The entire racing sim ballgame has changed for me since I finally satisfied my curiosity and tried the Live For Speed demo Saturday night.
This game is good, fellas. Unbelievably good.
Live For Speed has the best tire grip and physics model of any PC racing sim I've ever played. Blows rFactor into the weeds. Is much better than GTR 2. Better than NR 2003 and GPL. Slightly better than Richard Burns Rally, too.
The tire model is so realistic and detailed that
tire flex under sidewall loads is simulated. You can see it. There is a replay angle that shows nothing but the front wheels from the cockpit, with nothing to hinder your vision. Here an example from YouTube:
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http://www.youtube.com/v/GqjlsDsmukU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed>
Look at those sidewalls flex under cornering and bump loads. It's incredible. Plus you can actually feel the tire flex through the wheel during understeer before it lets go.
I had an incredible moment last night when I nailed a curb, and the pneumatic rebound of the tire kicked the right side of my small compact into the air, touring car style. I drove out of it, with my car bouncing just a bit on the tires on return-to-terra firma impact. I was f*cking gobsmacked.
Where this tire model really elevates NFS above other sims I've tried is during braking and cornering. The cars is NFS feel like ... well, cars.
You can lean on the tires HARD and not spin away like a top on black ice like in rFactor. But when you reach the end of adhesion, you're either understeering or spinning. It's so realistic, it's nuts.
Plus one of my biggest pet peeves of GTR 2 and especially rFactor is just how ginger you must be on the brakes to avoid lockup. Not in NFS. You can stand on the binders, just like as in real life, and slow the car. But again, just like when cornering, when you reach the end of adhesion, the tires will lock and the car will understeer like a pig.
And when you start to lose the car in a slide, you can catch it if it's not too out of control and you're not carrying much too much speed. The only rFactor mod that even approaches this feel is the Historic GT & Touring mod.
This game has very, very pretty graphics for such miniscule system requirements, and online has been relatively lag-free. Not as hiccup-free as rFactor, but quite good. And the drivers are very clean and quick, for the most part.
What I REALLY dig about this game, besides the items mentioned above, is that this game allows you to push to the maximum to try and squeeze more time out of a lap. When you make a mistake, it doesn't feel like the result of a shoddy physics or tire engine. It feels like
you made a mistake. You must take it slow and steady, hit your marks perfectly and learn the limits of the tires' adhesion every lap.
Another great feature is that you MUST blip the throttle on upshifts with a sequential or manual shifter. No auto-blip. It's fantastic and really challenges you.
The game has a solid damage model, good, live force feedback with nothing pre-canned like default rFactor and GTR2 FFB and reasonable offline AI.
The demo contains three cars -- a small compact, an RX-7 clone and an officially licensed Formula BMW -- and one fictitious track with a GP layout and a rallycross layout. The dirt physics are pretty good, although not on a level of Richard Burns Rally.
There are only two licensed cars in the full game -- the FBMW and a BMW Sauber F1 car -- and no licensed tracks. But all of the licensed vehicles are built to resemble real-life counterparts such as a Super GT car, Caterham, Renault World Series V8 open-wheel car, Formula Vee car, Porsche 911 street car, Porsche 911 GT car, etc.
So if you must have licensed cars and tracks, this game isn't for you. But if you want a physics and especially a tire model that blows away anything out there among the "big sims" -- I haven't tried iRacing -- then give the LFS demo a try. Hell, the demo is only 140 MB!
www.liveforspeed.net
Proper wheel setup is VITAL, but it's easy. I'm more than happy to offer any tips.
If anyone gets the demo and wants to race online, let me know. I know I sound like a pimp about this game, but it's really exciting, really good.
Give it a go. Take at least 30 minutes to remove all preconceptions of what you think a sim
should feel like based on rFactor and GTR2 and run a large handful of laps. I think you'll fall in love with the tire and physics model.
Feel free to fire any questions to me in this thread.
Take care,
PK
"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
XBL Gamertag: pk4425
