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PC Racing Sims

TJP

TJP

Member
disap.ed said:
They did state though that there will be a completely new AI IIRC.
Click to expand...
That's why I carefully posted about the CARS AI being in an alpha state 8) SMS would have to be really inept to match the dumb AI of their NFS and TD:FRL games.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
opticalmace said:
I own and enjoy Race 07 and GTR Evo. Is there some newer game out I should be playing? I find it difficult to keep up with all the different games. Thanks. :p
Click to expand...
Not really anything that new apart from several games in development: Assetto Corsa, RaceRoom-RE, rFactor 2 and CARS. Problem is CARS memberships have been closed whilst the 'investment' scheme is investigated, RaceRoom is a closed beta and Assetto Corsa's 'tech demo' requires ownership of the sublime netKar Pro in order to play it - once it's finally released.

Take a look at the opening post by McLaren as there are lots of good recommendations. From his list of games, GSC 2012 is worth a demo download and has been voted sim of the year on RaceDepartment (one of the biggest independent sim racing websites) for two straight years. Based on the same ISI engine as used by SimBin and others, Reiza created their own custom shaders to give GSC 2012 a much needed visual boost versus the original game. GSC 2012 has sensational FFB, physics, sound and good graphics. The demo lasts 30 days and the full game costs under $20 USD for 12 tracks (with lots more of converted tracks to download!) and 6 vehicle classes from Mini's to a modern F1 car.

My personal favourite sims are made by Kunos Simulazioni netKar Pro & Ferrari Virtual Academy. FVA is an online time trial with no AI cars...just you and an empty track. FVA does feature sublime physics and FFB and really good graphics (IMO, only pCARS looks better) and gives a hint of what Assetto Corsa will be; netKar Pro is a time trial in offline mode as there are no AI to race but mulitplayer racing is available through various leagues.

rFactor 2 is worth a punt - the graphics are underwhelming but the FFB and physics are brilliant. Lot's of ISI made content on the way but you'll need to be patient as the speed of development is often glacial. If multiplayer is your thing, iRacing may be worth investing in.

Of the free to play games, I really enjoy Simraceway. The free download grants access to 3 cars and all of the tracks (mostly real world with a few fantasy tracks). It's a little rough around the edges and running off the rFactor engine, SRW looks a little dated but the support from the developer is brilliant and many of the cars handle really well. FWIW, Allan McNish is attached to SRW as a consultant. That said, a warning that the freebee Lancer and BMW are considered by many to be amongst the worst handling cars found in SRW. Worth buying the Ford Sierra Cosworth, Mazda RX-7, Toyota Supra or BMW Z4 GT3 for a better idea of the physics.

If rally is of interest either the king of all rally sims Richard Burns Rally or the not so hard edged WRC 3 will fill the hours nicely.
 
A

amar212

Member
Well, judging from the Saturday, it will be an amazing week ahead.

V7Kzm.jpg
Click to expand...
 
W

Watevaman

Member
It does look very nice and I'll definitely pick it up eventually.

I'm hoping the Milestone announcement means it's gonna be more simcade than arcade. I loved 08 but the demo for 09/10 was awful.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
MotoGP '08 was a reskinned SBK game. MotoGP 09/10 was okay however the free DLC made the game a lot better as Monumental tweeked the handling. MotoGP 10/11 was a step up from the 09/10 DLC thanks to several amature racers giving their thoughts and feedback; handling was solid and the fastest laptimes were approximately 5 seconds faster than the real world times. In comparison, it was possible to break lap records from a standing start in SBK X. Despite a decent effort and solid gameplay, few people bought MotoGP 10/11 8(

I really hope the Milestone MotoGP game uses the WRC 3 graphics engine.
 
A

Arucardo

Member
TJP said:
MotoGP '08 was a reskinned SBK game. MotoGP 09/10 was okay however the free DLC made the game a lot better as Monumental tweeked the handling. MotoGP 10/11 was a step up from the 09/10 DLC thanks to several amature racers giving their thoughts and feedback; handling was solid and the fastest laptimes were approximately 5 seconds faster than the real world times. In comparison, it was possible to break lap records from a standing start in SBK X. Despite a decent effort and solid gameplay, few people bought MotoGP 10/11 8(

I really hope the Milestone MotoGP game uses the WRC 3 graphics engine.
Click to expand...

Everything but Tourist Trophy has always felt really off when it comes to motorcycle racing games in my case, a gamepad being the only sensible control option doesn't help either.
 
X

xptoxyz

Member
Did Milestone merge with the Black Bean publisher? Seems like Black Bean site now redirects to Milestone's and looking at WRC3 Black Bean wasn't on the cover.
 
O

opticalmace

Member
TJP said:
Not really anything that new apart from several games in development: Assetto Corsa, RaceRoom-RE, rFactor 2 and CARS. Problem is CARS memberships have been closed whilst the 'investment' scheme is investigated, RaceRoom is a closed beta and Assetto Corsa's 'tech demo' requires ownership of the sublime netKar Pro in order to play it - once it's finally released.

Take a look at the opening post by McLaren as there are lots of good recommendations. From his list of games, GSC 2012 is worth a demo download and has been voted sim of the year on RaceDepartment (one of the biggest independent sim racing websites) for two straight years. Based on the same ISI engine as used by SimBin and others, Reiza created their own custom shaders to give GSC 2012 a much needed visual boost versus the original game. GSC 2012 has sensational FFB, physics, sound and good graphics. The demo lasts 30 days and the full game costs under $20 USD for 12 tracks (with lots more of converted tracks to download!) and 6 vehicle classes from Mini's to a modern F1 car.

My personal favourite sims are made by Kunos Simulazioni netKar Pro & Ferrari Virtual Academy. FVA is an online time trial with no AI cars...just you and an empty track. FVA does feature sublime physics and FFB and really good graphics (IMO, only pCARS looks better) and gives a hint of what Assetto Corsa will be; netKar Pro is a time trial in offline mode as there are no AI to race but mulitplayer racing is available through various leagues.

rFactor 2 is worth a punt - the graphics are underwhelming but the FFB and physics are brilliant. Lot's of ISI made content on the way but you'll need to be patient as the speed of development is often glacial. If multiplayer is your thing, iRacing may be worth investing in.

Of the free to play games, I really enjoy Simraceway. The free download grants access to 3 cars and all of the tracks (mostly real world with a few fantasy tracks). It's a little rough around the edges and running off the rFactor engine, SRW looks a little dated but the support from the developer is brilliant and many of the cars handle really well. FWIW, Allan McNish is attached to SRW as a consultant. That said, a warning that the freebee Lancer and BMW are considered by many to be amongst the worst handling cars found in SRW. Worth buying the Ford Sierra Cosworth, Mazda RX-7, Toyota Supra or BMW Z4 GT3 for a better idea of the physics.

If rally is of interest either the king of all rally sims Richard Burns Rally or the not so hard edged WRC 3 will fill the hours nicely.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot. Much appreciated.
 
G

Grayman

Member
You know you can't see the livery from playing with an in the car view? ;)

Race 07/GTR Evo have a few clean cars included like the koensig, audi r8, and catheram for example. I probably spelt 2 of those wrong.

Arucardo said:
Everything but Tourist Trophy has always felt really off when it comes to motorcycle racing games in my case, a gamepad being the only sensible control option doesn't help either.
Click to expand...

TT has been one of my favourite games. I mostly like racing street vehicles so I haven't checked out any superbike sims. I picked up some arcade games on gog awhile ago and the visual of bike lean in corners even feels great in arcadey type games.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
Shaneus said:
Am I correct in thinking that that's a massive step up for Milestone, going by that screenshot?
Click to expand...
IDK to be honest however the Milestone PR shots always look great regardless of the game. Then you play them and wonder what happened to the visuals. That said, MotoGP 13 should be a lot better graphically than SBK Generations based on the evolution we've seen from WRC and WRC 2011 to WRC 3. To be honest, I'm just really happy to have another motorcycle racer to play as Milestone are the only developers left making decent two wheeled sims that are released on a regular basis. I'll wait for someone to mention Piboso - he may release GPBikes and his other projects one day.
 
BADNED

BADNED

Member
xptoxyz said:
Did Milestone merge with the Black Bean publisher? Seems like Black Bean site now redirects to Milestone's and looking at WRC3 Black Bean wasn't on the cover.
Click to expand...
Just a strategic move by the mother company. They rebranded Black Bean as the publishing arm of Milestone.
 
W

Watevaman

Member
Speaking of bike games, I just noticed that Gamersgate has both SKB 2011 and Generations for $10 this week. If I was to buy one, would I be mistaken in guessing that Generations is overall the better package?
 
TJP

TJP

Member
Watevaman said:
Speaking of bike games, I just noticed that Gamersgate has both SKB 2011 and Generations for $10 this week. If I was to buy one, would I be mistaken in guessing that Generations is overall the better package?
Click to expand...
SBK Generations has content from SBK '09 through to the 2012 season. Everything else in Generations has been recycled from other SBK games, so if you've not played any SBK games in the last 5 years, buy Generations.
 
A

Arucardo

Member
I may or may not have received a certain NDA from SimBin just now ;)

I hope that doesn't get me in trouble, lol. That's all I can say about it, sorry
 
S

Spookie

Member
Hurrar now at 3.50 SR in iRacing. Tempted to do time trials in the morning to get my self out of the Rookie races. How I managed to avoid crashing my last race was beyond me the average post-race SR was fucking -0.4! :/

The NIXIM G27 brake mod helped a lot though, being able to slam on the brakes and never hit lock up each time is awesome.

Feel so loney not playing the RR beta. :(
 
B

Betta Lines

Member
Arucardo said:
What a strange "complaint", I mean I've never heard someone bring this up...
Click to expand...

Xanadu said:
who cares?
Click to expand...
Actually, growing up with just a PC (I was never allowed a console), I was very jealous of games like Gran Turismo that had 'clean' cars. Playing games like TOCA made the cars look so ugly in comparison, with their low res liveries. I began to associate 'clean' road cars with good graphics, because the low res textures were much less noticeable. And GT happened to have great graphics anyway... The closest thing the PC had was NFS, and even back then I had an appreciation for how unrealistic it was in comparison to GT.

These days however, it's less of a problem. The PC is still lacking a GT/Forza style game, but the visuals are so good now that even the ones covered in liveries look great, in some cases better than the 'clean' cars.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Arucardo said:
I may or may not have received a certain NDA from SimBin just now ;)

I hope that doesn't get me in trouble, lol. That's all I can say about it, sorry
Click to expand...
Oh shit, I wonder if mine has come through! I remember putting the application in really late because every time I remembered, I was at work and couldn't submit the DxDiag report. I hope that if I do get accepted, the final game doesn't go as badly as it did for the last beta I was accepted into... TDU2 :(

PS. TJP, worth getting SBK Generations for $10 (assuming it's still on sale)?
 
TJP

TJP

Member
Shaneus said:
PS. TJP, worth getting SBK Generations for $10 (assuming it's still on sale)?
Click to expand...
If you don't have a history of playing the most recent SBK games and love bike racing, it's a must buy as its the most complete SBK game available as it contains most of content from SBK '09 to the 2012 season. If you own any of the SBK games from SBK '09 to SBK 2011, I'd say it's a maybe purchase as you'll have seen and played most of the content found in SBK Generations already.

Inside Sim Racing for this week had a nice preview of MotoGP 2013 and Milestone are using a modded version of the WRC 3 engine. Sounds like the game will ape aspects of the Codemasters F1 series by adding press conferences, social media etc into MotoGP 2013.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
I don't *love* it, but whenever I accidentally catch it on TV I almost always watch it until the end. Think it'll be good to get something a bit different :)
 
V

Vostro

Member
So does anyone know How long is the wait time to order the AP Electrix mod? I pre-order it like 2 months ago but haven't receive any emails about ordering it. Ugh, I hate waiting for so long....
 
1

1-D_FTW

Member
I checked my three active e-mail accounts and no beta for me. Then again, none of them have anything from Simbin. I know I hit submit. And I know I registered, because I even have a notepad file on my desktop with the account info I used to create the account.

EDIT: Apparently my beta application did nothing. Cause I just went to their website, entered my ID and password, and it shows me as not existing.
 
D

DD

Member
1-D_FTW said:
I checked my three active e-mail accounts and no beta for me. Then again, none of them have anything from Simbin. I know I hit submit. And I know I registered, because I even have a notepad file on my desktop with the account info I used to create the account.

EDIT: Apparently my beta application did nothing. Cause I just went to their website, entered my ID and password, and it shows me as not existing.
Click to expand...

I had to wait for days... T-T

But the wait is worth it, that I can tell you. The hill climb track in Sweeden with a BMW 635 CSi was the most orgasmatic virtual driving experience I had in my life! *o*
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Pazuzu9 said:
Actually, growing up with just a PC (I was never allowed a console), I was very jealous of games like Gran Turismo that had 'clean' cars. Playing games like TOCA made the cars look so ugly in comparison, with their low res liveries. I began to associate 'clean' road cars with good graphics, because the low res textures were much less noticeable. And GT happened to have great graphics anyway... The closest thing the PC had was NFS, and even back then I had an appreciation for how unrealistic it was in comparison to GT.

These days however, it's less of a problem. The PC is still lacking a GT/Forza style game, but the visuals are so good now that even the ones covered in liveries look great, in some cases better than the 'clean' cars.
Click to expand...

I'm still waiting for a Forza/Gran Turismo style game for PC. I'm rather sick of driving the 10th sim with GT class cars.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
DD said:
I had to wait for days... T-T

But the wait is worth it, that I can tell you. The hill climb track in Sweeden with a BMW 635 CSi was the most orgasmatic virtual driving experience I had in my life! *o*
Click to expand...
Days? I submitted mine about a month or so ago :/
 
1

1-D_FTW

Member
I "submitted" mine a couple months ago, too. But for whatever reason, it apparently never went though. Guess I'll go search this thread for the link and do it again.

EDIT: Before I redo it, did you guys ever receive an e-mail from RR/Simbin before you were accepted? Maybe this is normal to have received no contact prior.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
what plans - if any - do developers have to support Oculus Rift?

I think the rift would be very interesting to those racing folk that invest in multimonitor setups (assuming you do it for FoV not resolution)

A Rift and good wheel setup could be sublime. Bonus points for a motion platform to simulate G.
 
P

pappakenoo

Member
1-D_FTW said:
I checked my three active e-mail accounts and no beta for me. Then again, none of them have anything from Simbin. I know I hit submit. And I know I registered, because I even have a notepad file on my desktop with the account info I used to create the account.

EDIT: Apparently my beta application did nothing. Cause I just went to their website, entered my ID and password, and it shows me as not existing.
Click to expand...

Same for me, doesn't seem like my application got through at all. What a bummer.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
drugstore_cowboy said:
Have you tried emulating GT4?

Shouldn't be hard, dunno if 900 degrees steering is supported.
Click to expand...

I suppose that would work, but GT4 isn't exactly a looker and I already have a PS3 and GT5. It's just that a PC game like that would be preferable, for obvious reasons. Instead we get the same racers over and over again, or at least it feels like that.
 
D

Dilly

Banned
I really dislike the HDR in pCARS, glad there's an option to turn it off.

They're also going to have a lot of work improving the trees.
 
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