iRacing Review - My Thoughts

[Edward Leake]

With the onset of fresh invitations going out and receiving one myself I thought I'd jump on the iRacing wagon and see what all the fuss is about.

Initial Impressions
I was a little apprehensive of iRacing being a web app but to be honest everything was flawless, from the initial install to the final configuration everything worked as expected.

After digesting the instructions I proceeded to fumble around the interface, plenty of information is on hand about the cars, the tracks and the drivers. I like the touch of being able to ‘paint’ your car, helmet and overalls and the fact it’s handled in an ultra friendly manner too.

The first thing you have to get used to is the session format. The game runs in continuous sessions whereby Practise is virtually every five minutes, qualifying is every hour and races which fall on the hour every hour. I do find sometimes I complete one race and am eager to jump in to another but unfortunately this format means you have to wait another 30-35 minutes before you can. Obviously the option to practise, qualify or time trial is there but they don’t quench your thirst like a race.

Points/License System
It's worht mentioning the system on its own here, because without sufficient experience points on your license you won't be able to progress to the next level of cars and seasons.

The points system works based on your driving standard and etiquette, hit another car and you'll grab a whole chunk of negative points, run wide and off the kerb again a minus point, the same goes for spins, pit lane speeding, rules breaking and general o***.

However keep your races clean and either free of incident or down to a minimum and you'll see your sessions churning out positive points, this includes qualy, race and trials but not practise.

If like me and you see your initial score plummeting, don't be down hearted just keep practising and your best avoid other cars even if it means backing off and playing safe in races - no matter how ridiculous that sounds.

Driving, the game and the physics
You can instantly tell iR’ is aimed at simulating driving first and foremost and not providing entertainment, that’s not to say that once you’ve worked out where to point your car it doesn’t becoming thrilling because it does!

I’ve currently only practised and raced in the Chevy Solstice Rookie, a FR modestly powered chassis running a road setup on road tyres. The car feels and sounds as you’d expect a road going FR layout to react, understeer is easily on hand to drag you steadily towards the scenery but equally a stamp of opportunist throttle will send the rear traction window out of kilter pushing the nose round and oversteer in to play.

It does indeed ‘feel’ and drive like a road car would, the break away is controlled and linier, nothing too sudden, you can feel the pitch and roll of the car using it to your advantage pushing oversteer to the exit trying not to over run on the exit. The car requires balance and finesse, without it you simple scrub speed and bog down as the low output engine tried to drag itself back in to attack mode.

So far top marks for handling, it feels less like a game than say Race07 and more like a simulation.


Brakes, Brakes… BRAKES!
However it is not without it’s problems. The braking system so far has proven to be rather inaccurate, sure I’ve never driven a “Solstice” but I have driven hundreds of different road and race cars, anything from a Ford to a Ferrari and I’ve yet to find a car that acts in this odd fashion.

Let me explain, when I worked out the handling model and got through the initial phases of practise whereby I was truly hopeless I approached a corner at 80mph, glanced at the brake pedal, and all of a sudden the car pitches in to a messy oversteer moment.

Odd, I barely touched the brake. Next time round, stroke the pedal, don’t trail trail brake to the apex do all your work in a straightline, I thought.

So next corner, next moment; the car wildly steps out with even a sniff of brake application, surely this can’t be right? I checked my setup, nothing untoward so I carried on.

I still have this bizarre ‘can’t use the brakes’ scenario which isn’t realistic, I should I know I driven and raced enough cars with all kinds of brakes! Perhaps I have a config problem, perhaps iR’ over compensates or perhaps the Solstice really is as vile in real life and it throws the car out of shape under braking – hardly likely.

Persevere
Don’t let the difficulty level put you off, initially it seems ridiculously tricky, just remember games such as GTR, LFS, rFactor etc have a sense of speed that implies you’re going quick enough or too fast for the next corner, with iRacing the sense of speed is a lot more subtle.

If like me you’ve been playing one game in particular full stop for long periods (Race 07) you’ll need to take a step back and adjust to the new dimension of iRacing, the sim doesn’t portray speed in the way others do.

But as I say, persevere because when you actually start racing the sim turns from good to great!

Races are close, with the license points system in place they also turn in to a ballet, tip toeing around each other in perfect union, both cars poised to the apex, balanced on brakes inches from each other… and then some idiot out brakes himself and plunged deep in to your rear valance.

Highly frustrating but also a good point to mention the damage model which is good to see and important because it does impair the cars ability to race and your ability to drive it! However with all the new blood floating around the races be prepared to get scraped and bumped out of races and penalised by the points system as a result.

This initially becomes tiresome but as your progress and others do too, you get used to being slapped on the wrist for contact with other drivers and in fact for going off track and using just a little too much run off! Once you’ve worked out that backing off from the wayward car in front AND protecting your line from the rear is part and parcel of racing but amplified in iRacing, you’ll be just fine… but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Visual Aids
Graphically the game is good, it’s more than capable of doing the job.

That doesn’t sound like a glowing report does it? Well this is a sim so you can forgive it for being a little modest, it does indeed have less window dressing, the special FX are lacking but you’ll forgive it and soon forget once your immersed (or should I said, concentrating so very hard).

There are some nice touches, the cockpit is detailed as too are the car models and lets not forget the tracks; for example Lime Rock’s first corner has all the annoying lumps, bumps and crevasses that unsettle the car and throw it off the track in real life too!

If like me and you game on anything smaller than a 20”+ screen (I run a 17) you’ll find the starting view VERY cramped, it feels like your squinting through the front screen and far too much of the dash is in view. The problems comes when you reduce the field of view [FOV] because then your visibility feels reduced to the point it’s restricting your environment and ultimately slowing you down.

I’ve actually ordered a 24” widescreen to get around this problem as quite frankly it’s time I sold on my 17” Sony X-Black because it simply doesn’t suit driving games.

Summary
So to conclude would I recommend iRacing? Well it’s early days for me but yes I’m thoroughly enjoying the close racing, I like the physics model and the track detail at the wheels, the sessions do work and there’s always other races to lock horns and do battle with.

The license points system is a newbie's worst nightmare, but learn to work with it and you will get better. It annoys me I have to go 'easy' in race scenarios so to avoid other races as even the slightest of paint swapping results in negative points and potential race ruining damage.

I keep wanting to refer to iRacing as ‘the game’ but it’s clear this ga… simulation has its feet firmly in the realistic racing zone.

A refreshingly tricky yet different and rewarding racer.

[Edward Leake]

I should mention the following, I drive road courses and not oval (yet). My current wheel is a 5 year old Logitech Momo FFB, the black one, I have to say it's tough but not the best for finesse.

System spec: AMD Dual Core 5000 Black Edition 2.6GHz, overclocked @ 3.4GHz, 2GB DDR2, ATI 3870 512MB.

Runs capped 70fps 1280x1024 and never misses a beat.