Similarly to what I did in 2020 and 2022, I wanted to list some of the racing games releasing this year that I feel are noteworthy. Feel free to point out any I missed!
Forza Motorsport (Series, PC)
By far the headliner of this year in regards to racing games, after an unprecedented six year break for the biannual franchise, Forza is finally back promising a true next-gen experience! Featuring a claimed x48 improvement in the calculations of the physics, fully dynamic weather and time of day in all tracks, and even some neat little extras like RT reflections during gameplay and RTGI on replays - the new Forza Motorsport will most definitely end up a great technical showcase of what the Series X and Series S are capable of doing. This game in particular is getting
Wreckreation (PS4, PS5, X1, Series, PC)
After the tepid reaction to Three Fields Entertainment's Dangerous Driving in 2019, and the radio silence on their supposed open world sequel for years, many had assumed the worst for the studio. However, last year they finally announced their next game: Wreckreation, an open world racing game where the entire world is editable! You can place roads, ramps, loops, obstacles, etc. on the entire map and share it with other people over the internet. Frankly, the studio and its publisher THQ Nordic are not particularly known for polish or quality, so I remain cautious about it, but if they can nail the concept it'll probably be one of the most fun racing games released this year.
Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown (PS5, Series, PC)
Originally meant to release last year, Solar Crown is a very ambitious open world racing game which claims to recreate Hong Kong on a 1:1 scale. Though despite being announced 2 years ago and getting multiple trailers since, very little is known about the game, with only a few screenshots in its Steam store page being the only in-game content that's publicly available, so "it remains to be seen" applies to... pretty much everything. Hopefully it's good though! The screenshots showed some good visual and terrain variety so even if that 1:1 scale ends up being a bit of a lie it can still be a very fun game. The game is also no longer coming to PS4 and Xbox One, so hopefully they'll be able to make good use of the new consoles.
EA Sports WRC (Unknown)
Technically this game isn't officially announced, but multiple reliable sources have claimed its releasing in Spring 2023 so its probably correct. Wouldn't normally list what's presumably a yearly franchise on these lists but given it's the first WRC game post Codemasters getting the license, I'm really interested on what the end result ends up being, as by the same rumors EA also cancelled an upcoming Dirt Rally 3.0 to avoid competing with this game. Hopefully the Dirt franchise can still continue despite this, maybe focusing on more arcade racers like Dirt 5 and leaving the simulation to this new EA WRC line.
Gran Turismo 7 (PS VR2)
It was announced recently that Gran Turismo 7 would be supporting PlayStation's upcoming VR headset in some way or form. We still don't have many details unfortunately, and I imagine the impact of this release will depend heavily on what content is available, but at worst it will still be a way to experience iconic cars in VR. I played a TON of Gran Turismo Sport's very limited PS VR mode and let me tell you, it truly makes you appreciate the level of detail that went into modelling these cars as well as finally getting a sense of scale of the tracks featured in the game.
Trackmania (PS4, PS5, X1, Series)
As it was announced last year, the popular physics-based arcade racer is finally arriving to consoles in a (relatively) uncompromised form. Hundreds of official tracks and thousands of community-made tracks will be available for consoles on day 1, and assuming the pricing structure remains the same, you can access almost all of it for just $10 per year. I hate sounding like an advertisement but it truly is a good deal for the amount of content available, and though the PC version will still remain the most feature-complete and probably what dedicated console players will end up moving to, the console version finally promises a proper Trackmania experience on these platforms.
Of course, new games will probably get announced throughout the year but it seems like a fairly standard year with arguably Forza Motorsport being the only properly big game releasing. I'm not aware of any cool indie surprises slated to release soon so hopefully there will be some!
Forza Motorsport (Series, PC)
By far the headliner of this year in regards to racing games, after an unprecedented six year break for the biannual franchise, Forza is finally back promising a true next-gen experience! Featuring a claimed x48 improvement in the calculations of the physics, fully dynamic weather and time of day in all tracks, and even some neat little extras like RT reflections during gameplay and RTGI on replays - the new Forza Motorsport will most definitely end up a great technical showcase of what the Series X and Series S are capable of doing. This game in particular is getting
Wreckreation (PS4, PS5, X1, Series, PC)
After the tepid reaction to Three Fields Entertainment's Dangerous Driving in 2019, and the radio silence on their supposed open world sequel for years, many had assumed the worst for the studio. However, last year they finally announced their next game: Wreckreation, an open world racing game where the entire world is editable! You can place roads, ramps, loops, obstacles, etc. on the entire map and share it with other people over the internet. Frankly, the studio and its publisher THQ Nordic are not particularly known for polish or quality, so I remain cautious about it, but if they can nail the concept it'll probably be one of the most fun racing games released this year.
Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown (PS5, Series, PC)
Originally meant to release last year, Solar Crown is a very ambitious open world racing game which claims to recreate Hong Kong on a 1:1 scale. Though despite being announced 2 years ago and getting multiple trailers since, very little is known about the game, with only a few screenshots in its Steam store page being the only in-game content that's publicly available, so "it remains to be seen" applies to... pretty much everything. Hopefully it's good though! The screenshots showed some good visual and terrain variety so even if that 1:1 scale ends up being a bit of a lie it can still be a very fun game. The game is also no longer coming to PS4 and Xbox One, so hopefully they'll be able to make good use of the new consoles.
EA Sports WRC (Unknown)
Technically this game isn't officially announced, but multiple reliable sources have claimed its releasing in Spring 2023 so its probably correct. Wouldn't normally list what's presumably a yearly franchise on these lists but given it's the first WRC game post Codemasters getting the license, I'm really interested on what the end result ends up being, as by the same rumors EA also cancelled an upcoming Dirt Rally 3.0 to avoid competing with this game. Hopefully the Dirt franchise can still continue despite this, maybe focusing on more arcade racers like Dirt 5 and leaving the simulation to this new EA WRC line.
Gran Turismo 7 (PS VR2)
It was announced recently that Gran Turismo 7 would be supporting PlayStation's upcoming VR headset in some way or form. We still don't have many details unfortunately, and I imagine the impact of this release will depend heavily on what content is available, but at worst it will still be a way to experience iconic cars in VR. I played a TON of Gran Turismo Sport's very limited PS VR mode and let me tell you, it truly makes you appreciate the level of detail that went into modelling these cars as well as finally getting a sense of scale of the tracks featured in the game.
Trackmania (PS4, PS5, X1, Series)
As it was announced last year, the popular physics-based arcade racer is finally arriving to consoles in a (relatively) uncompromised form. Hundreds of official tracks and thousands of community-made tracks will be available for consoles on day 1, and assuming the pricing structure remains the same, you can access almost all of it for just $10 per year. I hate sounding like an advertisement but it truly is a good deal for the amount of content available, and though the PC version will still remain the most feature-complete and probably what dedicated console players will end up moving to, the console version finally promises a proper Trackmania experience on these platforms.
Of course, new games will probably get announced throughout the year but it seems like a fairly standard year with arguably Forza Motorsport being the only properly big game releasing. I'm not aware of any cool indie surprises slated to release soon so hopefully there will be some!
![00Quan[T]](/data/avatar/31681832007/115484-m.jpg){kind=avatar}
