Death of the False Start

When did it become socially acceptable for racing game developers to magically hold cars back before a race start? I hate that. I hate the accompanying noise of other drivers jamming their foot down and running their engine at full revs. That's the worst thing you can do at a race start.

Now, from memory, the last game that allowed me to completely false start was Monaco Grand Prix 2 on the PC but surely, surely there must be more? Games like Gran Turismo compromise by holding you back but place an importance on the revs you hit when the lights go green. Catch it right and you're off to a flyer.

I want some finesse back in race starts. Who's with me?

It would be cool as a menu option you could turn on or off if that's your thing. Aside from that though I don't really think the average punter would enjoy having to manage that by default. At least not in less realistic racing games.

The average punter drives so its not a difficult concept to wrap their head around.

What would happen in Monaco Grand Prix 2 when there was a false start?

I believe you got disqualified so it wasn't entirely true to life. In reality, you'd get a drive-through for it.

Does it stop the other drivers or does the race keep going without you?

Ever tried any racing-sims instead of racing games? Like iRacing or rFactor (2)? They allow you to do false starts.

When I play NFS, I want to hold down the gas before the race and create a massive cloud of dust along with the sounds of a thousand jets exploding. Then, when the light turns green, my car should blast off the line like a rocket ship, and again, sounds of thousands of jets exploding even louder.

If this isn't what you're looking for, you want a racing sim.

When I want a racing sim, I play iRacing.

To answer your question, it became socially acceptable near the dawn of arcade racing games. Those big ass machines we raced in at the arcade, you know? Cruisin Country or whatever? Cruisin USA? Around then. Not sure what you mean by "finesse back in race starts" since there was never a time where False Starts were default so far as mainstream racing games go :D :S ?

All that said, an option to turn it on in arcadey games would be nice. But that's just not what most arcade peeps want from an arcade game. Simulation Racing games should already have what you're looking for, keeping in mind that Gran Turismo and Forza are more arcade-sim blends than raw sims.

@iron1c: I figured they might do but I've never given rFactor a shot due to my PC being kind useless for gaming.

I dunno where I got the idea false starts were more common.

@shindig: Project CARS.

yeah while we're at it lets get rid of blue shells. those things only go a few feet when you lob 'em irl.

I'm more into accurately showing false starts where the game is depicting a real world racing championship - F1, for example ought to follow F1's rules for false starts.