The Racing Game Thread

[Phoenix]

Recently started playing Gran Turismo 4 again - I have, to say the TVR Speed 12 is the best 250K I've ever spent in a game. Sure, it might not be the best car, but it's the most fun I've ever had with a proper sim game. Especially now that I've bunged a supercharger under the bonnet, boosting it's power over 1000 hp and giving it a top speed of about 255 mph.

You're the first person I know that has fun by constantly crashing against the walls.

Not constantly, but occasionally the car basically goes, "Nuts to this," and decides to have an off-track excursion. Which is part of the fun - trying to keep the car on the road can be a challenge, and that makes it satisfying when I can actually string a lap together. And because it's so hilariously overpowered compared to everything except some of the Le Mans cars, I'm too far ahead of everyone else to worry about them catching me, which is why I spent last night doing the 200 mile Laguna Seca enduro in it, and enjoyed every second. Yes, I don't have much of a social life.

Have you tried any of the 24h endurance races? Oh, that's mental...If you want to challenge yourself a bit more, pick an Escudo Pikes Peak, soup it up, slap on a set of hards and go to the Nordschleife

[FullMetalJack]

I an imagine the F1Rejects forum getting together for a 1990 mod race on rfactor and having a grid consisting of nothing but Life W12s!

In all seriousness though we should have a "reject team only" race with one of the several "reject golden era" mods that are popping up.

I can't get my 1990 mod to work, otherwise I'd definitely be up for it.

Now I know why you were having trouble getting mods to work! To use the F1 1990 mod you must download and install the F1 1990 trackpack or change something in the rFm file (however this will cause online mismatches, so it's best not to change it unless you are 100% sure you are not going to play online).

It's working now, sort of. I can't drive the car when it's in the garage. Do I need to download the update for it?

[FullMetalJack]

I've sorted that out as well. Thanks for your help.

[Enforcer]

I'll friend you next time I'm playing. What's your login name there? (Mine's sir_enforcer)

Have you found a server you race on regularly, or do you just float from open server to open server?

My login name for Trackmania is minardifan95. I haven't tried online yet, so I haven't found a server to race on regularly (A bit different to the console games I regularly play, where the only choice you have is ranked or unranked play)

Also, can I use downloaded cars online.

You can in the TM United Forever, which is the full version. I'm not sure about the free version of TM Nations, although I don't see why not. If it's just a skin for a Stadium Car, you put the zip file for it without unzipping it in:

My documents\TrackMania\Skins\Vehicles\StadiumCar

And it should appear in the car selection screen. If it's a full 3d model, like an F1-shaped car, or a Mazda RX7 or something, I think it has to go to:

My documents\TrackMania\Skins\Vehicles\CarCommon

[DemocalypseNow]

I'll friend you next time I'm playing. What's your login name there? (Mine's sir_enforcer)

Have you found a server you race on regularly, or do you just float from open server to open server?

My login name for Trackmania is minardifan95. I haven't tried online yet, so I haven't found a server to race on regularly (A bit different to the console games I regularly play, where the only choice you have is ranked or unranked play)

Also, can I use downloaded cars online.

You can in the TM United Forever, which is the full version. I'm not sure about the free version of TM Nations, although I don't see why not. If it's just a skin for a Stadium Car, you put the zip file for it without unzipping it in:

My documents\TrackMania\Skins\Vehicles\StadiumCar

And it should appear in the car selection screen. If it's a full 3d model, like an F1-shaped car, or a Mazda RX7 or something, I think it has to go to:

My documents\TrackMania\Skins\Vehicles\CarCommon

Won't work. If you replace say the Greek car skin with an Ferrari livered stadium car (which you can download!) it would show to everyone else in Greek livery.
It ain't possible without United Forever...

[Enforcer]

Won't work. If you replace say the Greek car skin with an Ferrari livered stadium car (which you can download!) it would show to everyone else in Greek livery.
It ain't possible without United Forever...

You can't just add it to the directory rather than replace something?

[Salamander]

Have you tried any of the 24h endurance races? Oh, that's mental...If you want to challenge yourself a bit more, pick an Escudo Pikes Peak, soup it up, slap on a set of hards and go to the Nordschleife

No, I've never had the patience to race for 24 hours straight, and I don't trust B-Spec Bob one bit. I'll see about getting an Escudo, though.

[DemocalypseNow]

Won't work. If you replace say the Greek car skin with an Ferrari livered stadium car (which you can download!) it would show to everyone else in Greek livery.
It ain't possible without United Forever...

You can't just add it to the directory rather than replace something?

You'd be able to see it - but all everyone else would see is a blank white car. Trackmania doesn't download car data from TMN accounts...only TMUF ones.

[RejectSteve]

Recently started playing Gran Turismo 4 again - I have, to say the TVR Speed 12 is the best 250K I've ever spent in a game. Sure, it might not be the best car, but it's the most fun I've ever had with a proper sim game. Especially now that I've bunged a supercharger under the bonnet, boosting it's power over 1000 hp and giving it a top speed of about 255 mph.

You have to slap a wing on the girl. I've turned the TC down a little because it was so sluggish getting out of the corners. Definately acquire a Acura HSC and kit it out, its a beautiful and responsive thing. Unlike some of the other DIY cars like the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, this one won't eat your R1 super-hard tyres within a few laps.

[watka]

I had a lot of fun making this gallery for GT4: http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=92090

[MinardiFan95]

I had a lot of fun making this gallery for GT4: http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=92090

Never realised that you were a member of GTP (have to say that I love the photos of the ridiculously overpowered Benz Motor Wagen - I've tried using it with the "mega-turbo" code and it is an absolute handful).
Speaking of GTP, here's my GT4 gallery. http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=122372

[watka]

I had a lot of fun making this gallery for GT4: http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=92090

Never realised that you were a member of GTP (have to say that I love the photos of the ridiculously overpowered Benz Motor Wagen - I've tried using it with the "mega-turbo" code and it is an absolute handful).
Speaking of GTP, here's my GT4 gallery. http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=122372

I haven't been on it for years though, I'm an XBox convert now.

[watka]

Saying that, a brief flick through the GTPlanet forums convinces me that GT5 will be out of this world.

[WeirdKerr]

Saying that, a brief flick through the GTPlanet forums convinces me that GT5 will be out of this world.

if it ever comes out.....

[MinardiFan95]

Saying that, a brief flick through the GTPlanet forums convinces me that GT5 will be out of this world.

if it ever comes out.....

GT5 actually has a release date (or three). November 2nd (America), November 3rd (Europe) and November 4th (Australia). Surprisingly there isn't an Asian release date yet.

[dr-baker]

Anthony Davidson reviews Codemaster's F1 2010 for Autosport

[Enforcer]

I had a look at NFS World, because it's free, and most of the drivers in it make Schumacher in Hungary look like St. Peter. Non-stop ramming and brake-testing people. Actually to the point of amusement.

Think it might wear thin though.

[patrick]

Anthony Davidson reviews Codemaster's F1 2010 for Autosport

Really looking forward to this game. When I get it the first thing i'll do is torpedo the field at la source in a HRT !

[Phoenix]

I had a look at NFS World, because it's free, and most of the drivers in it make Schumacher in Hungary look like St. Peter. Non-stop ramming and brake-testing people. Actually to the point of amusement.

Think it might wear thin though.

What did you expect? NFS drivers would never care about hitting apexes

[mario]

Anthony Davidson reviews Codemaster's F1 2010 for Autosport

Really looking forward to this game. When I get it the first thing i'll do is torpedo the field at la source in a HRT !

It is one of those games which I'm keeping an eye on, although I might wait until the initial hype around the release dies down a bit. Graphically, it looks pretty impressive, especially in wet weather when you can see all the spray and pools of water. And, of course, when we talk about graphics and eye candy, GT5 looks very promising indeed - although it was about time that they finally stopped spending all their time playing around with it and actually released the damned game.

That said, I'm kind of glad that there are so many other sim racers here, because I am somewhat partial my self. That said, I am perhaps a little too partial, because at the moment, I've got rFactor, GT Legends, GTR2 and GTR Evolution all sitting on my hard drive at the moment. Yeah, you can tell that at the moment, I have got more time on my hands then perhaps I would like...

Have you tried any of the 24h endurance races? Oh, that's mental...If you want to challenge yourself a bit more, pick an Escudo Pikes Peak, soup it up, slap on a set of hards and go to the Nordschleife

Here's another challenge if anybody has GTR2 - get the Power and Glory mod (which is based on the historic GT cars of the 60's, as they were at the time), take a Ford GT40 Mark 2, in wet conditions, and try taking that around the Nordschliefe.

[Enforcer]

I had a look at NFS World, because it's free, and most of the drivers in it make Schumacher in Hungary look like St. Peter. Non-stop ramming and brake-testing people. Actually to the point of amusement.

Think it might wear thin though.

What did you expect? NFS drivers would never care about hitting apexes

Yeah, I forgot that all the street based NFS games employ catch-up logic, so once you have enough engine mods and garish skirts added to your car, you don't have to break your balls in terms of precision driving, cause if you make a mistake the AI cars will slow down enough for you to catch them.

[MinardiFan95]

I've just found a very interesting F1 browser game where you can make a street circuit using Google Maps which is then transformed into a playable 3D track. Unfortunately it is a game which doubles as a Vodafone ad so McLaren haters may want to avoid this one.
http://racing.vodafone.com/hometown/en-gb/
I have already made a few tracks including Bathurst, Spa, Pau, Monaco and best of all, a few tracks in Vanautu.

[FullMetalJack]

I've just found a very interesting F1 browser game where you can make a street circuit using Google Maps which is then transformed into a playable 3D track. Unfortunately it is a game which doubles as a Vodafone ad so McLaren haters may want to avoid this one.
http://racing.vodafone.com/hometown/en-gb/
I have already made a few tracks including Bathurst, Spa, Pau, Monaco and best of all, a few tracks in Vanautu.

They stole my idea of using Google Maps, I don't care really because at least it's happening, and I just made tracks in my local area instead of real ones.

[Nuppiz]

Damn, I hate it that I can't play GT-R : The Official FIA GT Racing Game anymore. On my previous computer, it whined about the executable being corrupt (despite the fact that my copy is perfectly legal and I even patched it to the latest version), and now it doesn't even recognize my OS because I'm running Win7. Have to make do with Live For Speed at the moment (not even F1 Challenge works properly anymore).

[thehemogoblin]

I'm on my own team's server sometimes.
When you're looking for the server, go to Untied Kingdom > England, and look for a server called 'WRC Dirt Server'.
My username is kostas22r btw. And my screen name is 'WRC Crash'. No points for guessing how I earned that nickname...

A fan of Scottish independence?

[watka]

I've just found a very interesting F1 browser game where you can make a street circuit using Google Maps which is then transformed into a playable 3D track. Unfortunately it is a game which doubles as a Vodafone ad so McLaren haters may want to avoid this one.
http://racing.vodafone.com/hometown/en-gb/
I have already made a few tracks including Bathurst, Spa, Pau, Monaco and best of all, a few tracks in Vanautu.

They stole my idea of using Google Maps, I don't care really because at least it's happening, and I just made tracks in my local area instead of real ones.

This is pretty damn cool.

[RAK]

Have you tried any of the 24h endurance races? Oh, that's mental...If you want to challenge yourself a bit more, pick an Escudo Pikes Peak, soup it up, slap on a set of hards and go to the Nordschleife

Here's another challenge if anybody has GTR2 - get the Power and Glory mod (which is based on the historic GT cars of the 60's, as they were at the time), take a Ford GT40 Mark 2, in wet conditions, and try taking that around the Nordschliefe.

I have had enough problems getting GT40s around a dry Circuit de la Sarthe in GTR Evolution. I know how difficult they are to drive. As for wet conditions, well, I'm going to acknowledge that I'm terrible in wet conditions. Tried a race in a Caterham CSR 200 championship at a flooded Thruxton; my qualifying lap was two seconds off the last AI time, and I crashed out of the race.

[Nuppiz]

I've just found a very interesting F1 browser game where you can make a street circuit using Google Maps which is then transformed into a playable 3D track. Unfortunately it is a game which doubles as a Vodafone ad so McLaren haters may want to avoid this one.
http://racing.vodafone.com/hometown/en-gb/
I have already made a few tracks including Bathurst, Spa, Pau, Monaco and best of all, a few tracks in Vanautu.

They stole my idea of using Google Maps, I don't care really because at least it's happening, and I just made tracks in my local area instead of real ones.

This is pretty damn cool.

Aye, I just created and drove the Helsinki Thunder Circuit (the 1995 version, as it was the only one to use the same roads visible in the track editor). Managed a lap in 52 seconds, which shows that it was a short circuit even for the FIA GT, DTM and F3000 cars. Shame you can't create Keimola with this, as it's not a public road...

[mario]

Have you tried any of the 24h endurance races? Oh, that's mental...If you want to challenge yourself a bit more, pick an Escudo Pikes Peak, soup it up, slap on a set of hards and go to the Nordschleife

Here's another challenge if anybody has GTR2 - get the Power and Glory mod (which is based on the historic GT cars of the 60's, as they were at the time), take a Ford GT40 Mark 2, in wet conditions, and try taking that around the Nordschliefe.

I have had enough problems getting GT40s around a dry Circuit de la Sarthe in GTR Evolution. I know how difficult they are to drive. As for wet conditions, well, I'm going to acknowledge that I'm terrible in wet conditions. Tried a race in a Caterham CSR 200 championship at a flooded Thruxton; my qualifying lap was two seconds off the last AI time, and I crashed out of the race.

Well, I won't claim to be the best wet weather driver either (I'm not the worst, but by no means the best either), and at times, those cars can be a bit quite a handful. Ironically, I don't like the Mark 2 GT40 that much, because the car doesn't feel quite as balanced as the Mark 1 variant (but, then again, with 7 litres of Detroit ironmongery in the back, the handling was always going to be a bit different) - in fact, the reason I mentioned it was because I find that the car tends to understeer (probably due to the higher kerb weight).
Personally, in many ways I prefer the lightweight cars, like the Lotus Elan or Elite, or the Porsche 906 series - I much prefer a small, nimble car to a lumbering straight line bruiser (although the American muscle cars can be fun to throw around if you like drifting).

On another note, seeing how quite a few posters are keen on their racing sims, I'm half tempted to see if we could get an online race set up - there would probably be enough interest for it to work. Any takers?

[shinji]

I am getting rather excited about F1 2010.

[watka]

I've just found a very interesting F1 browser game where you can make a street circuit using Google Maps which is then transformed into a playable 3D track. Unfortunately it is a game which doubles as a Vodafone ad so McLaren haters may want to avoid this one.
http://racing.vodafone.com/hometown/en-gb/
I have already made a few tracks including Bathurst, Spa, Pau, Monaco and best of all, a few tracks in Vanautu.

Someone needs to do the Birmingham Superprix circuit.

[Barbazza]

I've just had a bash at it but unfortunately it insists on you going in the direction that regular traffic normally goes so for a couple of the roundabouts, you just can't go the way the racetrack went. Mind you, given that I live in Birmingham, I could actually do it for real anyway...

[FullMetalJack]

I've just had a bash at it but unfortunately it insists on you going in the direction that regular traffic normally goes so for a couple of the roundabouts, you just can't go the way the racetrack went. Mind you, given that I live in Birmingham, I could actually do it for real anyway...

Yeah, i've tried it creating it as well the roundabouts are annoying. When I get my driver's license, I might just drive the route anyway. Also, good to see i'm not the only brummie on the forum.

[madmark1974]

I agree that the Vodaphone / McLaren thing is pretty good, especially given that it's free.

Speaking of free games, I may have missed it if it's been posted before, but the games on here are worth a look in an 80s retro kinda way :

http://f1-game-download.com/

There's a game for every race so far this season, though I'd advise you skip most of them and just get Spa and Monza, as they have extra features compared to all those previous.

[Marco]

Someone needs to do the Birmingham Superprix circuit.

This track is available for the rFactor Simulation, if you really want to drive it

[Barbazza]

Yeah, i've tried it creating it as well the roundabouts are annoying. When I get my driver's license, I might just drive the route anyway. Also, good to see i'm not the only brummie on the forum.

I'm only an honorary Brummie as I married one! I have lived here for nearly 10 years now though and I love it. I did also watch the Superprix every year and would be over the moon if it came back (not a cat in hell's chance though I suspect!)

[Myrvold]

I would've posted an extensive review I made earlier today of F1 2010, but I'm not intererested in translating the whole text, and google translate, doesn't do the job very well.
But I ended on a 4/10. The game looks good. And, that's it really. I didn't expect to qual 17th and end up 17th in my first race in my career with an HRT, on expert and no driving aids. Oh well, I guess lots are going to enjoy it, but I wanted some more of this game, and when the on-track things didn't live up to the expectations, I hoped the career bit did... It didn't. That was more like DiRT2 with an irritating agent, with an "'Allo 'Allo" accent, and an irritating interview... I mean, I was asked by David Croft about my championship hopes (I'm racing a freaking HRT), and I said that I didn't have a chance this year... Guess what, the team got angry with my negative comments to the press...

[Klon]

I mean, I was asked by David Croft about my championship hopes (I'm racing a freaking HRT), and I said that I didn't have a chance this year... Guess what, the team got angry with my negative comments to the press...

With Colin Kolles, this sound pretty realistic, I must say

[FullMetalJack]

A video of F1 2010 crashes, they really look good, THIS VID IS A MUST SEE!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3OWljOroD4

[mario]

I would've posted an extensive review I made earlier today of F1 2010, but I'm not intererested in translating the whole text, and google translate, doesn't do the job very well.
But I ended on a 4/10. The game looks good. And, that's it really. I didn't expect to qual 17th and end up 17th in my first race in my career with an HRT, on expert and no driving aids. Oh well, I guess lots are going to enjoy it, but I wanted some more of this game, and when the on-track things didn't live up to the expectations, I hoped the career bit did... It didn't. That was more like DiRT2 with an irritating agent, with an "'Allo 'Allo" accent, and an irritating interview... I mean, I was asked by David Croft about my championship hopes (I'm racing a freaking HRT), and I said that I didn't have a chance this year... Guess what, the team got angry with my negative comments to the press...

I have heard a few mixed reviews, with some people saying that the cars seem to be very easy to drive (good if you want something to simply blow a bit of steam off with, but perhaps lacking that final bit of challenge), and there are some complaints about the AI behaving erratically on some tracks - Bahrein for definite, and some say that at Canada and Spa, the AI has the same problem (where the AI, even for the top cars, will go very slowly through certain turns).
On the other hand, I've heard that on the tracks where the AI doesn't misbehave, and can be very challenging on the higher difficulty modes, as they will fight back when you try to pass them, and behave in a more realistic manner than quite a few games out there.

Think that I'll wait for a bit longer, and wait for a bit more feedback...