Racing Sim Thread, Part II

[Rodster]

That's one of the hardest parts of it, PK. Those little rFactor mod reviews I've been offering up every so often have forced me to make a conscious effort to pretend I don't know anything about any other racing sim. By the time I came to talk about the F1 1990 mod I'd ran out of the will to keep on doing that, though I'm heartened to see that Rod had the same issues as me.

Fact of the Day: I can't say the name of the latest addition to the iRacing stable without thinking, "Aruba, Jamaica, oooh, I wanna take ya to Bermuda, Bahama..." You'll understand, then, if I say simply that iRacing's take on a famous tri-oval in Pennsylvania is now available for download.

I think part of the problem is that both products cater to a different audience. Rfactor was designed around a core base racing game that allows individuals to add to the product as they see fit. And there in lies the problem because most modders do it for fun and glory from their peers, rarely are they doing it to audition like Simbin to go professional. There have been some incredible mods for Rfactor and many that have fallen flat.

Also Rfactor is an old engine that has been updated since EA started doing F1 games.

iRacing is a different beast. The guys that run it love to race for real and are perfectionist but it comes at a cost and is designed around the experience "the wheel" whereas Rfactor can be fully enjoyed with a Gamepad or wheel. iRacing is just the opposite. iRacing is also updated as well and is basically a true online experience where rFactor can be enjoyed offline and online.

I'm glad I was proven wrong because I thought Rfactor and Iracing wasn't going to work and i'm glad I was proven wrong again. Anyways i'm seriously looking forward to Rfactor 2.

[DChaps]

Ferrari Virtual Academy 2010 is now available - sort of

http://www.ferrarivirtualacademy.com/ga ... wnload.jsp

The download was briefly avaiable earlier this morning, but it appears they were not ready for demand as the traffic has virtually taken down their website.

According to www.virtualr.net

The initial release includes the F10 and Ferrari’s Fiorano testing track, selling for 14,90€. Mugello and the Nürburgring will be available at a later date for a yet undisclosed price.

Along with the download, Ferrari has released the system requirements, revealing that the title is compatible to Track IR, three-screen setups via TripleHead2Go and nVidia 3D Vision.

[GB_Simo]

Ferrari Virtual Academy 2010 is now available - sort of

http://www.ferrarivirtualacademy.com/ga ... wnload.jsp

The download was briefly avaiable earlier this morning, but it appears they were not ready for demand as the traffic has virtually taken down their website.

Now up and running and available for download again. I know this because I've done it.

I'm not entirely sure what I make of it. I know I don't agree with aspects of the mini-review on VirtualR. The suggestion that Massa's 57.579 lap of Fiorano is likely to be unattainable to all but the aliens seems a bit out to me - I've ran 20 or so laps and got down to 58.941 without ever stringing a full lap together, and where I'm slower I know why. If I didn't, I'd find out by taking advantage of the very nice telemetry overlay, showing what Felipe does when you don't and what you probably should be doing when he is. From what I can see so far, he and I are fairly similar in the quick stuff and he eats me alive whenever the brake pedal is involved.

I know, as do those of you who race the poker nights, that slicks-and-wings is very much My Thing That I'm Reasonably Good At, but even allowing for that I'm struggling to call the F10 a 'monster' to drive. Stray onto a kerb at an unfortunate moment and you'll spin. Throttle it too hard through the slower stuff and you'll spin. This is all standard, common or garden stuff. In medium-speed and full throttle turns, the thing is glued to the road. I haven't tried it with the lowest downforce setup yet (there are 4 defaults - all you can tweak is fuel load and brake bias, and when you're going for a leaderboard time only brake bias is available to change), because Fiorano only has one straight worth the name and even that has a couple of kinks in it, but with setups that suit the track it's controllable. The sim encourages you to attack the racetrack, so you do, and your subsequent mistakes come entirely from your own enthusiasm - the car only becomes a handful to hang on to when you're well beyond the prescribed limits.

Graphically it's lovely, as these things tend to be when there's only one car on the road. There's no damage model, though - it's a hotlapping game, so you'd expect no different - and it's always sunny, again to facilitate fast lappery. It's always sunny in a real F1 team's simulator too, in fact, so that's fine. The sounds take a turn for the odd when rumbling over the grass, with a strange rustling effect making everything sound as if you're slewing helplessly through the middle of a jungle, but the engine and tyre noises are fine. Apparently the tracks are laser-scanned, and if that's true, know this: Fiorano is the smoothest racetrack in the known universe.

All in all, whether it's any kind of accurate sim or not, I suppose I enjoyed my little run with it. I always enjoy hammering around a racetrack with my own time as the target, and the added incentive of being in the same neighbourhood as Massa is a nice little carrot too. The price is perhaps a bit steep for what it is, and having to pay extra for the two subsequent track releases is a bit much - I suspect I won't bother - but what's here is entertaining enough. Shout up if you've got any specifics you want to know about.

[Rodster]

Nice impressions Adam !

1) What did it cost?

2) Is it worth the money?

3) Is Mr. Prick in the game?

-If so that's 6/10 tenths right there you'll need to make up.

[GB_Simo]

Nice impressions Adam !

1) What did it cost?

2) Is it worth the money?

3) Is Mr. Prick in the game?

-If so that's 6/10 tenths right there you'll need to make up.

The game costs 14.90 Euro, which at current rates is something like $19. For your $19, you get one car and one track. The conversion is a bit more favourable for me - £12 or thereabouts, which is not much over a quarter of the price of a full-price title and which I can just about justify for a release like this one. Whether it's worth the money depends entirely upon how much you like driving around in circles alone - it's a good enough representation of lapping a track that I'll be having another go shortly, but it's not a content-rich environment at all.

Fernando's car and helmet are in the game. No sighting of the eyebrows themselves yet, and the target time you're chasing was set by Felipe, not Fernando.

[pk500]

Sorry, but $20 for one car with no damage model and one track is a joke, especially when the "game" consists of a hotlapping session. Way to exploit that Ferrari license.

[GB_Simo]

Sorry, but $20 for one car with no damage model and one track is a joke, especially when the "game" consists of a hotlapping session. Way to exploit that Ferrari license.

Let's run with a comparison we can both get our heads around. In my native currency it's cheaper than an iRacing car and track, it doesn't miss out in the damage model stakes because there's bugger all to hit (this is not Watkins Glen; if you've ever driven Fiorano in a sim you'll be familiar with the huge amount of open space either side of the racetrack), and I'm not paying anything else on top of my 12 quid such as, say, a yearly subscription fee. It isn't fantastic value, just as iRacing's content would be bad value without the yearly fee to go racing. It's still bloody awful value if you can hardly ever engineer the time to run it, which is increasingly the case with me, but that's a digression for another post.

Devil's advocate or not, it's still necessary for me to allow that yes, of course they're exploiting the licence. Come, my rabid band of blinkered fools, and drive the latest and greatest car on our private testing facility! You won't get this anywhere else, folks! Roll up, roll up! If any team's fanbase is the ideal target market for this kind of thing, it's the Tifosi.

I don't like Ferrari. I do like driving around in circles, I do like time trials, I do like hotlapping. As a result, it's just about worth the 12 bar I paid for it. Yer pays yer money, yer takes yer choice...

[DChaps]

Thanks for the impressions Adam. Right or wrong, I have basically been a full paying, full content iRacing subscriber for over two years and mostly use it for time trials/testing with the occasional DSP hosted session here and there (a very long sad time at this point). Of course I always have good intentions of getting into the actual online racing aspect of iRacing since that is its strength, but it is also a fantastic (I would say the best) hotlapping/testing sim. Therefore, I have no problem with the idea of paying $20 for this, HOWEVER, for the life of me I have yet to be able to figure out how to actually pay for this damn game and download it to my PC. From everything I can tell, there is actually no way currently for a US citizen to purchase this game. I have yet to get official confirmation of this, but it has not worked following their payment process and there is no option to even select US as a country. Therefore, every time I input my credit card (tried a couple), or my paypal account, it gets denied. Weird.... If any US DSP member purchases this successfully, let me know what I am doing wrong.

[pk500]

iRacing Dallara at New Hampshire -- BOING!

Crazy fun.

[Rodster]

For anyone interested someone released the 2010 season for Grand Prix 4 and it looks really good. If you are interested let me know and i'll post the link to the mod which is basically the game plus mod.

I decided it was worth a try as I seriously doubt my PC could handle F1: 2010

[pk500]

For anyone interested someone released the 2010 season for Grand Prix 4 and it looks really good. If you are interested let me know and i'll post the link to the mod which is basically the game plus mod.

I decided it was worth a try as I seriously doubt my PC could handle F1: 2010

Rod:

I'm interested. Any special workarounds needed for the game to run on XP?

Thanks!

[Rodster]

For anyone interested someone released the 2010 season for Grand Prix 4 and it looks really good. If you are interested let me know and i'll post the link to the mod which is basically the game plus mod.

I decided it was worth a try as I seriously doubt my PC could handle F1: 2010

Rod:

I'm interested. Any special workarounds needed for the game to run on XP?

Thanks!

Check your PM

[DChaps]

Hi Rod, is this something different than the one referenced in the link below?

http://www.grandprixgames.org/read.php?4,909868

I tried back in March/April timeframe to get GP4 going again with the mods, but I am just too dumb. Even following the guide I could never get it to work.

[Rodster]

Hi Rod, is this something different than the one referenced in the link below?

http://www.grandprixgames.org/read.php?4,909868

I tried back in March/April timeframe to get GP4 going again with the mods, but I am just too dumb. Even following the guide I could never get it to work.

Don it's the same thing except the version I got has already been put together so you just start the executable and once it's finished you start playing. Truthfully though it's not bad BUT I think Codemaster's F1: 2010 will smoke this, although Geoff Crammonds AI is still tough to beat.

I made the offer to Paul and the same goes for you. If you want me to make you a DVD, PM me with your address and i'll put it on a disc for you.

[Gurantsu]

Rod,

Please PM me the link. I'd love to give it a shot.

[Rodster]

Rod,

Please PM me the link. I'd love to give it a shot.

It had a virus so the link was pulled from the site. I was also infected with a virus so I deleted it. However there is the 2009 version which doesn't appear to have a virus. Let me know if your interested.

[Rodster]

Activision acquired the Nascar license from 2011. I'm interested to see what they do with the series.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010- ... -ip-report

[DChaps]

Ferrari Virtual Academy is at a 30% discount for the next 48 hours if you use the code below when purchasing. This brings the price down to about $14 US as opposed to $20.

WLNUE-RZ2HU-5W6ZD-HD3TC

http://www.ferrarivirtualacademy.com/ga ... wnload.jsp

[Rodster]

Had a chance to try MotoGP 09/10 for the 360 since I bought it new on Fleebay for $9.99 and I must say it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I tried the demo and thought meh. After playing it some and enabling tilt on the camera the game is rather playable and the Arcade portion is rather fun.

It's definitely worth it at $10.

[Rodster]

Looks like someone's doing the USF1 Team for F1 2010.

[DChaps]

Dover International Speedway is now available for iRacing:

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/m ... ?trkid=162

Dover International Speedway – the Monster Mile – truly is a monster and it is now available. One of only two NASCAR Sprint Cup tracks with concrete pavement, Dover is a beast of a race track. Its 24° banked turns and 9° banked straightaways take no prisoners. Just ask the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series veterans. Better yet, find out for yourself. For just $14.95 you can be the first one on your block or in your league to own a monster, the Monster Mile that is.

[Rodster]

My future gaming rig setup if I ever find $1 million to buy it.

[GB_Simo]

WARNING: CONTAINS JAMES ALLEN

[Rodster]

WARNING: CONTAINS JAMES ALLEN

The name is Cock, James "Cock" Allen

[DChaps]

iRacing AT&T Williams FW31 - Now Available for Pre-Sale

With its carbon-aramid and honeycomb composite monocoque, state-of-the-art aerodynamics, 2.4 liter Toyota RVX-09 spinning at 18,000 rpm and seven speed, electro-hydraulically actuated, semi-automatic, seamless shift gearbox, the AT&T Williams FW31 is among the fastest, most exciting and most sophisticated race cars ever built. With it, Nico Rosberg scored eight top six finishes in the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship and set the fastest lap of the Australian Grand Prix.

But you know all about the AT&T Williams FW31. Ever since iRacing.com announced it was building the car you’ve been waiting for the day when you could own it. That day is rapidly approaching. Finally. The AT&T Williams is now available for pre-sale for $11.95 and can be added to your cart on the cars page.

For now head on over to our YouTube channel and check it out in action!

http://www.youtube.com/user/iRacingTV#p/u/7/9xEoBYCTFJ0