FIA ETRC | New Update Now Available

[Nico]

Is this game worth it at least on sale? I've heard it's not very good.

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Is this game worth it at least on sale? I've heard it's not very good.

For what its worth, my 'first impressions' article can be found here (written just pre-release)

Don't forget you have a 2hr window on Steam in which to get a refund if you don't like it too.

For me, I've not fired it up since reviewing... so make of that what you will

Edit: to be fair, I'm a big fan of the real world series, so maybe my expectations were probably a little too high heading into it.

 

[Nico]

I'm trying to look for the reviews on Steam but they somehow vanished... or Steam is not working properly in my end. It has been messed up ever since they updated the Library.

 

[Patrik Marek]

What lot of people complained about as poor graphics, which I can't agree with, it can looks great at times

 

[maranello78]

For me is a great game, great physics, great graphics and funny. Every track has its own way to trace with these trucks, all models trucks are absolutely amazing modelled, just a thin line could be make better this game, one is a better replay, to view not just our truck, it could be great, view replay from another drivers, and second is a better search for online races, if they fixed it, they make this great to the top, compare with Assetto Corsa, for sure it worth every euro.

 

[Martin Fiala]

I'm trying to look for the reviews on Steam but they somehow vanished... or Steam is not working properly in my end. It has been messed up ever since they updated the Library.

No user reviews available, and all curator reviews listed are positive.
Sounds legit

 

[MarkR]

Something really strange with the reviews, when I look at the Steam Store page on my account my review with 38 likes is shown but the game itself has no user reviews??

I quite enjoyed the game as a single-player experience but the Career mode bugs with reputation and payments meant it was pointless to continue. For example, I won the ETRC championship and fully upgraded the truck but due to an error in the winning payments screen, I ended up in massive debt and was sacked by the team at the end of the season, lost reputation and couldn't access the better teams as a result. Others said the same bugs existed in the WTRC mode so I didn't try that.

The AI trucks were way too slow even on the highest difficulty last time I tried the game.

Despite all that driving the slow heavy trucks, using the unique water spray during braking and attempting to maintain momentum has some charm.

 

[slider916]

Has anyone tested it since the latest patch to see if the AI have been improved?

 

[MarkR]

I gave it a quick go in career mode:

+ As promised the AI trucks now certainly do accelerate much more quickly. Once they are up and running they give a decent race.

+ The rewards also now seem to pay ou as expected, but that is based on just 2 races.

+ The water spray braking is far more challenging with a lot less water in the tank for both quali and the race.

But there are some caveats with that:

- The recorded qualifying times for the Pro level AI at Laguna Seca (1:42-1:44) do not reflect what the AI trucks actually drive during qualifying. The AI trucks circulate the track slowly in qualifying but the times at the end of the session are far faster.
- The AI crash into each other every time at race start at Laguna Seca and cause a 40mph slow-moving train. Once they get past the start they are fine.
- In the race the same AI that reportedly ran 1:42-1.44 laps in qualifying struggle to lap at sub 1.50 for the leaders.
- The extra acceleration the AI trucks have seems to cause them a lot of trouble braking into the corkscrew, looks a lot like they solved the acceleration problem only to cause another issue.

 

[Ruy Horta]

Did not like it.

Could not find a wheel setting that felt right.
The AI did strange stuff like sometimes just standing still - even if that can happen in real life, there should be cautions.
Graphics look good in the wet, washed out if dry and sunny.
I did not like the new Grid either, but this was worse.

The actual idea, heavy trucks with a lot of mass and brake management was interesting, but the above together with the game engine’s known quirks made it one of my worst buys of the year. I’ve deleted the game sub 10 hours with no wish to try it ever again.

Sorry for the devs, but in the end this is not about charity.

Try at deep sale, you might like it anyway - if someone can see hints of AC it must have high potential, right?

 

[rosgillies]

No VR. Meh!!!

 

[Spinelli]

Is this game worth it at least on sale? I've heard it's not very good.

I haven't played it but I'm interested. Judging from videos, the driving looks pretty darn good.

 

[Nico]

Reviews are back on display, had no clue what happened there. I think I'm gonna grab this the next time it goes on sale.

 

[blot]

I'm going to wait for Formula truck in AMS2!

 

[MarkR]

Workaround for the AI crashing at race start in career races:

I discovered this little workaround for the AI crashing into each other on the grid at race start, it was happening at Laguna and elsewhere. If the AI crash and slow to 40mph it's best to quit the race to the main menu and restart the event. All quali results etc are retained so no progress is lost. On restart, so far, the AI get away cleanly.