izigame.me

I’d like to propose a name change for my current favorite Steam game, Classic Sport Driving;
“Eyes On the ROAD!”
Or, depending on player mood,
“Outta My Way, MORON!!!”
Either name offers preview and perspective as to just how precise, and infuriating, this wonderfully compelling and engaging racing game can be.
Classic Sport Driving (CSD) offers 16 tracks for racing with one of two goals;
1) In solo mode the objective is to race against the clock to gain one, two or three stars to advance to the next track (or level of tracks.).
2) In multiplayer mode, each day’s head-to-head race is against human opponents from around the world, the goal being a cumulative (and daily) global ranking.
Each day is a different track, and/or with different race conditions.
CSD has two levels of difficulty, but seemingly not in the traditional sense. The “easier” 12 tracks are apparently locked on ARCADE, and the more difficult final four seem to be locked on PRO. Be warned that PRO level is HARD!
In either solo or MP mode, CSD offers visual cues as to how well you’re doing in the form of either:
1) a moving clock ghost (in solo) representing where you should be to best achieve success for each star, or
2) ghosts representing competing humans (in MP), though not live, exactly. Head-to-head racing can be paused or restarted as desired, so how players see each other is something I’ve no specific knowledge of. One might presume a prior "best race" is shown as each driver’s track presence to other players. Watching human opponent’s ghosts as they bounce off invisible AI cars seems evidence that H2H racing is not viewed entirely live. (Personally, I like the anonymity of not broadcasting my every screw-up live to the world.) Each MP racer should keep in mind that while their race is live (to each of them), their human opponents are likely not.
In either solo or multiplayer scenario, the obstacles are the same three;
1) weather/environment,
2) AI drivers who just “happen” to be on the road (all headed in the same direction at high speed, as if escaping Armageddon), and...
3) your own success.
Driving at night or in the fog or rain on wet roads (or any combination thereof) adds considerable difficulty, but not nearly as much as one’s AI “opponents”. While AI cars are not competing for time, they do seem focused on wrecking your day up to and including swerving suddenly into your path or slamming you completely off the road. (On the other hand, I once navigated a tricky turn by caroming off two precisely placed AI cars, but that’s not something to be expected more than about once a lifetime.) They are there to impede your progress, pure and simple, and they feel all too human in that endeavor. (FWIW, I successfully "navigated" myself out of an IRL ticket in traffic court yesterday, so I have that annoying human perspective on driving to consider.)
The third opponent may be the most insidious: yourself. Once the race begins, your car’s speed apparently never stops building. (Or rather, I've seen it increase to as much as 179 MPH, about 290 KPH. Whether that's my limit or the game's, I can't be sure.) That being said, just like IRL, speed is slowed by various events;
leaving the road,
hitting obstacles (particularly the larger(?) rocks),
going uphill,
braking (d'uh),
taking a sharp turn, and...
slamming into the back of an AI car.
The faster one goes, the harder it is to stay on the road, make a sharp turn, or navigate through what can essentially be a minefield of AI drivers. (Thus, my suggested “EOtR” or “OMWM!!!”) For this reason, no competing human drivers will ever be driving exactly the same speed at any point in each race.
And that brings us to nitro boosters. (No, there is not some angry lady screaming for “NYQUILL” every minute or so, even if it may seem like a particularly annoying example of product placement.) Nitro offers a small boost immediately, but often at a cost. If it’s necessary to change one’s path more than a trace or “interrupt one’s Zen” to hit a nitro booster, it’s likely a mistake. (And if it places you behind an AI car…BIG mistake.) So while nitro boosters are really nice for an uphill boost, or to move you through a generally clear space at greater speed, they also accelerate you toward that speed that may eventually prove unmanageable if the race continues long enough.
I’ve not really focused on the individual experience of playing CSD, since that will be each player’s own story to relate. In reviews I see CSD compared to several console games from the past (always positively), but I don't share that experience, and cannot compare. However, it may offer perspective to say that CSD has become my new early morning wakeup ritual, even before I put on the more traditional pot of coffee, and it succeeds admirably! Despite being a beat-to-hell and 100% disabled 65-year-old, I really enjoy Classic Sport Driving and find it entirely accessible, and I suspect most gamers will enjoy it just as much as I do. The developers seem deeply committed to improvement, and that may be the surest sign of a great game with a strong future.
Thank you for reading.