Any Sim Racing Fans?

[Pudu]

I would love to be able to race in a league and I've tried it a number of times over the last 5 years or so. But it is nearly impossible for me to ensure I have the time needed for racing online uninterrupted - with two small kids, one wife, one cat - there is always some kind of interruption/conflicting commitment that has ruined just about every online race I've tried.

"Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing!" may work for the Iceman, but I don't recommend you try it on your spouse. (I hope he didn't try it either)

Plus, now, I doubt there are many leagues compatible with my time-zone / latency zone.

Long long ago I was in an ICRII league. We would each run our race and then email in the results along with the race replay and the times would be used to calculate the results. It wasn't perfect, but it was total hoot.

I agree that the adrenaline levels are much higher in online racing. I try to treat offline races as real as possible for that reason - no skipping outlaps/inlaps etc. But you can definitely get into the zone hot-lapping Monaco during qualifying.

Judging on past ISI performance there is no way I could justify a yearly fee. I payed once for BF2 (and a couple of expansion packs that added content) and played it for 5 years. BF3 was less of a deal but I'm still playing it weekly. Now if the yearly rF2 fee is only for online access and goes to managing servers, then I might spring for it since I wouldn't probably need to pay for stuff I'm not using.

I never played netkar but I'm hoping the AC hype lives up to potential. Truthfully pCARS seems a bit like a screenshot platform at the moment (okay, that was unfair). every couple of weeks I fire it up and then remember why I quit after about 5-10 minutes.

 

[ninjapirate9901]

The leagues that I tried racing with in New Zealand were a bit too much for me skill wise, i.e. I sucked too much at that stage to really get into it. Latency is also a huge issue in NZ if you want to race against opponents from other countries.
 
This pretty much meant that most of the people that continued to play online (after say 6 months) in NZ were fairly dedicated. I found that when I came to the US, BF3 matches online became quite a bit easier (in general) due to the larger number of average level players (which I am a part of).
 
I really do hope pCARS shapes into something better (I haven't had the opportunity to try it with a wheel since last June) especially since I dumped a couple hundred bucks on it. Hell I remember when I first tried it last January and the input lag was a killer (I believe they have fixed that now) and track/vehicle selection was pretty poor. Now you can fang a Zonda R around the 'ring at night so things are getting better.

 

[oqvist]

Guess I am lucky being Europe where racing appear quite popular and having a good infrastructure. I have done some US races as well 5 in the morning ... Where there is will there is a way lol

 

[Pudu]

Jerez - for anyone who wants to do a little pre-season testing in GSC.

 

[Draygonn]

I picked up F1 2012 and set up my g27 after a long layoff. It will take me a while to get up to speed but I'm glad to be racing again.
:atsmile:

 

[Draygonn]

Got 3 free months of iRacing with the Cadillac promo. Tried out several cars and tracks. Crashed many times . I'll need a lot of practice before hopping into a race.

 

[Pudu]

Let me know how that goes. I've never tried iRacing - their model and pricing isn't really compatible with my simming preferences. Also, I can't support the way they went after the N2003 modding community prior to the iRacing roll-out. It was pretty shameful the way they treated the people who could arguable be called their biggest supporters till then. I kind of decided not to give them money after that.

 

[Draygonn]

I hadn't heard about the NR2003 modders until now. I hate how companies have screwed over the modding community in an attempt to milk cash out of the customers. The days of Desert Combat are long gone. Now we get buggy DLC at 15 bucks a pop.

 

[Pudu]

Ah, DC ... CTF in DC was, for me, the height of the BF series.

(Probably an element of rose tinted, looking back glasses here, but who cares).

 

[oqvist]

 
Quote:

Got 3 free months of iRacing with the Cadillac promo. Tried out several cars and tracks. Crashed many times

. I'll need a lot of practice before hopping into a race.

I got 6 month with the Cadillac Promo earlier. Nice to see they are still offering ways to demo iRacing.
I have never liked the concept. When iRacing was released though I thought the physics where really good and of course the visuals and tracks. As it´s now the visuals are still nice and clean however physics wise sims like netkar Pro, GSC 2012 and particularly rFactor 2 beta is quite a bit ahead. And the concept hasn´t really got any better.
 
Sure I can appreciate that you can actually find a race whenever you want and the SR system do work but seldom with whoever you want and what car or track combination you want.
 
I do realize that the old way of paying 50$ and then running the same sim in 5 years where the game developers don´t get anything is not quite right either. rFactor 2 approach with yearly fees and if you don´t prolongue you loose multiplayer and future updates but can still race what you got is easier for me to buy in. Heck if iRacing would just say okay you bought this car and track you can now run it for as long as you live their approach would be easier to swallow. But buy every single car and track and then forced monthly fee on top of that??? Doing the math it´s hard to buy that concept for me particularly since it hasn´t developed as it should considering how much money they get from the consumers. The idea would be an ever developing platform but if you are stuck with the old game engine you get limitations on what you can do.
 
 

 

[Draygonn]

Heck if iRacing would just say okay you bought this car and track you can now run it for as long as you live their approach would be easier to swallow.

That makes sense. You wouldn't even be using their servers at that point. This pricing scheme is crazy. If I move up to C Class and run the IndyCar Oval Series, the car plus all tracks is 150 bucks. If I want to race the same car on road tracks as well the total comes to $265! Summit-Fi sim pricing.

 

[oqvist]

Formula truck maybe before the weekend for us pre orders :-D

 

[Draygonn]

I picked up two 120Hz Acer GD235HZ to go with my Alienware AW2310. I got new fans for my 480's AXPs (snapped in easily) and a Galant to house all the screen real estate.

 

[thewolfisnear]

I love Gran Turismo 2. To me, it is the best game in the series. I've played every iteration, but Gran Turismo 2 has stood the test of time and graphics.

 

[Draygonn]

I threw together a quick and dirty chair mount to keep it from sliding back from the pedals.

How is the CSW treating you? I've heard so much good and bad that it gets confusing. Nice seating angle.