Hi guys. I am loving LFS at the moment. Registered a while ago but getting right into it. I was just wandering....

I have seen other sims available for download such as -
RFactor
GTR
Racing legends.

Just wandered if you guys had tried any of them. Are they any good? Dont worry I wont be leaving LFS just wandered as I have loads of racing games already. Are they worth downloading. Are they games or sims. I only like sims to be honest.

Thanks in adavnce for your help

What other sims?

Not a good forum to ask such a question

Quick question is R Factor free? or if its not is there a demo or is there only that 60 minute trial?

The 3 sims that I listed above!

I dont see why I cant ask top be honest. I'm sure alot of people here play another racing game/sim aswell as LFS. I love LFS and I'm sure it will be very hard to beat but I can play more than one racing surely :-)

rFactor. Lots of mods, tracks and gimmicks. Cars handle like crap, and replays are rubbish too. So if you like physics and handling DO NOT PAY FOR THIS.

GTR. Bugged and unfinished. Tyre model, like all ISI sims VERY VERY flawed. Replaced with GTR2 which merely made the tyre physics arcadey and easier, but hopelessly unrealistic.

Racing Legends. Same as GTR but with different models, none of which are vaguely realistic.


If you like variety and have lots of money to burn, buy all three. They will keep you occupied for half an hour or so. But if you like physics, handling and an almost never ending stream of improvments to your sim, along with hundreds of people to race against most evenings and weekends, then you'll come back to LFS.

You might even like to try nKP. It's a great example of a decent driving model wrapped in the most shamefully amateur front, middle and back end since someone accidentally formatted their Windows 3.1 floppies. Or something.

If you can consider rally as fitting within your definition of racing, Richard Burns Rally is still available as a budget title. Single-player, obviously, but IMO the only sim that can really claim lively multiplayer is LFS anyway.. RBR has very good physics and it's a good experience all round.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Racing Legends. Same as GTR but with different models, none of which are vaguely realistic.

That's Grand Prix Legends. Racing Legends is due out in 2050.

no you're wrong again that's GT Legends. GP Legends was released in 1998 i think.

Oh yeah, my bad. Still, Tristan shouldn't stain Racing Legends' name... that promises to be something when it's out.

Tristan, I think you've got Racing Legends confused with GT Legends. RL is a West Bros. title which has not been released. GTL, though, is crap, too.

If you want sim, get RBR. Hard as all hell but very fun and very, very rewarding to get right. Grand Prix Legends is definitely worth a look, too. MMMMmmmm.... 1967 F1.. *drool*

If you don't mind oval racing, NASCAR Racing 2003 is the top game there - very good for oval stuff (not as good for roadcourse stuff, though, as far as I'm concerned).

RF is junk - good for a piss about but nothing serious. GTR is basically the same, just more polished, but same crap physics engine.

@axus:

Yeah, I'm really waiting for that sim. Still being developed more than 3 years now though.

Quote from tristancliffe :

rFactor. Lots of mods, tracks and gimmicks. Cars handle like crap, and replays are rubbish too. So if you like physics and handling DO NOT PAY FOR THIS.

I don't agree at all with this point. Rfactor has absolutely loads of mods and tracks. Some are great, some are ok and some are terrible! The feel of the cars very much depends on a few things.

Firstly the car mod you have downloaded and also what type of FFB plugin you have chosen to use. There are many car mods as part of Rfactor that feel sensational and extremely realistic. To anyone, don't diss Rfactor because of the standard cars you get as part of the game (or go by a few whimsical comments) but go read about it on many fan sites and modding sites.

I think LFS and Rfactor are both very good games and have thier rightful place as great driving games. Both have very good features that the other doesn't have and also annoying things for both.

I think rfactor is well worth the money just as LFS is and both will give you hours and hours of fun!

Quote from SamH :

If you can consider rally as fitting within your definition of racing, Richard Burns Rally is still available as a budget title. Single-player, obviously, but IMO the only sim that can really claim lively multiplayer is LFS anyway.. RBR has very good physics and it's a good experience all round.

Well, Richard Burns rally isnt a single player thing for the usual players long time ago
Specially for the czhech people, You can go and do rallies online
Not like door to door, but drive against times set by other people

I'm just in a Estonian League, they got live splits and stuff coming onto the website like in real WRC. Man I suck there, stupid Estonians, got nothing else to do than to remember every stupid corner, hole or a rock on those stages

No, I can tell you for a fact, they're not. They're still working on Racing Legends, getting things done bit by bit. Expect it in 2050.

Try Race07....I just got it so i dont know what's good and whats bad with it and i also came with GTR2...I tested GTR2 for about 15 min..uninstalled it and threw the CD in the trash.

LFS needs mods as soon as possible. There are lots of mods for rFactor, and some are just great. The feeling in rFactor (IMHO) is that you have not rubber wheels but plastic ones. Anyway, some mods are very fun to drive, and some tracks are really awesome.

On the other hand I like Forza2, GT4, and probably I'll buy GT5... awesome graphics, tracks like Nordschleife, and a fair physic engine (way beyond NFS:Carbon style). Hope they include a damage model in GT5.

thanks for all your input guys. Gotta admit I heard gtr and legends isn't very good but have to admit rfactor does look good. I will download and test I think.

I found rFactor quite atmospheric. Its physics often get slated because they are spreadsheet based rather than calculated, this can lead to unrealistic 3rd party mod cars - however most quality mods the authors really put some effort in, in some mods they even got real drivers in some cases to give guidance on getting the data right.

Of course a lot of the rFactor mods are faked with guesswork physics, but one thing is for sure racing a pack of Le Mans cars around Le Mans is a darn site more atmospheric than racing a bunch of GTR's around Aston North, or Watkins Glen in an F1 car in 1979, or maybe you fancy Porsche Super Cup around Donnington.

As for the physics / tyre model. Well sure LFS' is better, LFS also has better replays, its the only sim with a fully functional insim interface and yes it's my favoured sim, but rFactor is extremely atmospheric and whilst its weeker on some points they are still sufficient.

Just dont go downloading every mod like crazy because some of them really are poor.

One thing about rFactor the force feedback support is particularly week, and indeed for my MS Sidewinder FF Pro wheel required some editing of config files just to get it to a non-bugged state. The canned FF effects really are apalling in rFactor and for me this remains the biggest reason for me not to play rFactor whilst I still have a wheel that it is not natively compatible with.

GTR2 has the same FF problems as rFactor, less mods, but more eye candy overall. It's fun if you like the cars available although personally I am not a fan of big cars on big tracks but the V8 Supercars mod is superb.

For me rFactor and GTR2 are not of release quality because of the bugged force feedback, but if your wheel workis and doesnt take hours of experimentation and technical stuff to get working then they're good products.

One final note, if you can find the setting in the config files to make trackside debris permanent in those games it really does add to the atmosphere. Personally I find nothing destroys emersion quite as badly as track side objects and bits that have fallen off cars magically reappearing 20 seconds after the pack has passed. It doesnt particularly effect fps on a half competent computer (as your lowest fps is race start, a torn off bumper later on in the race isnt going to hit your fps as you zoom past it), and is well worth doing.

Dont ask me where any of the settings are, I dont have any sims installed on my current machine.

Get a closer look on "Richard Burns Rally" if you want to drive another serious sim.

Quote from tristancliffe :

rFactor. Lots of mods, tracks and gimmicks. Cars handle like crap, and replays are rubbish too. So if you like physics and handling DO NOT PAY FOR THIS.

GTR. Bugged and unfinished. Tyre model, like all ISI sims VERY VERY flawed. Replaced with GTR2 which merely made the tyre physics arcadey and easier, but hopelessly unrealistic.

Racing Legends. Same as GTR but with different models, none of which are vaguely realistic.


If you like variety and have lots of money to burn, buy all three. They will keep you occupied for half an hour or so. But if you like physics, handling and an almost never ending stream of improvments to your sim, along with hundreds of people to race against most evenings and weekends, then you'll come back to LFS.

You might even like to try nKP. It's a great example of a decent driving model wrapped in the most shamefully amateur front, middle and back end since someone accidentally formatted their Windows 3.1 floppies. Or something.

I can imagine your face while you type these messages ... you certainly light up a smoke when you finish, like you had sex.. , am i right?

On topic, yes, in my book also, RBR is only worth next to LFS if you're into good physics..

personally i only use rFactor to watch full AI grids do a weekend of racing from the grandstands in spectator mode. Only thing thats missing is the smell and summer heat

Quote from tristancliffe :

rFactor. Lots of mods, tracks and gimmicks. Cars handle like crap, and replays are rubbish too. So if you like physics and handling DO NOT PAY FOR THIS.

rFactor can produce very good (TBH I think on a par with LFS) results with a few mods, the real feel plug in and a lot of fiddling. When you've finally got it working though you can have great fun driving on brilliant old, ridiculously fast and long tracks, like this one. It may not look pretty but you don't notice it when those trees are flying past at 170mph. A lot of the best white knuckle rides for rFactor won't offer great racing, which is handy seeing as the AI is useless and getting a race online is a waste of time.

I'd have said rF is worth it if you're after an offline thrill ride and want something completely different. You'll need to be prepared to fiddle and find the best mods that you like and before you buy bear in mind that 90% of the mods you see (both cars and tracks) will turn out to be rubbish.

I liked GTL, the sounds and the cars are what i grew up with as a kid.

Its not superduper on the physics department and the cars feel like they spin around a center axis but its still bloody good fun.

The cars actually feel like heavy old shitboxes which is exactly what was intended i guess.

As for the rest of ISI/Blimey well there shite , and as much as i try to like Rfactor and i have spend alot of time trying to make it work as intended but it still feels completely wrong and remote.

V8SC mod is tops for the sounds and tracks alone but i cant drive it.

I've downloaded hundreds of mods for rFactor (though not many at all in the last six months I confess). I've tried every single cfg setting for controls and feedback. I've tried many many different setups for the RealFeel. I've tried mods that have high community ratings. I've tried mods that have been rated on this forum as good.

I think I've given it enough track time and enough config time to state that I have yet to come across one single mod that gives the feeling of either driving a real car or LFS (which isn't totally like driving a real car, otherwise it'd be perfect, but it gets pretty close in a lot of ways).

So don't lecture me on not trying hard enough to make it work. If you think I haven't done enough, give me more settings and a specific mod to try (ideally with download links and version numbers). I have a G25, I use ECCI pedals, I have a 19" TFT screen, and I sit at a desk. I am willing to try and improve it. But in over two years of trying it's all tat. Apart from Niels' 'vette, which was quite entertaining in some ways, but not especially accurate. Not helped by the fact that even perfect tyre data doesn't work because the internal modelling is flawed anyway.

If you think you know better please tell me how.