I've recently discovered a love of racing games, and driving titles in general.  Track racing, arcade-style driving, doing flippy stunts, and even occasionally embracing my malicious side and smashing things with the front and of a demolition derby car.  So, being that I've wandered onto this side, the thought occurred to me that there could, potentially, be an MMO that takes advantage of this type of gameplay.

Let's start with the basics.  Each player would start out by making both an avatar and a basic vehicle.  The avatar would be fairly straightforward, a human-shaped character with arms, legs, a head, and colored and shaped and put into clothing as the player sees fit.  The vehicle, meanwhile, would be fully customizable, with several frames on which players can attach engines, wheels, windscreens, seats, and weaponry (although I would suggest that this weaponry be more imaginative then simply guns and missiles.  Having an articulated catapult that tosses boulders, or the ability to drop marbles from the back end.)  Naturally, players would then be able to pick up car and character upgrades throughout the world, either through shops or via drops.  Certain items would have certain effects, both positive and negative, including adding to the weight of your craft, increasing how well it handles on road as opposed to off it, or negating the effectiveness of certain items.  A hovercraft isn't going to be hard to handle on marbles or ice, for instance.

Now, gameplay would handle alot more like a driving game then an MMO, at least while the player is in their car.  There is the option of getting out, and moving around like a classical WoWish MMORPG, but this is not recommended due to the player's squishy nature outside of their vehicle.  Anywho, players would be able to take missions, grind on monsters (by running them down, mostly), or simply explore the world at large.  Fuel is another example of this sort of thing.  Big, gigantic world to explore and race in, but with lots of MMO elements too, rather then just being big for the sake of being big.  I would suggest it be fantasy-based as well, if only because the concept of killing a dragon by driving a car off a cliff and spearing it through the heart mid-flight would be just so incredibly awesome as to make the ensuing splat against the jagged rocks below entirely worthwhile.

As far as specific missions go, going around killing monsters and delivering the mail is all well and good, but there can be more variety here.  Races, for instance, could easily take place.  Either circuit races or point-to-point, with players having the option of making their own and holding checkpoint races.  Players can even enguage one another in PvP races, and can each pony up a bit of cash beforehand to sweeten the win even further.  On top of all of that, there would be boss battles, which would amount to large monsters wandering around the landscape and the players, plucky as they may be, trying very hard to bring it down for the mass AoE XP that would result.  That gets a bit harder since most of the bosses would be puzzle bosses, rather then just heaping slabs of HP.  One in particular that I have in mind is a boss that loks like it belongs in Shadow of the Colossus.  It's a giant stone best that will slam it's head down onto the ground, creating an earthquake.  Players would then need to drive up onto his bowed head, onto his back, wait for him to stand up, and then traverse the stone ramps and platforms on his body before they can find a tunnel leading into his weak point, his heart.  Pound on that enough, and the big guy hits the ground.

Thoughts anyone?

• StrikeRacer
• GoGoRacer
• ProjectTorque
• KartRider

Check those out.

 I'd recommend Auto Assault. Oh, wait... nevermind.

By the way, I'll be checking those racing suggestions.

Originally posted by LynxJSA

 

• StrikeRacer
• GoGoRacer
• ProjectTorque
• KartRider

 

Check those out.

Not remotely what I had in mind, but thanks for the suggestions.