Welcome to my blog folks,

Well I've been going a bit motorsport mad these past few days, I'm not totally sure if it's my eagerness for the new Formula One season next weekend or the simple fact that I feel I need to be using my Logitech G25 Steering Wheel considering how much it cost me. But whatever it is, I've been enjoying some great motorsport thanks to quite a number of fantastic games. Be them Arcade or Simulation, you can't deny that for any motorsport fan there is quite a selection of top titles for us all to enjoy. From the arcade based thrills of Codemasters Race Driver GRID to the deadly realistic rFactor by developers Image Space Incorporated. Infact there's quite a fine collection of realistic motorsport simulations on PC, for example the almost perfect GTR2 and the fine Live For Speed. Of course like every genre in videogames, there have been a good few garbage titles along the way but the best representations of the sport continue to shine through. 

It's only fair to say that motosport isn't every gamers cup of tea, but it never stops amazing me how dedicated the modding communities are for such games. I've been spending sometime with rFactor recently, a game built around being heavily modified. You only have to take a look at fine sites such as rFactorCentral to see the amazing work folk have already been creating. For example the stunning work done in recreating the amazing V8 Supercars Series and the quite special F1 1979 Mod, theres a whole selection to choose from and with so many World tracks avaliable to download to, well let's just say any motorsport fan is in for one hell of a treat. Speaking of the V8 Supercars, one of the finest examples of this series is the unforgivable Bathurst Raceway. A track, that I shall admit as been beating me up ever since my first experience of it back in the very early days of the PS2. But this blog isn't about tracks or specific championships, it's all about motorsport in videogames. We motorsport fans might not be overflowed with quality titles all the time, but we do have a fine set of games that we can all be proud of. 

Of course every gamer will have their own personal favourite racing game, though I still believe that I'm a simulation man at heart. I will happily admit a great fondness for the racing titles developed by Codemasters. It's more of a youth thing then anything else, I can still recall playing the fine Touring Car titles with my father back in the days of the Playstation 1. Despite the love for some of Codemasters original works in the racing genre, it's some of their latest titles that have become some of my favourite. Both Race Driver: GRID and Colin McRae's DIRT aren't exactly a perfect realization of the sport but they are an absolute blast to play, especially when you have a good steering wheel at hand and with Codemasters now having the Formula One License I can't wait to see what they create. Many PC racing fans will no doubt remember the Grand Prix series developed by Geoff Crammond and MicroProse. I can't exactly remember how many hours I spent enjoying that game, even today it is still played and I know that a few online leagues still exist. This length of existence as been partly helped by the always surprisingly dedicated PC Mod community that is as fresh and exciting as it's ever been. 

Online league racing is a bit of an odd experience, it's often not very consistant and you either love it or hate it. I've raced in two leagues myself, one of them being a GP4 league a good few years back. It's also not as simple as jumping online and choosing a random race, often the best leagues are well organised and full of dedicated players. There is also a form of gentleman's agreement when playing with other racers, respect is often key while showing your less kindful side never hurts in the middle of a heated race. Sadly my time spent in leagues were never truly successful, my best league place was fourth in the GP4 series which I spoke of earlier. I have been offered a unique place in an up and coming V8 series within rFactor a friend of mine is setting up, though if I actually take part is another matter. But despite developers attempts to bring true simulation to consoles (Race Pro and Forza Motorsport for example) there is still no doubt that if your looking for realistic racing simulation, the PC is where it's at. 

This blog as gone on a bit longer then I expected, but to finish things off I wanted to provide folks with a nice list of sites they might find interesting if your interested in the whole modding scene for PC racing games. There are some top sites in this list, if your still new to modding games then I highly recommend checking out rFactor which is built to be easily modified, it is often as simple as dragging and dropping some files to the rFactor directory. But there are many helpful guides out there if you need more help:

rFactor Official Website
rFactorCentral
Blackhole Motorsports
Live For Speed Official Website
InsideSimRacing.TV
(If I can think of more top sites I'll add them, promise).

Thanks for Reading, I do greatly appreciate it.
Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent)