Racing games - GTR, Race07, Rfactor, etc

I grabbed Dream Pack 3 for Brands Hatch. So many cars in the other DLCs. I’d never even do a lap with all of them.

I skipped the Red Bull circuit. It doesn’t look that interesting.

thanks for the heads up

AC remains my go to racing sim. The mods are getting good too.

Cheers, I grabbed the one piece I was missing. Complete the set!

So F1 2017 came out this week (yes I realize it’s not a “sim” racer) is anyone playing it? It seems to have received mostly positive reviews. I’m thinking of trading in Dirt 4 for F1 since Dirt 4 hasn’t really connected with me the way Rally did.

I have it. It’s… ok? The career looks fun, but there’s an issue with it right now where it doesn’t scale wear from practice and qualifying to your race length. So if you do ~50 laps in free practice and qualfying, (and you’ll want to, to get sweet research points), and then run a 25%-distance race of, say, 15 laps then the game totals your laps together to 65, divides that by race laps, (15), and then assigns four races of wear to each engine part.

You can already be getting grid penalties by race five.

It’s like a really good Honda simulator.

I picked up F1 2017 as it’s enhanced for XboneX and I don’t want to play Forza 7 so soon after “finishing” 6. Is there a good beginners guide for the series anywhere? And is there a trick to tyre wear management on controller, because I don’t seem to be able to anything to keep it in the green in the practice sessions.

I have it on PC and the only way I could pass the tyre management sessions was to put the car to full rich fuel mixture. That way I could drive carefully enough to stay green while still being quick enough to get under the delta time.

Trying to beat that on controller will be difficult, due to the natural sawing motion from steering with thumbsticks.

It’s all about smoothness on throttle and brake. I️ play on a wheel and pedal so it’s probably more difficult on controller but try to make your throttle and brake inputs smooth and linear instead of abrupt and mashing to 100%.

I’ve been doing that, but any gains from that approach seem to be wiped out by the sawing that Bismarck mentions.

I think if you lower the difficulty level then the delta time required comes down. But I don’t know if you can then put the difficulty back up to something appropriate before the race. I think it’s one setting for a race weekend and then you can change it inbetween.

I’m driving the Sauber in the career mode and it’s a complete shitbox. For that practice session I could either get under the time or save the tyres - not both. It wasn’t until I got a couple upgrades into the car that it became possible.

All of that is with a wheel. With a controller… well, good luck!

I have a wheel (G920), but as it involves rearranging my living room, I haven’t tried it with F1 2017 yet. I suspect I’ll have to to get good.

Managed to get green results on tyre management for my last couple of races. It seems the trick is to never accelerate while turning. Obvious really, but it applies even during long gentle curves where you could easily do so without skidding, which is frustrating. Generally I’ve been able to make up the time elsewhere, but I suspect that is going to be track dependent.

FWIW, I’m in a McLaren.

The bug where upgrades to McLaren’s Honda engine weren’t actually providing any upgrade was especially delicious, considering recent F1 history.

McLaren and Force India are interested in hiring me for next year, and the McL chassis is so much better than the Sauber that it’s tempting, if they weren’t powered by rubber bands. The FI is glorious to drive, so I’m hoping they show up with a contract.

Fuuuuuck Monaco.

I mean, I’m sure it wasn’t this hard in Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix.

Our Project Cars league race is at Monaco next, so I heartily agree.

I mean, it shouldn’t be a racetrack in real life. Making me drive around it in a game is just cruel.

What cars does your PC league race? I ask because racing Monaco in something like 60s under 2 liter cars (think Minis and Abarth and Cortinas) was a blast years ago in a league running the Power&Glory mod for the venerable GTR2.

The key: Low HP and low grip!

We race the Formula Gulf. Low power open wheelers.

I realise it’s something nearing blasphemy, but Monaco is a terrible track for modern cars. At least in the olden days you could end it all by throwing yourself into the harbour.

With a long pause for holidays we finally got our Monaco races completed.

The random weather setting said, “you know what would make this circuit more fun…?”

When you say completed, do you mean that the event was held, or that people actually finished the requisite number of laps?

We had people get the required number of laps, yes. And not just once, but twice!

Our second race is a reverse-grid start, with the person who won race 1 starting last in race 2, so that made that race a bit spicy too.