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Does AI Writing in Gaming Finally Mean We'll Get Good Stories in Racing Sims?

It's no classified governmental secret that racing games aren't what you would call heartwrenching when it comes to scripts and dialogue. Sometimes, lines between NPCs (non-playable characters) and your character range from borderline awful to extremely cringy. Technically-inclined experiences like F1 22 and Gran Turismo 7, which don't rest on the shoulders of storytelling, are somewhat safe from these tropes, but others like NFS Unbound sometimes have the most awkward lines, just to show the younger audience they're still 'cool.' 
Does AI Writing in Gaming Finally Mean We'll Get Good Dialogue in Racing Games? 13 photos
Photo: Unreal Engine
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I wasn't singling out NFS Unbound or anything like that; it just came to mind because I haven't played a lot of driving games with a heavy focus on story in recent years, and the Unbound simply popped up first.

To be completely honest, maybe the lines I deem worthy as 'cringy' in NFS are nothing else but the side effect of me getting too old and cranky to stay up to date with Gen Z slang and whatnot. And just like any working man that pays his own bills, I can't be bothered with learning every newborn term from social media.

So back in November, when I was trying Unbound for the first time and heard my young in-game sidekick incessantly crack wise jokes at Rydell, an older character, I think I rolled my eyes so hard my neighbors could hear casino slot machine sounds coming from my living room.

And not because Rydell's 'I'm too old for this' attitude hit close to home (even though it did), but the dialogue seemed too forced, most probably to score some points with the 'Snapchatting' younglings.

Rivian R1T in Unreal Engine 5\.2 demo
Photo: Rivian
I'm not throwing jabs at the writers in any shape or form because, at the end of the day, they are merely employees taking orders from the 'suits upstairs.' All I'm trying to ask is if snappy adolescent one-liners meant to target a younger audience is all we're ever gonna get?

Or can we move beyond focus-tested script writing and come up with an awesome story for once to prove that racing games aren't just about pressing the gas pedal and that they can become something much more?

It's not like the gaming industry is lacking in narrative talent, but it seems like there's this status quo of simply getting by with a festival-based storyline like in Forza Horizon or in the upcoming Motorfest from The Crew franchise.

It might just be a pipe dream at the end of the day, locked tightly between the inner lining of my skull, but because I'm passionate about story-driven games like Uncharted, The Last of Us, God of War, and so on, I would love to see a racing game with a story so memorable, that people won't know what hit them.

Rivian R1T in Unreal Engine 5\.2 demo
Photo: Rivian
Not to sound like a pedantic 'crazy cat lady,' but whether or not Henry Ford actually uttered the words "If I'd ask customers what they wanted, they would've told me a faster horse," it doesn't make them any less plausible. So why not apply this philosophy to racing games as well, especially now that they're getting turned into movies, just like Gran Turismo will be hitting theaters this summer?

Now back to what started my one-way rant, Ubisoft's 'Ghostwriter' AI software that, in layman's terms, isn't meant to replace actual people but was created as a tool to help write NPC 'barks,' or pointless chatter.

You know how in GTA, if you stand next to characters on the street, you'll hear them utter conversations among themselves or on the phone? Well, every dialogue line is painstakingly written by dozens of people, and when you have miles-worth of text inside a game like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the time and effort to come up with every single word keep piling up, which in turn increases the overall production time.

From what Ubi's saying about their in-house AI tool from their R&D department, La Forge Montreal, everything sounds peachy-keen. Ghostwriter could take care of the grunt work and create these NPC 'barks,' so less pressure will be put on the writers' shoulders.

Rivian R1T in Unreal Engine 5\.2 demo
Photo: Rivian
In turn, they could focus more on creating a truly engaging main story or even side ones instead of having to churn out tomes of non-essential chatter like police radio communications, for example.

Grid Legends is a good example of a narrative-driven campaign, even though it fell a bit short for my taste, focusing on trivial things like beating the 'bad guy' in competitions just because it's what the 'good guy' does.

Now, if you were to pair a newly-found narrative focus with the latest and greatest Unreal 5 graphics revealed recently, then it might just make racing movies obsolete because why would you simply watch something that looks that good when you could pick up a controller and actually play it?

Whether this genre 'savior' will see the light of day anytime soon, who's to tell? But hope springs eternal, even though sometimes it's nothing more than "just a fool's hope," like Gandalf the White once uttered.
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Editor's note: Gallery shows Unreal Engine 5 images of the Rivian R1T.

About the author: Codrin Spiridon
Codrin Spiridon profile photo

Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive).
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