iRacing Review

[OverTake.gg]

Bram Hengeveld submitted a new blog post:

iRacing Review

More than five years after its initial release, I feel it’s finally time to give iRacing the professional review treatment. Five years is more than enough time for one game to sort out all of its issues, the game costs several times more than your traditional boxed PC game available on the shelves at Best Buy, and deciding whether to take the plunge based on biased forum ramblings is never a good idea. Six hundred million laps later, it’s time to finally take a look at iRacing, and determine...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post

 

[paulnunes]

wow ... what a great review. Been a memeber of iracing for three months. Class C now and I can tell you that this games physics are horrible. I have driven in several real life lapping events on a real race tracks and I have never experinces sliding cars like this. Have driven Ford Mustang GTs, F1600, and lately my own car (2008 BMW 335 coupe with sport suspension) at Mosport. What a diffrence from this Iracing nonsense. Please don't get into this game if you expect this to be close to reality. I would say at max it is 50% of reality. The car I have driven on real track are quite stable and don't slide all over like in Iracing. Funny, on my last lapping event one guy had a Mclaren and he lasted by me everytime ... I saw no sliding of his car at all. I will have to stop playing this game because it simply is silly. I have to give credit to the payers that have mastered this "game" but they will be sadly surprised that reality is a way diffirent

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Here's my two measuring sticks for sims;
Is it fun?
Is it challenging?
If a sim/game gets a yes on both of this I frankly don't care if its "like the real thing" or not.

 

[Steve O'Malley]

Well this is disappointing as I was just about to road racing in iRacing and finished building a computer for it.

Try it mate. Dont be put off by the line "In short, if you’re a road racing fan, there is zero point in even trying iRacing."

I am no expert, but its the only sim Ive played where people get penalised for cutting corners and are not allowed to drive recklessly without major penalties.

 

[eobet]

Here's my two measuring sticks for sims;
Is it fun?
Is it challenging?
If a sim/game gets a yes on both of this I frankly don't care if its "like the real thing" or not.

Then by definition, aren't you looking for a "game" rather than a "sim"?

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Might be, but the games I've tried fails on the "is it challenging" part. I do enjoy Dirt 3 for instance, but it doesn't challenge me in the same way that iRacing does.
The biggest reason I love iRacing is some features that it has that makes it both more fun and more challenging than any other game or sim, because none other has these, and these are Safety Rating, iRating, Classes and the simplicity in getting online driving against other people in a competitive and (most of the time) non-wrecking environment.

 

[Adam Sawyer]

great review and correct in every way.....it should be an awesome game but just fails in a few critical areas =[

 

[eobet]

Might be, but the games I've tried fails on the "is it challenging" part. I do enjoy Dirt 3 for instance, but it doesn't challenge me in the same way that iRacing does.
The biggest reason I love iRacing is some features that it has that makes it both more fun and more challenging than any other game or sim, because none other has these, and these are Safety Rating, iRating, Classes and the simplicity in getting online driving against other people in a competitive and (most of the time) non-wrecking environment.

I'm curious, since you mention Dirt 3 have you played Richard Burns Rally, and if so, what is your opinion on that? And since you mention iRating and simplicity, have you tried any of the custom Live For Speed servers with their own rating systems which are still running?

iRacing is challenging as you say, because it isn't completely realistic yet (most vehicles are somewhat too difficult to control during loss of grip, and way, way too difficult to right after a slide) and I would argue that both RBR and LFS are more realistic and hence easier to control, and if you want to write them off for not being challenging enough, I challenge you to post some record breaking times in either.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

I've barely tested RBR because it stopped working and i failed to get it running again. LFS I've never tried, took a quick look at it and lost interest due to poor graphics iirc, but I could reconsider.

: I love iracing road cars, mostly played the mx5 and the Cadillac and I love the latter just because it's so loose and I find myself catching slides often, I don't understand why people say it's near impossible because I'm a poor driver but manage to do it.

 

[DewCrew88]

Lotus 49 has been dropped from the S2 Schedule, with no official announcement to boot.

At what point do they admit that NR2003's physics are the core of the problem and that no NTM will fix it?

 

[Paul McCluskey]

losin faith in iracing gettin this so called new tyre right, just fudge the bloody physics so the cars are fun too drive , not asking for arcadey physics but keep the same structure ie ir n sr n official series

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Make some happy piss others off, that's the joyful world of game developers these days. Can speak only for myself but I find the physics in iRacing to be among the best and it offers me the most fun out of any title currently on the market, does that make it perfect? No, but it will never be, make Paul McCluskey happy and I might get pissed off cos I hate the changes, there's no winning for game devs ^^

 

[paulnunes]

Make some happy piss others off, that's the joyful world of game developers these days. Can speak only for myself but I find the physics in iRacing to be among the best and it offers me the most fun out of any title currently on the market, does that make it perfect? No, but it will never be, make Paul McCluskey happy and I might get pissed off cos I hate the changes, there's no winning for game devs ^^

hey dude, go drive a real sport car on a real race track ... and I mean real ... and then you will know why iracing is pretty poor. For the money these guys charge you expect real life physics, period!!! no bloody excuses!

 

[Niel Hekkens]

You are not only paying for the game, but also for the whole service too. A lot of people are forgetting that.

 

[Chronus]

No. People are paying for something that offers an online racing service.

And because in the last 4 years or so no other sim has come close to providing this kind of service, iRacing is the best there is in this regard. And that is what keeps people hoping for the best.

Considering the alternatives (DLCs and other "carrots" by PD, SMS, Microsoft, etc), iRacing is still the best choice.

 

[Allan Paterson]

Members here should try iRacing for themselves, whilst the tyre has issues they are only really noticeable by the top 0.5% of drivers and not nearly as bad as made out here (still needs fixing though! ). Road racing is great fun, competitive and well organised. After a plateau in active users in late 2011 & early 2012 the recent builds which happen every three months show that real progress is being made on the tyre and active participation (unique users) in racing (not on the Forum!) has passed 20,000 per month for the first time;

Come and try it for yourself, you will probably be pleasantly surprised how good it really is.

 

[DewCrew88]

I would associate the increase in unique users to more promotions rather than it being an indication that the physics are better.

"whilst the tyre has issues they are only really noticeable by the top 0.5% of drivers and not nearly as bad as made out here"

Absolutely untrue. I speak to on a regular basis people ranging in iR from 2400-5500+ and everyone has the same opinion and feelign about the flaws of the physics. Anyone who is driving the cars competitively and knows what has to be done to be top split competitive knows how much of a problem iRacing has.

 

[Chronus]

Members here should try iRacing for themselves, whilst the tyre has issues they are only really noticeable by the top 0.5% of drivers and not nearly as bad as made out here (still needs fixing though!

Oh, boy.

This is so untrue, it's not even funny nor debatable. Worst than that, mr. AllanP (as we have been discussing this for a long, long time), you know it.

 

[Bakkster]

I would associate the increase in unique users to more promotions rather than it being an indication that the physics are better.

Bear in mind, the above chart is active members in races per month, not simply new memberships. While the promotions certainly help, the chart for the most part tracks well with physics modeling: Spike for NTM release, immediate drop with disapproval of the NTM, rebound and plateau half a year later as the most egregious drive-ability concerns are addressed, return to original pattern of growth about a year ago as many (most?) cars get their tankslapping issues sorted out.

It's hard to consider iRacing membership as anything but healthy right now. One can easily speculate on effects of AC or rF2 or any of the other in development sims being released, but that hasn't happened yet. The service as a whole is pretty healthy, it's individual series which have issues (either schedule, physics, or both) and impending competition that are what people are seeing when they talk about iRacing's decline.

"whilst the tyre has issues they are only really noticeable by the top 0.5% of drivers and not nearly as bad as made out here"

Absolutely untrue. I speak to on a regular basis people ranging in iR from 2400-5500+ and everyone has the same opinion and feelign about the flaws of the physics.

I would pretty well agree with you. It's definitely a lot more than the top half percent who have the pace and consistency to capitalize on the cold tires in qualifying. Probably closer to 20-25%.

Though I will agree with Allan that the issue really isn't game-breaking. It's annoying and frustrating, but so were all the OTM issues. It needs to be fixed, but (IMO) the issues with grip past peak slip (2fmsh, inability to drift, unstable cars, etc) are now and have been since release the bigger issue. There's no benefit to having the fast lap on lap 7 if the car still snaps and hooks when trying to recover from a small 'moment'. The problem is more the delay, having such a long wait magnifies the frustration.

 

[Chronus]

I would pretty well agree with you. It's definitely a lot more than the top half percent who have the pace and consistency to capitalize on the cold tires in qualifying. Probably closer to 20-25%.

Though I will agree with Allan that the issue really isn't game-breaking. It's annoying and frustrating, but so were all the OTM issues. It needs to be fixed, but (IMO) the issues with grip past peak slip (2fmsh, inability to drift, unstable cars, etc) are now and have been since release the bigger issue. There's no benefit to having the fast lap on lap 7 if the car still snaps and hooks when trying to recover from a small 'moment'. The problem is more the delay, having such a long wait magnifies the frustration.

Not a game breaker, not really labelling iR as a bad sim - far from it, as I have been saying for years. iRacing is a good sim with serious tire modelling problems (and, I suspect, physics model calibration issues that stubbornly refuse to go away).

But that is and never was the point. Allan has recently (elsewhere) admitted that even he "sometimes wonders" given the NTM state. To come here and blatantly distort the tire issue to complaints from a minute "top 0.5%" is far from telling the truth - rather the opposite.

Even your percentage is, typically ( whether it be here or elsewhere ), far from the truth. Only a few of the iRacers I know do not complain - the majority is aware that something is off, but (understandably) they still support iR.

 

[Allan Paterson]

Well I finished 3rd in a Top Split race last Sunday night, so that theory is a bit of hogwash.

I knew my comment would stimulate some debate (a bit like the OP article), I agree the tyre needs to be improved but I think it is important to realise that it is not nearly as bad as people would like to make out in this thread.

Top 0.5% was a bit tounge in cheek but if you are active on the iRacing Forums as I am you can count less than 100 regular complainers (the usual suspects) and maybe a couple of hundred others less so. The vast majority of subscribers don't even post or ever have posted. Current "active" membership is around 35,000 (i.e. live subscribers) with 20,000 of those racing each month. As with any product you will get a few hard core haters and a few one eyed sycophants, in between there is a big group of people really enjoying what is a great product.

I was merely giving a counter point to a lot of the negativity here, especially as some of the "opinions" are from people who have only racked up a few hours testing in recent months.

This Sim moves forward, often substantially every three months, old opinions don't count for much where iRacing is concerned.

The tyre needs to be improved for sure (and in key aspects) but it is not stopping the vast majority of people having a thourougly good time.