This is my personal evaluation only. So here are my impression of the game:
"Free to play" I feel like it's teasing me. Sure it is free to play, but for those like me that like to have a complete set of cars, it is a bit on the expensive side, and I say that as a 100% iRacing member. At this moment, what R3E is delivering is frankly not worth the prices of the cars and tracks. I am usually the first to chide other members here for their terminal cheapness and I am also the first to tell people to pay for their games, that overall this is a very affordable hobby and that those that work hard to deliver our entertainment need to be fairly compensated, but right now R3E is not fun. The only thing I enjoy are the hill-climbs. But even those get a bit repetitive after a while.
So for me the lack of SP and MP is a big negative. (I realize that "It's coming" but I cannot evaluate the game for what it will be. Right now it's not a good deal)
It panders to the arcade racing crowd. And there is nothing wrong with it. I really don;'t mind as long as there is a way for me to turn off the extra help and get the game as close to a realm simulation of racing as I can. In that regard, the big brake markers are a big turn off. Especially considering that if I look at them as a beginner, they are anything but consistent. There are turns where you have to brake at the red sign or you have to get back on the gas, others where if you brake at the one immediately before, you end up in the kitty litter. I really don't see the points of them. Might as well make them in the shape of magic mushrooms and give drivers points for running over them. Let me turn them off.
The driving is very good, but I cannot shake the feeling that there is traction control and ABS turned on even in "Get real". I don't belong to the school of thought that believes simulated cars should drive as if the axle snapped or the shocks were substituted with memory foam. But I am also a bit skeptical of cars with way too much grip. Especially since setup changes don.t really make as much difference as I feel they should.
It feels as if the driving was designed so anyone could have an enjoyable experience, which is fine, but the difference from the different levels is really not that dramatic.
The lack of Skins.
Of all the revenue generators in this game, I dislike the skins the most. Not only they are grossly overpriced, and some of them are barely different from the one that comes with the car (which is not a smart idea if you want to sell them) but one of the things that made GTR2 great was the ability to skin your own cars. I consider that one of the core features of a sim these days. Yes, we are silly, but I derive a deep satisfaction from driving on the real track, with the actual car and the actual skin (and with the real skins of the opponents) of my youth's heroes. From a business standpoint I don;t think it'as a smart move on the part of simbin to remove the ability for modders to create custom skins while at the same time trying to sell overprioced and frankly largely underwhelming skins for 1/3 the price of a car.
It's not GTR3. So if you are pissing on me and you tell me it'
s raining, I won;t be very happy. R3E was originally billed as GTR3. Something happened at simbin and eventually they decided to release it as a Free 2 play game. That's OK, but Simbin has been less than clear about that. I for one did not appreciate it. Simbin can do whatever they want with their property, but don't play games with those of us that have been following you for years. I didn't think it was nice. I strongly doubt the revenue generated by those skins make up for the loss of sales from people that simply decide they are not going to support the gamer because of it.
Unfortunately, I bought almost a;ll cars and tracks when I was younger and foolish. When I still believed GTR3 was around the corner and R3E was an on;line experiment I could drop in and drive. I bought into it the day it came out and I was fairly sure that in a month or two, no more than 3 we would have multiplayer and AI. Or at least one of the two. Now is over a year later and nothing of the sort is even at the horizon (although I think that DTM is going to require at least the AI to be ready soon).
R3E is certainly a very pretty and adequate game. It does have the best sound ever in a driving game, by far. But it has no soul. To me it screams at every corner "An accountant made me do it". And I'll be that's exactly what happened.
Again, there is no shame in making money or catering to the less involved, less crazy clientele for driving games, but if you sell your soul in the process, if you betray your identity, it shows. Maybe Simbin at the end will sell more than they would have if they exclusively catered to us serious simracers. I wish them well. But I won;t be along for the ride.
The sad part is that since I already purchased about $80 worth of content, I'll bet no one at Simbin gives a crap about how I fell. I am already a fully squeezed lemon.