Thanks to the miracle of violent, hilarious science, we now have irrefutable proof that driving a car in a videogame is absolutely nothing at all like driving a car in real life.
Serious simulators aside, most videogames force players to drive their cars from the third-person view, a perspective that not only shows off the action better than a cockpit view but also helps compensate for the lack of peripheral vision inherent in games. But how would that point of view work in real life? The intrepid science team at Rooster Teeth decided to find out.
Using “$2500 worth of camera equipment sitting on top of what looks like duct tape and zip ties,” the team attached a video rig to a Ford pickup with blacked-out windows, then had two expert test drivers take it out for a spin. The name of the game was to stay within the preset course and avoid – or possibly hit, that part isn’t too clear – all the “inflatable pedestrians” along the side of the road. To ensure genuine videogame authenticity, two members of the Yakuza also took part in the experiment.
The results are about what you’d expect: Funny, violent and laced with obscenities. Educational, too! But really, kids: Please don’t try this at home. (And if you do, be sure to get video.)
