For the FTAO of Sim racing folk

[mik]

@KiwiDave You won't be able to play Project Cars 2 as it's no longer supported (I can't load DLC cars/tracks that others have as there is no longer any option to do so), but you should be able to download GT7. (It's a sim-cade rather than a sim, so less realistic but still a lot of fun and very "busy" in terms of playing against other online - which PC2 isn't).

[KiwiDave]

GT7 is about the only one I'm regularly playing currently.

I do kinda fancy a go at something more realistic though. I suspect my wheel and pedals will be the weak point then, I already struggle modulating braking effort in GT7 as there's no weight and feedback under the brake pedal.

[mik]

I switched to Thrusaster TLCM (load cell) pedals for that reason. Not crazy £s

So much easier to trail brake.

[Jimmy Choo]

I switched to Thrusaster TLCM (load cell) pedals for that reason. Not crazy £s

So much easier to trail brake.

I've set up a custom championship in Assetto Corsa loosely based on the 2014 series but with the RSS Formula 3 V6 cars. I've just been pounding round Snetterton and I swear that you spend more time breaking in corners than accelerating! Load cell pedals are on my wish list now.

[mik]

I swear that you spend more time breaking in corners than accelerating! Load cell pedals are on my wish list now.

Brno is like that too.

TLCM are fabulous value for load-cells.

[mik]

I was on a decent ProjectCars2 lobby for an hour or so at the weekend. The host flipped from GT3's (which this bunch normally race) to Aussie V8 Supercars - which was a great shake-up from my perspective. The latter (intentionally) have much less grip than GT3 cars, but are a few seconds quicker on the majority of tracks due to their power advantage. We did a 10 lap race at Watkins Glen with people mainly getting used to the cars, mentally moving all their normal braking references forward etc etc. I finished 4th out of 12.

The maniac then decided 10 laps of Monza was a good idea.

Quali was set to just 5mins, so there was literally one flying lap opportunity (after you'd fiddled with the setup to suit), and of courese I managed to drop two wheels off the circuit and had my time disallowed. Arse! Several others were in the same boat, so I was appointed 10th on the starting grid.

Most will know that starting near the front at Monza can be a bitter pill..... absolute carnage at the chicane as P12 tried to brake late, and just piled into the group ahead - who were all 2-wide just trying to get round. I took a couple of bumps, but emerged from the chicane in 5th. Nice.

The two ahead of me managed to tangle heading into the 2nd chicane, and suddenly I found myself in 3rd. The leading pair had managed to avoid all the calamity, and I was now 3.5 seconds adrift of P2.

A million laps were spent slowly eating into that gap. Which would probably not have been possible if they hadn't been dicing, but exiting the Parabolica at the end of lap 7 I was close enough to pick up the tow from P2, and just pulled off a pass into the first chicane. Lap 8 we all held positions, and half way round lap 9 the leader suddenly speared into the undergrowth, leaving me in the lead. Tried to keep everything super-clean and smoothe but with the desire to take the win I could feel myself tensing up, turning in a smidge too early here, back on the power a tiny bit too soon there and running a few inches wide : P2 was edging closer. Almost all of the final lap I had to be defensive - which slowed us both down and the lap lasted forevah - but I kept the car as wide as I could and managed to fend them off. P1

The whole thing meant nothing, but in that moment it meant everything.

[KiwiDave]

I fucking hate Monza. I cannot hit the perfect lines consistently, regularly turning too early even though I'm trying not to. And the first chicane is just a cluster fuck.

[16vCento]

Ive just started GT7.

It's very odd after playing years and years of Forza.

I grew up playing GT and had Playstation for a long time, then ended up with Dreamcast, Xbox, Pc, then further Xboxes etcs.

The PS5 controller is more advanced than the Xbox series x one, and GT7 actually plays pretty well through a controller, which maybe isn't a good thing, but I need a wheel to compare like for like, I've stuck a couple of bids on Thrustmaster T248s as I'd like to see the difference between those and the Logitech ones I have already.

[Jimmy Choo]

<snip>
The whole thing meant nothing, but in that moment it meant everything.

The cars and track aren't real but the racing is.

[mik]

The cars and track aren't real but the racing is.

[scotta]

There are a few sim racers coming to console later this year. Which is good news as i hate forza and the Pcars 2 lobbys are essentially dead.

In the meantime weve been playing Wreckfest! I dont play that on wheel though as its a recipe for broken wrists.

[mik]

I've always fancied a shot of iRacing, but never had the opportunity / kit. Although there is no doubting that other games are visually more impressive now.

Check out this taster of what's coming next for them though - I need to get myself a decent PC as I think sticking with console games would be foolish if you have the opportunity for realism at this level

[dan]

Iracing is by far the best sim out there, once you've raced on it a few times and properly got into it nothing else comes close.

just saw the date

[mik]

Shhhh

[MikeHunt]

Bullet bitten

One year and 77 hours of racing update...

The hardware has been spot on and just works eveytime, the wheel feels comfortable to hold, I no longer feel any motion sickness even playing for hours. A fan lightly blowing air can prevent this, but I no longer need a fan.

We reorganised some of the rooms in the house late last year, before that I was moving the wheel and pedals around, plugging in and it was a bit off a faff and so the whole thing was a bit of a waste of money as I wasnt really getting into it. Now that it has a permanent place, Im tending to jump in for a "quick" hour or 2 more often than not.

I am less than 50% through the game so far, it takes you through a real variety of races, collecting cars and there are also challenges such as licences which can be tough to shave 100ths of a second off a set of corners and missions that involve things like slip steaming or drag races. The cars all feel very different and based on the cars I have owned recently eg supra (z4), mx5 and gr yaris, they have worked very hard on the accuracy and based on this, I would never buy a dodge viper as its not designed to go around corners.

It's nice to tune a car without draining your actual bank account, almost all cars on regular hard tyres handle poorly and soft tyres are an essential buy. The convertibles are the highlight for me mx5, bac mono, ktm bow and even a go kart all feel amazing.

I has planned to pay for the online service at some point and race against real people, but its taking me longer to progress through the offline version of the game. I have seen online that the lower ranking racers are full of idiots and gt7 has recently upgraded the AI to a point where you probably dont need to race online.

The vr header is as immersive as you would imagine, at times you almost forget it's a game and ive flinched as barriers approach at speed. I played on the sims in the F1 arcade and even though they have full motion, the screen doesnt feel as good. The only negative is that more games arent vrcompatible, F1 or Forza would be a bonus.

[mik]

I has planned to pay for the online service at some point and race against real people, but its taking me longer to progress through the offline version of the game. I have seen online that the lower ranking racers are full of idiots and gt7 has recently upgraded the AI to a point where you probably dont need to race online.

I'd encourage you to proceed - once you have some skillz, you can move up the online ranking system relatively quickly and avoid most of the idiots. Racing against other real people is a whole different level for me - I do sends on AI that I would never consider against a human racer as there is no real consequence (and I can't just reset if I mess it up) plus the taste of satisfaction from a decent result is much sweeter.

[simon_g]

Finally picked up a G29 and snagged a cheap GT Omega cockpit off ebay. I'm enjoying GT7 but could do with a wheel-compatible PS4 arcadey racer for the 8 year old - he'd been enjoying Burnout Paradise and NFS Hot Pursuit on controller but neither work with the wheel. Any ideas?

[jamcg]

Finally picked up a G29 and snagged a cheap GT Omega cockpit off ebay. I'm enjoying GT7 but could do with a wheel-compatible PS4 arcadey racer for the 8 year old - he'd been enjoying Burnout Paradise and NFS Hot Pursuit on controller but neither work with the wheel. Any ideas?

For the pricey option forza horizon is now on PlayStation, I’d imagine that’s wheel compatible being so new

[simon_g]

not forking out for a PS5 just yet, not until GTA6 at least. I've been pleasantly surprised by how well GT7 is running on the PS4 Pro.

Think I'll scour the local CeX for Driveclub and the older Dirt games. I re-bought Wreckfest cheap for the PS4 too, which is a bit of an arm workout but so much fun.

[mik]

Think I'll scour the local CeX for Driveclub and the older Dirt games. I re-bought Wreckfest cheap for the PS4 too, which is a bit of an arm workout but so much fun.

I've got DriveClub for PS4 - I can post it to you if you like? You can steer with a wheel, but there is no force-feedback.....