Rate the Sims: Community Edition | RaceRoom Racing Experience

[Paul Jeffrey]

We are looking to crown the 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game - get your votes in now for our next game on the list... RaceRoom Racing Experience!

Our dear RaceDepartment community. You folks are the most mighty fans of sim racing, often displaying an immense amount of understanding and depth of knowledge when it comes to our favourite hobby.

With sim racing and eSports in such a wonderful boom period of late. Gamers looking to have some fun with their virtual racing machines have never before had such a wide and robust variety of software to enjoy.

Now occasionally I've been in a position to rate new racing titles that have come my way, and almost every time I've received a wide variety of folks agreeing, or strongly disagreeing with my own opinions.

Opinions are great, but sometimes the opinion of one person, with their own likes and dislikes taken into account, can often give a bit of a skewed picture (intentional or not) to the greater cause in which said person is trying to explain.

As such, rather than doing one myself, and in the spirit of engaging some interesting community discussion, I thought it could be fun to let our own community rate each of the key sim racing / racing games available today.

As always with these things, please do try and respect each other and their opinions, and let's try to see if we can give a fun, but fair shake of the stick to each of the games included in this poll.

For transparency, I'm going to be featuring the following racing games over the next weeks:

• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Automobilista (AMS)
• DiRT 2.0
• F1 2019
• GT Sport
• GRID
• iRacing
• NASCAR Heat 4
• PCARS 2
• RaceRoom Racing Experience
• rFactor 2
• WRC 8
• Wreckfest

I'm going to launch the article each Monday evening, and keep the poll running for a full week until the next new article is pushed live. So get your votes in quick!

Once I've completed the full list of games, I'll publish a final results feature, and we can award the winning developer the lofty title of 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite'!

Have fun, stay sensible and let the voting commence!

 

[BrunoBæ]

I gave it 8 - eventhough the dec2019 upd have more or less destroyed the FR90xx ´s physics/TM.
The car is floating as a hovercraft - and at the same time you can lap tracks MUCH faster than before(1-3sec).
Before the upd these FR90 cars was pretty nimble and temperamentfulls - now they are boring easy to sail

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: And its not because of the setup AlexH

 

[2112]

This has always been one of my favorites. The sound is awesome and I never had much issue with the physics. I preferred the physics of this sim much more than more popular sims as it seemed consistent.

I do feel that some cars are too damn hard to control, and that there is no way they act in real life as they do in the game, but I just got used to them and made do.

The on-line is lacking compared to others and It really does not seem very popular in the US.

I like the variety of cars and tracks and the pay-to-play was never as onerous as iRacing so I never had issues putting money out for content. That you owned the content also helps, as opposed to renting it.

Also: You only pay once for each purchase, there is no user fee to continue using the sim.

Now that the physics have been updated the sim just got better. Much better. I have yet to go back and get in some of those cars that were hard to handle, but I have a feeling it will have sorted itself out.

My score is probably the highest score I would give to a sim.

 

[DND]

I would have given it a higher score but then what would I give them after the next update, the next set of cars or the tracks that are eventually coming. Sector3's commitment to improve is second to none. To do what they have done in the relative short period of time, in my estimation, is no less that extraordinary.

 

[Chris Alfveby]

Have it a 9. Wanted a to give a 10 but with the online... um interesting-ness i think i good way to describe it, and the lack of 24h cycle (I know they’re working on it but still not done) but all in all my favorite sim right now.
As a mostly offline racer I can’t find a sim that’s better than raceroom without mods.

 

[nicky stevenson]

I only recently returned to sim racing after a few years but according to steam it’s the sim I’ve played the most and it’s something I always come back too for the touring cars etc and classics oh I wish they would do btcc 80s 90s and current with a few local tracks oh well one can dream . They are always adding new features and it keeps improving so a 8 it gets

 

[FeltHat]

11/10
greenwood corvette

 

[Peter Kerényi]

I give R3E a 6/10 at the moment. I have been using R3E since Sector 3 took over I think, so quite a long ago. Unfortunately its getting less and less time from me.

Yes, the sim is being improved slowly & steadily, however even the new content look dated (especially cockpits). Meanwhile old content suffers from the "rF2 syndrome", looking much more dated. The optimization is bad, especially the CPU utilization (doesn't scale well with modern hardware). With the same amount of AI ACC looks (a lot) better, and also runs better and more stable on a Ryzen 5 2600. The AI... used to be better I feel.

R3E needs more to stay relevant in the long run I feel, but it's easier said than done, especially with their relatively old engine. If R3E didn't have "exotic" licenses for racing series (DTM, WTCR, etc.) and tracks I would not keep it installed. However, I really hope it will improve in my eyes! Excited for every update!

If the optimization was better, I would give it an easy 8-9/10. However, at the moment the game runs much worse than it looks (with AI). Kind of negating the usefulness of the AI selector and multi-class. Not sure if that can be improved, my questions about it are usually neglected. But keep up the work and good luck Sector 3 in the development!

 

[EduCalza]

10, no doubts. Great game, great FFB, great content. For me one the best sim game.

 

[michelforest]

9.

I almost gave it a 10, but there are a few issues that keep it from being perfect:

-Graphics are good, but are slowly but inevitably getting old;
-Lack of weather conditions and night racing (see above about graphics);
-Open wheel cars are good, but not as good as the other cars;
-Incomplete customization options when creating championships.

On the plus side:

-Physics are great;
-Tracks and cars selection is amazing;
-Sounds, sounds, sounds!!!
-And what’s more important: it’s a bloody well made sim, designed by a team who really cares.

You just can’t go wrong with this title.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Great sounds
Great content
Good ffb
Above average AI
Average graphics
Average VR
Mediocre tire model
Multiplayer is a ghost town outside of UK times
Zero track tech...nothing is dynamic

They have made some great advancements to the title in the past few yrs....but it's also been in development for 7 yrs and still missing common features that are available in other titles.

Yes, the content goes on sale quit regularly, but for non European residents $110 USD....($150 cad) for the premium pack plus any additional future dlc is quit pricey for a single player/hot lapper game.

 

[Will Mazeo]

+Great way to buy content
+Great content
+Physics have been improving and devs are dedicated, in a good path
+Best sounds
+Good UI

Still lots to do
-No 24h cycle
-No Weather
-No Rejoin
-No Working race rules (FCY is the most important to me)
-No colision in pits
-No swap
You know racing sims already lack a lot of immersion, cant spend time in sims with even less of it. Hope it's a sim to join in near future

 

[E304LIFE]

Great jump in and drive racing game with delicious exhaust sounds. I however have always been bothered with how this game developed along with pricing model. I realize that development got better and on the whole, if you obtain the newer package that the cost isn't so bad and is competitive now. It just came too late for me. 6/10

 

[Mike Smith]

9 for me. Overall a fantastic title.

Pros:
- car and track selection
- sounds
- physics for the majority of the cars
- world leaderboards and challenges
- free to try game, plus free test drives of cars

Cons:
- vRP
- FFB takes a lot of work to get right

 

[sentry87]

Good physics, great sound. However lack of day/night transition with missing content I'd prefer in a racing sim. 6/10

 

[muzikant]

I like RRE! I actually have it from the start. It has a lot of car class and tracks .. always runs stably .. on my system I really like the multi championship and VR, the tracks (most) they have a nice atmospheric specialy the 24hr Nordschleife! The track that I love and drive the most. So many positive things, it's actually my second favorite sim. Like the Bmw Gt4 but..... where is the AMG GT4 and the rest of the field.. wait for?? How long..???

Less fun I think ... That it is all a bit of the same .. the drive itself is even easy (Too much grip) and still not the real feeling with the road on my DD .. a lot of nagging for the right settings and even more searching., Here in sector 3 could have given more involvement.

on my dd it still feels a bit like a boat. for comparison with Rfactor 2 AMS (these are the absolute kings for DD)


lately a lot of tracks of the same ...... wait for Interlagos, Barcalona, Watkinsglen a full Brands-Hatch some more A class tracks. Have nothing with Bilsterberg Ningbo .. Would also be nice a few Historic tracks .. for DTM 92 .. and touring classics historical tracks .. with old advertisements along the circuit. and DX11 that really needs it now! But wish them all the best in the future. see what's coming

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

I never stop being reminded of the old SimBin Race titles, because that is where this one started off. It gained traction after quite an ugly start but has lost said traction again over the past two years. So much so, that when I bought a new PC earlier this year I did not bother to reinstall it. I keep that for maybe some rainy day next May. Seven points from me, because it still delivers in many areas

 

[Bonehead]

I would love to give it a high score, however I have severe Z-fighting on my 1070 card. This is the only sim where Z-fighting occurs, and I have looked on the web for a solution with negative results. After exhausting all video setting combinations I could think imaginable to eliminate it, I just gave up on the sim.

 

[Ciccina2016]

9 out of 10!

no excuses just facts

 

[dreamer al]

I rated it just over midway, which is a shame as I can see improvements over recent months. Audio is wonderful but IMOP the graphic engine holds it back to what it really could be. Having said that I am coming back to it more often.