We've all done it. You buy a new driving game, then win a few races, drive a few of the cars on a few of the circuits, and play around with a few settings.
Then, you pick a car, pick a track and spend an entire race crashing into other cars, walls and anything else you can find to revel in the destruction.
Sadly, some games don't make this very satisfying, which is where a company called BeamNG comes in.
We've covered BeamNG and its hyper-realistic "soft physics" engine before, but the team has been working hard behind the scenes to make its spectacular crashes even more realistic.
The attention to detail is incredible, with cars deforming in seemingly limitless ways according to the angle of the crash, the bit of bodywork being hit, the size and weight of the vehicle and more.
Hoods crumple, bodywork is smashed off and windscreens shatter. Watching the head-on collisions looks just like the crashes you see from official safety tests, and suspension too appears to react to the road in the same way a real car would.
For gamers, this opens up a whole new avenue of realism in driving games. We've seen damage for years, but now an accident could spell the end of your race, just as it might in real life. Or you could limp back to the pits, as they do during the Le Mans 24 Hours, and watch the pit crews try to patch up your battered and bruised machine.
The BeamNG team is still working on its physics engine, and still wants to add several more features--so there's more realism to come.
While you're waiting for a game with the soft physics engine to emerge, try not to crash your car for real--we guarantee it's not as fun...
