There are getting started guides for Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2 and Raceroom on my channel which I hope will help some ru-vid.com/group/PLTspiu_SHlAHGa2ZMFE4OmpWZG65JPmkF good video Chris. I had not expected Raceroom to come in at #1 but I agree. I thought you might have suggested AC so some interesting points...
Hey dude, I'm new to this stuff and I've spent all day today looking to buy my first product for dirt 2.0 since 7am. I'm finally deciding on the thrustmaster t300. Anyway, to the main point, theres this website called Serdady.com that is selling sim racing hardware for super cheap. Like a base for $60, t3pa pedal for $66, clutch for $56, you get it right? I want to blow up other youtubers like you hoping that one of you guys buys one of their products and makes a review on them because they seem very new and possibly a scam. Thank you.
It's got to be Project Cars 2. No question. And here's why... If you're a newbie and you keep spinning out mid corner, or you keep spinning out at the end of the corner, or you under-steer, or you can't reach your top speed etc... The race engineer facility in Project Cars 2 can help! Just tell him what's happening, and he'll tell you how to fix it! You can then take that information to other sims! So even if you then play Assetto Corsa, if you're spinning out mid corner, you'll remember what the race engineer suggested in PC2 - Soften the real anti roll bar, most likely. I wish all sims had PC2's Race Engineer!
I need a list of PS3 and PS4 racing games to focus on, with the T150 Pro set and gamepad controller, please. With a focus on drifting and touring, as opposed to F1, rallying, and so on, and a mix of both realistic and unrealistic racing games. Here is what I have in mind. Tell me what you think. I just need help finding the 'best sims as a beginner'. Thanks. 1. Need for Speed: Shift 1 (fairly hard/realistic drifting and decent standard/street racing). 2. GT 5 (touring/standard racing). 3. GT Sport (more realistic touring/GT-style racing). 4. Assetto Corsa (most realistic console racing game I know of, for a number of race types). 5. Need for Speed Carbon (best unrealistic drifting and racing game I know of for the PS3). 6. Need for Speed: Shift 2 (assumed to be even better than Shift 1). 7. Need for Speed: ProStreet (best unrealistic drifting game for PS3 to my knowledge). Anybody know if GT 6 is good enough or jump to Sport? And, if any of these should be simply removed from the list to your mind, please let me know. Also, what of off-roading, NASCAR, and so on? Again, the only things I really don't want (at least until I am good enough) is F1 and rallying. I know that drifting is actually one of the harder forms of racing, hence why I want to find the easier ones, such as ProStreet, and try out some NASCAR games, too. Also, any suggestions in terms of GT 5-type games would be very helpful (that being, touring/standard racing which is semi-realistic and great for beginners). Speaking of which, what are your thoughts on the other Need for Speed games for the PS3/4, such as NFS 2015 and Payback, should I skip them completely or are they what I'm after on console? I did try out Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) and I did not like it. Very unrealistic whilst trying to be realistic. Felt very strange and wrong and I don't think it has any drifting to speak of? Most Wanted (2005) or whatever is okay, as is Underground 1 and 2, more so for drifting, but sadly, they are not on PS3/4. To give you a sense of what I want/care about, it would be GT 4/5/6 and Need for Speed as a whole, more than Assetto and iRacing (though I know most of them are PC or PS4-only). I assume you think I should get Project Cars 2 for the PS4 in the future, right? What about Driveclub, Wreckfest, and The Crew?
The only 3 games i can remember for the PS3 that have really good steering wheel optimization are F1 2013, F1 2014, and WRC 4. Those 3 games work very well with a steering wheel. Most other games on ps3 were pretty awful with steering wheels. But those 3 games were good with a wheel. Assetto is good for drifting, but it takes a lot of practice to learn. Drifting is not good in pCARS 2. pCARS 2 is a great racing title though, and the RX cars are a lot of fun. Throttle oversteerind the RX cars is awesome in pCARS 2, but the physics aren't right when it comes to drifting in RWD cars. Physics wise, racing and catching slides is about the limit in pCARS 2. Full on drifting just doesn't work properly in the game.
I have the GT3 Monza problem with PC2 in online races. I do not (yet) play that much AC online... but wtf is wrong with people? GT3 is boring... and every time in the same track is double boring!
I've done this journey twice (with a break from simracing in between). When I first started out all those years ago it was GTR2 - Race07 - rfactor - iRacing. The second more recent time I went F1 2017 - Assetto Corsa - iRacing (again). Though I've dabbled in all of these titles. I think if you're dipping your toes in, and want to mostly stick to singleplayer hotlapping/one off races, Assetto Corsa is the way to go due to it's content. The mods are just the icing on the cake, you really can do anything you want to in this game. If you are still on a gamepad, or really want a career mode type experience, PC2 might be more up your alley. It's far from perfect, but if you're coming from something like Forza it'll be most familiar to you, whilst giving you simulation level physics. If you only really want those multiplayer thrills, and want the freedom to race multiplayer at any time, iRacing is going to be the only option that will bring consistent satisfaction (if you can afford it). It's so far ahead in multiplayer that it totally stands alone in this regard. (Organized leagues will trump it, but they don't provide flexibility to play when you want how you want). The games are not that different in terms of physics, they really only differ in target audience. It's up to you to choose where you fall. No single sim is perfect. Personally, I'd always pick two or three. I currently bounce between iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Forza Horizon 3 (on a pad) and Dirt Rally. Other titles to consider is anything by Reiza Studios (Automobilista, Stock car extreme - probably close to the best AI I've faced), and the F1 games (which are closer and closer to sims each iteration). It's hard to go wrong really.
I dont know why automobilista doesnt get so much attention, i have al lot more hours in assetto but i just love the feeling in automobilista and i am looking forward to automobilista 2
I just started getting into racing sims and I’m really enjoying project cars 2 because it has VR support and it was on sale. I really like that the career modes allow you to work your way up to faster cars and allow easy tuning for people who have no clue what they’re doing. Hitting another car is pretty weird though considering it acts like it weighs around 5 pounds and absolutely flies. Otherwise it’s a pretty fun starting point, just make sure you tune the cars and you’ll have a good experience.
my wet dream is the combination of content (tracks, cars, wheather, livetrack 3.0), ui and graphic from PC2 , the physics of rf2 and online match making like gt sport. And all that on every possible platform with cross playing. PLEASE!
As a rookie in simracing I love Assetto Corsa. Yes, you have to mod stuff, but your videos gave me good pointers and I just get a certain statisfaction from installing a new mod. You also said AC is the most flexible of all sims. Which is the reason why I love it so much. I have no idea yet what cars, classes or format I would like the most and AC gives me the chance to try everything. Only have to see how I can get into online racing
Thanks Simon - What you're saying makes a lot of sense. I think for those with a patient and methodical mindset will do well with AC, whereas those requiring quicker results may be put off :)
I too love Assetto Corsa. There are many online servers you can just jump right into. And to install a mod, it's simply download and drop it into the track or car folder. Very simple. (The best mods you mostly find on Racedepartment.com) Some mods like the LA Canyons track by Phoenix77 are just beautiful. Also there is the Sim Racing System which is a working league, easy to install, iracing like mod.
I would go with Assetto Corsa because you can drive slower street cars. It was very rewarding to me driving my first simracing meters in the Abarth 500. I still remember how much I was flashed/suprised by the feeling of the car (back in 2015). RaceRoom is a good choice, though, taking into account that you only need one livery/car per series to enjoy races. On top, it feels great and offers a very capable AI which does a good job handling multiclass races or training sessions (paired with the best AI selector I've ever seen). Thanks for the video, Chris. Greetings from Germany
Hey dude - totally agree. To be honest, I could have easily put any of the top 3 in first place, and I think there are good arguments for each of them. Obviously, I'm a bit of an AC fanboy ;)
I was a sim racing fan for a couple of years before taking the plunge a year ago. The one I found easiest to use and had the most fun with to start was automobilista. Heaps of cars and a great assortment of tracks, with a lot I’d not seen or heard of before from Brazil. Once you get comfortable, assetto Corsa and the mods are great and if you get competitive then iracing feeds that need nicely. Appreciate you’re a very busy man Chris but think you’d enjoy automobilista if you give it a shot. The cart factor mod is probably the best mod across any title!
I've been playing AC for around 2 years now with a Logitech g27/g920 and I must say it never seems to get boring for me, endless content with the vast modding community and all the different options when it comes to how you play the game (Grip, drift, drag, cruise, etc) keeps me always hooked and exited to play. Will definitely be looking into some of the other sims you've recommended. Thanks for the video mate!
I know this might seem old school, but I still think SimBin's GTR2 for about $8 on Steam is still the best introduction to sim racing for one key reason: the GTR2 "driving school". The first sim should be an introduction to real sim race driving (not arcade) and GTR2 "driving school" series really teaches how to drive and I have not seen this style of driving school in any other sim. I still love to go back to GTR2 every now and then to check my skills in the driving school. And it plays quite well with just a game controller, and if we are assuming a real beginner, they probably are using a game controller and have not decided if they want to invest in a wheel yet. And the main game is still fun with a great selection of tracks and enough cars to get one started. Once someone has learned to drive in GTR2 and decided they really like sim racing, they can easily jump to any of the modern sims and can make a solid choice on which one they really want, with a solid set of driving skills, and have only spent $8 (or less with a sale). But otherwise I would agree that R3E is a great sim for beginners, but also the $4 Race07 would be a great introduction too.
I'll be honest, even in spite "better" sims, project cars 2 is the one I keep coming back to as my go to sim. The ease of use and the ability to set up any kind if race you could want us so nice. Assetto Corsa is good for this too once you have it hopped up on mods. To me a racing sim isn't just about being able to feel every grain of sand on my tires, it's the racing experience. I'll likely get a lot of hate for saying it but sometimes games like F1 are better than AC. You get the feeling of being part of a team, over a season. Your car evolves with you over the season. Sure it might be pretty arcadey in comparison to AC but it still gives a good F1 simulation experience. I'd definitely recommend PC2 of the lot. If very easy to get into. Even beyond the pit engineer the various changes have a fairly helpful description of the effect the changes will have on your car. Tons of options for racing for just the cost of the game, no subs. You cant really go wrong with it no matter what simulation means to you.
Project cars bugs out my g29, it messes with the force feedback and the pedals, it changes reg values, it's fixable, just need to revert the values to their original values when leaving pcars2, but it's boring having to do that all the time...
Hey Chris, check out Lester 2.0 for rFactor2. Terrific fictional street circuit that appears to be in the dockland area of Newark NJ. May be worth one your great videos while we wait for ACC’s next release! The detail is fantastic and the track flow is really good....a Donington for the streets! Btw, great video for newbies!
Hi Chris, thanks for the video. Personally Project Cars 2 would be my number 1 recommendation to a beginner. The cost is lower than that of Raceroom overall. The multiplayer lobbies are far more active meaning there is wide selection of races available at pretty much any hours of the day/night and the AI is also more tolerant than the aggressive one of Raceroom. So my advice would be install the demo and try it out, it's also free ...
Hey dude, thanks for the comment. As I mentioned in the video, I do have a bit of a love/hate relationship with PC2, but it's undeniably one of the best sims for those starting out - and the reasons you mention are pretty compelling.
One of the biggest factors for beginners on choosing a sim, is how much online help is available. I've heard Iracing has an amazing forum with message boards ect. For me Assetto corsa has hands down has the most online instructional videos and help. Race Department and the guys on the SRS boards, RU-vid of course. I'm about 5 months into my "sim racing career" and having tried every sim out there except Iracing. I think I spent more time in the first 3-4 months "under the hood" installing the sims, hardware settings and upgrades, messing with vr and graphic settings, tweaking my system and realizing that I had to upgrade my GPU and CPU, get more ram ect.. downloading updates, mods, tracks and cars than actual racing. There's such a learning curve and it can be quite overwhelming for newbies. I've pretty much settled on Assetto Corsa (with SRS for online races and Content Manager). Great vid as always Chris.
Hey dude - very good points. iRacing does have a great forum, and RD is a blessing for AC players in particular. As you said, with all of these sims there's a learning curve, and I think that's just part and parcel of the hobby to some extent.
I know this video is a year old now, but on RaceRoom all cars and tracks are available for free for a limited time due to COVID-19. Very impressed with the sim.
I absolutely love PCARS 2, Live Track 3.0 is the best thing to have appeared in a racing game in a long time imo. It ensures that every time you race a circuit it's different, even if you choose the same car and weather conditions. It forces you to adapt your driving style to the conditions which is very realistic rather than simply remembering where a load of pre baked stuff is like most games, I really like that a lot. Once you understand how it works and how complex it really is you really appreciate what it adds to the experience.
In project cars you first have to make you a good setup before you can get a good driving experience. That is a little bit annoying but I learned more about setups there.
First of all, thank you Chris for this breath of fresh air, that is your sim racing youtube channel. So different from anyone else out there and yet it feels like it is exactly what was missing on youtube regarding simracing content. Great quality at all levels...the soothing voice and music choice, the variety in content, video quality, video editing, very knowledgeable in simracing, honest reviewer, etc, etc. Thank you...it is very much appreciated. : ) Just my small opinion on this video...i do believe that Assetto Corsa on it's original state, strait out the box (no Content manager), is in my opinion still very usable and user friendly, plus you can get some very decent content for the price at the moment, which in my opinion makes it a great contender for a beginners sim. And i think installing simple mods like cars and tracks is very easy. Oh well, maybe i'm just too much of AC fan boy, lol. Keep up with the good work. Cheers.
Thanks truefoxxx - I could easily have put AC at the top of the list, and for a number of different reasons. It's the sim I've logged the most hours on - I'd definitely consider myself an AC fanboy as well ;)
my thougts exactly, Raceroom is good since it offers some free stuff, and PC2 just has every car fanatics best garage. But after a month there is no excuse not to own AC, since its less than 10 as a key.
Good points. I didn't really want to start getting into pricing in the video, except in the case of R3E and iRacing, since it's intrinsically linked with how the games work. But, at the price, AC is a must have these days.
Gran Turismo sport is what I would consider the best entry sim game. It does such a good job of easing you into things that I can recommend it to people who aren't even into racing games.
I agree, gt sport is beginner friendly with the assists on, and gets at a medium difficulty level with assists off and gr3/gr2/gr1 cars. However I think gt sport has a big problem on the online play parts, only 3 races aviable daily in the sport mode kinda sucks, and the lobbies are an hit or miss. And let's not get started with the rammers...
@@R3DCODE I do agree with you on the daily races. They originally had 3 races a day if my memory is correct and that system seemed far better. But maybe that's because they wanted more players to enter the FIA races. Whenever I play gt sport now though I usually make a private lobby with friends. I think the lobby system is very underrated for all of the praise gt sport gets.
GT Sport hardly qualifies as a sim, the cars handle like bricks and half of the content is fake. It's slightly more realistic than Forza and that's about it
@@__boomer2__ "half the content is fake" what? 90% of gt sport cars do exist in real life. Also, cars handle decently realistic. I think you are confusing gt sport with gt6 where cars are bricks on wheels.
RaceRoom is my favorite sim, by far. I love the content. Despite not being mod-able, I"ve never felt like it was missing anything. I agree that rF2 has the best physics but even after all this time it still has issues that simply shouldn't exist (notably, the UI). My only gripe with RaceRoom is that it really needs to start looking at moving to a new game engine, like Unreal 4 to bring it up to par with the likes of AC and AC:Competizione. I mostly agree with the order you chose except I would've put iRacing at #5 and rF2 at #4 just due to the price, the web-based platform, the lack of AI and the inability to use the content you paid for offline.
I’m having such a blast with protect cars 2, despite the iffy kerbs and the unrecoverable spins. The atmosphere and ambience really is top notch when you find those perfect settings for a drive
Absolutely agree that Raceroom should be an introductory title. When I built my PC, I ran straight for Assetto Corsa. It wasn't a mistake, because I have the console version, and that was a good prep to the PC version. But I never felt enthralled to play AC. Some weeks after getting AC, I got the free to play version of R3E. The hill climb kept me coming back, just to hear the Judd and see if I could get that darn thing up the hill without crashing. Then I bought the american pack. I was hooked on the Camaro at Laguna seca. From there I bought a car here, a track there until Sector 3 lowered the price of the all in pack. From there, Race room was the reason I turned my PC on. I finally built up the stones to race online, and the couple of open practices I ran, reassured me that I was racing with gamers who had the same thing in mind. That is getting better at sim racing. After doing that, I permanently lost interest in Forza 7, and look for R3E to scratch the sim racing itch. It's a great title, despite it being dated looking.
Hey dude - thanks for the comment. There's a lot of great content combinations in R3E and I suppose that could be a little daunting for beginners. But, I think the way you approached it makes a lot of sense.
Pcars2 is the first racing sim I really sunk some time into with a wheel, after dirt rally. The variety of options, particularly for doing offline endurance events or imsa races (2h40m, 6h, 10h, 12h races etc) is a great draw. The main problem is the pendulum physics where if the rear breaks loose, regardless of speed, you have very little chance of correcting it because the game over-corrects it so aggressively. That along with the bizarre understeer on every old Prototype, and just old cars in general, makes it unbelievably frustrating to play. Don't think I've played it much since I got AC. Now, if only there was a way to do timed events on AC instead of numbered laps then I'd have no complaints.
I agree with you completely. There's a handful of cars that are great to drive and the rest you need to spend hours tweaking to go fast in. Then you download the fastest online ghosts and setups and they're all really weird and seem to require an unrealistic style of driving. As a reasonably experienced driver, Assetto and rFactor 2 are the ones that feel the most realistic to me. Granted, I've not been prepared to pay for iRacing yet.
Hey dude - completely agree with this. As I said in the video, there are some issues with the underlying physics which make it a bit less appealing for more experienced racers. But, I think the variety of content, immersion and the quality of the offline game modes offer a lot to beginners. That all being said, I think it's a great stepping stone to other sims.
Comparing AC (without the mods) and PC2, in single player, racing against AI, I strongly prefer PC2. AC as hotlapping and trying to improve your driving, and overall feel of the car, AC wins, no doubt about that. As a VR experience, I prefer PC2, AC in VR is often a frustrating experience. User friendliness, PC2 wins. AC's interface is horrible. I "started" with AC, got used to it, loved it, drove it almost a year before PC(1). Got PC1, hated it at first. Then started to like the racing experience, if not the actual driving one. AC AI was absolutely terrible at that point. Then came PC2, had significantly better feel than PC1, lots and lots of content, UI was a Lot better. Now I have to say overall I prefer PC2 over AC. But I still love just doing hotlaps in AC, and not in PC2.
Try playing it without any assists, it will not "over-correct ANYTHING". I really hate the assists on because it make things harder and less predictable for me (also, traction control make it harder to be faster as it will slow you down when you exit a turn and turn car physics into crap most of the time as it will try to correct the car back at the track, also the break assist (ABS) will help you, yes, but sometimes you just dont want ABS. manual gear give you the advantage to use gears to help you break or to exit the corner faster and without losing control . . . So, yes, assists on = harder and infuriating game.
I'd expected PC2 to come in at number one, for the reasons you mentioned in the video and more. It's (starting) user friendly, singleplayer focused, wide-ranging, polished, includes a weather system and its complete content can be had for less than €25 during a Steam sale (except for the Japanese Car Pack DLC). That's quite a difference from R3E's €99 Premium Pack. You describe PC2 as a stepping stone to other sims - isn't that exactly what the beginner experience should be?
@@abyss18 I've never had problems with pCARS 2 neither the ones you mentioned, you probably never played the game or you just used a 1000 hp car in full throttle with TCS off
At last a video which alludes to the difficulty of certain cars in project cars 2! Because honestly some big the cars on this game aren't just miserable, they're impossible, there's simply no other way of putting it. The lightweight radical series for instance quite early on in career mode...doesn't matter what vehicle setup you use, it doesn't matter what wheel setup you use, the car will spin out on almost every corner for absolutely no reason.
I concluded at the end of it all that rFactor 2 was the one I enjoyed driving the most. I would recommend Project Cars 2, Dirt Rally 2, F1 2018 and Forza Horizon 3 to a beginner. Then if you want to get more serious, try rFactor 2, iRacing and Assetto Corsa Competizone. It has to be said Wreckfest has the best crash physics of all of them, which is kinda important to a beginner. Liked the video!
Thanks azayomi - RF2 is definitely the driving experience that I enjoy the most. Everything is wonderful when you're actually driving the car... it's just all of the stuff outside of the car that lets it down ;)
Thanks dude. I always have good racing in Raceroom, and while it may not be my overall favourite sim, I think it is very competent in almost every area, and doesn't really have any major weak points.
When I saw the title of this particular video I gave it about a 5 minute think and rated the top 3 Sims that I would recommend to beginners. As I started to view the video I had no doubt that our lists would depart rather quickly. However, much to my surprise our top 3 were ordered in exactly the same sequence. I can't claim I considered all of the reasons detailed in the video but the ease of driving and the simplicity of the interface were two factors that came readily to mind. R3E cars also posses default setups that can get you around the track in decent time without the need of becoming a racing setup engineer and the sounds of the cars are superb. Maybe the best. It's my goto sim when I want to compete against competent AI without working so hard to keep the rear end of the car behind the front end of the car. :) At least until I become a better driver. Thanks for the video.
Hey Ted - as you say, there are a lot of factors to consider with this sort of thing. But for me, R3E is always a smooth, hassle free experience, and that counts for a lot!
My biggest hesitancy with iRacing has been from watching it and seeing things like crashes where cars aren't even close to touching and from one perspective it looks like a crash and from another it doesn't.
Interesting video, as one who still is newer to this I appreciate it. I do like that you did break a bit of lance Project Cars 2, as I think it has a worse reputation than it deserves, with a lot of people were burned by Pcars 1. And compared to that is is a massive improvement, especially when it comes to the driveability of the tire model and the AI. Some might say though that Pcars 1 had too little grip or rather to little controllable grip and Pcars 2 has to much. The AI is also a lot more predicteable based on the setting than before, whereas in Pcars 1 you could struggle in the Group A/DTM Cars against a 60 Percent AI while at the same time utterly dominating an AI at 70% in GT3 with a lap time between 2.5-4 seconds a lap faster. It is also pretty easy to run decently out of the box. FFB is also a scene of major improvement. Feature wise it is also the most complete of the recent ones, ACC and rFactor 2 aside, having both a full day night cycle and weather, as well as multi-class races. Rules are ok as well, not as Detailed as R3E.......it would just be nice if the Race director took a more relaxed line more like IRL, where it's usually as long as 2 wheels are inside the white lines, we are fine. In Pcars 2 it feels more like there is an invisible 50% line under the car. Automatic Slowdown penalties like in Pcars 1 are gone thank god, as those were dangerous! I also appreciate R3E been given a good remark, as it is rather easy to run on the basis, has basically a built in demo mode and the pricing is fair compared to say iracing. On the other hand, some people made leery by the DLC and Microtransaction craze in AAA-Gaming can look at a high ammount of DLC and go WTF is this! Had this happen with another simulator where a friend went, 5K of DLC (Addons) are you serious? (Those were actually just the Addons on steam.......there are more elsewhere by third party devs! ;) ) I think we are pretty lucky in sim racing, that the sales numbers are high enough to keep the prices as down as they are. Interesting that you didn't mention the Sound of R3E, it's often seeen as it's USP, ;) and something even those not playing it like. I think only recently with ACC I have seen soundwork competing with it. I love the details in the ruleset like having to shut down the car for a refuel in GT3 or the pitting rules, I wish more racing sims had it. The AI is great to race, aggressive as all hell and taking any gap you give them, but most of the time you can race door to door with them, without having to fear them just running you out of road or leaving you no space. I mean the odd hits happen, but nowhere near like Pcars 1 used to be. BTW when Pcars 2 is slagged off a lot of people have forgotten how bad Pcars 1s AI was. The "ridiculous" aka VLN/24 Hours of Nürburgring Sized grids in R3E are awesome as well.
Raceroom Racing is very underrated. Completely agree with your recommendation. I would say wait for a sale before buying anything, and if you want to go all in the premium pack is the cheapest way to go. When on sale it's around $50 USD and gives you ALL the content. Also be sure to buy the VP credit at raceroom store first, then use those credits to buy the content. This will give even more savings.
I must say as someone who's recently gotten back into simracing after a 6 year hiatus I kind of agree with what you're saying. RaceRoom is very easy to get into and in my experience required no in game tweaking of the force feedback (FFB) settings with and older wheel like a Logitech Driving force GT. Assetto Sorsa required copious amounts of tweaking to the FFB settings in game to actually get it to a point which I liked. Maybe playing Live for speed all those years ago spoiled me with getting good FFB straight out of the box with the recommended game controller settings in windows. RaceRoom in my personal experience was the only sim that required no tweaking to any of the in-game settings. That said the price tag of all the separate packs can actually ad up to quite a hefty amount of real world money. So really getting into it might be a bit of a wallet emptying experience.
Great video, i enjoyed the background music synced to the video and your commentary. The only thing i don't completely agree is Assetto Corsa's position: in my opinion modding in AC is very easy, once you install Content Manager and the "essentials" mods like Sol and SLP, all other mods like tracks and cars are installable via drag and drop of the .rar files into CM.
Hey dude - thanks. As a complete AC fanboy, I agree 100%. Modding was the reason I got AC in the first place, so for me, it's no hassle at all. But, I get dozens of comments every week from people that are overwhelmed/confused/put off by modding - so I've gained an appreciation that not everyone thinks the same way about such things.
@@ChrisHaye Thanks for the reply. Modding is the reason why i love AC. I didn't think about a situation like yours (getting lots of comments about how to install mods) when i wrote the comment and you are right: if so many people don't know how to install mods, it might be a bigger difficulty than what i see from my perspective.
I'm totally new and I started with AC. First it's super cheap and can be had for a couple of bucks these days. Driving is enjoyable, even on a game pad (which is where I started for about a week before I knew I had to get a wheel). As for mods, you can enjoy the game without, and being new to Sim racing doesn't mean being clueless to computers and modding ;) it took me half an hour to figure out the most important mods and install them (Content manager+CSP+Sol), the availability of so much user generated content is a big plus in my books.
Late comment here mate. While being a sim racer for many decades (from the late 80's) now, both off- and, after aviability, online racing, I have to say, I generally agree with your list. I just wanted to point out that, for a beginner, maybe GTR2 would be a good investment. Sure, it already eats your eyes out being like what? 12 years old now? But then again, it IS simracing. And it's like 6 Euros over at Steam. Then again (maybe of interest for you all) I have looked and GTR2 turns 14 this year. Also, there is this bundle: GT Legends, GTR - FIA GT Racing Game, GTR 2 FIA GT Racing Game, GTR Evolution Expansion Pack for RACE 07, RACE - The WTCC Game, RACE 07, RACE 07: Andy Priaulx Crowne Plaza Raceway (Free DLC), RACE Injection, RACE On, RACE: Caterham Expansion, STCC - The Game 1 - Expansion Pack for RACE 07 For about 30 Euros. That would make a good entry into simracing with not that amazing graphics for the price of 3 months iRacing with two tracks and a car. But last but not least, simracing is expensive, sooner or later, and it extremely strong depends on ones own opinion. Anyway, thanks for the work you had with the video Chris, really great content!
I used to LOVE LFS back in the days...I started that shit back in 2002 when it was in alpha version...sure it had some major revisions, but to be honest the game died years ago...all there is now are stupid cruising servers, one or two drift servers with 3 people on them and a racing server...im sad that the creators got bored with their product :(
I like your videos, and you really try to be unbiased. I AM biased though, and I will make a case for iRacing. Why go from sim to sim, when you can start with one and grow with it? First you don't have to go crazy and buy all the content. Buy what you need as a rookie. Next, it is more user friendly than any other PC based sim. So many different types of cars and series, with a wider selection than any other sim. Plus...the racing. It's always there when you want to race real people. You basically don't have to work your time to get races in. That's it. Have fun out there.
He did say why. Race room is better than iRacing in almost every way, better FFB, Tracks are better made, graphics are the same, content cars are better made and sound better, and the physics engine is better. And I would have to agree. iRacing may be popular but its not the best out there. RR doesn't have as many "Net code" issues either. And no fuckn subs man. This is the ONLY reason I don't play iRacing - subs. EDIT> IF everything in iRacing worked as good as RR I would pay subs for it. But it doesn't.
Hey John, I think you make some very fair points. And, I do consider myself an iRacing fan. There's definitely something to be said for starting in rookies and building up your skills - and iRacing has the best progression/reward system for that... by far!
@@Manuda "better FFB, Tracks are better made, graphics are the same, content cars are better made and sound better, and the physics engine is better" I think you might've fallen on your head there a bit mate. I play both and I don't think I prefer raceroom to iracing in anything except for the sound. There is so many things raceroom lacks that I usually don't play it for longer than an hour, it's a good beginner sim but other than that it's just stale. Yes iRacing is way overpriced but that's just how it is.
Each to their own, the video was pretty fair. I don't like the subscription model with iracing and simracing is expensive enough for beginners to get in to being as the hardware and gadgets are numerous and expensive. The content in iracing is not to my taste and the raceroom content however is all very appealing and highly diverse within the confines of racing track cars (no road cars) and offers plenty of steady progression through a combination of racing AI, Ghosts on leader boards, open server racing and leagues including Sim Racing System and private server leagues, finally there are regular E-sports events, some including offers of real world gt3 racing team opportunities as prizes. Personally I am so happy that raceroom racing exists and the final nail in the coffin for me as seeing iracing as at all alluring (money not being no object anyway) was the combination of SRS and raceroom, since SRS I can't see anything extra which iracing has to offer other than packed servers and a wider range of close competition for more entry level racing particularly. For a sim racing starter where money is less of a factor, then probably the online community and online progression would make iracing the choice for some beginners, but definitely not me and I am at the other end of the spectrum (poor and liking lots of offline and online modes, as well as having no interest in ovals or US series'). We each have our biases and an unbiased account can't panda to everyones tastes, even that of himself in making this list, but I think even if I am biased towards R3E (as that was my choice of sim to begin my modern PC sim journey on and still my choice sim) I can say from my point of view that raceroom offers a cheaper route for beginners and has very little in the way of shortfalls, it also leaves people on budgets more to spend on quality peripherals and hardware, where as iracing leaves newcomers with less money not only for peripherals, but perhaps also the burden of financial investment, once they buy in to iracing, may influence the individual to have less inclination to invest time/money in other sims etc , be part of the associated communities or experience the array of features which other titles offer.
I just started into sim racing, a complete noob at it. I did buy Assetto Corsa from Steam for 5 bucks, and also bought a beginner racing wheel. Thrustmaster Ferreri Red for $70 off Amazon. But so far, I have really enjoyed playing it after I figured out how to get the wheel configured to the game. I do pretty much had an idea with it all from all the years of play motorcycle racing games like MotoGP, Monster Energy Super (I have all 3), MXGP (1, 2, 3 & 2019) & others. But when you talked about Raceroom and Free to Play... I didn't even know anything about this game, but it is download as I type this. Like I said... I'm a complete noob to car racing sim racing. I did look into I-Racing, but not ready to drop that kind of money into it yet. But thank you for the video and it did open my eyes a little more to sim racing.
I started with assetto. I'm a recent kind of convert to sim racing. I only have a half-decent wheel, nothing special, with no H-shifter and no clutch, and the paddles are just buttons on the back of either side of the wheel. But it's good enough for me. It feels nice, and has good responsive FFB mostly. It's just the old driving force GT. Fairly cheap, but good for the money you spend. I didn't even have a wheel when I first got assetto. And I tried it just with a controller. Didn't work at all, couldn't get past the first turn in any car on any track. So I saved a little and bought the wheel. And still was never good enough to actually race. But I loved just doing time attacks alone on certain tracks in a bunch of cars. So then I got dirt rally. And I fell truly in love. And then project cars. And this is where everything seemed to click for me. I know it's not a "true sim" to most sim racers, but it's just close enough for me, and I just loved it. Put hundreds of hours in. Of course then came project cars 2. But I couldn't afford it. Luckily a friend just gifted it to me because he knew I was going through hard times. What a guy. So I would say, start with perhaps a lower-to-mid-range wheel like I did, and get dirt rally 1 and project cars 1 and/or 2. You can't go wrong there, and they are good starting off points. I in fact never left that starting off point, and still love dirt rally 1 and both project cars titles to this day. Apart from the truck sim games (ETS2 and ATS), these are the sim driving games I play 99% of the time. Love them.
I think that a current high quality video detailing the install process of some of the must-have mods for Assetto Corsa would go well with this video. From Content Manager, Sol 1.1 and related mods to installing tracks like LA Canyons 1.0.
I generally agree, but there is one very strong argument that could make pCars 2 a better deal for some people: the setup descriptions are excellent, detailed and it works in any sim similar. So if you want to learn to do setups, pCars 2 is the best choice and I can't think of any car I couldn't 'fix' in the end. Raceroom provides far less setup options which makes it easier to tweak, but without descriptions you need to get the knowledge elsewhere. pCars 2 provides IMO a better feeling from different setups and you can download faster ones.
Yeah, that's a very fair point Leynad. I think a lot of people are put off by setup work, which is a shame, as I think it's an important part of the hobby.
From my point of view, RaceRoom is underrated.. when I read the comments on iRacing about the tire models, grip & braking, I can't figure people still paying every month for content, while you're able to buy every content in R3E for a one year membership in iRacing. You"re the owner of your own purchased content, also when you decide to take a break of simracing for any reason, you've still all the cars at your come back ! Oh, and because of the incredible sounds.. the immersion of the little sound effects of gravel in your wheel arches or the wind distortion in a tunnel.. it's so good 👍 (still needed a bigger pc for VR though)
I love it aswell but f1 2019 will make us bury f1 2018 on the back of our head. F1 2018 has a lot of problems, and im pretty sure everyone is aware of it
GT Sport, all the license tests, missions, and track learning sections make it great for beginners, not to mention there's no need to drown yourself in menus, settings, pc setup, etc. The online is also excellent. A cheap used PS4, a cheap used T150, a cheap homemade cockpit(plywood, pvc, whatever), and a $9 copy of GT Sport, absolute minimal investment for a decent experience. That way they can determine if sim racing is for them or not. From there they can get Assetto and Project2 for their PS4, they can get upgrades for their T150 from within the Thrustmaster ecosystem, and they can improve their homemade cockpit as needed.
AC has tonns of content and a lot of mods available. Raceroom is free, so you can test the game out. Project Cars 2 is the perfect playground for multiclass races. These sims are the best choice for beginners in my opinion.
Very useful video, Chris. Guiding people that want to get into this universe of sim racing is important because, back in the day, I started with Nascar Championship and Grand Prix Legends, playing on a keyboard. It was rough. Indy 500 was ok. I loved seeing the crashes and little bits of polygons flying off the cars. God, I'm old.
A fair comparison, thanks for the beginners! I had to smile at the mention of RF2's GUI, which looks more and more like vaporware. They have been talking about this for almost two years, and still nothing, I can't imagine why it would be so hard to design a GUI, and that's the first feature anyone sees.
This was really interesting as I'm still searching for a wheel to see if I'll get enjoyment out of it long term and was just going to get Assetto Corsa since it seems to be what you are usually playing. I've been so focused on hardware I hadn't thought about the software as much yet. Thank you for the recommendations.
My biggest gripe with RaceRoom was that it allowed you to change your car's setup only on "Get real" difficulty where all driving assist were off (except if your car had some factory ones installed). Now they fixed it and allow you to have whatever assist you want and set up your car as you want, it became my favorite sim. Totally agree it's definitely a great option for new players.
I'm a programmer and a offline racer that used to do online (iRacing). To add to what was said in the video.. I find rFactor 2 to be absurdly stripped down for what it provides. Its target audience is super-experienced racers that don't care about single player experience and just want something to set up races with that has good sim quality. I tend to think ProjectCars is an equal sim to RaceRoom, both have their strengths and weaknesses (as said below, I really like the race engineer that can help you understand where your setup is messed up). Overall an excellent list and very fair.
Another great video Chris. i started with Forza Motorsport 7 but soon moved onto AC & Automobilista. Not sure if I'm any better than a standard FM7 racer, but I try !
@@christopheroconnor4665 I'm currently hitting RaceRoom hard because of the mutli-class racing. I'd recommend that to everyone as its definitely improving my racing...... I think :)
@@christopheroconnor4665 Not a great set-up really, but it works until I build a new Desktop PC. I'm running an MSI Gaming laptop; CPU: Intel i7-6700HQ @ 2.60 GHz GPU: NVidia GTX960M RAM: 32GB I run multi-class races in RaceRoom (R3E) with up to 36 cars with no lag or trouble so should run on most people's systems without any trouble, with AC I get freezes so can't race that at the moment :(
Rf2 is both hell and heaven... as I like so much the feeling it gives me, even with my toy g27 wheel, I rarely load it up because of that atrocious GUI... I'm just waiting for the dev to indeed update it as they have been saying since forever. If there was a CM to RF2, I'd hardly use another sim 😅
@ vMaxDaniel Well, I wouldn't put down the g27 myself. I've got a g29. They - and several others in their price bracket - do the job just fine. All we ever see on the 'net are people who are fortunate enough to have direct-drive wheels, but I think that it should be remembered that most sim-racers can't afford or justify buying such things. Before this wheel, I had some old console thing that I had to hold between my knees during races as it wouldn't fix to the table-top. Ha! Ha! Ha! [rF2 is my own fave, by the way, so agree with you about the heaven bit.]
@@johnelliott7850 I'm not bashing the G27. I have it, I have fun with it, but it is a toy wheel. As all these type of wheels are. Tbh, I'm fortunate enough to afford a direct drive wheel and fancy pedals if I wanted to, I just don't care/ want to spend my money in it. I rather use it on other stuff!! :D
As a noob in the world of sim racing, (although I drive for a living) I have to say, I had no problem getting used to AC. It was on sale on Steam for around £7 so I thought I'd give it a go. I have since purchased a G27 with pedals and shifter, Dirt 3, Dirt 4, Dirt Rally and Project cars. Also managed to get hold of Richard Burns rally, but not played it yet. Obviously I like my rally games, but my experience of AC definitely got me more into sim racing, and I'm soon starting work on my own Rig.
It’s rarely said, but as someone fairly new to virtual competitive racing, the motion controls (physically turning the Dualshock) in GTSport allows for an impressive amount of control and immersion. Not as much as a wheel or rig certainly, but it really must be said, the motion controls are finely tuned. I’ll never go back to sticks, and may get a wheel at some point, but after being able to race at a considerably high level the last year with just a controller and a recliner, it’s hard to complain. I think it’s a great online competitive racing package and value.
I don't think Forza or GT should count. Not because they "aren't a sim" but because they're limited to their respective consoles. And consoles aren't really great for getting into the hobby because of what we saw happen with the jump from PS3 to PS4. Many people including myself were left stranded on the old gen with our old wheels that couldn't work with the later generation (even though my DFGT works on PS2, PS3 and PC). For many, that's enough to give up a hobby and you're far less likely to run into that issue on PC. A pretty similar thing actually happened to the Guitar Hero/Rockband community (I was also part of that too), it never recovered after the PS4/Xbone disaster.
Wonderful video and I couldn't agree with you more on almost every point. I think PC2 and R3 are kind of interchangeable. PC2 might edge out R3 only because it allows you to do more out of the box and explore different types of racing without having to shell out money every time. It also has the added feature of a career mode which can handhold and guide a new player a bit more, not to mention the virtual engineer which is a great introduction to tuning. But for anyone new to sim racing, this video gives excellent advice and really breaks down each sim with complete honesty, which is refreshing among all the fanboy noise.
Hey Steve - all very good points. And to go a bit further, if you're coming from something like GT Sport or Forza, the offline 'game' content in PC2 is going to offer a familiar place to start. Wheras, if you jump into somethinf like RF2 or AC, where there's very little structured gameplay, it's probably quite easy to get bored.
I would say that this is my list: 1) PC2 2) R3E 3) AC 4) iR 5) rF2 PC2 is just a more complete game than R3E is. While R3E has better AI and sounds, the lighting system is just near impossible to beat. Not only that but the sheer number of tracks and cars eclipses most of not all other sims. The physics system is lively, but predictable. There have been many times in iR where I go through the same corner in the same way at the same speed and I just get thrown off the track randomly. I would never recommend rF2 or iR to a beginner. And on the plus side, PC2 is the most controller-friendly game of the bunch.
i began with AC and i cried blood to learn to drive fine and setup cars during months... but is very satisfactory, i'm jumping now to RF2... is another world, but if you can drive fine in those sims you will can with everything.
Thank you for posting this vid and paraphrasing Jimmy Broadbent in the process. If I ever get round to getting a serious gaming PC, I think PCars 2 and Raceroom would be my go-to sims. I'd probably get Assetto Corsa for the GP Legends mod (thank you for that introduction BTW) but Raceroom looks like a laugh, since it has the impressive classic DTM mods, and PCars 2 just for the Classic Le Mans stuff. That introduced me not only to the Jimmer, but also other sim race authorities like David Land and Mattinho Got Game. Thanks for your efforts. Thumbs up.
Simcade is basically half sim, half arcade. The sim half comes from the driving experience (handling, sounds, graphics), and the arcade half is from the game modes (Campaign, various quick race modes, 2 player split screen, etc.)
Chris, your content is always top notch. It's Always a pleasure to watch your videos, full of useful informations and yet entertaining. Keep up the good work!
I think it's definitely gt sport. It's the most realistic, fun, and most drivable sim with a controller and with a wheel it's the best starting point for beginners as well.
Hey Mike, thanks. I think I could probably find compelling reasons to put any of the top 3 in first place. As an AC fan it was pretty difficult racing the others ahead of it ;)
Automobilista? The variety of cars, styles, brands and tracks is unbelievable. From kart to trucks all decades. Great fun. Very good physics and graphics.
Great job. You touched on every key point that I would try to convey to anyone getting into sim racing and I agree with every pro and con you’ve got for each title that I have firsthand experience with.
PC2 is what got me into sim racing properly. I agree totally with the some of cars just not driving in a usable way. I love how easy it is to load it up and jump into a race.
personally i would say the best sim racer for new comers is by far raceroom, simply because its free for a few cars and shows people what they are getting into when it comes to sim racing before they buy some of the more expensive titles
