Racing Sim Thread, Part II

[fletcher21]

Is there a GOOD Moto Gp game available for PS3?

[WPatrick]

Don, Paul how is the mustang? Do I need to buy it?

[pk500]

Don, Paul how is the mustang? Do I need to buy it?

Haven't had a chance to try it yet. Heresy, I know! I've been really busy with work and family stuff lately. World Cup and a really good book about commercial swordfishing also are consuming much of my free non-family time.

I've seen almost nothing but positive feedback about the 'Stang at the iRacing forum. Consensus indicates that it's a fairly easy car to drive -- it's Class D -- and quite conducive to good racing.

I need to make time and try it. But busy tonight, and working this weekend at Watkins Glen. Maybe Thursday night!

[GB_Simo]

Is there a GOOD Moto Gp game available for PS3?

No. Next!

I'm being harsh on Moto GP 08 there. I liked it a fair amount, but it was a bit lifeless, and the controls gave very little feedback about what the bike would do next - you were either upright or flying through the air, and I'm under the impression that I should get a tiny bit of warning before I'm propelled to my doom. Brief impressions of Moto GP, in which those involved started off enthusiastic and gradually tailed off as the thread went on, can be found here.

The developers of that game, Milestone, are also responsible for the SBK series of superbike games. I know SBK08 came out in the USA right about the same time they released SBK09 here, and I think it's just called SBK where you are. That's a very good game - there are impressions of it here, including a link to a wonderful review from Terry Crouch. There are a few more impressions here. Oh, and one more tiny bit from me at the top of this page here.

Moto GP 09/10 is awful, frankly. Much like the old Climax Moto GP games it leans more towards the arcade in its handling, which makes it fairly easy to pick up and play, but the presentation gets very jarring very quickly, the AI are approximately as sharp as freshly-made Jell-o and the 20 minutes I spent allowing Career mode to paddle my arse with bits of 2x4 were some of the most miserable I've ever spent with a racing game. I should remind you at this stage that I've played V8 Superstars. And Total Immersion Racing.

[GB_Simo]

iRacers: If you're looking to spend a little time learning Mid-Ohio, perhaps because you're British and have never really sat down to try it in a serious sim before, use something slower than the Indycar.

In a way, I'm glad I didn't, because I'm filled with admiration for some of the corners there and all of the men who drive around the place. Turn 9 is an absolute beauty, with its elevation change and a vicious negative camber I hadn't previously been aware of.

Don, Paul how is the mustang? Do I need to buy it?

I'm neither of these people but hope I'll do for now.

I've just bought it myself and given it a quick run round Phillip Island. I'd say it's an ideal Class D road car. It's not too challenging to drive, so it gives people just coming up from Rookie licences the chance to hone their racecraft without having to worry too much about hanging on to the car, but it's just about brutish enough to trap the unwary every so often.

I've not had a look at the setups yet to see what can be changed, but straight out of the traps the car feels fairly soft. There's a reasonable amount of body roll and some visible changes in pitch on the brakes and gas, though the behaviour of the car doesn't seem all that sensitive to pitch change for the most part. The Mustang turns in crisply enough in spite of the softness, but it's front-limited. Understeer comes as standard, and the front end will wash out in a heartbeat if you're a fan of optimistic entry speeds. The back of the car is solid as a rock on braking and turn-in, so no tail-out stuff to contend with, but equally there's no way to scrub off speed by getting it sideways either.

It's fairly difficult to lose the back end at all, as it goes. I can't imagine what you'd have to do to spin the car on corner entry, and through the majority of corners you can give the throttle a good goosing without creating any drama for yourself. Every so often you'll unsettle the car over a bump - Phillip Island's final corner is a good place to test this - and the back will step out, but slowly and with plenty of warning from the always fabulous force feedback. There's a fair amount of weight moving around when the back steps out, and my G25 does a fine job of conveying that and letting me correct. The one exception to that is coming off tight hairpins, where the throttle's got a raw egg underneath it and you'll face death by a thousand cuts if you break the shell. Any other approach will be the sole preserve of those who like to go exploring off track.

What that all means is that the Mustang is a very good car for anyone looking to develop their racecraft, as well as those looking to improve their road course hotlaps and driving technique without living in constant fear of crashing. It's not a challenging car to drive by any means, but it's good fun and encourages you to push towards the limit of grip without scaring you to death once you get there.

[WPatrick]

GB_Simo thanks for the information.... now where did I put my wallet.

[pk500]

Gorgeous description, Adam. Can't wait to try it. Oh, and I'll find a way to get the rear end to step out in almost any corner.

[Gurantsu]

A new free track has been added to iRacing. It's a short oval named Thompson International Speedway. You'll get it once you update.

They also added a new car to run on it, but you'll have to pay for that. It's NASCAR Tour Modified, a faster version of the SK modified.

[pk500]

A new free track has been added to iRacing. It's a short oval named Thompson International Speedway. You'll get it once you update.

They also added a new car to run on it, but you'll have to pay for that. It's NASCAR Tour Modified, a faster version of the SK modified.

From what I understand, the Tour modified is free if you already own the SK mod. Am I wrong about that?

[DChaps]

From what I understand, the Tour modified is free if you already own the SK mod. Am I wrong about that?

Correct. I have just verified it is now in my stable of cars and tracks, no purchase necessary for me since I already own all content. Sweet.

Fans of high powered, open wheel short track action are in luck. On two counts. Thompson International Speedway is now included free in our base package. What’s more, the race car most often associated with the legendary Connecticut short track -- the NASCAR Tour Modified, faster cousin of the SK Modified – is now available.

No matter the race car, action on the banks of Thompson’s high banked 5/8 mile is fast and furious. But racing wheel-to-wheel with a couple dozen 2600 pound, 600 horsepower Tour Modifieds is faster and furious-er than just about anything this side of the Space Shuttle. Those who already own the SK Modifed have automatically had the Tour Modified added to their stable. Purchase a Tour Modified and we’ll throw-in the SK Modified for free.

What are you waiting for? Strap into a Tour or SK Modified at Thompson today

[Gurantsu]

I got my racing credits, and bought my stuff before seeing the above post, as I put the SK in my cart, not the tour.

But looking at my list it shows it as the Tour/SK Modified, like the regular and rookie cars, so I think I'm good to go.

Also got Zaandvoort, Mid-Ohio, Silverstone (yuck but a most road series seem to use it), the Mustang, the Radical, and the Ford Falcon.

[Gurantsu]

No matter how you buy the modified, you get both versions when you do, thats sweet.

I've tried all the ones I have now, and holy cow, the Radical is an absolute blast! Especially at Mosport where the race is this week. Quick, easy to handle, you can throw it around the corners a bit, and a whole lot of fun. When we do another poker night they get my vote.

Also tried all my new tracks. Silverstone still sucks...

[pk500]

The Radical and Star Mazda are my favorite cars in iRacing. Love them!

[GB_Simo]

No matter how you buy the modified, you get both versions when you do, thats sweet.

I've tried all the ones I have now, and holy cow, the Radical is an absolute blast! Especially at Mosport where the race is this week. Quick, easy to handle, you can throw it around the corners a bit, and a whole lot of fun. When we do another poker night they get my vote.

Also tried all my new tracks. Silverstone still sucks...

I am in complete agreement with two of these paragraphs. See if you can guess which two.

I ran a lot of laps by myself in the Radical at Sebring (another track I love that nobody else really goes for, though I can understand why with that particular circuit) a little while back and had a million kinds of fun with it. A lovely little car that really invites you to have a go.

Grant, what did you think of the Mustang and the Falcon?

[Gurantsu]

Adam,

I can see the Mustangs being a real hoot to race. They feel a little soft, but they seem to give you ample time to recover from mistakes, so I can see a lot of old school bumping and sliding going on in them.

I got the Falcon because I love the real-world series, but I can see they have a big learning curve for me. All that power in that little package means I spent a lot of time getting wonderful panoramic views of the surrounding area every time I applied the gas coming out of a turn. But man they sure can get up and go!

[GB_Simo]

I'm sure the Mustang and the Falcon in particular will be all kinds of fun on the run down to Eau Rouge. Hoo boy.

[pk500]

I'm sure the Mustang and the Falcon in particular will be all kinds of fun on the run down to Eau Rouge. Hoo boy.

HOLY. LIVING. F*CK.

iRacing announces the addition of Spa-Francorchamps:

http://www.virtualr.net/iracing-com-spa ... announced/

REPEAT: HOLY. LIVING. F*CK.

[Gurantsu]

Awesome!!!!! Man, iRacing is really getting hold of some sweet tracks. I think it has really become a respectable service that track owners want to be a part of. I'd love to know the economics of all of that. I'd love to see the New Jersey Motorsports Park show up, its a fast track with a lot of different configurations. Speaking of which, I'll be heading there in a couple of weeks.

I just got an order from Amazon today, a book called "iRacing Paddock: Beginner's Guide to Road Racing on iRacing.com". I've just leafed through it so far, and it seems pretty basic, certainly geared for a newcomer. Still, there's some decent info tucked in there.

I've been playing Race 07/GTR Evo/Race On or whatever they are calling it now a lot lately also. Found a bunch of cool tracks and have been running a season (in a Lister Storm of all things!), it's been fun.

[GB_Simo]

I happened upon that little nugget of information about Spa while I was looking for some Lotus 79 setups. Grant will be particularly pleased to learn that schedule permitting, I'm aiming to run the Historic British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend. I haven't managed to enter an iRacing World Tour event yet and this seems as good a time as any to start.

I found a setup in this thread. The creator has now attached a replay, which goes a certain way to illustrating why I'm 5 seconds a lap slower on a circuit where I'm only braking 4 times:

http://members.iracing.com/iforum/threa ... 2&tstart=0

If any of you get a couple of minutes, I'd love to hear some opinions on the replay file he's posted. It's a brilliantly fast lap but when I sit and watch the control inputs he's making, the whole thing seems a bit wrong somehow. Counter-intuitive, to say the least of it.

[Gurantsu]

iRacing is getting Dover! I'm more of a road racing guy, but owing to the fact that I went to my first race there (in 1972!) and have to this day probably been there more than any other racing venue, I'm excited about this one. Plus it's one of the few tracks that provides decent races in NASCAR anymore (even though they only run 400 laps there now... sissies!) I'll be grabbing it as soon as it comes out.

[pk500]

I discovered my new favorite car-track combination in iRacing last night: The Chevrolet Monte Carlo Late Model on the Watkins Glen NASCAR circuit.

I know that combination sounds odd, but holy sh*t, is it fun. The car slides around quite a bit but can be caught pretty easily, even with a basic road course setup. Plus the car isn't so overpowered that it's pins and needles to drive.

Some dude had a lengthy hosted practice session with that combo last night, and it was the only road course hosted session available. Despite initial reluctance, I gave it a go. Very glad I did -- what fun!

[WPatrick]

The late model is a fun car to drive. They usually schedule one road course per season in it. Paul keep running it you could become the Boris Said of iRacing.

Anybody going to run the Brickyard event? I am going to try.

[DChaps]

It has not been confirmed that this is in fact the new build, but iRacing just posted that the system will be down for a whopping 9 hour maintenance window. I believe this would be the longest the service has been down in 2 years, therefore, it may in fact be the new build. No official release notes have been made available yet on this build, but it is by far the biggest update to date. See the link below for an Inside Sim Racing sneak peek at the new iRacing build.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Ok2CPeIQ0

Site Maintenance (est. 9 hours): 28-JUL 0400 GMT [28-JUL 0000 EDT]
Posted: Jul 27, 2010 1:52 PM Reply

Wednesday, 28-JUL-2010

EDT GMT
2000 0000 Hosted Sessions Disabled for New Sessions
0000 0400 Service Down
0900 1300 Service Up

All timing is tentative and subject to change. We will wait until the NASCAR iRacing Drivers World Championship race completes before bringing the site offline.

Edit: Looks like the notes will be posted in a couple hours:

From: Grant Reeve, iRacing Staff

ok, finished and shipped off via email to the rest of the company to review. I'll post the full notes up probably around 9pm EDT or thereabouts. No head explosions, but it was close!

thanks for putting up with my slow dribbles of teasers all afternoon you can stop punishing your F5 keys now.

[DChaps]

The new iRacing build is now available. It is a752 mb update. I am downloading now, but will probably not be able to test it out until tonight.

[Gurantsu]

I started the download, but halfway through they went down for maintenance, so I'll finish it later. It looks like a TON of nice stuff added.

I also got an e-mail from iRacing with a certificate attached that said that my club (Pennsylvania) has won the Season 2 Regional Championship. Evidently that qualifies us for the World Cup next February, but I'm not sure what that is!