Big hats off to ALL the developers from me for sticking with some core principles against the plagues that are leaving other gaming genres the victims of a scorched earth policy - microtransactions, loot boxes, pay to win, gold editions, collectors editions and having you wallet generally fixated on throughout a gaming experience. Even the game which many people seem to find the most egregious in it's pricing model, iracing, seems positively fair, honest and rational compared to what has gripped the wider development community. You can still join iracing on the base content and get hundreds of hours of unique experiences for a year, without a single player disadvantage, and all for £60. As for DLC, people that quibble about it's cost ought to look at the billions, not millions, being made by major publishers by making their games glorified shops. So massive thumbs up to sim racing developer community.
As for this year, ACC still obviously has a way to go, but for taking a stray dog in and trying to prep it for Crufts, it has to be everyone at Studio 397 and their labour of love. I think their interaction with the community has been exceptional, never shying away from criticism, and they have struck a good balance between key structural developments, having to raise money through DLC to keep people paid, and gifting some wonderful free goodies. The horizon stabiliser in rF2 introduced this year has, for me, taken VR to an almost iracing level of fidelity that I didn't think possible.
I know some people will never forgive rF2 for it's idiosyncrasies, but it's progress has been nothing shy of remarkable (compare the improvements Bethesda has made to it's core engine in the last decade for example). In those moments when rF2 doesn't want to kick you in the nuts, and you find that exceptional car/track combo, it still remains a drive like no other and the gold standard. They've taken a dead game and put it back in the conversation, and that's some achievement.
