The online racing simulator
Racing sims, your pros and cons
(18 posts, started )
#1 - lucaf
Racing sims, your pros and cons
Tell shortly your pros&cons of sims you play
(updated 3/2019, added RF2, AMS, updated other items)

LFS

PROS
+community
+physics
+fun factor
+great tracks
+social (chat) integration/implementation
+lfsworld
+easy setup sharing

CONS
-low online popularity outside leagues
-no mod support

ASSETTO CORSA

PROS
+interesting cars
+mod support (fantastic track mods)
+impressive FFB feeling
+physics
+graphics

CONS
-poor user interface
-poor chat implementation
-no lfsworld type stats
-not developed anymore (replaced by ACC)

RACEROOM

PROS
+interesting tracks
+graphics&colors
+engine sounds
+leaderboards/hotlap competitions
+active development

CONS
-no road cars
-low online popularity outside leagues (not true anymore)
-poor chat implementation

RFACTOR2

PROS
+very nice driving feeling, physics, ffb
+mod support (fantastic track mods)
+still developed

CONS
-oldish user interface (they are working on this)
-multiplayer empty outside leagues

AUTOMOBILISTA

PROS
+nice driving feeling
+very nice tracks you don't see in other sims

CONS
-multiplayer empty outside leagues
-track graphics oldish
-future of the game is unsure at the moment
Nearly all my racing now is offline given the current state of online gaming in NZ. Given our distance from everything and the limited timeI have for racing at the present it's easier finding a sim that offers a great offline experience.

LFS
Probably better not comment about this sim........

Automobilista
Outstanding in my opinion. Physics are as good as LFS. Outstanding range of stock vehicles plus allows modded vehicles. ALLOWS MODDED TRACKS !!!!!
This is my go to for track racing, and has been for a while.
EDIT: It also has a fairly good, tune-able AI so that racing the AI is actually a bearable experience. A thing that other sim's could look at IMHO.......

Richard Burns Rally
THE rally sim. Graphics are dated, as is the sim, but as a driving experience it's the best. And, with RSRBR it's updated regularly, physics are tweaked, cars and tracks are added.
Shows really what community input can do to create the best offroad driving experience from a sim thats been 'dead' for years.........

Dirt Rally
Just fun to play. It has lot's of issues but still the best Code Masters rally sim. Although Colin McCrae 2 is still fun.

GP Legends
Well, its still is up there in great racing games and it still gets some wheel time.

Conclusion.
I love the ability to add mods to bring new experiences to a sim game. Many of the games I love are old, offer less than stellar graphics and require my time and input to create my version of the game. Most are modable and that is what has kept most of the older, no longer officially developed games up to date and still playable in 2018.
Don't have the time and patience to write a massive reply but after getting iRacing in the august of last year it's hard to go back to anything else without being let down, the way it's structured and the the polish of the product is amazing. The only thing letting it down is the price, but you all know about that.
a con for me for all sims is they're hard
#6 - BeNoM
All sims:
Con - The elitists in the communities
Quote from BeNoM :All sims:
Con - The elitists in the communities

I think I agree, but then again, who gives a shit? Just ignore and go laid after race... or anything else, like eating, taking shower or something.
Quote from kars19 :And tire physicsFrown

It got an update a few months ago - a lot of the oval races became much more interesting, as you now need to drive the car through the corners instead of foot-to-the-floor all the way... As a result, a lot of the 'kiddies' stopped trying to race anywhere other than Daytona.
Quote from Shirtkicker :It got an update a few months ago - a lot of the oval races became much more interesting, as you now need to drive the car through the corners instead of foot-to-the-floor all the way... As a result, a lot of the 'kiddies' stopped trying to race anywhere other than Daytona.

I actually didn't know that, thanks for the info
Review as simulator enthusiast who use mouse+keyboard.
LFS
PROS
+Awesome physics
+Okish graphics
+Good chat implementation
+Setup sharing
+Very simple UI
+Clean and easy car setup
+/Good/ community
+Custom skins (you made or downloaded)
+Bunch of tools to enhance your expirience (tweaks)
+Very nice support for mouse steering

CONS
-heuheheuheheheuhehu update
-In year 2018 we still download skins in 2048x2048
-Can't private online skins so nobody but owner/uploader can use them
-"snappy/laggy/choppy" online expirience
-Sounds


ASSETTO CORSA
PROS
+Decent physics
+Very good graphics
+Mod support
+Big community
+Cute career

CONS
-Not so good support for mouse
-You can disable TC (kb+mouse) but it will still be ON
Wreckfest

Just recently came out of early access on Steam.

PROS
  • Amazing damage model
  • Astounding Environmental object physics
  • Sweet graphics
  • Simple UI
  • Fun career mode progression unlocks upgrades
  • Good range of vehicles to choose from
  • Hilarious carnage
  • Accessible multiplayer servers
  • Not getting banned for deliberate crashing.
CONS
  • Steering suffers from a bit of input lag*
  • No qualifying means you're almost always starting from the back
  • Too many buses in Multiplayer (some servers do switch off the special vehicle option though...)
  • No VR support
  • Not enough lawnmower racing servers
  • You will need a good amount of processing power to get the most from this game.
*This could be because my graphics settings are set to max everything for now. A bit of tweaking might be necessary to achieve performance gains.
Wreckfest...
Like T1 on a public demo server, BUT with great destructible physics and no penalty.
This is a really fun game that I completely recommend. The 'physics' may not be to 'LFS standard' but given every thing else with car upgrades etc its great fun. 9/10 for fun and enjoyment. Thumbs up
Live for Speed
+ Amazing physics
+ Nice online experience, server based which is a proven concept in gaming history.
+ Easy to use, no hassle
+ Great engine sound generator
+ Very light on PC resources
+ Lack of vehicle mods (I consider this to be a positive things, as car mods often clutter things up and make for an experience with inconsistent quality and authenticity)
+ Autocross editor
+ Personal skins (I like that you can put that little bit of personal touch to your car)
- No map mods (I like map mods)
- Somewhat outdated graphics
- Slow development (but I still love it <3)

Assetto Corsa
+ Great Physics (Not as good as LFS tho)
+ Map modding support for variety. It kinda hurts the online experience tho.
+/- Car modding support (Car mods are only worth while if they are perfect imo, and it makes the online experience suffer)
- Arrogant developers

BeamNG (arguably not a sim racer)
+ Sweet looking maps with very detailed roads.
+ Tire physics are better than you would expect
+ Perfect vehicle damage
- No multiplayer support
- Resource heavy
+ Modding support (I like the modding scene in beamNG because it's more difficult to make mods, and thus people put more effort into it)
How about SimRaceway? anyone plays it?
Used to play it, quite decent but it seems to have been abandoned.
LFS is the best sim driving school that is other positive point that nobody mentions, I don't know what it the reason but it is the reality.

Every time than I play for a few days in a row to LFS and come back to other sims I get close to my best pb's with great ease and there is only one explanation, LFS develops the skills a lot, it's amazing.
Quote from pärtan :Live for Speed
+ Amazing physics
+ Nice online experience, server based which is a proven concept in gaming history.
+ Easy to use, no hassle
+ Great engine sound generator
+ Very light on PC resources
+ Lack of vehicle mods (I consider this to be a positive things, as car mods often clutter things up and make for an experience with inconsistent quality and authenticity)
+ Autocross editor
+ Personal skins (I like that you can put that little bit of personal touch to your car)
- No map mods (I like map mods)
- Somewhat outdated graphics
- Slow development (but I still love it <3)

Assetto Corsa
+ Great Physics (Not as good as LFS tho)
+ Map modding support for variety. It kinda hurts the online experience tho.
+/- Car modding support (Car mods are only worth while if they are perfect imo, and it makes the online experience suffer)
- Arrogant developers

BeamNG (arguably not a sim racer)
+ Sweet looking maps with very detailed roads.
+ Tire physics are better than you would expect
+ Perfect vehicle damage
- No multiplayer support
- Resource heavy
+ Modding support (I like the modding scene in beamNG because it's more difficult to make mods, and thus people put more effort into it)

I share this opinion, but let me add another one which isn't mine, but seems to be the general consensus of the racing game community:

ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T HAVE VR (Arcade or Simulation, doesn't matter):
-No VR support, therefore the whole game is automatically bad. NEXT
According to Arstechnica in March 2018 VR headsets account for 0.3% of steam users.

You appear therefore to to be limiting your rating to a rather small subset of gamers.

Not everyone feels that current VR is the sole basis of playing racing, or in fact, any games. If VR was so necessary for gaming then the uptake would be far higher than it really is.

"Overall, VR users still represent an incredibly tiny minority of all the PC gamers on Steam—just under 0.3 percent when Rift and Vive users are combined. That translates to just about 200,000 users with VR access among the 67 million monthly active users Steam reported as of August. PlayStation VR, by contrast, managed to sell two million units in just over a year, though it's hard to say how many of those units are still in active use."

To be honest, I would suggest that LFS's physics were excellent 10 years ago, however other sims have caught up and some offer an equal or better experience.

You say a feature of LFS is it's low resource use, then limit your support to VR games, what exactly is 'low resource requirements' for VR ????
My mid/high end machine is pushing it to support VR in any game. (i5 3570 and GTX970, Not exactly a bottom end system.)

Racing sims, your pros and cons
(18 posts, started )
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