guys imagine themselves budding Colin Chapmans, and the ability to make micrometric adjustments to arcane settings like ʺpackersʺ (aka bumpers) and differential pre-loads will keep them happy for hours, if not weeks. Unlike many other sims, both the actual values (like camber) and the effect they have on the carʹs handling are realistic, so what Boy Racers have learned auto-crossing their Mazda Miatas will be wholly applicable to the cars in GTR. But of course, GTR isnʹt merely a driving game, itʹs primarily a racing game, and thatʹs where it shines the brightest. Alison Hine and I have spent countless hours circulating our favorite tracks in GTR (Falkenberg, Brands Hatch, Brno, Watkins Glen, the A1-Ring, the Nurburgring), blabbering away on Vonage (we have headsets...and unlimited minutes), trading tips and quips, checking up when the other spins, trying out each otherʹs setups, and at the end of the day, racing flat out to the checked flag. Like me, sheʹs also a car ʺguy,ʺ having built and campaigned her own Factory Five Cobra kit car (as well as constructing other risk-taker gear like an aerobatic airplane). This is the kind of online activity I would think most like-minded autoracing aficionados would hugely enjoy participating in...and I believe they will. To be sure, there are some issues that
will impact car guys as well as regular gamers. There are bugs aplenty, minor annoyances, and gameplay issues, like why canʹt you save and view a replay during a session? Why canʹt you view standings from the cockpit? Why does the ʺsafety carʺ often act like itʹs being driven by an idiot? For car guys steeped in the lore of real-world racing, the biggest problem will be with the AI. If youʹre faster than the AI, they will usually yield-gracefully--if you get a wheel inside them. But if theyʹre faster than you are, they will bunt you out of the way and rudely bull their way past. More Americans would admit that theyʹre bad in bed than would admit that theyʹre bad behind the wheel. Bad AI wonʹt fly with car guys.
GTR Cockpit Pic: Steve Smith
For most car guys, GTR will live or AUTOSIMSPORT – Volume 1 – Number 4
die on the ten tracks and 20 or so cars that ship with the game. If theyʹre computer-savvy, the car guys may venture online and seek out some of the third-party tracks and cars now beginning to proliferate on the Net. Letʹs hope not. Most of the add-on tracks have been done in haste, and the lack of craftsmanship can ruin the driving experience for anybody. Strange, mysterious bumps and invisible collision planes can be explained away in geek-speak, but gearheads wonʹt be so forgiving. Some of the 3rd-party cars neither look nor drive like their real-world counterparts. So SimBinʹs aftermarket customer care will be a big factor in keeping core audiences--geeks and greasers--coming back for more. Or not. There is a plan afoot to do at the Car and Driver 50th Anniversary Reunion (scheduled for July 23-24 at Indianapolis Raceway Park) what Alison, Doug Arnao (Doug Arnao (a realworld racer who did most of the physics for GTR) and I did at Watkins Glen all those years ago: bring the sim and some LAN-party hardware to the event and show the assembled car guys what a worldclass auto-racing simulation can do. Maybe this time weʹll knock their hats in the creek. 14