Racing games - GTR, Race07, Rfactor, etc

That’s what they told me. Then they gave me a drive through penalty.

I said “I just did drive through…” but apparently they don’t mean for you to serve your penalty at 170 mph.

Looks like fun, though. I discovered I really, really like the Brazilian V8 stock cars the last time I was playing SCE regularly. How do the Australian ones compare?

The Brazilian stock cars are pussycats compared. They’re, like, actual race cars or something.

The Aussie V8s are under-tyred with no downforce and no brakes and monster engines. The good news is, the modern V8 Supercars do at last have independent rear suspension. Controlling all those horses over curbs and bumps with a live rear axle was… entertaining.

For a while in iRacing I couldn’t drive the Cadillac CTS to save my life. Then I spent four weeks learning the Ford Falcon V8. I went back to the Caddy and suddenly I could drive it, because it wasn’t constantly trying to kill me.

Sounds to me like you’re saying, “It’s the Sopwith Camel of race cars.”

Time to get the wheel out again, I think.

Remember how in Rise of Flight the props for the Gotha are nowhere near the rudder, so on your take off roll you have to steer with opposite aileron and then you suddenly hit the magic speed that your rudder starts working and all your controls unexpectedly reverse and you crash and then catch fire?

It’s more like that.

Even better!

(I flew a few missions in a Gotha/PWCG campaign, mainly cross-channel raids. Ordinarily, on long flights, I’ll bump time acceleration up a little bit. Not in the Gotha, no. I made it all the way there and back… and nosed over on landing.)

Hah, I never made the connection about the Gotha engine’s distance from the rudder. But why does it tend to flip and the HP doesn’t?

Likely center of gravity concerns. The G.V has its fuel tank right behind the pilot, which is directly above the main landing gear, and its fuselage is pretty skeletal. The HP carries its main fuel aft of the wing in fuselage tanks, with gravity tanks above the engine for the final feed, and has a full box fuselage.

When the gear touch down for the first time, you get a sudden deceleration, and with a C-G as far forward as the Gotha, you don’t have very much downward force on the tail resisting the flipping moment (which I will claim is the technical term).

Whoever did the sounds for the V8 should get a pay raise. I’ve always felt that SCE’s sounds have always been a bit of a weak point for the game, (especially compared to R3E), and the trackside noise when a group of the V8s is going by is still pretty average, but the in and on-car view noises are so absolutely spot on, from the backfire crack when you’re off the gas for a long time, to the thunder rumble at the limiter, and to the high-pitched spooling banshee wail inbetween.

It took a while, but I finally completed a 12 lap race without any major screwups. Your choice is between the soft tyre that’ll let you drive up the side of a building for five laps and then feels like you’ve got a pat of butter in each corner of the car thereafter, or a harder tyre that offers below average grip, forever.

I kept getting eight or so laps in and losing the back of the car because the left side rubber was at 220 degrees, about to actually catch fire.

Being on the inside at 185mph approaching the braking zone into turn one is frightening. Worse, is being on the outside, following another car and hoping to god your brakes have some temp in them, or when you get to the point you need to apply the anchors the guy in front is going to get a one and a half ton V8 enema.

I hope some talented person comes out with the official skins, (even though all the cars look like Holdens), because I want that and I want it now, dammit.

I was playing Nitro Stunt Racing last night to see if I wanted to keep it in my backlog (ah why not?). I read the developers stopped supporting it to concentrate on their arcade business. We went to a little putt-putt / go kart place tonight and sure enough, there was Twisted: Nitro Stunt Racing. With a free credit still in the machine!

…probably because a third of the screen was cut off on the right for some reason. Damn French.

Guy behind me got his braking into the hairpin ever so slightly wrong.

Holy crap Finland.

Took a long time for the force feedback in Dirt Rally to get somewhere I could make use of with my Fanatec wheel, but it’s there now and my goodness Finland is fun. If you’ve got a deathwish. You can have a clean run and still absolutely wreck your suspension with the all the Dukes of Hazard shenanigans.

So I just bought Stock Car Extreme during the current Steam sale, what mode would you all recommend for a racing sim noob? I’ve played several “simcade” games like Grid Autosport and F1 2013, but I haven’t really played any more realistic simulations before. I’ve tried a couple races so far, but I get completely smoked by the AI every time. Also, any tips for playing on an xbox controller?

Welcome to sim racing. I can’t speak to playing on a controller, but others may or try googling. Stock Car Exstreme is basically rFactor, so advice given on that game works for GSCE as well.

As for getting better, there are 2 steps I suggest. First is to forget racing for now and just do test sessions. Your goal is to get to the point were all or most of your laps are within about 0.2 sec of each other. Now you have consistency and can build speed. I do that whenever I am learning a new track

Next you learn from the AI (or other humans, later when/if you race online). Dial down the AI speed to be just a tad faster than you. There is a slider in the difficulty section. Then at first instead of racing them, follow them and study their line. Or without going on track you can select an opponent and study their driving. Chances are they are taking a better line than you. So then go out and test the new lines, and practice then again until you are consistent again. Chances are the new line gained you seconds of laptime, and now you should be ready to race for real.

Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever actually been scared for my life in a racing game as much as I was while playing Formula Classic in GSCE. Seriously, those cars feel like they could fall apart or explode at any moment. Really enjoying this game. Wish that the interface was a bit better though. Also, wish it had a Time Trial mode with ghost cars (my favorite mode in most race games).

If you’re enjoying the FClassics then you should get over to Race Department and download this 1991 mod.

It includes the real liveries and driver names from '91, but more importantly it uses the .veh files to make cars that perform roughly where they would have in real life. You then calibrate the AI by running a practice session, (not a Test Day), and turning the AI rating up, (or down), until you can just keep up with your teammate when you’re on low fuel.

So if you pick one of the Footwork Arrows, you should be able to keep up with the other one on a clean leap. That way all the McLarens, Ferraris, Williams, Leyton Houses and Minardis will have appropriate speed. As you’ll notice when Ayrton Senna smashes past you in his red and white rocket.

The Engine life has also be tuned so that you’ll get an appropriate level of retirements, (a lot), giving you hope of picking up one of the low points positions even if you’re driving Fondmetal. Or, as happened to me, you’ll drag the Ligier into 7th place, right on the cusp of the points in a 35 lap race around Kyalami and then your car will catch fire.

The Formula Classics is certainly the deep end of the pool to start in. The cars without downforce are probably easier for a new driver, but its important to run something you like.

If you wan a sim with a ghost car mode, then get Asseto Corsa. Very good sim that has the mode.

When you get the calibration right, this mod is so good.

Qualified 15th, right behind my teammate Thierry Boutsen, (5/100ths of a second difference), and then ended up standing on his coat tails lap after lap, while he tried to find a way past Mauricio Gugelmin in the Leyton House.

Eventually I got to see the human side of the AI as Boutsen screwed up his upshift to sixth on the start-finish straight and was suddenly almost standing still in front of me, causing me to dip my left wheels onto the grass as I took evasive action and got around him.

This then gave Gugelmin breathing space for the first time and he reacted the way I often see people do on iRacing - breathing a sigh of relief and then with the pressure off, totally missing his breaking point into one of the chicanes and spinning off onto the grass.

Some other fun moments in there too - firstly Alain Prost spun his Ferrari on lap one and ended up just in front of my teammate, before demonstrating the power of the front-running cars by just driving away from us again. Meanwhile, former World Champion Nelson Piquet had started last on the grid after pulling out of qualifying on the first lap when his Benetton caught fire. He was chopping his way through the field from the back and the difference in speed when he caught me was frightening.

After the films ends I run to the end of the race just about maintaining the two second gap to Gugelmin, Boutsen and the other Leyton House driven by Ivan Capelli, working hard at it to make sure they couldn’t get within drafting range on the long straights.

Considering the fragility of the cars in this era and this mod, there was a miracle as all 26 cars made it to the end - -the first time I’ve seen that in a long race in this mod.

Now is a great time to pick up Stock Car Extreme if you haven’t already, because Reiza Studios have now announced their new game coming in early 2016, AUTOMOBILISTA! and anyone who owns SCE on Steam before January 5 2016 will be getting the new game for free.

AUTOMOBILISTA continues to simulate premium Brazilian racing series such as Stock Car V8, Copa Petrobras de Marcas, Formula 3 Brasil and Mitsubishi Lancer Cup, now packing every car and every track from their respective 2015 championships.

Beyond the brazilian core, AUTOMOBILISTA is extensively complemented with one of the most diverse selections or racing vehicles to be found in a racing game: only in AUTOMOBILISTA will you be able to jump from a rental kart to a 800-HP F1 car; from drifting a Rallycross Evo X to jumping ramps in a Supertruck; from mastering the driving basics in a Formula Vee to managing a full 24h race in an endurance prototype; back and forth through time with historical and modern content including a sample from several decades of Grand Prix racing

AUTOMOBILISTA! I AM EXCITED!

Well, that’s an awesome deal.