Bathurst night tonight

Hi Folks,
I've not created any new tracks for a while, and it's probably time to return to some of the in-game tracks in any case.
So, tonight, we'll start with Bathurst - a tried and tested Aussie legend of a track.

If we get bored of the hill then we'll find some other tracks to go to, as with the non-custom tracks I can at least make an in-game change.

Catch up laters,
Andrew

Dirty driving

You won't be surprised at my driving in this.. Especially the start.
But I did go on to get a third in the rally and a fourth in the championship.
Is that bad? I think not, first is reserved for Hermes or whoever it seems to be that's over a minute ahead of the rest of the field.

But that's not soul destroying, as rally is about as much as getting to the finish as it is to get a result - indeed in one of these stages I limped across the line on three wheels (mercifully although it wasn't a service stage I had a wheel for the next one).

Anyway, Dirt Rally...

What of the game, using your known fellow racer as a benchmark?

Controls:
Great - I had to mess with the steering a bit (G29 user), but you can reduce the lock to lock ratio and bring in 'be like the real thing' too (apologies for not remembering the actual setting names!).
Doing all this has meant that the steering is good with only an occasional spin the wheel moment, and that usually just after a leaving the track backwards moment...

Also, there's a clutch in this game. Which has lead me to realise that I can't race on games using the traditional foot layout for a manual! I'm so locked into left foot breaking I can't stop. Practice needed maybe. In any case I don't have the shifter so it's paddles all the way - and easy shifting is a handy thing in any case.

Cars:
Great selection of cars - you can get into all of them from the get go too on a custom race. As is customary you have to buy something for the career mode - the car above is my second purchase. I think nostalgia gained precedence over practicality.
Overall the cars I've tried are great, look good and sound awesome - except for the Pikes Peak cars, they too look good and go great but I'm dammed if I can get them round three corners in a row. They're just too aggressive and then as soon as you let off they're into snap oversteer. Certainly cars to be tried once I've completed a few rallies with faster cars.
The only top tip I can provide here is tune the gearbox right down, I started to gain stage green sectors once I realised I wasn't getting full use of the gearbox.

Gameplay:
As you can expect with a next(ish) gen console game it's amazing. The immersion is great, the menus are easy to traverse and even the slightly overly done social stuff is there. Less welcome is load times that if we use a standard "skyrim" as a lead time measure is nearly at a value of 1. I.e. long, very long. I suppose it's loading all the stuff it's loading, and that is a lot of stuff - you can go pretty well off track, to the point I've headed off piste, done a few doughnuts and found my way back on track. Certainly enough time to do the "ohhhh shhhhiii...." move that I should think accompanies any no wheels on the ground, car not on the track moments.


Should you buy it?
I think it's probably one of the best rally games I've played, though in fairness I never found a good one on the PS3 (WRC2 on the PS2 being my fave, for nostalgic reasons).
But herein lies the rub. If you don't like pace notes being screamed at you, overly narrow tracks and a sense that brakes on mud just aren't going to haul you up - then you'll hate this game.

I'd also hazard that this is one of the best rally cross sims out there at the moment. This aspect of the game is awesome, hard, but awesome. And the physics seem to be spot on. If that's your flavour (and it's only one aspect of this game for sure), then may you should.

90 Left Three Over Crest Tightens Caution Don't Cut Into 6 Right Opens Into Dip Long Caution Big Jump...

Meconium

G'day all,
Tonight's racing is going to be a longer track I built a few weeks back - I like it, which will mean a solid last place for me of course.

Swinbrook Raceway

As is usual with the longer tracks we'll start with the 500pp cars and escalate from there. This week I think we'll do our 550pp V8s for a race or two also. Fun cars that they are!

In other news, I've set up and tested posting PS4 replays into my channel, so now I can catch and replay a bit easier than I do with the PS3.
Behold (but don't get excited!):

I don't know what's real any more...

I'm sure you all follow GT Planet, but they recently posted up this video:

I really struggled to figure out if it was the car, the track, the other cars or something else that's virtual and/or real.

Amazing.

Oh, and Assetto Corsa (and real life) for those not in the know...