. The terrain/elevation, the corners and the other details are fun enough for some of us. Or a nemesis system.

I get why people play kart racers is the characters and weapons but some of us see real cars in simcade as characters (we don't need cars to have eyes life more than an object or be a human/animal to care) and the tracks challenges in their design as part of the fun.

Sure kart racers/scifi racers with weapons or nitro/turbo or speed pads can seem better than real cars and the arcadey/sim format. I mean arcade racers have their benefits of unrealistic driving with real cars. I mean Split Second and Blur having kart racing like elements with real cars didn't sell well but have cult followings for a reason is it's not about the lap times or favourite cars it's about the gameplay and putting a spin then just brand selling over and over again.

When fake tracks are more fun then REAL ones to me that's also why is how they make driving fun not wow real life tracks/cars that you see everywhere and couldn't care less about over time (at least for me that is, same reason I don't care for open worlds with city recreations, unless it's a playground it's a holiday destination and I don't play holiday destinations I play games for being games).

8th gen+ made racing games are worse not to mention seeing more annual ones or less racing games to the few we see nowadays and the odd ones appearing.

I mean Inertia Drift, Horizon Chase Turbo, Distance, Art of Rally are Indie examples that prove it's more than 'being fast'. More so then nostaglia copy cats with nothing unique like Sega Rally, Outrun, Micro Machines or Virtua Racing clones I've seen.

Not all of us racing game fans are sports minded of teams or favourite cars we do want progression or mechanics arcade or simcade, like the 5th-6th gen days and when the progression sucks we get disappointed. It's why many streamers/Youtubers play older racing games is the better mechanics/progression instead of tires there work well on the roads 'realistically' XD like couldn't care less about realism.

Like sponsors, drag racing, gymkhana cone layouts, pink slips to bet cars, the Driver San Francisco car swapping move similar to Battlefield 2 Modern Combat to hop between people around the map which was awesome (why wouldn't we want that in other racing games oh right brand selling and realism), management system, region system (Forza stopped but Ride 4 had and improved on), a car builder (not cosmetics I mean RPG like part customisation to customise builds so like character creator but for stats not just looks) or more don't sound like much but they made a difference.

I mean if character creators are just visual then the gear happens in the rest of the games and not stats for the brain, intestines or whatever for say a survival game or an RPG a car doing it makes sense.

I mean TOCA had it's what like 10-20 classes but they all felt different besides the tracks, besides the side challenges. I only enjoyed the side challenges in Forza Motorsport 6 because the tours/career was so boring of 'racing' not cones, gates, speeds, things to use a car with. It's like swinging with Spiderman in the rings is ways to use a character's abilities kind of thing. Yet 5 & 7 sprinkled them differently.

I had more fun with WRC 3 on 360/PS3 because of the mode/event types, going through many gates and balancing what I had to do between them even in the combo ones with 2-3 modes rules in 1 event was fun) that's the stuff I find fun in annual racing license games even though I usually play non annual ones, that and difficulty of modern ones are pro level kind of focus so I can't play current gen ones. Threw me off Ride 4 and MotoGP16/Rossi the game, unplayable for me the AI and the physics. I couldn't care less about the teams/cars. So in a way I probably played it like a Dirt game then an annual racing game.

The RPG elements to mod/tune a car same as a build in an RPG or how you use them with the progression or different event types to me is why I buy them besides if the game physics wise is tolerable.

The restrictions of car parts to add barriers for the player to strategize. It's like saying you can only use an axe, sword, mace, shield, fists or so in an arena event like say the Ratchet games had of limited gun or wrench challenges.

Like cone gates, kudos (stylish driving points), like speed limits to reach, like touge (hillclimb drifting), hillclimbs aka stuff we barely ever see anymore because only 'common' events show up these days.

Not all of us want licensed cars/tracks, track times and candy car rewards. Some of us want fun and see the cars as characters to use not brand selling or livery customisation.

Raycevick's video on why racing games suck among other youtubers say similar problem many of us racing game fans have of progression, content, focus on game development and play older racing games these days and find gems then care about current ones with aspects we don't like because of the business model in an iRacing to buy each track/car or boring roulettes and progression like GT7.

Some players do buy into what you are saying but some of us do want as much as other games in other genres offer yet we don't see it because esports or Forza Horizon 5 levels of stagnant laziness in content handling among other things.

The racing game coming to Switch soon. https://www.vgchartz.com/article/458379/hot-lap-racing-announced-for-switch-and-pc/ (couldn't find the Nintendo Life more newer article)

Has wow classes and licenses but basic event types is why I'm 'interested' to get something like a Grid Autosport on Switch but because it's so boring with lazy event types/progression I'm mad they wasted their budget on licenses then an interesting game design focus instead.

Are these the longest comment posts in the website’s history?

@Totheteeth Maybe. I've probably seen other big ones on other posts or equally on Pure Xbox as well in other articles.

I can cut it down, just struggle to sometimes. My bad rambling.

I've reached the YouTube comments character limit before probably 5 times and had to add on to a reply to keep going or just end it in the one comment. Not if Push Square or other news platforms have one.

I know not a worthy achievement. XD But cool to do.

Then again either saying something simple or wow cool and small talk responding and leaving.

Not my style so yeah big comments from me happens sometimes.

How else to make points? If it isn't a YouTube video it's a long comment/script/essay not a tweet/text saying barely anything.

Or I guess (10+) tweets in 1 post them broken up..

Play as an Amazon driver. Would have been perfect for the Wii U to be honest, piss in a bottle using the Gamepad while trying to avoid old ladies.

@Frmknst first ever? Even besides TOCA/R racing for circuit ones.

NFS open world games (most of the series I only play the circuit non open world ones so research which aren't) has had stories & cutscenes for years. It's clones. I'm not an NFS fans or expert it's just been a thing since I'd heard about them.

Better told ones among the open world racing genre yes I agree with you there but first nope it's been a thing for 20+ years now in the racing genre open world or circuit racing. They are just rare or only done by certain studios most go for the cards/gameplay.

Even F1 has some 'ok' stories or good management moment cutscenes. They are something. The latest was a pretty eh story but either way.

I mean to me I have problems with the genre too but at the same time generic games with cars in some.case yes or bad progression among other things and good to annoying RPG/car uses in events.

I mean sometimes yeah but look past 'cars' and what you do with them in games and it has been done it just varies. I think of cars as characters to play as just without the dialogue. If there is a story sure but sometimes playing a character without dialogue and getting on with the gameplay, no branding, just scenarios is good enough.

No platformer story is good but I get people care about them even if the gameplay is way stronger then the stories.

But for those that seek story/messages like other genres yeah I understand that the genre doesn't have many or many GOOD stories told in it nor many writers for it to attempt many very well either.

Racing game stories are nothing new underdog or climbing the ranks of street racing or other possibilities like action ones.

That or recreating historic moments as vigettes.

Stuntman being movies that play out the player drives in and it shows them at the end (Driver spin off).

Or even Driver being a driving open world not a GTA clone.

Driver San Francisco has a great story and game mechanic to jump between cars.

And the longest comments ever recorded award, goes to..... @SuntannedDuck2

@kirkn thank you. Yeah I need to cut down on them I know. I'm working on it. Long comments aren't a great look but I get too many thoughts. Can't help it.