Racing Sim Thread, Part II

[pk500]

Ian Bell might be the biggest d*uche nozzle in the game development industry, which is a pretty damn high bar to clear.

[Lancer]

so what's the concensus on Nascar 2025?

buy or no buy?

is this going to be a yearly game release too?

[pk500]

so what's the concensus on Nascar 2025?

buy or no buy?

is this going to be a yearly game release too?

Absolute buy. The best NASCAR console game ever. I'm already in Season 5 of my career. I don't think I've ever gone more than two or three seasons in a career in any previous NASCAR game.

Unsure about the release schedule.

[J_Cauthen]

so what's the concensus on Nascar 2025?

buy or no buy?

is this going to be a yearly game release too?

It is definitely a buy for me. I have played it almost daily since I bought it during release week. It works great with my Thrustmaster TX wheel and T3PA pedals. I am surprisingly heavily immersed in the Career mode. It adds just enough depth to the experience without getting be tedious.

I love how configurable the difficulty is. I was able to eventually found a combination of settings that are a good fit for my skill level. I will probably refine that a bit more a time goes on but it will be able to accommodate me as I feel it out.

[pk500]

Co-sign all the wonderful details John listed, Lancer. Only difference is I use a controller, not a wheel and pedals, and a controller works VERY well with NASCAR 25. One of the best controller implementations for a racing game outside of Turn 10 Studios -- Forza and Horizon developers -- I've ever experienced.

P.S.: No developer has programmed better controller implementation for a racing game than Turn 10. Sure seems like all the Forza and Horizon games are made for gamepads first, then wheels.

[Lancer]

ok cool that's good to hear. i don't have a wheel either and was counting on controller.

seems like the game is getting a lot of hate online from content creators but to me it seems pretty good from the video's and gameplay i've seen

[J_Cauthen]

Lancer, allow me to attest to Paul's comments about the controller implementation in NASCAR 25. It rivals Forza 7 in that regard. I am usually nothing more than a hazard on the track trying to drive a race car with a handheld controller. Such is not the case with NASCAR 25. I may not be quite as competitive with a controller as my steering wheel in NASCAR 25, but I would feel comfortable racing in multiplayer with a controller if need be. It really is amazing!

I don't understand where some of the heat the game gets comes from. I think a lot of the content creators were expecting it to be simulation oriented iRacing NASCAR, rather than the more simcade game it turned out to be, but they also seem to forget that the developers gave them enough setting adjustments to turn it into something that feels closer to a simulation. I thought it defaulted to something less than I desired, but within a couple of hours I had tweaked enough settings to turn it into more of the simulation oriented experience I was after. Even at that, there are still things I could tweak to make it even more simmish, but I like the way it feels with the current settings I'm using.

[Lancer]

deleted

[GB_Simo]

NASCAR 25 owners: what's the magic bullet that's going to stop me sucking on restarts? No matter what I do, I can't seem to take off, and the other lane goes by me like a freight train.

[pk500]

NASCAR 25 owners: what's the magic bullet that's going to stop me sucking on restarts? No matter what I do, I can't seem to take off, and the other lane goes by me like a freight train.

Manual tranny, which I assume you're using. Upshift quickly, right on the red light of the tach.

Even then, the AI cars have an advantage on restarts. A flaw. This hopefully mitigates that blemish a bit.

[GB_Simo]

Project Motor Racing was on XBox Free Play Days last weekend. I paid 99 of my English pence to take out a Game Pass trial subscription and, based on PMR alone, I feel I overpaid.

I'll keep my impressions of how it plays with a standard controller fairly brief, because you know this already. I raced an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at Mosport, had a bit of understeer in the quick stuff and no real connection with the car in the slow stuff, but it was fine, I suppose. Serviceable. I took one of the older DBR9 GT1 cars to Lime Rock - a car and track combo I'd previously tried at Goodwood last year - and had a pretty decent time, though still not getting the car to rotate as I wanted and beginning to understand why.

See, there are sliders you can tweak to change your controller settings. Not as many as in either of the PCARS games, but there's a setting for how quickly the car reacts to an input, and one to scale the maximum amount of lock you can apply, that kind of thing. The more I drove Lime Rock, the more I felt that the game just wasn't letting me turn as I wanted. I played around with those settings, kept it on the track for a full race around some fairly numb AI - not slow, just not particularly engaging to be around - and thought there might be a bit of potential.

Then I took a Group C sportscar to Donington and ruined it.

The nose wouldn't go in to Redgate. It was OK-ish down Craner, fine at Old Hairpin and McLeans, and then I got absolutely ran over at Coppice. The AI could brake a solid 50 metres after me, carry huge speed in, then jump on the throttle immediately while I had to wait. Whenever I attempted to apply power, the game would automatically unwind steering lock. It did the same at the two hairpins to end the lap, which I could barely get to because the AI were all flying off the road at the Esses. First car through wiped out a tyre stack at the apex, second car carried too much speed in, took a short-cut to the inside then somehow flew across the track to have a crash on the outside, third car hit the second car...and perhaps I'm asking too much, but real Group C cars raced this layout without humiliating themselves every 90 seconds and I was hoping the game would do the same.

Sigh. It might be fabulous with a wheel, but I won't be finding out.

[GB_Simo]

Forgive me sounding like I'm blowing my own horn here - the intent is to gently mock myself, in front of an audience that I think will understand...

I went 8th in the world leaderboard for one of the Moments in EA WRC at the weekend. I was testing my GT Omega wheel stand, having finally given up on mounting DD wheels to fold-away TV tray tables, I happened upon this one stage that seemed to click with me, and after a few runs, there I was. Inside the top 10, number 2 in the UK.

It is, of course, of absolutely no significance at all. I sat in my living room and 'drove' a fake car down a pretend rally stage quite well for a couple of minutes. And I told my wife exactly that, just as soon as I'd stopped punching the air, wailing incoherently and considering running a brief lap of honour around the village. Almost felt like a genuine life event. I've spent the last week trying to imagine what I'd have done if I'd finished 7th.

On the subject of wheel stands vs TV trays, for anyone else in a similar position: since switching, I've found it hugely helpful to know that when I'm done applying some opposite lock, my wheel will still be on the same side of the room as when I started. Seems to aid consistency somewhat.

[dbdynsty25]

That is hilarious. Congrats on the great "win"!