I did end up seeing that Xbox Direct thing recently, with only four games and two of them are pretty much under the same developer but with different teams apparently. Nothing that made me want to buy an overpriced Sexbox though, but they’ll be putting stuff on PS5 and PC anyway if I do want to check anything out. Out of all the games mentioned, I may want to look at Forza Horizon 6, but maybe see if I can borrow that from a library for the PS5 whenever that is. Yes, the car game of all things interests me most. Apparently they’re looking to go back to how the games were before, involving more of a progression system through the ranks, instead of just being the champion leader that they’ll pave over a whole country for and hand out supercars for as much as getting up in the morning. But there’s also paid DLC to get those cars immediately because Microsoft.
Then I remembered this idea I had about the games and how it’s this whole ordeal that takes over at least a significant chunk of the country or general region they end up in. The first one was just some random part of Colorado I think, then they just started taking over more territory with each thing. Essentially like those big international games that happen every leap year and in between, but more so the summer ones, you know the ones probably, the ones where most countries except the ones boycotting the host show up or whatever, and if they do end up cancelled it means a major war or disaster has happened.
My main point is this idea I have involves having the player character just being a civilian that lives in the area about to be taken over by the big car event going about their usual routine, during this time there’s enforced traffic laws that can result in tickets or arrest. Then things happen like there’s a bunch of arbitrary barriers around places like work and groceries, and also any law enforcement just vanishes while the festival takes hold, including releasing the player character from jail in case they were arrested for traffic violations. Then they have to deal with the participants who are driving around the roads at extreme speeds, and sometimes just straight up being insane drivers who plot relatively straight lines between points on the map, much like how I’ve played the Forizon games to get to whatever events, plowing through whatever breakable objects are in the way. And the idea is just attempting to live a life while avoiding this whole thing, possibly having to move to another area nearby but then that one gets taken over as the festival expands, and realizing that it probably won’t stop until they either want it to or someone else stops it.
Maybe something happens where sabotage becomes an option, or maybe finding the displaced police forces who are more than happy to declare war on the festival and reluctantly agreeing to work with them, then it turns out the festival was holding military equipment this whole time as a defensive measure in case there was resistance to the festival being held, so naturally the police bring their already-issued military equipment to counter that, and the festival still holds their races in the middle of active battlefields because that draws in the audiences. Then they end up expanding into Death Race types of rules where racers now get points for running over anyone in the roads or totaling civilian cars, or they just end up getting mounted weapons and now it’s Carmageddon and Twisted Metal and all those other late 1990s games that were getting blamed for real-life violence as always.
Eventually the festival declares the “finale” and places nukes around the festival’s area, set up to go off during the final show-off event or something, and having to locate and disarm those before then. Then there’s a last showdown with the festival leader before they leave by helicopter, but they probably end up getting away in exchange for dropping all charges and penalties against the region for fighting back. Then there’s some epilogue where it shows what happens during rebuilding, done at the region’s expense because the festival leader didn’t agree to pay for it as part of the deal, like getting a new governor or president or whoever because the previous one encouraged and got a payout for the festival and were overwhelmingly voted out or fired, and the police go to their usual police business of brutally enforcing the law or their interpretation of it, including the draconian traffic laws put in place as a reaction to the festival. The player character ends up just staying in town because not only will it never be hit by the festival again as part of the deal, but also because they’re too broke to consider moving especially after all the damage from the festival.
I guess it ends up being a parody of those car games, but also a weird critique of any other major sports organization that takes over a significant part of a country to displace the existing government and also the residents due to severe costs and other factors. I do find these car games fun if I’m in the mood for them and can find other things to do than just regular races, but I find myself thinking about the implications of things as well, even if it is fun from a player perspective to get up to very unsafe speeds and plow through most small plant life and structures and jump half the map in one go.