rFactor 2 | Early Access Look at the New BTCC Content

BTCC for rFactor 2 Early Access 01.jpg
rFactor 2 gave me a chance to try out the new BTCC DLC content including two new cars and two new tracks set for release to the public on May 9th.

rFactor 2 has moved to a quarterly content release model in 2022, and the Q2 release set for May 9th will include the first batch of BTCC content. This first batch includes two BTCC cars and two new tracks on the BTCC calendar offered as DLC.

For fans of BTCC expecting a full game based on the series, this isn't ideal news. However, BTCC, Motorsport Games and Studio 397 have entered into a partnership that extends to 2027. We can expect more BTCC cars and updated liveries for the rFactor 2 content to be added later this year, and a separate BTCC game can still be expected in the future, though no timeline has been confirmed.

The Cars
The two cars on offer as part of this DLC release are BTCC series compliant versions of the Infiniti Q50 and the Toyota Corolla GR.

BTCC for rFactor 2 Early Access 02.jpg


The Infiniti Q50 won the 2021 BTCC championship , while piloted by Ashley Sutton and Aiden Moffat. It sports a rear-wheel drive layout and handles in a similar manner to a GT4 car. It's a blast to drive in rFactor 2, as curbs are very much in play and the car has a tendency to get loose on corner exit if you're too aggressive with the throttle.

The Toyota Corolla GR won three BTCC races in 2021 thanks to drivers Rory Butcher and Sam Smelt. Unlike the Infiniti, this is a front-wheel drive car and shares more in common with TCR race cars than GT4 in terms of handling. This car is also very forgiving when pushed hard through corners, and the fun factor is high thanks to more throttle being the answer when the car gets loose.

The Tracks
Donington Park and Brands Hatch are the two British tracks offered as DLC in this Q2 release.

BTCC for rFactor 2 Early Access 03.jpg


Donington looks and drives very well in rFactor 2. The trackside details are impressive, down to detailed spectators, curb scuffing and even the occasional aircraft taking off in the distance. This track was the highlight of the BTCC content for me, as it seems to be a great version of the circuit across many facets, and lends itself perfectly to tight racing action with the new cars.

Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of Brands Hatch, though this new version for rFactor 2 seems as good as any in sim racing. Like Donington, the level of trackside detail is exceptional and adds to the immersion of driving here.

Pricing and Availability
The two cars and two tracks are scheduled to be released as DLC on Monday, May 9th. There are a number of ways to purchase them:
  • Cars can be purchased for £4.29/$5.32/€4.99 each
  • Tracks can be purchased for £7.73/$9.59/€8.99 each
  • The ‘Touring’ bundle that includes the two BTCC cars, Brands Hatch and Donington Park can be purchased for £21.64/$26.83/€25.16
  • The Touring car ‘Double Pack’ which includes both BTCC Cars can be purchased for £7.72/$9.59/€8.99SRP
  • The Q2 ‘All in’ Pack including all the content from the Q2 drop can be purchased for £27.01/$33.50/€31.41SRP
Game Updates
In addition to this new content, the release of the BTCC content will coincide with several quality-of-life updates to rFactor 2, including:
  • A new sound engine
  • Particle effects
  • Downshift protection system
  • Further photo options
  • A refreshed safety car
  • Enhanced brake ducting settings
  • Additional user interface refinements
Let us know if anything (or everything) in this first BTCC content release or game update is something you're interested in trying or buying on Monday on Twitter @RaceDepartment or in the comments below!
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

They could put a GT3 DLC car in the demo, it won't make them go bankrupt. And nobody would complain. :)
Not to say that they will have a hundred YT videos of gameplay from it.
Believe, people would complain…
Like: why do I have to purchase this content, if it’s in a free demo?!
 
If any of you have any idea what the official licensing cost + the effort to create the contents. It's still cheap.

My kids buy skins or playable game characters that cost as much as this content.

People spend thousands of euros on their hardware. But complain about a few tenners of software.

Without software that fancy hardware is useless.
 
These are about same prices as it used to be. So people, get your act together, you spend crazy money on your rigs, but you don't show any love to sim developers who actually makes your simracing rigs valuable to begin with...
i'd rather spend that money on rgb fans for sure lol
 
Fair enough, BUT…
Given current situation around MSG, as well as Marcel leaving S397, which could potentially affect rF2 future, you are spending money on sth that can be of no value in half a year.
I wish rF2 all the best, but it’s strategy is a little bit off, for me.
How it could loose value ? Correctly simulated cars and simulated tracks will have value forever. If it doesn't for you personally, it doesn't change the fact that value will still be there.
 
Fair enough, BUT…
Given current situation around MSG, as well as Marcel leaving S397, which could potentially affect rF2 future, you are spending money on sth that can be of no value in half a year.
I wish rF2 all the best, but it’s strategy is a little bit off, for me.
Is it confirmed that Marcel is leaving S397?
 
Premium
They could put a GT3 DLC car in the demo, it won't make them go bankrupt. And nobody would complain. :)
Not to say that they will have a hundred YT videos of gameplay from it.
They could put for instance the Radical GT3 which is a riot to drive, but slower in the class to the point of not being useful within the category.
 
So let me get this straight, for a mere $33.50 you get 2 BTCC cars and 3 tracks? That seems a little steep. I believe for the Q1 Content Drop for 3 cars and 1 track I paid $19+. It seems that Studio 397 (or should I really say the greedy and out of cash Motorsports Games) is way overpricing additional content for rFactor 2. Let's compare 2 sims.

rFactor 2 Q2 Content Drop Bundle for $33.50
Donnington Park - I already own the laser scanned verison in Assetto Corsa Competizione
Brands Hatch - I already own the laser scanned verison in Assetto Corsa Competizione
Laguna Seca - I already own the laser scanned verison in Assetto Corsa Competizione
The Infiniti Q50 - I already own comparable cars in Assetto Corsa Competizione
The Toyota Corolla GR - I already own comparable cars in Assetto Corsa Competizione

Lets compare the rF2 Q2 Bundle to ACC
Assetto Corsa Competizione - $15.99 currently on sale
Assetto Corsa Competizione - Intercontinental GT Pack (5 tracks) $5.99 currently on Sale
Assetto Corsa Competizione - British GT Pack (3 tracks) $5.19 currently on sale
Assetto Corsa Competizione - Challengers Pack (5 cars) $9.89 currently on sale
Grand Total: $37.06

Verdict - If you don't own Assetto Corsa Competizion, skip this rFactor 2 Q2 Content drop and go and get it now! It's a much better deal and sim too. As for me, I'm not spending another nickel on any rFactor 2 content until someone other than the broke and corrupt company Motorsports Games owns them.
ACC only has GT3 (+GT4 DLC) cars: boring. And a bunch of European F1 circuits: boring.
Other than that I agree that rF2 DLCs are expensive but IMO considering the workshop has I don't know, hundreds of tracks and cars, a new customer has a lot of content to explore.
 
These are about same prices as it used to be. So people, get your act together, you spend crazy money on your rigs, but you don't show any love to sim developers who actually makes your simracing rigs valuable to begin with...
A bunch of people have $200-$250 T150 or G29 "rigs", Fanatec and DD wheels are not as common as you think if you look outside of your bubble, no offense.
 
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Nope. I was hoping for reasonable price pack (but doubting it would).I will give this a miss. Both tracks are in workshop. The cars. meh.
 
Believe, people would complain…
Like: why do I have to purchase this content, if it’s in a free demo?!
They should make free one DLC GT3 car and one DLC track, the most important thing is they have to be very well known, even for total new users. So no Tatuus/USF and no Lime Rock Park.
Porsche and Monza for example. Everybody knows Porsche and Monza. Or Spa. The first impression is pretty important.
 
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Small exercise, if they practice the prices they have been practicing, check how much 2 cars and 2 tracks will cost...now do the math to ALL cars and ALL tracks in the BTCC calendar and voila...youll quickly come to the conclusion that this will be WAY more expensive ( unless they change the prices ) then any other game with 1 series on planet ! ..... bar iRacing!

Funny how I have been saying this back when rf2 had only the original GT3 Pack, called Power Pack, 15€ for 5 cars (5€ bought individually). AC (even when the DLC came out), AMS and ACC are clearly cheaper, and on RE3 you could easily click together 5 cars for a cheaper price. AMS2 features the Racing in America Packs, each of them with about as much content as this back for 13€, although their "premium" tracks individually cost as much as rf2's (except Nürburgring, which is cheaper in ams2).

And with the fact you have to own all content that is on a server to use it in multiplayer, meaning you can not just turn up with one GT3 car and the current track, if the server is set up with all GT3 cars and like 5 tracks in rotation you need to buy and download all of them. This has lead to the hilarity that you can not compete in any of their Competition System™ Series you need tracks that are used in months or have already been run (which was the case for me last year, wanted to drive the Alpine Cup, but I did not have rip off Monaco, as I won't ever use it, and it had been already run and move on to the next track, but you can not sign up). Technically they could avoid the issue with tracks by making a rfmod for each week, which is what basically any league does, but S397 is too lazy for that.
But to get back on point, out of the modern sims only AC shares the trait of requiring all content for multiplayer, where it presents a none issue due to DLC being borderline free today (or heck, the server may run mods only anyway).

The thing this all leads to, that when you think iRacing (or iRental as I like to call it), rf2 can suddenly get very close in cost. If you want to do Endurance Racing in iRacing, you need a car (12$), a track (lets go with 15$), and a subscription (13$ for a month). Most likely you want to buy way more, but 40$ is enough. rF2 on the other hand, if your league runs GT3, LMP2 and DPi you need 36€ for the GT3, and while you could by the Oreca 07, Ligier JSP2 and Cadillac DPi for 5€ individually (totaling 15€), you might just buy the Endurance Pack for 36€ so in case your next league runs LMP3 or GTE as a side class you can continue competing. Plus you need the track, 9€-12€. That is 81€. For steelmanning purposes, 60€ if you short cut the cars, though it will remain cheaper to then buy the bundle to complete it rather then buying the LMP3 and GTE individually (2 LMP3, 6 GTE, 40€ total, so rebuying the three cars is still cheaper, and you get a McLaren Senna in the bundle too). 51€ if your track is in the base game (like Silverstone) or is a mod track.
Oh yeah, you need to pay for the base game too at some point.
Where this gets even worse is that when they release new cars (like the M4 and Ligier in the Q1) update, if you want to continue to drive your trusty Oreca 07 you will need to buy these cars, otherwise, similar to letting your iRacing license run out, you won't be able to use it anymore (outside of looking at it in the showroom, or single player, though more then iRental I guess). That LMP2 you bought back in 2018 for 15€, the Two Strong Pack to get the Aston (and the McLaren, as it was used at the time, though harddrive hogger today) for 8€ (If my memory is not incorrect), Endurance Bundle 2 for 9€ to get the Ligier JSP2 (which sucks, lol), DPi and Vette, having to buy the Ferrari 488 GTE individually for 5€, and then buy the Ligier JSP3 (or the entire Q1 pack, although LMP3 often not needed), 37€, not including that there are series using GT3 instead of GTE, original for 15€, challenger for 15€, 5€ for Ferrari, and 5€ for the M4, another 40€, and then tracks... and this entire time you are just driving the same LMP2 (77€), otherwise you can not continue.
Sure, iRacing still leaves this in the dust, this is accumulated over a 4 year period, just the subscription in the cheapest option is 400€, plus the 50% more expensive tracks. Although there is more content rf2 releases outside of the content I calculated above, like FE, the important point is:

The DLC might cost today 36€ to do GT3 (for example), but you will have to keep buying more cars to continue using your old cars, practically paying a subscription fee. The only thing that keeps this sort of cheap is the fact that S397 had been slow to release content, this seems to have changed.

Tl;Dr:
- rF2 has been prized at 5€ per individual car and 9€ per track since back 2017/18
-Even back then it was pricier (and by quite a bit) then all other sims barring iRacing
-AMS2 has the US Packs with similar content amount to this bundle for 13€, but also sells some tracks individually for the same price as rf2
-This back is pricier due to the number of tracks (despite the lack of cars), and minimal discount of the bundle (which has been hit or miss with them)
-As you need on rf2 to own all content that is used in a server it requires you to buy cars (and with bad organizers even tracks) you won't use
-rF2 can quickly cost more then iRacing (initially) to get started in GT and or Endurance Racing
-This can result in you having to buy future DLC to keep using old content in multiplayer, while this effective subscription will still leave iRacing becoming quickly more expensive to play then rf2, it still can accumulate a lot of money in the long run
 
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I see a lot of fun coming..
Papers written with s397 is for
five years, from now on.

I'm perfectly happy with that. :thumbsup:
 
Free tracks Silverstone, Portland, & Zandvoort all display current S397 tech except for the laser scanned surfaces. The Steam sale prices of tracks are often so low, you could find any older track for literally pennies. Monza & Spa are two of the newer tracks so less likely to be included in any demo even if they did agree to your idea. Finally Steam allows a two hour refund period if you have used the track, and I 'think' 14 days if you purchased a track but did not use it. If you really NEED to experience a laser track, purchase it via Steam, let it download, test it for 1 hour 45 minutes(just to be safe) and then use Steam to get a refund. Zero $$ or those €€ thingies needed.
One note about the rF2 demo. Last I looked, the demo was out of date and the stated hardware requirements were grossly under-estimated. That would Lead users with marginal systems to believe they could buy rF2 and run any content, even larger laser scanned tracks like Nords or Le Mans.
 
A bunch of people have $200-$250 T150 or G29 "rigs", Fanatec and DD wheels are not as common as you think if you look outside of your bubble, no offense.
My bubble is old T300 mounted on VERY old half broken desk, simple ISO chair (also old, I am surprised how durable that one is) and aging PC, I am still happy with my 10year old phone. If we are gonna flex who has less, I am competitive at it.

The bubble is thinking that sim devs work should be very cheap. If you gonna cheap down sim devs, you are gonna get cheap simulations, cheaply simulated items.

This being said I'd agree with opinion shared here already and in some other places, that the pack that consists all five items should be a touch cheaper.

It is still way better than iRacing, which is more expensive to begin with, and then on top you pay once more just for access. On the other hand, their development is very robust.
 
Funny how I have been saying this back when rf2 had only the original GT3 Pack, called Power Pack, 15€ for 5 cars (5€ bought individually). AC (even when the DLC came out), AMS and ACC are clearly cheaper, and on RE3 you could easily click together 5 cars for a cheaper price. AMS2 features the Racing in America Packs, each of them with about as much content as this back for 13€, although their "premium" tracks individually cost as much as rf2's (except Nürburgring, which is cheaper in ams2).

And with the fact you have to own all content that is on a server to use it in multiplayer, meaning you can not just turn up with one GT3 car and the current track, if the server is set up with all GT3 cars and like 5 tracks in rotation you need to buy and download all of them. This has lead to the hilarity that you can not compete in any of their Competition System™ Series you need tracks that are used in months or have already been run (which was the case for me last year, wanted to drive the Alpine Cup, but I did not have rip off Monaco, as I won't ever use it, and it had been already run and move on to the next track, but you can not sign up). Technically they could avoid the issue with tracks by making a rfmod for each week, which is what basically any league does, but S397 is too lazy for that.
But to get back on point, out of the modern sims only AC shares the trait of requiring all content for multiplayer, where it presents a none issue due to DLC being borderline free today (or heck, the server may run mods only anyway).

The thing this all leads to, that when you think iRacing (or iRental as I like to call it), rf2 can suddenly get very close in cost. If you want to do Endurance Racing in iRacing, you need a car (12$), a track (lets go with 15$), and a subscription (13$ for a month). Most likely you want to buy way more, but 40$ is enough. rF2 on the other hand, if your league runs GT3, LMP2 and DPi you need 36€ for the GT3, and while you could by the Oreca 07, Ligier JSP2 and Cadillac DPi for 5€ individually (totaling 15€), you might just buy the Endurance Pack for 36€ so in case your next league runs LMP3 or GTE as a side class you can continue competing. Plus you need the track, 9€-12€. That is 81€. For steelmanning purposes, 60€ if you short cut the cars, though it will remain cheaper to then buy the bundle to complete it rather then buying the LMP3 and GTE individually (2 LMP3, 6 GTE, 40€ total, so rebuying the three cars is still cheaper, and you get a McLaren Senna in the bundle too). 51€ if your track is in the base game (like Silverstone) or is a mod track.
Oh yeah, you need to pay for the base game too at some point.
Where this gets even worse is that when they release new cars (like the M4 and Ligier in the Q1) update, if you want to continue to drive your trusty Oreca 07 you will need to buy these cars, otherwise, similar to letting your iRacing license run out, you won't be able to use it anymore (outside of looking at it in the showroom, or single player, though more then iRental I guess). That LMP2 you bought back in 2018 for 15€, the Two Strong Pack to get the Aston (and the McLaren, as it was used at the time, though harddrive hogger today) for 8€ (If my memory is not incorrect), Endurance Bundle 2 for 9€ to get the Ligier JSP2 (which sucks, lol), DPi and Vette, having to buy the Ferrari 488 GTE individually for 5€, and then buy the Ligier JSP3 (or the entire Q1 pack, although LMP3 often not needed), 37€, not including that there are series using GT3 instead of GTE, original for 15€, challenger for 15€, 5€ for Ferrari, and 5€ for the M4, another 40€, and then tracks... and this entire time you are just driving the same LMP2 (77€), otherwise you can not continue.
Sure, iRacing still leaves this in the dust, this is accumulated over a 4 year period, just the subscription in the cheapest option is 400€, plus the 50% more expensive tracks. Although there is more content rf2 releases outside of the content I calculated above, like FE, the important point is:

The DLC might cost today 36€ to do GT3 (for example), but you will have to keep buying more cars to continue using your old cars, practically paying a subscription fee. The only thing that keeps this sort of cheap is the fact that S397 had been slow to release content, this seems to have changed.

Tl;Dr:
- rF2 has been prized at 5€ per individual car and 9€ per track since back 2017/18
-Even back then it was pricier (and by quite a bit) then all other sims barring iRacing
-AMS2 has the US Packs with similar content amount to this bundle for 13€, but also sells some tracks individually for the same price as rf2
-This back is pricier due to the number of tracks (despite the lack of cars), and minimal discount of the bundle (which has been hit or miss with them)
-As you need on rf2 to own all content that is used in a server it requires you to buy cars (and with bad organizers even tracks) you won't use
-rF2 can quickly cost more then iRacing (initially) to get started in GT and or Endurance Racing
-This can result in you having to buy future DLC to keep using old content in multiplayer, while this effective subscription will still leave iRacing becoming quickly more expensive to play then rf2, it still can accumulate a lot of money in the long run
Or you could use the Competition system which normally is 1 car and mix of DLC & Free tracks, so often for less than just the monthly subscription + content cars & tracks of iR, you can race with certain DLC cars & tracks. Plus there is often a completely free option using cars like the Tatuus and tracks that are free. So...if you are so inclined...ZERO dollars after the cost of rF2 which during sales has been as low as 5 $$ on some discount sites. Zero dollars with iR?
If large fields via organized leagues are your thing, then yeah, there will be more initial costs involved.
 
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