Spec me a Racing Sim

Spacedeck · 18 Feb 2015 at 16:31

Alright, so recently got my hands on G27 and I'm searching that perfect sim.

I see many different threads about racers, so I just wanted to make a general spec me one about them all.

I know of all the usual's, I just haven't played them yet. I'm only playing Live For Speed because it's the only racing sim I have. I haven't yet tried the pay to play iRacing and I will give RaceRoom a bash tonight.

So I would like a racing sim that has offline mainly and possibly an active online community. The online part isn't as much important though.

The AI needs to be good and not the typical racer where they stick religiously to the racing line which causes accidents. AI prone to accidents and collisions would also be nice.

I love racing full laps, always have. So I also would like something which features some kind of championship and let's you do full races with all the extra stuff in between. Like full qualifying and such.

Now onto the cars themselves. All I can say in regards to this is: I like watching British Touring Cars Championship and Le Mans 24.

I like nice graphics too, so long as the gameplay matches!

Any suggestions? or am I asking too much....

TonyTurbo78 · 18 Feb 2015 at 16:44

IRacing amazing, gotta be favourite.
Assetto Corsa just seems really empty to me.
Project Cars coming but more arcadey

Definitely check out Stock Car Extreme. http://store.steampowered.com/app/273840/ Amazing Sim, and it really is a sim, not something that's half baked.

ci_newman · 18 Feb 2015 at 16:55

Assetto Corsa is great if you have a good group of people to race against. Time-trialling and the AI are still a bit weak, and online you can meet some right muppets.

nutsnut · 18 Feb 2015 at 16:57

Iracing is serious good, but is subscription and comes with limited base content.

Not played much of assetto corsa, but like what I have played so far. Though not as hard a SIM as I would have hoped for.

~>Dg<~ · 18 Feb 2015 at 17:03

Richard burns rally best car sim in my opinion but very hard / rewarding.

not really a massive following still but once you get it right on it you wont care

Assetto corsa next. better than pcars looks as good.

MarkeR · 18 Feb 2015 at 20:21

Brazilian Stock Cars Extreme is a hidden gem of a sim.

On par with iracing for sim, miles better than pcars or assetto. There is a demo available on steam, which is basically the previous version, or a couple before ..

dannywaugh1 · 18 Feb 2015 at 20:41

Assetto Corsa for sure and soon project cars

beavis · 18 Feb 2015 at 21:14

MarkeR said:
Brazilian Stock Cars Extreme is a hidden gem of a sim.

For offline racing against AI, this is indeed the best option.

this_is_gav · 18 Feb 2015 at 21:46

Sim: iRacing is in a world of one, but obviously subscription (though there are lots of discounts, credits and so on frequently), no AI (multiplayer only), but if you want true sim it's the only real option. Try it for a month before paying out for a longer subscription.

Assetto Corsa: quite good at giving the impression of a sim, but it struggles to hold me for any period of time for some reason. Graphically strong and a good selection of cars, and there are plenty of driver aids if you want to tone it down a bit.

Next Car Game: Wreckfest: OK, it's in no way a sim, doesn't pretend to be and beer would probably help more than hinder, but it's serious fun if you just want to give that G27 a quick blast sometime. Don't let the early access put you off either - it's very polished.

Spacedeck · 18 Feb 2015 at 23:33

Thanks everyone for your input. I think I'm going to have a look into this Stock Cars Extreme. My only bad point would be driving on the wrong side of the car and the game doesn't look graphically strong? iRacing is maybe something for the future once I'm used to this wheel.

Any games out there based around the British Touring Car Championship?

jbs · 18 Feb 2015 at 23:53

+1 for iRacing. The facts that it is online only and more Sim put me off it to start with. Before iracing I hae never been able to play any racing games in "sim" mode. However I joined up for a trial period and for 3 years now this is the only racing sim I enjoy. Would really recommend it. It does take a bit of a different mind set though. With all other games it was always important to have lots of cars and try them all out. With iracing even if you buy more cars most people settle on a car or two at least for a season, so there is no need to go out and buy everything in the game from the start.

doofer · 19 Feb 2015 at 00:20

Spacedeck said:
Thanks everyone for your input. I think I'm going to have a look into this Stock Cars Extreme. My only bad point would be driving on the wrong side of the car and the game doesn't look graphically strong? iRacing is maybe something for the future once I'm used to this wheel.

Any games out there based around the British Touring Car Championship?

It's not remotely Sim in the iRacing sense but GRID Autosport is actually great fun if you give it a chance and will definitely fulfil your BTCC needs, it is strangely addictive to play online, there's also Raceroom Experience (F2P on STEAM) which has a retro DTM DLC which looks awesome, there's a free to play Brazilian Touring Cars from Reiza called Copas Petrobas de Marcas http://www.gamemarcas.com.br/ which is really looking it's age but a free download.