STCC - The Game 2 for SimBin's RACE Series

GAIAjohan · Mar 24, 2011

It's available in the raceroom storehttp://www.raceroom.net/shop/item/30/stcc-the-game-2/

http://www.racedepartment.com/content/1131-stcc-game-2-released.html

Have fun!

I hope it comes available on Steam soon, since I don't have a CC.

Joao Borges · Mar 25, 2011

Ross Garland said:
No. Just no.

For one thing, PC games sell fine. Granted, they don't make as much money as console games, but multi-format games are just as popular on PC as their console equivalents. The real reason PC sims don't sell as well is because... they're sims.

Look around you. The gaming industry is becoming more and more dominated by copy-cat games, games aimed at the 'casual gamer', and games that are easy to churn out as quickly as possible to capitalise on whatever fad is currently the most popular. The perceived demand is for pick-up-and-play games that can be finished in 20 hours or less, not for demanding simulators with learning curves which can take potentially days/weeks (if not months) to master. Simulators have never sold as well as 'regular' games, and they never will. But communities of fans such as RD will make sure they sell enough to make them worthwhile for the developers.

As for switching to PS3, you must be joking. GT5 is selling well, and I like the game. However, it is in not a true simulator and lacks almost everything you get in games such as Race 07 and rFactor. Nearly every 'complaint' posted about GT5 is something which has had to be compromised because it's on a console rather than a PC. There's a reason for the compromises... consoles can't cope. Even if they could, they just don't have the versatility of PCs. You use mods for Race 07, right? Wouldn't be any on PS3.

Sims are and should always be the domain of PC games.

You make some good points there. However, in an industry full of casual games(Call of Duty, Halo, and all that shooter garbage lol), Gran Turismo 5 is still able to succeed. Yes, its not a true simulator but close though, and I agree in the lack of many features in sims like Race 07 or rFactor, but for a sim it succeeds in addition to Forza. The same doesn't go for certain PC sims. If it wasn't for communities like RD, PC sims wouldnt sell enough, just like you said. So why not expand to consoles, specially the PS3? While consoles may not give the freedom of expansion(mods), they are more profitable to both the costumer and developer. What is achieved on PC sims is possible to achieve in consoles. I know it is! Not to mention the sales... GT5 is a sim and it sells better than many shooters, which is what the industry is infected with! Thats what surprises me!

Simon Gardner · Mar 25, 2011

Totally agree Ross, I bought games like Dirt2 and NFS shift for xbox and sure they are visually much better than Simbin's games and they were a good laugh for a while but I rarely play them now. I know the GMotor engine is passed it but the hours played on Race series and GTR2 dwarf all my xbox games put together.
I was more than happy to pay for STCC2 - theres more content I'll enjoy than we got in Race On and for less money.

Joao Borges · Mar 25, 2011

PC would be the better platform just like it still is for many multi-plat games, but its not the most profitable because of all the piracy surrounding PC gaming! Look at RBR. A perfect example. It would probably still be alive if it wasnt for all the piracy. Simbin was so close to close the doors, and it would be a shame to lose them. How many console developers do you see with financial trouble? None, or very few. Im talking about in profit. As for quality, I believe the only advantage of the PC is the versality of the PCs in offering mods, more players and better graphics, at higher cost however.

Joao Borges · Mar 25, 2011

Xbox is bad for sim racing since it doesnt support any high end wheels. I still wonder why Race Pro went to 360 instead of PS3!

Péter Bártfai · Mar 25, 2011

How many people can race against each other in multiplayer on consoles, and how many on PC?

UMC 22 · Mar 25, 2011

Joao Borges said:
However, in an industry full of casual games(Call of Duty, Halo, and all that shooter garbage lol), Gran Turismo 5 is still able to succeed.

GT5 succeeds for the very reason that it is not a proper simulator. Sure, the physics are ok, but that's pretty much where it ends. Look at the kind of things people complain about on the official forums, particularly those that don't want to play the game any longer. It's all about gaining credits and XP, wanting more A-Spec (offline) content, wanting more cars in addition to the 1000 already in the game, wanting [insert feature here] to be easier because its too hard for them. Almost no complaints/requests are about additional simulation features or online content. That's because they're coming from the same console crowd that are into 'casual games' and arcade racers... the type that are already binning GT5 after just 3-4 months.

Joao Borges said:
So why not expand to consoles, specially the PS3? While consoles may not give the freedom of expansion(mods), they are more profitable to both the costumer and developer.

I'm sorry, but consoles are not capable of the same kinds of things as even mid-range PCs are. As I've already said, they also have none of a PCs versatility. Would games like Race 07 and rFactor be as popular as they are after all this time with no mods of any kind? Very doubtful. And as Peter Bartfai said, would RDs events and championships be as good with just 10-15 people on the grid instead of 30+? Nope. And what happens when the developer decides to turn off the servers? Game over, whether you have another game to take its place or not.

Kimmo Kokkonen · Mar 25, 2011

Console people wont buy PS3 Race series games because they already have GT5, it's that simple. So if Simbin create Race series for PS3 they're way too late so forget it.

Btw, this STCC2 is great, grip is so good and natural like it's in the RaceRoom cars, me likes a lot. You can feel the tyres very well and tyres don't slide that much as before, good. VW was amazing and very easy to handle like modern cars are. Volvo 240 wow what a Turbo Sounds, so real...this game is made for online racing, much better than 1st one. Tried several cars and only Honda wasn't for my taste, it's just too slow and powerless car but its the almost same in the STCC1.

Thanks Simbin, great work again, didn't found any bugs!!!

J-F Chardon · Mar 25, 2011

Kimmo Kokkonen said:
didn't found any bugs!!!

I'm so happy to hear that

Thank you guys for the support and positive comments. It really feels good !

Mike Bell · Mar 25, 2011

right 2 hours 20 mins left to download and i can say -

GAIAjohan · Mar 25, 2011

Joao Borges said:
So why not expand to consoles, specially the PS3? While consoles may not give the freedom of expansion(mods), they are more profitable to both the costumer and developer. What is achieved on PC sims is possible to achieve in consoles. I know it is! Not to mention the sales... GT5 is a sim and it sells better than many shooters, which is what the industry is infected with! Thats what surprises me!

Simple: A PS3 is very hard to develop for.. Also console owners Sony and MS both want royalties which is pretty expensive. For smaller game companies the pc is a much cheaper platform. Also GT5 is not a sim.. It does a nice try at some aspects tho!

Joao Borges said:
PC would be the better platform just like it still is for many multi-plat games, but its not the most profitable because of all the piracy surrounding PC gaming! Look at RBR. A perfect example. It would probably still be alive if it wasnt for all the piracy.

Nope, Richard died of cancer you know? Also the amount of piracy on that game is marginal because it's too realistic for 99.9% of the people, these persons would never have bought RBR at all.. Smaller franchises usually have one advantage: Not many people might be interested, but those who are interested will buy it..

Simbin was so close to close the doors, and it would be a shame to lose them. How many console developers do you see with financial trouble? None, or very few. Im talking about in profit. As for quality, I believe the only advantage of the PC is the versality of the PCs in offering mods, more players and better graphics, at higher cost however.

That's because console developers are generally big boys or boys with a lot of backing..

Joao Borges said:
Xbox is bad for sim racing since it doesnt support any high end wheels. I still wonder why Race Pro went to 360 instead of PS3!

Again it's very simple. An XBOX360 is a pc. It uses directX, so it uses the same libraries etc. Easy to port from PC to XBOX360 and the other way around. A PS3 has a very diffficult processor to program for, also it's all PS3 specific, so you need developers who have experience with PS3 titles etc..

David Ignjatovic · Mar 26, 2011

I'm waiting for GTR2 digital.

Adam Jonas · Mar 26, 2011

J-F Chardon said:
I'm so happy to hear that

Thank you guys for the support and positive comments. It really feels good !

I still didn't try the game, but what I saw 'bug', is the BMW's old facelift, whereas Flash Engineering used the new facelift version.

Btw, from my firend I hear that it's a pretty cool game, so I will buy it soon, too.

Robert Wiesenmüller · Mar 27, 2011

Little review:

The new cars are nice, especially the Chevy Cruze. It's really nice to drive, you can go really fast. The Opel looks good and drives fine, the Corolla is quite easy to drive, one of the slower cars in the game but nonetheless a nice addition. The Scirocco is really fast, it seems the game is unbalanced here. No matter on which server you drive, you will always find the Sciroccos on top. I drove it on Falkenberg and went 0,6 sec faster than in the Seat Leon, in the very first lap! Especially cornering speeds seem to be well over the other S2000 cars. As it is already said here, some of the sounds are reworked and it's really a major improvement.

Other cars include the Volvos (which I haven't driven a lot) and the new Camaro, which is fantastic. Much better driving behaviour than the old Camaro, really a nice surprise.

The AI seems to have some bugs. Every time in Superpole, Thed Björk is stuck in the pit limiter. Göransson and Björk have no national flag shown at the final results, and qualifying results are always surprising (Carlsen and Christiansen in top 5 - no problem!). When you select your car in the menu, there is also a mixture of drivers with flags and drivers with pictures shown.

Public server racing has reached a new low point after the release. Many servers only have Falkenberg and Jyllandsringen on it, and in 3 races on Jyllands today I was spun in the first lap EVERY time.

In general, still a nice add-on for little money. For a touring car fan like me it's nice to see that SimBin has not given up on the Race 07 platform and STCC as one of the best touring car series in the world is excactly the right series for this add-on.

James Yates · Mar 27, 2011

Robert Wiesenmüller said:
The Scirocco is really fast, it seems the game is unbalanced here.

The real reason for that is the default setup being very good. I tried tweaking it for a while but couldn't really get it any faster. Compare that to the 407 in which I managed to go half a second a lap faster than the Scirocco, but only after a hell of a lot of setup work. On the stock setup its about a second off the pace.