Racing Sim Thread, Part II

[TCrouch]

Thanks, man. Can't wait to watch those. Found another one in my searches called "Road", which seems to be the story of the Dunlops. This stuff is crazy.

[GB_Simo]

Still struggling to get these gift vouchers used up. The store I can use them at has an online stock checker, and if you can't reserve a product at your local store, it tells you the nearest store with stock available. You, quite understandably, are probably not that well versed in how far away my home in Easington Village is from the Birkenhead branch of Argos, so here's a little map illustrating the journey they feel I might be happy to undertake.

My favourite part of it is that from the port at Birkenhead, Manx Ferries will take you to the actual bloody Isle of Man, never mind the virtual one.

Terry and everyone else captivated by this game, I cannot recommend finding and watching the incredible Isle of Man TT documentary, "Closer to the Edge." It focuses on Guy Martin, who is so charismatic and idiosyncratic. Thank God for subtitles, as Martin might be the toughest English speaker to understand that I've ever heard!

I'll probably have linked to a video of this once upon a time, but this little Martin monologue from the film, delivered while spannering on a truck cab at the day job, is high among my favourite things:

"I've got another big goal. There's a massive - well, it isn't massive. It's not massive, is it? It's not massive. People use that word, don't they? And they don't...ah, I'll tell you what word people use all the time: 'Unbelievable'. Aww...can't use that word, can yer? 'Unbelievable'. When a man - I think I've said this before - when a man eats his own head, I will then hold me hands up and say, "Right, that was unbelievable," because I can't believe a man can eat his own head.

"BUT...like we say, never say never."

Some video I was watching was just one awesome sequence after another...then suddenly a clip of a guy who forgot which part of the track he was on, and went HEAD FIRST into one of those buildings when he misjudged the turn. Made me sick to my stomach.

If this is the incident I'm thinking of, which is a rider coming over Ballaugh Bridge too hot and hitting the side of The Raven pub head first, then the rider in question was 65 years old and had made his first appearance on the island over 20 years earlier, taking podium finishes at the amateur-oriented Manx GP event. It's not just that there's no "sort of fall", it's that neither skill nor experience are ever quite enough to safeguard against the all too obvious perils.

[Gangrel]

Holy crap, I was browsing the Xbox store last night, and this game is $89 in Canada? Like, that's the regular version!

I might try it if it's ever on sale, but $100 for a digital copy of a regular game is a bit steep.

I hope that's a mistake, and not the new pricing for Xbox!

[pk500]

DVR ALERT! 2016 Isle of Man TT Senior TT (premier race) highlights on from 3-4 a.m. (ET) this Sunday, March 25 on Velocity.

Feel the fever!

[Rodster]

Holy crap, I was browsing the Xbox store last night, and this game is $89 in Canada? Like, that's the regular version!

I might try it if it's ever on sale, but $100 for a digital copy of a regular game is a bit steep.

I hope that's a mistake, and not the new pricing for Xbox!

Amazon has already dropped the price. Last time I looked it was around $54 for the Xbox version.

[AcemanPR]

Amazon has already dropped the price. Last time I looked it was around $54 for the Xbox version.

It was that price last week, plus an additional 20% being a Prime member.

I was super busy over the weekend, but did get a chance to install TT:IOM and did a couple quick races after the tutorial and my very initial impressions are very positive! Took a little time to get used to the bike handling, but the last race I did, I didn't crash and did win by less than a second. You are all correct about the sense of speed, it is quite amazing! And racing is very tense! A couple times I got passed up after being in the lead. Each time I took over the lead, I knew I was in close pursuit, but I also knew I could only push the bike so far! And this is with Medium difficulty, I can't even imagine what tears Hard and Expert will bring to my eyes.

My schedule is alleviated a bit this week, so I should be able to sink my teeth into this more and hopefully begin the career mode. But I do want to take a full tour of the track around the island just to admire the sights it has to offer.

[pk500]

Do you cats use the Dynamic View setting with the handlebar/first-person cam? Many players on various forums say turning that OFF helps you get better control. But I also don't want to lose too much immersion, as that's such a strong suit of this game.

Thanks.

[TCrouch]

I tried it on, but there was a delayed disconnect between what I thought the bike should do, and what it was doing.

That slight delay led to a lot of crashes, so I turned it off after a couple of runs and haven't looked back. I still feel plenty immersed with it off, personally.

I turned the racing line off for a bit more immersion, but of course that led to many more wrecks, and I decided I'm not ready for that yet

[pk500]

Cool. Thanks, Terry. I'll definitely give it a go tonight with that setting off. And when I'm no faster, I can eliminate another excuse for being Mr. Slow.

[DChaps]

Cool. Thanks, Terry. I'll definitely give it a go tonight with that setting off. And when I'm no faster, I can eliminate another excuse for being Mr. Slow.

Wait, I am Mr. Slow, you can't take that title away from me.

[pk500]

I'm starting to get the feel of low assists -- except for wheelie control -- and manual transmission in Isle of Man TT. The bike feels so much more alive with this setup, as I can feel it slide around a bit more and also catch more potential crashes before they happen.

Happy to report this setup is faster, too -- when I'm sober. I set a personal best for the short Tyrone Track by nearly a second with these assists and tranny option, and there's another second to be trimmed, at least.

The problem when I'm altered isn't mechanical or with the game's setup. All I need to do is look into a mirror to spot the culprit when I'm f*cked up. Guess I'll stick to PUBG and shooters when I'm ripped.

LOVING this game more every day. Started a Career!

[pk500]

Cool interviews from Isle of Man TT launch event today:

https://www.motorsport.com/roadracing/n ... s-1017030/

Only motorcycle road racing would feature a rider flippantly saying, "F*ck off, you idiot" at a major media and press event. Go to 14:55 mark to see.

[pk500]

James Hillier was a guest on the 2018 Isle of Man TT launch event today, and the presenters asked him about his EPIC save at the TT last year. Here it is:



That's beyond insane bike control. That was the hand of God saving Hillier.

[pk500]

Don, Terry, Ace:

Are some of these places starting to look familiar now?



This is me regularly on the Mountain course. But scarily enough, this was a real crash last year for the one and only nutter Guy Martin. Check Martin's interview; he was seriously shaken. Who can blame him?

On a side note, Martin may be the toughest English speaker in the world to understand!

[AcemanPR]

Kylotonn definitely nailed the scenery in this game!!

[TCrouch]

James Hillier was a guest on the 2018 Isle of Man TT launch event today, and the presenters asked him about his EPIC save at the TT last year. Here it is:



That's beyond insane bike control. That was the hand of God saving Hillier.

Oh.

My.

God.

I'd have needed a pit stop to change my shorts after that.

I'm not sure how I never really got exposed or got into this whole scene, but it's sure fun coming into it late.

[TCrouch]

TT: Isle of Man is like my digital crack, at this point. It's the game I fire up when I know I have 20 or 30 minutes to burn, and want to give the Mountain Course a shot. In most cases, I'll get about halfway through before I come apart, but I did something sort of crazy last night.

I enabled the "Anticipated" camera, turned OFF the lap timer (which has to be toggled off and on, because it's bugged, I guess), and then completely eliminated the track map in the bottom corner.

I found I drove much more focused without having my eyes shoot down to the track map, but naturally I forgot where corners were, and slowed down way too much for some of them.

What surprised me, though, as that I crossed the line 10 seconds slower than my current fastest time, and I wrecked 2 or 3 times in the run. I may try to do that more--you can always push a little further than the racing line recommends, but doing so without the track map is flirting with disaster, unless you memorize the course.

Still stunned at how awesome this game is. Even if I'm basically running the same track repeatedly, it's a big ass track and I've made a dozen mistakes on every single lap, so it doesn't feel like anything I'll "master" anytime soon.

Thanks again for the recommendation.

[pk500]

Tried the anticipated cam, Terry. HATED it! Totally discombobulated me.

Man, this game is such a rare gem. It's one of the few racing titles in which I shake my head at least once every time I play it and mutter, "What a game, what a game."

[pk500]

Spent far too long playing Isle of Man TT this afternoon -- no guilt, though! Game is too much fun.

Finally drilled down on the assists package I like the most. Low assists for all except for wheelie control on medium. Racing line and combined brakes on, manual shifting. Feels like the best combination of help and road feel for me.

I was locked into the Honda Supersport until I tried the Triumph. Hmm. That bike has more speed, acceleration and torque than the Honda, but it's not as nimble. Planted exiting corners, but pretty sluggish in quick transitions. Decisions, decisions.

Tried the Yamaha Supersport. Man, that bike is twitchy-quick to change directions. But it lacks top end and is hairy as f*ck under braking.

Good Lord, IOM TT will be my Game of the Year, easily, at this rate. I've sunk a TON of blissful hours into it so far in the last two weeks. What a f*cking game.

[fanatic]

Spent far too long playing Isle of Man TT this afternoon -- no guilt, though! Game is too much fun.

Finally drilled down on the assists package I like the most. Low assists for all except for wheelie control on medium. Racing line and combined brakes on, manual shifting. Feels like the best combination of help and road feel for me.

I was locked into the Honda Supersport until I tried the Triumph. Hmm. That bike has more speed, acceleration and torque than the Honda, but it's not as nimble. Planted exiting corners, but pretty sluggish in quick transitions. Decisions, decisions.

Tried the Yamaha Supersport. Man, that bike is twitchy-quick to change directions. But it lacks top end and is hairy as f*ck under braking.

Good Lord, IOM TT will be my Game of the Year, easily, at this rate. I've sunk a TON of blissful hours into it so far in the last two weeks. What a f*cking game.

That's hilarious - I went through almost the exact same experience:

-Tried the anticipation camera and could hardly make a single turn
-Tried the Triumph. Fun but felt a little out of control....kind of like it for some reason though

And was thinking to myself "How is it that this is one of my favorite games at the moment/for a long time?". It may not have the polish of AAA titles, but the sense of realism and the pure thrill of racing is like nothing else around! I've never thought of racing as a form of meditation before, but as the trees start flying by and you relax into the flow, it really becomes something unique.

My big issue at the moment is racing well after I fall. It takes a while for me to get the "feel" back sometimes, and thus one fall usually turns into 2 or 3 - especially in those tight sections with buildings, etc...

Did you break 20 minutes yet? I'm still trying to break 22!

[pk500]

Did you break 20 minutes yet? I'm still trying to break 22!

20:22 yesterday on the Honda Supersport, with five falls, including three on the Mountain. Inexcusable.

I'll break 20 soon. I must!

Great description of this game, fanatic. In an era in which games try to be everything to everyone and often fail, IOM TT is a brilliant example of a developer focusing on a very small niche and NAILING it.

[pk500]

Very cool series of short videos highlighting some of the greatest riders in IOM TT history, from the IOM TT race organizers:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... julUAAAYjz

[TCrouch]

Finally drilled down on the assists package I like the most. Low assists for all except for wheelie control on medium. Racing line and combined brakes on, manual shifting. Feels like the best combination of help and road feel for me.

This is the EXACT configuration I use. Love it. And I'm glad you're seeing the same thing I do with the different bikes, but I think the missing-top-end really makes it CBR-or-bust in the game, which is odd. And when you look at the handling stats on the bikes, the Yamahas are some of the worst. So I'm not sure what they're actually measuring with their little indicators...because the experience with each bike doesn't seem to match their bars. I've honestly started to wonder if they're wrong in the icon graphs.

But, last night, on about my 400th overall attempt around the Mountain Course, I finally did it.

I managed to finish a lap without a fall. Felt like jumping out of my chair and pumping my fist in the air as I came out of that last corner, bike still intact.

Granted, it wasn't the fastest I could ever go (there were tons of sections where I babied it around), but in the end I still knocked 16 seconds off of my best time, coming across the line in 18:42.95.

So I had run an 18:58 with about 5 crashes, yet went slower and still ended up barely beating that time.

Game is unreal.

[pk500]

Nice lap, Terry! I got down to 20:20 with four or five crashes, but none on the Mountain. I'm so close to sub-20, I can touch it. I will celebrate with an Irish jig and a large slug of tequila in my basement when I break 20 and again when I have a clean lap.

Unreal game, indeed.

[pk500]

Interesting to see responses to my question about preferred assists package at the IOM TT Game Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1882823 ... &ref=notif

Some very cool people in that group, by the way!