That’s right. iRacing does have a really good AI that allows you to build single player races and championships using its content, but it’s not really worth paying the monthly subscription fee for that if you’re not also going to join in with the multiplayer races.
As for the rest of the pack - Assetto Corsa Ultimate Edition is ridiculous good value for the price. Like suspiciously good value. There’s so much in the base game that you can race for years just using that and then there’s also a vast amount of high quality mods for it. Everyone who likes sim racing should own that.
Assetto Corsa Competizione is a newer game from the same devs, but focuses exclusively on GT racing, with GT3 and GT4 cars. I love it to bits, especially the different characters of all the GT4 cars and the fact that it’s one of the few sims to allow you to save an endurance race midway, so I can run actual 24 hour races on 1x time over the course of a couple weeks.
Automobilista 2 (AMS2) is from Reiza and I’m a massive fanboy for their work back to “Stock Car Extreme” and the original Automobilista.
For AMS2 they moved to the Project Cars engine and for a while they struggled to get a tune out of it, but it feels like they’re really getting there now. It’s probably the first truly good Project Cars game, just wearing a different name tag.
rFactor2 is an odd bird. The driving feel is great and the AI is good, but it doesn’t really have a defining theme. Its UI is being modernised and they’re trying to push a competition system for online racing too, so it’s still getting love from its devs, but despite having really good AI it’s probably the one from the list that I play least.
This is the first bundle in a long time whereas I own no games in the bundle, yet all of them were on my wishlist. Not really interested in multiplayer though but it looks like plenty of single-player to be had.
AC, ACC and AMS2 will give you thousands of hours of single player fun.
AC does have a career mode of sorts, although it’s really just a series of gated events, where when you pass one group you get to move on to the next. You can even download community made careers from racedepartment.com, along with thousands of other mods. The AC modding scene is really deep.
The new “Challengers” DLC is available for Assetto Corsa Competizione.
It includes the new Audi R8 that’s going to be raced by Moto GP legend Valentino Rossi and then four other cars that all run in single-make racing series :
BMW M2 CS Racing
Ferrari 488 GT3 Challenge Evo
Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO 2
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Type 992)
The BMW M2 CS is in rFactor2 and is one of my favourite cars to race in that sim.
Honestly, at this point, I’ve completely given up on Need For Speed games. I know that Need For Speed 4 (High Stakes) was the original game that got me into racing games in the first place, but honestly I haven’t really enjoyed one since the Xbox 360 generation.
Apparently there’s a new one coming in November, Current-Gen only, no last-gen version. That seems like a dubious rumor.
It took me a while to get into it, but I’ve been enjoying AMS2—an issue with me and my time and interests, not the game being challenging to get into—the past week or so. The on-track racing is great and the custom AI files work pretty well too.
However, I am having an issue with pitstops. It does not allow you to request pitstops from the pause menu, meaning I crash more times than not trying to fiddle with pit options during a race. The ‘solution’ is to create a bunch of preset pit strategies to quickly browse between during race as opposed to manually adjusting them, but the number you can save is severely limited. Meaning, you better hope you don’t need, say, aero and gearbox repair, or just simply want to switch to an in-between fuel strategy. And you cannot leave settings in the AI’s hands either because they make decisions like leaving your worn tires on unless they are at 0% while at the same time making needless repairs (“suspension at 97% health? Better take 200 seconds to repair it!”).
Still great overall and the above seems very fixable to me—and frankly seems essential for their oval racing pack—but it’s been out a while now so. . .
The league we have is likely moving to AMS2 from RR. Doesn’t sound like the pit stop stuff is much different, but I haven’t played it yet. RR just keeps on crashing people out of the races and I had all my setting just vanish right before the last race. That’s when I gave up and uninstalled it. I wish I had bought ASM2 when it was last on sale. :(
The cool kids use apps to help automate pit stops. For example Crew Chief CrewChief Forums has voice recognition and you can tell it verbally to change tires or fill you XX gallons. Not sure it supports AMS2, but you can check or see if there is an equivalent app for AMS2.
I myself use buttons on my wheel and make the changes on the drive to the pit box…but someday I’ll be cool too.
This is what I’m doing now, but some pitlanes are longer than others so even then it can get tricky. Also, when you make adjustments—say changing to 65L of fuel instead of 75 on your ‘tires and 75L’ strategy—it saves them to that pit strategy preset you selected, meaning you need to go back and ‘fix’ it before the next race, which is not ideal.
I also learned that AMS2 is simmy enough that you need to request the pit in advance. You can’t wait until the last corner to request or you get waved around, which I found out the hard way.
I know, its a pain. I lost a online 2 1/2hr enduro at Le Mans once because I was dinking with the pit settings on pit road while handily leading the race. iIovershot the pit box and the crew would not service the car nor push me back (I was a bit too far forwards I guess…maybe a yard or so). I did not have the gas to make a lap (because Le Mans). Pit lane was flat, so I was not rolling backwards. My only recourse was reverse, and the game instantly DQ’ed me.
Anyway there are a million helper apps out these days for the different sims. I use Crew Chief and a app that gives all sorts of needed utilities with iRacing.
@Mr_Bismarck, when does your racing league’s next season start? I’ve been getting into sim racing recently, and I’m ready for multiplayer. So far I’ve only dipped my toes into iRacing on the MX5, but I’ve finished most of Assetto Corsa and maybe half of Assetto Corsa Competizione on the singleplayer front. I have a cheaper borrowed rig right now, but I’m looking to upgrade to high-end gear over the next year. I should have plenty of room & motivation for growth in that time.
What’s the best multiplayer option for rally? Is it just iRacing, or does Dirt Rally 2.0 have decent rallycross options? I know it’s got time trial leaderboards. I haven’t made it back to Dirty Rally 2.0 yet since getting a handbrake & shifter, but I loved Dirt 2 on controller way back when, and even on controller, dipping my toes back in on Dirt Rally 2.0 felt surprisingly realistic on the snow. It probably helped that I’d been driving a very similar Subaru through the snow all season in real life.
