This is like Cheesecake (yes, that deserves a caps).
Why? Well... lets look at the core ingredients of Cheesecake:
Cheese
Cake
What's not to like hmmm?
And like Cheesecake this video has Tiff* and Singer Porsche. Which doesn't make it an awesome desert, but I surely want to watch and digest what is a great vid nonetheless.
Enjoy:
For the lawyers - I'm not implying Tiff is a cake, a bit harder to say he's not cheesy I suppose...
So it's all about Project Cars 2 at the moment.
I've not got any screen shots but I will put a few words down about it...
To round it up, Assetto has depth, PCars2 has breadth. There, that's all the review you need!
But seriously, things to do in PCars2 that work and make you think that it's a great sim:
Take the XJ220 TWR for a spin around Bathurst
Take the Group A R32 on the California highway
Do old Spa with weather
Start your career with the Ginetta racing
Do spend an hour getting your HUD to be less than all over the screen
Do set your steering FFB to raw
And here's the things to avoid:
Don't do the Escort 1600 at Brands short - especially as you can do the same in Assetto
Don't take the McLaren F1 out, errr, on any road
Generally avoid the road cars for now
Avoid the 935 for a bit, then drive it at Red Bull
GoKarts - authentic maybe, but my word...
Do I like the game? As a game yes, I like it. I like the endless choice of track and cars. I like the racing, the Ginetta at Cadwell was an excellent race. I like the general simness of it, but it's not a sim.
It's hard not to be the smug Audi owner at a party of Hyundai drivers with this. Once I got over the physics shock (so very unique) and dialled in I still couldn't shake that compared to Assetto, well, it doesn't. If I want to play a game I'll happily play this. If I want to drive a car - I'll always go to Assetto.
I will say on one track I had dappled (HDR) sunlight across the track, that was special. But graphically it's not a million miles away from Assetto, and for ball ache beauty I think the venerable Driveclub might still have an edge - how the hell is that possible!
My Pro also has a sold state drive, arguably much faster in load times - my unit of "skyrim" which was about a week on the PS3 is little more than 30 seconds on this bad boy. And the loading of everything is still reasonably slow in this game. A lot going on I suppose.
And part of that will be the weather, as mentioned above it is awesome to have a go, though I think a 956 at 250Kph will have some water related 'issues' on the bends when it's pouring down - though not that I noticed.
And beyond a few goes to see what the fuss was about, and a minor grizzle at not seeing a torrent of water coursing down into Eau Rouge, I have gone back to 'red centre' spec racing - that being uniform blue above and hot below.
Am I disappointed with my purchase? I think not, but then last night I invested a heady $18 on Need for Speed, so I'm buying another game within 24 hours. hmmmm.
And because this is my roots for now, how about this for Assetto, a nice bit of driving..
I'm in danger of the skiing down the hype curve from the peak of expectation to the trough of disillusionment. It's real - as you know I lead a team that writes software and we contend with it all the time...
Anyway, I am not only all aboard the hype train, I'm also sat in the buffet car dining out on the press snippets. What's more I'm thumbing my nose through the glass at the GT Sport commuter train as we pass - though in fairness that one is packed to bursting with eager passengers.
But then there's this...
I am actually tempted to cancel my pre-order and never buy it in a the same way I never watched the butchered Disney Star Wars because the thought of it being great might eclipse the reality of Pocahontas meets Darth Mouse, which I think would have me crying all the way to a re-watch of The Empire Strikes Back (you know, the best one).
So, I'll be online and trying to get my race pass from the 22nd, along with a few hundred thousand tween-year olds (it's a thing) who'll have a. infinatly more time than me and b. a way to earn far more kudos points or whatever it is that'll ensure I stay racing with Bob McSpinner and his mate Ivor Punter until I finally crack at the fiftieth attempt at turn one of Spa and go back to FarmSim - you can't go wrong with baling I can tell you...
Well, not my hero all out, that's David Hasselhoff for reasons I can't go into...
Anyway, Evan, Callum (Bushby) and I all met up at Lakeside to watch the Lakeside Classic at the weekend and a spirited bit of racing it truly was.
With an eclectic mix of racing there was plenty going on, though in the first TA2 race what promised to be a fantastic race thanks to the ingredients (V8s, tube frame chassis, plastic shells and err racecar stuff) turned out to be mostly line-astern racing.
Maybe due to the tight track, the fact they're epic fast (so no mistakes mmmkay) or perhaps that this guy below wasn't in the running in that race...
You see, number 88, Harris Racing, started at the back in the second race, then made a damn fine attempt to be at the front, and almost made it. What's more, he recorded every sordid lap of himself proving identical cars aren't:
Actually everyone is my hero today, including this chap who I just found online too. Watch the vids and let them know they're great racers!
I mean I do, but I don't actually have any issue with the general hoonery that this is...
In Assetto race news this week we'll be doing some class based racing - so those faster than the rest of us (Ace, that's you that is) will get a slower car, or at least that's the plan....
So tomorrow night is Assetto Night.
If you've got it, come and race - friend me, psn me, call me, stalk me, err no, just join me online for some racing....
He's an enjoyable fellow to listen to, and I have to admit, I'm liking the look of Dirt4 - but then I have Dirt Rally and am no where near completing that. Hmmm.
Precedent set though, as I also have Dirt3 and never completed that either....
Here's a challenge...
I'm going to assume that you like cars, that you have a sim or other current gen racer on your PCBoxPro and some good speakers.
So, the challenge? Watch this and don't go and fire up your sim and race something red and fast. This is a fantastic bit of automotive pornography...
Go check out the Assetto "vote for a Ferrari" page - INFO HERE. One of the cars I would vote to see in the game is the F50.
The reason? Well, that game has reasonable sounds (so a V12 is going to be good), great physics (so carbon tub and stressed V12 subframe stuff mmmkay) and above all, is a manual gearbox. And this I love about this game.
If you have a H pattern gearbox, do go for a highland spin in a Lamborghini Miura - I think they've simulated the somewhat shitty gear change perfectly. Don't believe me? Go try an E30 at Brands and see if the change is as fickle as it is in the Lambo...
And if there's any doubt, simulation became reality last night for Ace my racing buddy as following a particularly major fence shunt declared a broken gearbox. Good sim... better sim as it was in fact his G29 shifter that had dropped second and third.
Anyway, of the F50, and this post title, I want this car, and I want to drive it like this...
In other news, that's not a ramble, it seems we have a quorum for Assetto now, so next week I'll message everyone and we'll race on in a private lobby! Time for me to figure out car classes!
It's been a few weeks since I've raced on GT6.
I think that perhaps it's time to hang up the gloves for the PS3 and await the agonising decision of PCars2 or GT Sport to come to a head as release dates approach.
I suspect I'm the only person on the planet hoping for another six month delay to GT Sport, it'll give me justification to buy PCars2 first and follow with Sport.
Am I over Gt6? I think I am. The cars feel the same, the tracks, despite feverish development of new ones, feel a bit stale and if I'm brutally honest I've become a bit of a recluse in the evenings thanks to work and life pressure - I've been running Thursday nights now for something like over a decade across both Gt5 and Gt6, and I think that very few folks will really miss the Thursday night boost on racing that we have, "it's all about the race and not about the win" and all that...
So perhaps until GT Sport is out I'll call a hiatus and enjoy my other racers for a bit.
And in that meantime Evan and I are loving Assetto Corsa, it's such a good sim for consoles (thankfully on PS4 so we get the updates). The uniqueness of the cars and having to learn them is fantastic, this week we ran a GT3 RS back to back with a RUF RT12R. I think I'm safe in saying that Assetto may well be the last game to feature both Porsche and RUF in a game - a shame, but at least both marques are done justice in this game.
Despite ludicrous power in the RT12R the cars were surprisingly well matched, in part thanks to the ludicrous grip of the GT3 RS. If the sim is accurate then I learnt a few things...
a. I'm never buying a RUF - I'll die on the outside of the first serious corner.
b. On the other hand, power is very habit forming!
But this isn't in fact the reason for this post, the reason is because I've had a lot of fun this week with a $20 dinosaur for the PS4 - Driveclub.
This game really is a gift that keeps on giving, and this week I set a challenge around Sinclair Pass in a Ferrari F50 (not to be confused with the Ford F50, god no!)
Anyway, to cut to the chase, we're using Hardcore mode, so no assists and a manual gearbox, which I think is really how it should be in this game.
First up I set a 1:50 round there, pedestrian as it turned out as Daniel the racing buddy set a 1:48 a couple of nights later. Now I've reset the bar with a 1:47. I can see another half second being trimmed, and I think that'll be it - and I think that it'll not be me. Sniff.
Why am I going on about this racing, because it's ace. I can set a time, share it and at their leisure my mates can prove just how slow I am. And also because I recorded my lap...
And this game (as you'll see) has stayed fresh, it still looks great, and thanks to a PS4 Pro and SSD drive it loads like a cartridge games console (remember that!). Do I notice the PS4 Pro bit? Maybe, it's a solid 30fps rather than peaking as it does on the normal PS4, but I'm not fussy, I think my head only works around 25fps...
So for the price of a few beers you too can humiliate my driving ability... you owe it to yourself!
