I've been enjoying GTR2 since it's release and I loved GT Legends - I've been playing both on my 360 controller and I've got to a high standard. When I tried the LFS demo it didn't really impress me, it felt better than rFactor but GTR2 already did that for me.

Now I've returned to the wheel - with my new G25 c/w Gameracer Elite - I've realised that LFS is bloody amazing. The feedback on the G25 is superb and with all the bells and whistle mods installed LFS looks very nice. With what seems like better physics overall and no wreckers (not that I've seen so far) online I'm starting to think I may never play GTR2 again.

Yeah the AI in LFS is pathetic but as a whole I think it's the best racing sim available. Are there any here who left GTR2 for LFS?

Quote from CardinalStorm :

I Are there any here who left GTR2 for LFS?

Yup, after about 30 mins of GTR2

I know Rudy van Buren left GTR2 for LFS.

Edit: ahhh lol I left GTR2 or was it GTR1 like 3 years ago for LFS
Now I'm doing some RACE07, pretty fun game

I made hop LFS - GTR2 for a bit - LFS again.

I played GTR2 for a tiny bit, it was ok, but I hated the multiplayer. Every time someone connected the game would jump and it was hard to get good races in with everyone lagging.

Single player was fun, but the engines sounded flat to me and the physics were good, to a point, they they went south pretty quick for me.

Glad you enjoy LFS, IMO it's the best to be had for physics currently and the best thing is, it's still WIP and being developed so personally I like the idea that it can only get better from here, and I don't have to pay for it! well much more when S3 comes out which we must be nearing in the next year or so, but thats just assumptions.

Quote from Christopher Raemisch :

Every time someone connected the game would jump and it was hard to get good races in with everyone lagging.

Tell me about it, the lag has never improved, and since running Vista GTR2 crashes/freezes randomly. LFS runs completely smooth off and online and I've not had one crash.

Quote from Christopher Raemisch :

...but the engines sounded flat to me..

Yep, compared to the engines in LFS GTR2's sound terrible.

I'm really impressed with the guys who've made LFS, they've done themselves proud.

Quote from The Moose :

Yup, after about 30 mins of GTR2

Wow your a trooper. I played 10 minutes of demo.

Quote from A.Ulleri :

Wow your a trooper. I played 10 minutes of demo.

I had to at least try and get it to feel like you were driving on something that resembled tires...... I Failed.

LOL, alright you two, you're making me feel like I've wasted 18 months of my gaming life!

....don't tell me, I have.

Quote from CardinalStorm :

LOL, alright you two, you're making me feel like I've wasted 18 months of my gaming life!

....don't tell me, I have.

You just realized?

Great timing... I just posted this today too!
I also searched for "GTR 2" before I asked this...

GTR-2, DiRT + settings to "feel" more like LFS?
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=819400#post819400

I played GTR2, for a full 5 minutes before I realized how nicely balanced LFS is.

I left GTR2 for LFS. I went back to it a few months ago, and it just doesn't feel right compared to LFS.

Simbin sent me GTR2 to evaluate it for broadcasting and I gave it a good run, I like being able to get 3rd party tracks for it, I like some of the graphical effects like bits falling off the cars (that you can edit a config file and have them remain there) and I loved the pit crew.

It is bugged with my steering wheel (MS Sidewinder) force feedback which made the game fairly unbearable to play and totally destroyed any evaluation of the physics I could make. I spent some time fiddling and eventually came up with settings that where not broken - but far from right.

Online play was disasterous, the community features a very large percentage of wreckers - in some races as much as 60% of the cars stopped on track, drove the wrong way, or cut huge sections out of the course (Monza in particular) and drove with zero respect for other users. There is no detectable user account in GTR2 making something like the CTRA impossible, server admins are at the mercy of the community.

It's a nice game for single player, I love racing Donnington, but i'll never touch online mode again.

EDIT: As a sidenote which some of you might find interesting. Simbin asked what they needed to change to make me want to broadcast using their sim. I told them to include "insim.txt" from the LFS docs directory...

I got a copy GT legends a couple of Months back and I enjoyed that game, but never played on line. Was also thinking about GTR2 but having read some of the posts above, may just save that money for beer.

I left GT2002 for LFS.
yup GT2002 mod for F12002.

and that was quite a while ago!

I have played GTR for quite a long time until I decided to buy LFS S2. That was about a month ago, but I tried the demo for a long time.

Just picked up GT Legends a week ago. I realy like it but do not consider it as an LFS replacement. I am not tempted to try it online but it's great offline fun.

Quote from CardinalStorm :

Yep, compared to the engines in LFS GTR2's sound terrible.

Did I got that right, GTR2 sounds bad compared to LFS? Interesting comment. Usually it's totally the opposite and sound has always been generally regarded the worst area of LFS, altough much less since the sound patch in March '07 which improved sounds a lot.

I just can't stand the ISI physics. all the ISI game feel fake and rubbish. the forcefeedback sucks too.

I have tried:
GTR2
GTL
RACE07
rFactor

In comparison LFS and Richard Burns Rally feel so much better. I wish I did like GTR2 and I have reinstalled it a number of times in an attempt to like it (I love the tracks), but every time the rubbish physics put me off.

Quote from deggis :

Did I got that right, GTR2 sounds bad compared to LFS? Interesting comment. Usually it's totally the opposite and sound has always been generally regarded the worst area of LFS, altough much less since the sound patch in March '07 which improved sounds a lot.

I'm not saying that the LFS engines sound more realistic - they don't - and GTR2 has some excellent transmission whine effects, but I personally think the LFS engines sound more powerful and throaty, whereas a lot of the cars in GTR2, albeit highly tuned GT cars, sound slightly synthetic and don't give me the impression that I'm in control of a racing beast.

I agree with Becky Rose about the 3rd party tracks in GTR2; racing around Nordschleife in the new F1 2008 cars is breathtaking (I managed a 5:40 btw) and the extra effects DirectX 9 allow for are nice, but ultimately it's all about the racing itself and LFS, with it's smooth online play, wrecker free races, outstanding physics and feedback on the G25, amongst many other goodies, make it the best racing sim there is, as long as you don't want to race the AI........

GTR2 is a classy offline sim, but it needs a G25 wheel and a lot of fiddling with the force-feedback settings. I remember what a bad impression it gave me the first time I tried it using an old Formula Force wheel and how thrilled I was when I bought a G25, set it correctly and tested GTR2 again. But it sucks online!

I'm still having some offline fun with GTR2, when I'm fed up with LFS. I also run rfactor ocasionally (which, btw, has pretty good netcode)

Quote from CardinalStorm :

...And no wreckers (not that I've seen so far) online.

You ain't been playing online much then, have you?

F1 Challenge 99-02 Forever!

Quote from CardinalStorm :

I'm not saying that the LFS engines sound more realistic - they don't - and GTR2 has some excellent transmission whine effects, but I personally think the LFS engines sound more powerful and throaty, whereas a lot of the cars in GTR2, albeit highly tuned GT cars, sound slightly synthetic and don't give me the impression that I'm in control of a racing beast.

Ok, sound has always been regarded the weak point of LFS and would have expected same from an ex-GTR2 player.

I think that impression has a lot to do with how the sounds are produced in LFS. Which is different to other games. I take it as you don't know this, as you're a newcomer: all sounds, including the transmission whine (which I love, it makes those "funny" noises during downshifting) are synthesized. It means the sound is generated real-time and offers much more variety in the engine tone, albeit sounding generic. This is very different to e.g. GTR2 which uses few sound samples per car, about 2-4 secs long and then the samples are mixed together. In LFS the whole engine noise is generated from a single 0.02 sec sample. You can see that yourself when you press Shift+A while playing, it opens the ingame sound editor.

I've always thought the synthesized sound engine has potential and only last year it started to finally show some of that potential. A lot more room improvement but the potential is definitely there. I think best way to explain is that real engine produces sound - it doesn't play sound recordings.

If you don't know how bad the sound was about 1½ years ago, checkout this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qshtaK3LQEA