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CaptTomato
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Re: Help me pick a racing game

Sat Jun 25, 2011 1:57 am

Why should someone buy a Simbin racing sim and a wheel....here's why....

Do everyone a favour and get either a Logitech DFGT or a G27 if you're a competitive individual as the pedals will allow you to go faster by virtue of their superior construction.

Of all the things I've ever done to my PC's, nothing improved my gaming/racing experience more than a steering wheel, so do yourself a favour and get one....now sure, a xbox 360 pad will work on the PC, and this is a lot better than a KB, but a wheel leaves it for dead, for example consider how much fun it will be to lose the rear end at parabolica{Monza} and have to correct it with a wheel vs any other input device....no comparison.

Why Simbin?.....basically because they have one of the best MP modes of any racing game I've ever tried, in fact, if I were building a racing sim, I'd buy simbins and be done with it, also the SP aspect of the game is very good as well, ie, time trials and racing against the AI, but don't ask me about SP career mode, as I've never played it, and have no desire to, as that's not really what sim racing's about.

Sim racing "should" be about consistent lap times and fair play{takes skill to overtake, and takes concentration to keep a car on track, especially if you're being hounded by others}, and this is what you can learn via either the SP aspect or the MP, and the good news with Simbin from a SP POV is that they have an AI difficulty slider, and trust me, at 100% or over, you'll can have a challenge on your hands, but at the same time, you can start at 80% whilst learning your craft.

This is a much more effective method than just having stupid difficulty levels which do **** knows what, so consider that if you set the AI to 85%, start last, it might take you 4-5laps to win the race{it would take me 1-2 at most, but at 95% or higher, different story}, so no matter your level, you can race competitively against the AI, but that's not to say the AI are perfect, but that's where MP comes in.

Simbin have a bad/good habit of releasing a hell of a lot of expansion packs for RACE07, so there's GTR Evo, RACEON**, WTCC1/2, Caterham pack, GT Legends, GT power pack, retro pack, WTCC2010 and probably another one or two, LOL, either way, you'd want to start with RACE07 and GTR Evo so you get good range of tracks and cars, including the awesome GT pro and GT sport classes, with 600bhp Corvettes, Astons, Audi's etc, and approx 440-500BHP models in the GT sport class, you'll also have a sticky F3000 open wheeler{the fastest car in the game, ie fastest lap times, but other cars have much higher top speeds}.

** this expansion will appeal to many Americans as it's loaded with US Muscle cars.

You also get modern Mini's, which are very easy to drive, so if you're a girl or girlyman, you might start with a mini, or you can also try 280bhp cars in the WTCC class, which are much easier to drive than a 600BHP C6R Corvette{one of the great sim cars IMO}.
The beauty of it being 2011, is that all the simbin stuff is now cheap as chips, so you could buy every game I mentioned, and still get change from a $100, not bad considering the range of cars and tracks, and that the MP has dedicated servers and is still busy today{at the right times+you have many private leagues you could join as well}.

As far as getting help with any aspect of the game/s/wheels, you could always ask me, but you also have a number of dedicated racing forums, like Nogrip and Racedepartment, both of which will allow to you to not only join their private leagues, but offer free mods, ie, more cars and tracks....speaking of which, GTR Evo has Nurburg Endurance 24km, Nordschleife 20km, and Nurburg GP track among others.

One of the things you must remember about racing sims like the Simbin range is that they still have driving aids which make life much easier, but trust me, once you get your head around this, you'll never want or need to engage a driving aid, and you also have unbelievable steering wheel precision and forcefeedback, heck even the cheaper DFGT has extremely good FFB.

Between the quality and durability of logitechs DFGT/G27, the amount of content from Simbin, the quality of the SP modes, and the firstclass MP, you really can't go wrong, especially if you're a competitive person who takes pride in accomplishing something, and in this case, you're tasked with not just speed, but racing ability, ie, overtaking and bringing the car home in one piece, which can be easier said than done with high damage settings{but like most things in this great racing series, it's adjustable}.

On top of all this, there's text chat ingame, downloadable set ups ingame, lap records counterx2, full race length permanent replays of both SP and MP modes, multiple car views, ie, cockpit, bumper cam, chase cam etc, oh and there's also a reasonably good wet weather mode as well......the cars also have working wipers, lights and FOV adjustment if you choose cockpit view.

After recently buying the GT power pack and the Retro pack, I felt compelled to write this in favour of Simbin as they really have produced a monster of a series that just keeps getting better.

One last thing regarding the difficulty of driving a sim in pro mode{all aids off}....remember that it's a learnable skill, I was absolutely useless when I first started and can remember doing a 2min lap and thinking it was fast, little did I know that with a wheel, a better set up and more practice, I'd shave 14 seconds off that time, but I thought I was doing well at 2mins, lol.

Don't forget that this set of skills is transferable to ALL racing games, so if you're fast in Simbin, you'll be fast in Forza/GT5/Shift/Iracing etc, but Simbin is a much better training ground than any console port.

We're also at a unique point in gaming history, ie, companies are beginning to really chug out some great racing products, so you've got more wheels, sim rigs, sim gear than ever before, and popular wheels like the G27 can be modified all over the place, of course, step one would be to get the hang of it in standard form, but if you end up enjoying sim racing, you have a huge range of gear compared to a few yrs ago, that said, I have my DFGT simply connected to my PC desk{though I'll be buying a G27 asap}.

If you haven't already, check out some of the new stuff from Fanatec for example, especially the Clubsport pedals{pedals more important than the wheel in most cases if speed is your priority}, but don't forget that Logitech are the masters of plug and play+ compatibility, ie, though a G27 is limited to the PC and PS3, it will work on virtually every late model game, whereas the monster sized Thrustmaster T500 won't.

Basically when it comes to sim racing in 2011, it's all good 8)
 
flip-mode
Grand Admiral Gerbil
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Re: Help me pick a racing game

Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:54 am

Going on 7 months ago I started this thread. During the Steam christmas sale I bought Dirt 2 and Burnout Paradise. Today, I played Burnout Paradise for the first time and it is quite fun! Thanks for that recommendation!

Using the Xbox 360 controller that arrived yesterday to play. It works well, but surely is not perfect.

Also, I got Forza Motorsport 3 for the Xbox 360 that was a gift to me. Also installed and played it for the first time yesterday. It is very, very cool too.

I could get into these racing games.
 
CaptTomato
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Re: Help me pick a racing game

Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:44 am

It's interesting when reviewers review racing games, they often don't use or even have a wheel, and like it or not, you can't go from Dirt3 using a xbox pad to Iracing etc with a wheel and just giddy up...it takes practice to get the hang of it, but once you do, there's no turning back.

The Dirt2 demo put me off ever buying any Dirt game.
 
CaptTomato
Gerbil First Class
Posts: 150
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 6:12 am
Location: Australia

Re: Help me pick a racing game

Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:46 am

So are people buying any of the simbin stuff or are you considering iracing 2.0's August release?
 
rohan5039
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Re: Help me pick a racing game

Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:51 am

Obsidian wrote:
As long as you have a fun time with your cow, I don't see the problem.


For the racing games useres Dirt 2 and Dirt 3 I will recommend you. And there are also other racing games which are best is market like need4speed 2, 3 5, etc.. From Electronics arts and so on.......

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