In many cases the visual damage model of racing games remains unexplored almost all the way up to release, as developers seem excessively shy of showing their beloved cars smashed up until they're unrecognizable.

Since I don't suffer from that particular kind of shyness, and to unleash my frustration for my feet that feel like someone took a sledgehammer to them, I went to both Sony's and Microsoft's booths at Gamescom, sat at the controls of my favorite supercars in Driveclub and Forza Horizon 2, and started smashing against every available barrier until everyone around me thought I was really, really bad at driving.

Uncaring of my dwindling dignity with the audience, I took pictures and video of the results, in order to show you just how badly you can smash your cars up in the two upcoming racing games.

Driveclub

//www.youtube.com/embed/Eke6ebAaE5M

separatorForza Horizon 2

//www.youtube.com/embed/p34h6A5DE3g

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Unfortunately, for Forza Horizon 2 I couldn't film the smashing process, because I couldn't count on the availability of the charming PlayStation lady that kindly filmed for me while I was tearing that Ferrari to pieces. Yet, this post is mostly about the end results, so this will do.

Interestingly, in Forza Horizon 2 is a lot easier to flip your car, mostly because you can go anywhere, so it's easy to find the right spot to send yourself flying.

Ultimately, the two games have a very different approach to visual damage, and both look really good. Unfortunately they don't show the amount of detail provided by Project Cars, but I found the results quite pleasing nonetheless.