DChaps wrote:Thanks for the impressions guys. From all the reviews so far it is looking good, however, it sounds like we will not be able to re-create the DSP TOCA 3 Endurance races of yore where we had the required pit stops. I will probably be picking this up tonight for Xbox 360 anyway. Sounds like there is a clan/league type feature as well with more racenet integration. DSP Grid Autosport League or Poker Night? Zeppo? Adam? XXXIV? pk (symmons plains........?
Endurance is Autosport’s most confusing category. They look the part, but the default length of these races is just eight minutes. It’s strange because tyre wear, which is only a factor in the Endurance category, is scaled to the length of the race. You can bring a little logic to the tyre wear issue by manually increasing the length of your endurance races but that only serves to highlight Autosport’s most egregious sin: no pit stops. It’s a bizarre omission, and it’s one that quietly undermines a lot of what Autosport does right. Deciding whether pitting for fresh rubber during an enduro to salvage a race objective would’ve added an interesting layer of strategy; not being able to do so is nonsense, really.
It also makes some of what Codemasters does with its damage modelling a waste of energy. For instance, what’s the point of programming in punctures when I know I can’t change that tyre? If I’m out of Flashbacks (or I’ve deactivated them) am I really going to run the rest of the race on my rim? Nope. I’m just going to quit and restart the event.
Wow, Nice track list too, particularly Circuit Mont Tremblant!
I ordered this from BestBuy.com for the 360. It shipped yesterday, so I should get it tomorrow or Thursday. I must go to Watkins Glen tomorrow through Saturday to work the IMSA support races there. But I'll be home late Saturday night and hope to race with you cats Sunday night!
EDIT: Just tracked on UPS, and my package isn't scheduled to be delivered until Tuesday. F*CK.
Last edited by pk500 on Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
Cool, I just saw that the Dallara IndyCar is in the car list as is Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Is there any chance we will be able to recreate the great battles from the old Codemasters Xbox Indycar Series games?
DChaps wrote:Cool, I just saw that the Dallara IndyCar is in the car list as is Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Is there any chance we will be able to recreate the great battles from the old Codemasters Xbox Indycar Series games?
TCrouch wrote:I'm sure somebody out there will have a problem with it, but I can't even wrap my head around anybody who liked TOCA not falling in love with this game from a first impression. It's honestly like they took so much crap from Grid 2 that they looked back at TOCA 3 and said "hey, what if we take that, give it a new UI and graphics, and release that instead?"
Thing is, most people would have told them to do that to start with instead of going off with the Grid games in the first place. But the first car you drive in the Open Wheel career is either a Star Mazda or something really similar, and it feels really grippy but not overly so. I can't state that enough. Give me a believable, arcade-leaned driving model and I'll buy in totally.
If there is any hope to a multiplayer racing game, it's that it has to have a driving model that is believably forgiving. Not something that lets people tear around at warp speed and slide off of walls and bang into each other with reckless abandon. Rather, something that a noob can jump in and know the basic rules that apply to it within a couple of laps. No average racer wants to sit down and turn 35 laps just to get the car to go around the track at competitive speed without spinning out. That's the biggest thing that struck me--I knew the 'rules' within 4 or 5 corners. From there, I was just applying that knowledge to outmaneuvering the AI cars. Rather than fighting the handling model, I was racing within seconds.
That's what made those TOCA nights so good, and the old PGR sessions so awesome. Everybody knew how to get the car around the track. They didn't spent 90% of their time trying to keep the car straight, and 10% racing. It was 90% racing and 10% "WHOOPS, SCREWED THAT PART UP!", where they knew exactly where and why they screwed up--overshot a corner trying to race a guy harder than they could, etc.
I just can't express properly how impressed I was to see a game that reminded me so much of racing games from a few years ago, without seeming archaic. New-old school!
This all sounds great Terry. So the driving model is not too hardcore and accessible to casual gamers (like me)? How does the driving model compare to Forza Horizon's? I found that game playable for me, but I would have liked it just a tiny bit easier.
J_Cauthen wrote:I downloaded it this morning from XBL. I've got a half dozen Career mode races under my belt now and I can say I'm totally delighted with GRID Autosport! I finally feel like I have the successor to TOCA 3 in my software library. The game looks and plays fabulously! I can't say that I've ever experienced more compelling AI drivers in my life. I like the Drivatars in Forza 5, but these AI drivers in GAS are more like high quality Drivatars. They're aggressive, but mostly not the point of being reckless. I'm racing them in medium difficulty and they are giving me all I want!
I'm using a Fanatec GT2 wheel with Clubsport Elite pedals and I'm still experimenting with settings. The biggest problem I'm having right now is the game can't distinguish the difference between the "A" button and the paddle shifters. When I up or downshift, the rear view camera comes up with each shift. Needless to say, that's not only distracting, it's a formula for disaster. I've resorted to using automatic transmission until I can find a workaround. GAS sees me GT2 as a "Microsoft 360 Wireless Racing Wheel", which may be most of the problem.
Anyway, Pits or no Pits, I can say that GAS is destined to be one of my favorite racing games of all time, and certainly the best on the 360!
Wow, that's quite an endorsement!
So you can buy and download the full game on XBL? How much was it?
Played it for a few more hours last night and it's definitely easier than Horizon, but more believable than Grid 2. I was able to bump it up to Hard in Career mode last night and win some races, but they required me to put some practice time in to learn the track as well as I could before jumping to qual. It's so nice to have races start with a qualifying session again--something I STILL dislike about the Forza series. "Here, you'll start 12th. Run through the field!"
There is no confusing it with Forza or GT, that's for sure. Again, the closest comparison there is would be TOCA. Getting the car around the track isn't the hard part. Racing is the hard part, as it should be. And for that, you can dial the AI speed down if you want. Last night on Hard I ran a touring car race at Brand's hatch. I qualified 3rd, as I couldn't quite get the last half second for the Ravenwest guys, but I was immediately shuffled back to 6th at the start. I spent 3 entire laps on the bumper of 5th place. I couldn't outbrake him, I couldn't pass him, he couldn't outrun me--I literally drove 3 entire laps around Brand's Hatch with a windscreen full of 5th place's bumper. It was such a crazy experience to have the AI so perfectly balanced that even passing one car would have been amazing. This game on the harder difficulties is not a game that you will skip qualifying and run through the entire field with ease. Instead, your entire focus is on racing the cars around you, rather than trying to keep the car on the track.
TCrouch wrote:It was such a crazy experience to have the AI so perfectly balanced that even passing one car would have been amazing. This game on the harder difficulties is not a game that you will skip qualifying and run through the entire field with ease. Instead, your entire focus is on racing the cars around you, rather than trying to keep the car on the track.
That's TOCA, baby!
Can't wait to receive my copy of GRID Autosport for the 360 next week. Thanks for the continued detailed impressions.
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
TCrouch wrote:It was such a crazy experience to have the AI so perfectly balanced that even passing one car would have been amazing. This game on the harder difficulties is not a game that you will skip qualifying and run through the entire field with ease. Instead, your entire focus is on racing the cars around you, rather than trying to keep the car on the track.
That's TOCA, baby!
Can't wait to receive my copy of GRID Autosport for the 360 next week. Thanks for the continued detailed impressions.
Looking forward to your thoughts Paul. If we can get a regular DSP night going with this game, I would love to jump in there and do some online racing again.
Someone has to bring up the rear!
TCrouch wrote: I spent 3 entire laps on the bumper of 5th place. I couldn't outbrake him, I couldn't pass him, he couldn't outrun me--I literally drove 3 entire laps around Brand's Hatch with a windscreen full of 5th place's bumper. It was such a crazy experience to have the AI so perfectly balanced that even passing one car would have been amazing. This game on the harder difficulties is not a game that you will skip qualifying and run through the entire field with ease. Instead, your entire focus is on racing the cars around you, rather than trying to keep the car on the track.
One of things that make it so great is that I can't put my finger on all the things that make it "feel" so special; it just has that magical X factor going for it. It does feel like an evolved TOCA 3, to me anyway... it's not as pure a driving simulation as Forza 4, but it has enough simulation value, to go along with it's fun-factor, to give it legs.
So you can buy and download the full game on XBL? How much was it?
Yep, got it for $49.99 on day one. I wasn't expecting it to be a launch day download, but there it was!
RaceNet Clubs allow players to form their own online groups where they can compare progress, compete with other players in the club on a leaderboard, and battle for overall supremacy with other clubs.
There’s a huge range of clubs to suit all sorts of players – some specialise in a single discipline, and others take in the whole game. Some clubs are open to all, some will require potential members to apply. Some run regular race nights, some are far more casual.
The heart of each club is the Club HQ page where you can see key facts about the club, a leaderboard, and a news feed. There’s also a Club Garage to see the club’s best cars. Clubs also have their own customisable livery for members' cars wear with pride when racing online in GRID Autosport.
So, why not jump right in and get started? You can choose from the list or search for clubs based on your own preferences. Click on a club to have a look at their HQ. Or, if you don’t find any club you like the look of, you can create your own and lead it to glory.
I've finished the first 3 seasons in career mode that I chose to run so far (Touring Car, Endurance, and Open Wheel), and it hasn't dimmed my enthusiasm one bit. I got to street and found it a bit odd that it didn't seem to have any qualifying mode in the first race. Maybe subsequent races use your points position, no idea. But the street series is what magnified the difference between Grid/Grid2 and GAS. The street series required a lot of slowing down to make those 90 degree corners in San Francisco that you could fly around in Grid. Cars were killing each other, bumpers flying off, and in general the whole affair felt a lot more tame than the over-the-top craziness of Grid.
I am really, really enjoying this one. A lot. Every time I sit down to race it I am more impressed. I was chasing the top 2 guys in an open wheel race and watched the second place guy lose it over the rumble strip getting into a chicane. Just locked the tires for a split second, right as he hit the strip, and the rear end came off the ground and around he went. Felt like waving as I went by because I'd chased him for 5 laps already (I upped the race length to 3x normal distance to make for longer races). You can catch guys dueling for position and take advantage of both of them if you time it right.
I just wish they had a working mirror in addition to the "arrows" that tell you where cars are. If there's an option, I didn't see it.
Finally fired this one up. Definitely a racing game, not a driving game.
The cars are a bit more forgiving than I expected (currently have ABS and TCS on), and you'll stay on the road unless you really miss the mark. The cars respond very quickly to turning and braking.
What you have is a lot of jockeying on the track. First race, took the pole, spent most the race in third, finished second. Used rewind twice when I ended up off the track from collisions with a pursuing car. Seemed like a car was always on my ass. (Medium level AI)
I'm expecting it to be a pretty fun and engaging game long haul.
Last edited by Naples39 on Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
Yep, that's what I was (unsuccessfully) trying to say initially. It's definitely a forgiving handling model, but it doesn't have the dreaded center-pivot model of Grid 2. It has a clearly defined set of rules in its physics, and it's believable enough to feel like racing. I've spent almost every race battling cars around me, worrying about blocking and holding position more than avoiding spinning out.
That's what has me completely engrossed in it. It's a pure racing experience. If GT has the 'Real Driving Simulator" catch phrase, then this one should be something about Pure Racing. I fired up a 25 lapper around the Indy Oval in the Dallaras last night, and about sh*t myself. The camera was shaking, view was hard to wrestle with, and it was an absolute blast. I had to tweak the setup since the current set topped out halfway down the straightaway, but it was a hell of a good time.
TCrouch wrote:The camera was shaking, view was hard to wrestle with, and it was an absolute blast. I had to tweak the setup since the current set topped out halfway down the straightaway, but it was a hell of a good time.
That's the one thing that has kind of bothered me...the camera shaking when you hit top speeds and hit the rumble strips...but I suppose that's the point. Just really disorienting at first. Again, I guess that's the point. Keep it on the smooth stuff.
It's an option in the settings, though. Camera Shake can be disabled. I love it personally, but I can see what you mean. I even turned on the 'tilt' option in the camera for banking.
TCrouch wrote:Yep, that's what I was (unsuccessfully) trying to say initially. It's definitely a forgiving handling model, but it doesn't have the dreaded center-pivot model of Grid 2. It has a clearly defined set of rules in its physics, and it's believable enough to feel like racing. I've spent almost every race battling cars around me, worrying about blocking and holding position more than avoiding spinning out.
That's what has me completely engrossed in it. It's a pure racing experience. If GT has the 'Real Driving Simulator" catch phrase, then this one should be something about Pure Racing. I fired up a 25 lapper around the Indy Oval in the Dallaras last night, and about sh*t myself. The camera was shaking, view was hard to wrestle with, and it was an absolute blast. I had to tweak the setup since the current set topped out halfway down the straightaway, but it was a hell of a good time.
This all sounds great to me, since my biggest concern is usually keeping the car on the track
I wish they would release a 360 demo on Xbox Live!
Last edited by JackB1 on Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
TCrouch wrote:It's an option in the settings, though. Camera Shake can be disabled. I love it personally, but I can see what you mean. I even turned on the 'tilt' option in the camera for banking.
Good to know...I'll see if I can get used to it before I just make hasty decisions. Thanks.
Haven't played yet. Returned from The Glen late Saturday night and passed out from fatigue. Returned from band practice late last night and passed out from something else.
Hopefully tonight!
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
"First on the throttle, last on the brakes." - @MotoGP Twitter signature
