Last week, Saber Interactive released a DLC adding trucks from Snowrunner into Dakar Desert Rally. This got us thinking about what other ‘racing game mashups’ would work well in sim racing. Here are the best ones we came up with.
Last week, popular offroad orienteering games Snowrunner and Dakar Desert Rally came together in the form of a DLC for the Rally Raid simulator. The two titles with their very different styles paired up to create one of the more unique mashups in racing game history.
While one title is all about navigating tricky terrain in a safe and responsible way, the other focuses on flying over car-breaking dunes and ridiculous speeds. This game combination shouldn’t work, yet it does, and it got us thinking. Which other racing games could thrive when mashed together in a sim racing cocktail? Here are some of the best, or craziest, ideas we have.
Mashup iRacing and BeamNG for Safer Races
It may sound like a silly idea to improve mid-race safety by enhancing the damage model, but in BeamNG.Drive, players never drive flat out, nor do they send lunges down the inside of other cars. In BeamNG, one must be careful at every corner as the slightest spin or contact can prove race-ending.
This more conservative approach is what would benefit iRacing. The randomised current damage model, in which a bump can just as easily result in a 0x with no damage as it can a massive pileup, frustrates many an iRacer. So it’s high time iRacing‘s damage model learnt a thing or two from BeamNG‘s soft body physics.
Not only would this hyper-realistic damage model give iRacing a new niche in the sim racing market, it would also calm down those that choose to race with a ‘do or die’ attitude. Push too hard and your engine goes bang. Bump draft excessively and you’ll end up in the catch fence. Throw your car down the inside as though it were a weapon, and you’ll be rueing the decision to mashup these two racing games.
Horizon Rally with Hybrid R1 Cars
A few weeks ago, the news dropped about the second and final expansion coming to Forza Horizon 5, Horizon Rally. This new DLC pack brings rally stages, modifications, special cars and a whole new map to the game. But what is a rally-focused expansion without the latest and greatest WRC vehicles?
WRC Generations is the only title to officially feature the all-new hybrid R1 rally cars. The Ford Puma, Hyundai i20 and Toyota GR Yaris could all join FH5 in the ultimate racing racing game mashup.
Sure, the open world racer will get legendary models like Colin McCrae’s Ford Focus Group A weapon. But an even better experience would be to tackle Horizon Rally’s stages in a highly modified SUV with 300 hybrid horsepower in Ford Puma R1 form. Regardless of whether the various modes and setup changes would feature in this dream scenario, more cars to own is always a good thing.
NFS Unbound, Wreckfest Mashup: Ultimate Burnout Successor?
What was arguably one of the best open world arcade racing games of the last decade? Whatever you’re thinking of, surely Burnout Paradise should be part of the discussion. A brilliant map to explore, fun races in which players find their own route to the finish and great potential for door banging that leads to huge crashes.
Fast forward to today’s open world arcade racers and nothing comes close, not even the latest Need for Speed game. While the mid-race freedom is something our very own Marvin Miller found lacking in his review of NFS Unbound, the satisfying destruction of Burnout is also sorely missed. You can crash, of course, but incidents are never as destructive as in Wreckfest for example.
Imagine for a second if EA welcomed the Bugbear team into its offices to implement Wreckfest‘s mind-boggling destruction into Need for Speed. Jump into an online lobby and not only are you fighting for wins to upgrade your car’s flashy graphics and animated smoke, you’re also battling to stay alive. When you do end up in a wall, though, the generic damage model is a thing of the past. Now, you get to see your pride and joy crumple up into a ball the size of a peanut. What’s not to like?
Which titles would you like to see combined into a racing game mashup? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
