Absolutely yes. I can recommend a Driving Force GT ($60-$90 on eBay). Good force feedback is another level of awesome for driving games.
Greece at night. I miss my Lancia—I bought the Ford Sierra RS500 from the 1980s car selection, and I can’t handle the stability. I’ve been fiddling with setup trying to get it to oversteer more.
I also find that I’m slow on Greek stages, for some reason. I frequently find myself mentally subtracting one from the corner rating. The tight quarters and sharp edges aren’t conducive to my, uh, expressive driving style.
Nonsense. Everyone knows a gamepad is the best way to experience racing games. (Given that is what you’re used to, if not then ignore the previous statement).
What really made me fall in love with this game are the Wales tracks. Monte Carlo and Greece are okay, but Wales is where your attention has to be 100% all the time. Complete intensity. It reminds me of the Australian courses in the first Dirt. I love it. After Wales, going back to Greece is so relaxing in comparison.
Only one more day left for the current event in the league! If you haven’t joined yet, don’t worry. The next event will be part of a separate season, which has 4 events total. Still, now is a perfect time to join.
Well, that was a lot of fun - totally lost my bearings at one point on the final night stage and got the “wrong direction” countdown. Most people seem to be driving the Mini - might have to give it a go next time.
I dunno, those really icy Monte Carlo levels can be a real pain as well. Can’t lie, while I’ve run into this situation more than once on those skinny mountain roads.
I feel the complete opposite about Greece and Wales. If I’m not paying sufficient attention in Wales, I’m just slow. If I’m not paying sufficient attention in Greece, I’m dead. Curious how different people look at different stages.
I found this rally driving primer very helpful in explaining why I instinctively drive the way I drive—if you’re not great at the whole speed thing (like me), you may find it handy, too.
I also found an article on the game website about how the pace notes were done, which was neat:
In the past we have recorded the calls with an actor in a recording studio but to try and get a better sense of being in the cockpit we have rigged up a Stilo Intercom System in our D-Box room. I wear my crash helmet and sit in the D-Box chair. It’s a motion seat so every bump, dip and crest in the stage is transferred through the seat and into my body. It’s subtle but the faster sections are reflected through the intensity of the calls and things tend to get calmer when the car is going through some of the slower sections.
Heh. Actually I like Wales for the same reason as you like Greece. It looks deceptively safe, but the path is so narrow, even a little variance from the path means hitting bumps and flipping over and destroying your car. Whereas there’s more room to maneuver in Greece, and usually if I mess up in Greece I just slow down, but in Wales when I mess up, I die spectacularly.
I much prefer Greece. I like the feel of sliding about in the dust, rather than the mix of mud and gravel in Wales. I also really like the elevation changes for some reason - I feel like I’m going somewhere when I’m driving up the mountains and then going back down the mountains is hold-on-for-your-life frightening, because if you get it wrong you find the super-secret fastest way down.
I’d love to register a time, but I can’t link my Steam account. “An error occurred with the accounts system. Please try again later.” And with only five hours left in the event. :(
I sent out some friend requests to the Qt3 league members since none of you were on my friends list yet.
The Daily today is insane. Really long Wales track in a car that’s too fast, in the pouring rain that’s soaking the windshield, especially the side window. And worst of all, it’s a right-wheel drive car, which really throws me off. I didn’t even make it to the third stage of the track before my left rear tire blew out. And then it was just an exercise in torturous steering, trying to keep the car on the track at low speeds. I finally retired.
It brought a new dimension to light on the earlier discussion on Wales vs Monte Carlo vs Greece though. I was judging those based purely on the 1960s slower cars. All the tracks drive completely differently in faster cars.
Yeah, the daily was brutal. (I was +2 minutes to the community leader when I ran it.) The car was really just terribly set up, in my opinion—way too firm a suspension, and maybe too strong a rear differential. I found it squirrelly under braking, and clipping even the slightest bump sent you out of control unless you were taking it like a jump.
Tom, I ran into the same issue. Eventually it worked. Maybe it broke again? The website feels the most early-access to me out of the whole assembly.
I’ve had this problem happen before when trying to access leagues. I ended up trying again later and it worked. Not quite sure if I did anything special or if it was just a server issue.
I think driving games are a waste of computing resources, but this one is drawing me in. Maybe I’ll even buy a wheel?!
About all of these wheels you use: I see a lot don’t have a clutch, just break/accelerate? Also: Those with gear sticks: can they be swapped to the left hand side? (To simulate right-hand driving, for people who drive on the left-hand side).
I think manual changing is a must. Going through hairpins in Greece the 60s Mini will sit in second gear, which limits your acceleration out of the corner and first gear also makes it much easier to whip the car around. The Mini will also sit in fourth going uphill through the chained left 6 - left 6 - right 6 - left 6 crest way longer than it should.
I also don’t think I could drive the Group B cars without manual transmission. I like to be a gear high out of some corners, to stop the rear of the car disappearing over a Welsh hill under corner-exit acceleration.
I might be able to mitigate that better when I’m not forced to use the 360 pad.
