Image credit: Motorsport Games
After Motorsport Games and Studio 397 announced their upcoming Le Mans Ultimate title, we went along to the real life Le Mans event to experience the unreleased sim first-hand.
The developers behind rFactor 2, Studio 397 and their parent company Motorsport Games recently revealed that a new sim will be hitting the market in December 2023. This title, called Le Mans Ultimate, will allow players to experience the World Endurance Championship.
While many of the cars and tracks are available across other sims, including rFactor 2, Le Mans Ultimate promises to bring something new to the table as a standalone title. To introduce the game to the world, Motorsport Games brought a demo version to the real life Le Mans event. There, eager WEC fans could try it for themselves. Our editor Angus couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a look.
Le Mans Ultimate Gameplay
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Angus reported that Le Mans Ultimate feels similar to rFactor 2. In fact, it seems to have been developed in the same engine and uses the same physics model. Naturally, this meant that the overall experience was pretty good for an early demo version.There were some issues, though. For instance, Angus reported a lack of feeling on the brakes. This means that it was difficult to avoid lockups, and to properly get the car slowed down on corner entry.
Another problem was to found in the form of the kerbs. They were very aggressive, causing the car to lose balance and stability at the drop of a hat.
The two cars available for selection were the Ferrari 488 GTE and the Porsche 963 hypercar. Angus opted for the latter, as it is not yet available in rFactor 2.
Le Mans Ultimate was available to play at the real life Le Mans event. Image credit: Angus Martin
In terms of sound design and force feedback, there was clearly still a lot of development left to be done. The soundscape in particular lacked many of the elements one would expect, such as wind noise and the sound of the transmission.
To hear more of Angus’ thoughts about the Le Mans Ultimate gameplay demo, and to see the game in action, watch our latest YouTube video.
What do you think of the first Le Mans Ultimate gameplay footage? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
