Rate The Sims: Community Edition | Automobilista

[Paul Jeffrey]

We are looking to crown the 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game - get your votes in now for our next game on the list... Automobilista!

Our dear RaceDepartment community. You folks are the most mighty fans of sim racing, often displaying an immense amount of understanding and depth of knowledge when it comes to our favourite hobby.

With sim racing and eSports in such a wonderful boom period of late. Gamers looking to have some fun with their virtual racing machines have never before had such a wide and robust variety of software to enjoy.

Now occasionally I've been in a position to rate new racing titles that have come my way, and almost every time I've received a wide variety of folks agreeing, or strongly disagreeing with my own opinions.

Opinions are great, but sometimes the opinion of one person, with their own likes and dislikes taken into account, can often give a bit of a skewed picture (intentional or not) to the greater cause in which said person is trying to explain.

As such, rather than doing one myself, and in the spirit of engaging some interesting community discussion, I thought it could be fun to let our own community rate each of the key sim racing / racing games available today.

As always with these things, please do try and respect each other and their opinions, and let's try to see if we can give a fun, but fair shake of the stick to each of the games included in this poll.

For transparency, I'm going to be featuring the following racing games over the next weeks:

• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Automobilista (AMS)
• DiRT 2.0
• F1 2019
• GT Sport
• GRID
• iRacing
• NASCAR Heat 4
• PCARS 2
• RaceRoom Racing Experience
• rFactor 2
• WRC 8

I'm going to launch the article each Monday evening, and keep the poll running for a full week until the next new article is pushed live. So get your votes in quick!

Once I've completed the full list of games, I'll publish a final results feature, and we can award the winning developer the lofty title of 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite'!

Have fun, stay sensible and let the voting commence!

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[Ryan Robbins]

I cant get over the old graphics anymore but the game itself is solid. Forcefeedback may be my favorite of all sims. Some of the cars I really did not care for, but that is probably just me. AMS 2 is an exciting prospect.

 

[Enagee]

Great value ...but as we know VR seals the deal for some of us.....Havent touched Ams in a very long time but still rate it.
if they prioritise online racing in AMS2, it will be a winner .

 

[Zoltan76]

For what Reiza did with the rF1 engine, the sim deserves 10, but since I can't and won't rate any sim a perfect score - sims are WIP and there is always room for improvement, AMS gets a solid 9.

I don't get it.
You are saying that sims are wip and that's why you wouldn't give ten points.
You should see and point them as they are NOW.
It is like I'd say GP4 deserves 1 point because it is 10+ years old.

 

[F_B]

It gets a 10 from me!

How six people voted it a 1 I don't know, they must have got a Groupon deal on lobotomies...

Comment of the year

 

[Antony Snook]

R Factor 2 is the best. Its more sim than arcade. The lifetime membership to Steam workshop allows integration of cars and tracks and other upgrades. Mass utility file allows you to configure tracks you want to race on. Single purchase of game and lifetime membership to workshop will never run out. Take that CODEMASTERS.

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Quick edit. Updated poll to make results visible even if you didn’t vote. My apologies, overlooked that setting when publishing.

BW

Paul

 

[cnuk]

I've avoided this title in the past due to the lack of a virtual steering wheel displayed in-game.
It seems that has been added, but for all cars, or just recent additions/mods?
All of the good reviews have piqued my interest.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

I've avoided this title in the past due to the lack of a virtual steering wheel displayed in-game.
It seems that has been added, but for all cars, or just recent additions/mods?
All of the good reviews have piqued my interest.

Virtual steering wheel was always possible, as long, as i know AMS. What information was that knowledge based on?
You just should turn off hands on the wheel, they don't work well with animations...it doesn't matter. You can turn it off and on in the showroom for the cars.

 

[Rafael Placce]

The one sim that I'm ever coming back and the one that I have spent more hours.
The FFB in AMS is the only one that make me feel close to what I have experienced in a track day at Interlagos.
Since i'm from Brazil, the tracks are not so "obscure" to me.

The T1 (or The Big Bowl, like we call it) at Cascavel in the Stock Car with the AI side by side is one of the best experiences you can get in a sim.

So it's a 10

 

[JasonMADCow]

Don't forget Grid 2019

 

[WPxNJ]

10 of 10!

The game that kept on giving and giving. Started out with Game Stock Car and it just got better and bigger.

Here on the US East Coast are many Brazilians. What a conversation starter! "Ever been to Cascavel, Curitiba, Londrina, Santa Cruz do Sol, or Turuma"? "How the h3ll do you know those places?"

"That's where I race my Opala and Fusca."

The Formula Vee is one of the best virtual cars I ever driven for feel and response. Caterhams are superb. Formula Trucks awesome diesel fun. Ultima V8 is terrific to tame. High airbox Formula Retro-that sound!

Yes I'm a backer and it is money well spent. Waiting for that AMS Beta to drop. C'mon Santa!!

 

[mister dog]

9/10 textbook example of getting the absolute best out of an older engine. Not 10/10 because I'm a sucker for the eye candy, although even there Reiza did the best they could with the material at hand.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I love titles like AMS where there isn’t endless tinkering with settings, I can just race.
Super sample X8 done.
FFB 180hz pure done.
Patrick track pack, EEC mod done and done.
Go Reiza!!

Neil commented on GD forum that the actual ffb rate syncs with fps, recent discovery on their end.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

Neil commented on GD forum that the actual ffb rate syncs with fps, recent discovery on their end.

Do you have a source?

 

[cnuk]

Virtual steering wheel was always possible, as long, as i know AMS. What information was that knowledge based on?

Oh ... my mistake. Judging from older videos posted on this site, it appears the hands and arms are absent. That is what I should have said.

 

[alice3d]

AMS has my favourite selection of cars and tracks. What it lacks? Obviously a better graphic engine, which is no problem to me (i like it like it is) but my score is a 9, trying to be honest.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

Oh ... my mistake. Judging from older videos posted on this site, it appears the hands and arms are absent. That is what I should have said.

This is really no big deal, to get used to that...

The arms are not animated well, so they are turned off by default (with the option to turn it on, i highly don't recommend it). But you will not notice it that much, to just see your wheel.

I turn off arms in every sim, for example, because with correct FOV, the hands are WAY to big here, its just way more disturbing

 

[nangu]

Didn't touch Automobilista since I got the Oculus Rift, but I rated it 8/10 because to me it's one of the more complete package from all. Besides the brazilian car/track selection which I'm not a fan, I had a really very good playtime in this sim due to force feedback, physics and sound. It really feels as a complete game too.

Graphics are outdated by now, but I'm confident AMS2 will be great (fingers crossed)

 

[A man with a Harmonica]

8/10

If it had climatics and a slightly better GFX motor it would be 10/10

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Neil commented on GD forum that the actual ffb rate syncs with fps, recent discovery on their end.

Do you have a source?

Here

With AMS we upped the FFB rate from 90 to 360. Recently we found out the FFB is actually still limited to your framerate most likely. We had 180 and 360hz options in game, I’m sure people felt a difference, but if they ran less than 181fps, the FFB rate was most likely identical.

Power of placebo in action.