If you always wanted to drive fast, swerve round corners at a 100km/h or more and floor the pedal at every instant possible, Singapore roads aren't for you. The good news is that there is still hope for you to hone your driving skills. With racing simulators getting more realistic with each version improving upon the previous one, racing games aren't as easy as they were a few years ago, thus the need to label such games 'simulators' instead of a 'game' which somehow seems too trivial and inconsequencial. In other words, childish. Racing games have now grown up. Here comes the real deal; on your PC or PS3... or Xbox.
One racing simulator that has taken the PC world by storm is Rfactor. You may not know it, but the simulator challenges in shopping centres all round Singapore during the F1 season have been using this software for all their 'real life F1 experiences'. One example was in Marina Square where they held the F1 challenge and offered some fantastic prizes. I have raced on that simulator before with my own wheel and I must say its not all fantastic because the mods within Rfactor are created by modding teams who create an F1 mod for instance. Some are good, some are bad. But overall, if you manage to download a really good one, you'll get the full driving experience.
However, the most well known simulator for racing fanatics is undoubtedly Gran Turismo which has remained solely on the Playstation. It has gotten better and better over the years and now with its latest version, GT 5, it can actually turn virtual reality into reality. Nissan Europe and Sony Entertainment Europe collaborated in May 2008 to form the 'GT Academy' which basically chose the fastest racer among 25,000 participants in Europe on simulator, and popped him into a real GT racing car and sent him blazing down the track in the Dubai 24 hour race. Sadly though, this wasn't available for racing addicts in Singapore. And I wonder why...
There are so many teenagers and adults alike who aspire to race on a real track, in a souped up car, in a real race. Not many are fortunate enough to afford to send in a team of their own like the Porsche Carrera Cup guys, and access to a Playstation is relatively much easier. So what is Sony Entertainment (Asia) or whatever they're called waiting for! Get these Singaporean racers in a real car and show the world that we not only can produce a world class Formula One event, but also produce professional drivers. With the number of virtual racers out there, I don't see why it isn't possible..
Come on! Chop Chop!
rfactor, pc games, playstation 3 and 1 more...
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