Best PC Driving Sim
Discussion
Haven't played RACE and only have a demo of rFactor, which is fantastic.
The other 3 are great GTL & GTR2 more so than Toca 3.
If you want to see all the shiny bits on the graphics you're really going to have to upgrade
Buy a G25 and then you will be minus friends for a long time
I have recently bought a G25 and it is bloody fantastic!
Test Drive Unlimited is pretty good as well if you can get it to run!
The other 3 are great GTL & GTR2 more so than Toca 3.
If you want to see all the shiny bits on the graphics you're really going to have to upgrade
Buy a G25 and then you will be minus friends for a long time
I have recently bought a G25 and it is bloody fantastic!
Test Drive Unlimited is pretty good as well if you can get it to run!
rFactor is an open ended, very moddable sim. Some poor mods, some fantastic ones. Force Feedback used to be relatively poor, RealFeel plugin has transformed it. Feels fantastic now - but is dependant on the mods being designed to use it, and the best ones are.
Race - Uses the same physics and graphics engine as rFactor, and probably drives very well too - I've not tried it.
GTL is good. Excellent graphics, cars are great fun to drive, perhaps has a little bit of a better "feel" to it than rFactor. Great selection of cars, good tracks. Top marks!
GTR/GTR2 is the same engine as GTL - just with modern GT cars. I've played GTR, not GTR2. GTR was excellent, GTR2 looks like more of the same but with various updates which is good news. Weather effects look excellent.
I'd leave Toca 3 out of it, the Codemasters driving model is generally accepted to be very arcadey.
So, to sum up.... Get all of them! rFactor is great. I have 1979 F1 cars, 1955 F1 cars, Porsche GT3 Cup cars, historic group B rally cars...you name it! The good mods have professional quality development on them. Ignore the bad mods! It will run on your system as it stands now, but at nowhere near top details.
GTL/GTR2 are both well worth getting, but I wouldn't bother until you upgrade - they are more of a system hog than rFactor in my experience.
Race - Uses the same physics and graphics engine as rFactor, and probably drives very well too - I've not tried it.
GTL is good. Excellent graphics, cars are great fun to drive, perhaps has a little bit of a better "feel" to it than rFactor. Great selection of cars, good tracks. Top marks!
GTR/GTR2 is the same engine as GTL - just with modern GT cars. I've played GTR, not GTR2. GTR was excellent, GTR2 looks like more of the same but with various updates which is good news. Weather effects look excellent.
I'd leave Toca 3 out of it, the Codemasters driving model is generally accepted to be very arcadey.
So, to sum up.... Get all of them! rFactor is great. I have 1979 F1 cars, 1955 F1 cars, Porsche GT3 Cup cars, historic group B rally cars...you name it! The good mods have professional quality development on them. Ignore the bad mods! It will run on your system as it stands now, but at nowhere near top details.
GTL/GTR2 are both well worth getting, but I wouldn't bother until you upgrade - they are more of a system hog than rFactor in my experience.
The UK circuits are all good, a couple of them are GPL conversions so the graphics aren't as good as others but the driving is very good still.
You have to have Cadwell Park, Goodwood, Aintree (especially with the 1955 Mercedes), Mallory Park, Castle Combe (with all track variants), Silverstone 1988 (just for the really quick layout), Snetterton modern, Snetterton 1964, Brands Hatch and etc......................
All on here for rFactor - http://www.rfactorcentral.com/
You have to have Cadwell Park, Goodwood, Aintree (especially with the 1955 Mercedes), Mallory Park, Castle Combe (with all track variants), Silverstone 1988 (just for the really quick layout), Snetterton modern, Snetterton 1964, Brands Hatch and etc......................
All on here for rFactor - http://www.rfactorcentral.com/
Gentlefoot said:
LFS knocks spots off rFactor. See LFS Videos to see what I mean.
In what way.as you can't tell shit from a video.
Gentlefoot said:
LFS knocks spots off rFactor. See LFS Videos to see what I mean.
Not really they both have things the other doesn't - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_racing_...In terms of knocking spots off rFactor can do that with available content, over 135 different car mods and over 300 real world tracks.
I was reffering to the race experience. There aren't any driving games that provide the competitive environment for racing in the same way that LFS does. Admitedly there are some issues surrounding impact detection but it is a work in progress.
Some people may criticise the sound in LFS but I ask, what other driving game is there where you can tune the diff lock settings by listening to the difference in sound the change makes? Not GTL thats for sure.
As for graphics some of the hi-res mods that are available are awesome.
In terms of longevity LFS knocks spots off every driving sim I have ever tried. All of them have bored me after 3 or 4 months. I have played LFS now for 2 years and am still just as addicted as day 1!
Some people may criticise the sound in LFS but I ask, what other driving game is there where you can tune the diff lock settings by listening to the difference in sound the change makes? Not GTL thats for sure.
As for graphics some of the hi-res mods that are available are awesome.
In terms of longevity LFS knocks spots off every driving sim I have ever tried. All of them have bored me after 3 or 4 months. I have played LFS now for 2 years and am still just as addicted as day 1!
Edited by Gentlefoot on Wednesday 31st October 16:54
Edited by Gentlefoot on Wednesday 31st October 16:55
Edited by Gentlefoot on Wednesday 31st October 16:56
Gentlefoot said:
I was reffering to the race experience.
In terms of longevity LFS knocks spots off every driving sim I have ever tried. All of them have bored me after 3 or 4 months. I have played LFS now for 2 years and am still just as addicted as day 1!
Must be good if you have not got bored with the limited choice of tracks and car.In terms of longevity LFS knocks spots off every driving sim I have ever tried. All of them have bored me after 3 or 4 months. I have played LFS now for 2 years and am still just as addicted as day 1!
Can't see the point of racing on non real life tracks.
The problem with having too many tracks and cars is that the online community becomes more fragmented and then you have lots of servers with only a few racers on. In LFS there are enough tracks and cars to give choice but at the same time there are always plenty of races online with plenty of drivers in.
Driving on real life tracks would be nice but it really doesn't make any difference to the quality of racing you get.
Driving on real life tracks would be nice but it really doesn't make any difference to the quality of racing you get.
Edited by Gentlefoot on Thursday 1st November 14:57
I tried LFS, even bought a license for S2 a year or two ago. My thoughts were always that it drove fantastically, felt great, and was generally awesome - BUT - I just couldn't live with a farting computer buzzing for an engine sound. I know that it's dynamically generated, and that if you change the cylinder count, the engine note changes accordingly, and all that stuff, but it just sounds rubbish!
If the "base sample" for the engine sound generating was altered so the engines sound vaguely realistic, I'd be just as much an LFS fanboy as I am an rFactor fanboy, despite the non-moddability. I appreciate the values of not too many tracks and cars that fragment an community. With the sound as it is, I just get annoyed!
If the "base sample" for the engine sound generating was altered so the engines sound vaguely realistic, I'd be just as much an LFS fanboy as I am an rFactor fanboy, despite the non-moddability. I appreciate the values of not too many tracks and cars that fragment an community. With the sound as it is, I just get annoyed!
When patch X was released they added a function to allow the user to change the sound parameters. So you can customise the amount of intake, exhaust and gearbox noise etc. There are a lot of members of the community who have developed nice sound sets too which you can download from the forum or whatever. It's better but I agree, the sound doesn't make you smile in the same way the GTL2 does. GTL is sampled though and that spoils the driving sensation for me at least.
Ahh, I hadn't realised they'd taken steps to address the sound issues. In the interests of fairness, I've downloaded the newest S2 version, dug up my old license details and reactivated. Driven round a few tracks in the 230bhp front wheel drive XF GTR, and I have to say - I'm mega impressed. I remember being impressed last time, but I'm ultra impressed this time.
The sense of "I'm at a race track" is a little higher than in rFactor - it might be the texturing, or the lighting, or something else entirely, but the tracks have that immersion that's missing from a lot of the addons for rF.
I think I may well find myself driving a lot more LFS now, and after a bit of acclimatisation, I might pop myself over to your league site Gentlefoot - looks great!
The sense of "I'm at a race track" is a little higher than in rFactor - it might be the texturing, or the lighting, or something else entirely, but the tracks have that immersion that's missing from a lot of the addons for rF.
I think I may well find myself driving a lot more LFS now, and after a bit of acclimatisation, I might pop myself over to your league site Gentlefoot - looks great!
Great that you've re-discovered it. There are some great hi-res skies and track textures that also improve the look of the game significantly. The Hi-res FOX interior is great too. I'll take a screen print of what my LFS looks like and post it here later
Here is a movie I made with LFS this weekend. Amazing that you can produce stuff like this:
LFS Video
My best effort so far but check out what you can do if you are a bit handy with this type of thing:
More LFS Videos
The one called "Welcome to Live For Speed" by unekova is particularly impressive. Enjoy
Here is a movie I made with LFS this weekend. Amazing that you can produce stuff like this:
LFS Video
My best effort so far but check out what you can do if you are a bit handy with this type of thing:
More LFS Videos
The one called "Welcome to Live For Speed" by unekova is particularly impressive. Enjoy
Edited by Gentlefoot on Monday 12th November 11:01
Edited by Gentlefoot on Monday 12th November 11:02
Perhaps it's worth looking at how rewarding they can be. Of all, I've found LFS probably to be most rewarding followed by GTL or GP Legends. GTR2 I bought but didn't play much, the cars felt too much like scalextric cars (might just be personal preference). GTL is probably the most fun as the cars are such an eclectic mix and all feel so very different from the sound to the handling and looks. LFS is less exciting in those ways but is very satisfying to go quickly and develop your speed in. It's also not as frustrating as the other games can be - it's harder to throw the car off the road unintenionally. In GTL some of the cars can be really hard to get even mildly close to the limits of. Fun but frustrating.
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