Quick Look: iRacing.com

Maybe the one thing the Giant Bomb duders understand less than sports, cars and racing. Love you, Giant Bomb.

I'm starting to think playing racing games with a wheel might be a nice idea.

They added Oculus Rift support yesterday, you dudes totally need to revisit!

Nice to see iRacing get some attention outside the sim-community. I first tried iRacing a couple of years ago, but i moved to a really small apartment, so I didn't have any space for a proper setup. Picked it up again at the end of 2012, and did my first full season in season 1 this year (MX5 in the Grand Touring cup - came 3rd in division 5.). That said, I did have previous experience with sims like Live For Speed, Simbin, rFactor, GPL and the likes.

What's really unique with iRacing is the website. Yes, the website! The other sims I mentioned will cost you next to nothing, and offers a huge selection of cars and tracks (by modders), but to get any sort of real racing out of it, you need to join a league, and probably do one race a week at at fixed time (for each league). With iRacings official series, you get more or less the same level of competition, but you can do the race(s) whenever you want.

I's not cheap, but looking to buy all cars/tracks at once is a bad idea anyway. You need to start out focusing on one car/series. Also; when you do a complete season in a series (8 of 12 weeks), you get credits in return, which can be used on cars/tracks, so you can unlock stuff for free.

Looking forward to start season 3.

For the people wonder how someone can spend so much money on this: it might be expensive compared to other games, but compared to actual racing / track days it's ridiculously cheap.

For those of us that live in areas with a proper winter, it's a good way to keep the skills sharp over those months. It's FAR less forgiving than Gran Turismo and doesn't enforce bad habits as much as the more arcadey games.

I haven't played it since before the last big update, but even then it was fairly accurate, and I've heard it's gotten better recently. I'm sure there are times where the simulation fails a bit, but it's still nice to have consequences for people just kamikaze'ing you in the corners.

I think with all the stuff that has happened recently, the 3 man quick looks (with Drew in the booth) are really fresh and fun and just different enough to not remind us that Ryan isn't there anymore. It's sorta like they're all just hanging out and playing a game. I guess it helps that they probably have a bit of a lighter workload since the Ryan thing; not taking as many appointments, etc.

Brodyquest for 10 hours.

Can't help but wonder if this is at all related to the iM1A2, iF-22, iF-16 and iF-18E simulators back in the late 90's, shouldn't be, considering Papyrus were still around doing their NASCAR Racing games with Sierra up until 2003, but since they are all really hardcore simulators, it seems like they could kinda be in the same series.

Also, this really makes me want to finish building my rig.

My previous set up was an old car seat and a bunch of 2x4s in front of my TV, but i have 3 monitors to use now. The stand and 2 monitors have been sitting in the box since the winter.
It's tough since I'm tracking my real car pretty frequently now.

Greedy... wow f that.

My taskbar goes Documents>Chrome>Steam.

I might switch that around. I must be one with The Bomb.

The best way to race with friends is to get out of rookie. A race in the Mazda Cup usually gets 8-10 splits, but a Grand Touring Cup race rarely gets more that 2-3 splits, and often no split at all.

@oasisbeyond: Not really, once you understand the amount of effort they put into creating the tracks/cars you understand why they charge for stuff like they do. They don't want to be the next GT5 or Forza, they make this game for a small but dedicated community and it works well for them.

I have considered getting this for quite some time... It's just so damn expensive.

As others have pointed out, the game can become quite expensive. But, you have to realize what you're paying for. Sure, it is a game at its core. But, it's also really the best sim on the market in terms of competitive, sanctioned racing. You're paying for the fact that it gives sim-racing fans a chance to compete in an official forum with sanctioned seasons of real-life cars in real-type series racing. And, the cars and tracks are all laser-scanned with very fine detail.

Some argue that the physics of rFactor2 are slightly more accurate, especially in terms of tire modeling. But, when you're dealing with this level of sophisticated physics modeling, it really is just personal preference amongst diehard sim-racers. iRacing is really THE place to go if you're a serious sim-racer who wants to actively compete in an organized, competitive forum.

I love the new direction of the quick looks-web pages!

This is so a drew game, I wish I could get so engaged in games.

@brad and Jeff are so behind on the tech-curve, regarding the fans for driving games.

I present to you:

The Philips AMBX!
It's a speaker set that does not only come with, up to 5.000 RPM, fans to simulate weather from games, it also features ambient lighting!

I'm sure that thing would make a decent addition to your track ir/racing wheel setup, no clue about what games actually support that thing tho.

I gotta also say, stick with it @drewbert! As someone who's been playing for the past few months, it's extremely rewarding to move up through the different safety-rating related driver classes. I just recently moved up to A class for ovals and I did a little jivin'-jig when it first happened!

I also appreciate the fact that the game seems to work very well with a wide-variety of wheels and setups. My setup is insanely basic -- just a single screen with a very old Logitech wheel from the PS2 generation and I still get a lot out of it. The force-feedback seems to work better in iRacing for this wheel than other current racing games I've tried.

And up until somewhat recently, I was running the game on a horrid-quality integrated graphics setup. The game looked atrocious, but it was still VERY playable with high frame-rates! It scales impressively well for PCs below par, spec-wise.

Anybody know if there's some kind of GiantBomb league set-up? I wouldn't mind trading paint around the banks of Charlotte with fellow Bombers...

AND FOR THE RECORD -- The side and cockpit mirrors DO work, you just have to enable them in the graphics menu. ;) harjarhar.

I wish there was a rally i-racing game... I still play Richard Burns Rally every now and then just go get my rally-sim fix.

@nethlem: Ahh! I was just about to post about amBX. So...I'll just add another picture of it to the comments...

Haha that was fun. I won the race, having Drew say my name and crushing it in the same sentence made my week.

Stoked to see a quicklook on this, I've been interested for a while and it seems worth the investment if you're serious about learning how to race. I wonder how much it costs to get a realistic feeling pedal setup...

Seeing that initial screen of cars & news just gave me flashbacks to the Euro Truck Simulator 2 quick look & the madness that came out of that. Still watching the quick look so maybe some of that will appear though doubtful as it's more standard racing over a sim.

I don't think I'll ever understand racing. Why would you want to hit the breaks when you're trying to move forward as fast as you can? Never let go of the gas I say. Mad max racing game, make it happen.

Momentum, turns.

It's quite important.

That being said, I love that games like this exist.

@hobbaswaggle: http://eu.fanatec.com/ClubSport%20Pedals%20V2%20EU

That's what i use. The load cell brake is the thing that defines good pedals.

Drew and TrackIR? Oh Giant Bomb, you sure do know how to turn my crappy week around.

@chan05: Most cars that aren't high performance are automatic transmission, so seeing a manual transmission car is somewhat rare. You can get a manual transmission in just about any car but you have to request it from a dealership. Also all the manual transmission cars I've driven or been in have required a clutch.

Aww wish I had known you were going to get some members in there I would have got my iRacing thing setup again and joined.

It's pricey stuff but I haven't found another racing game that gets as white knuckle intense as iRacing does with the safety rating system and generally every other driver out there is at least good enough to not crash into you every second.

I do wish Drew had spent a bit more time with this prior to the Quick Look as he wasn't aware or sure of a number of things. Plus I think if he had eventually used the H-pattern and clutch setup and got a feel for heel-toe he would have so much fun and it changes the way you play and view racing games forever and even has an effect on your real life driving and how you feel about it.

Oh and to people who think this is expensive, you should try to do even just a casual HPDE/Track Day weekend in real life. I've done it twice now and it costs hundreds of dollars for even a single day event (about 2 hours of on-track time) and that's not even counting the other costs that can go with it like brake rotors, brake pads, engine fluids, tires, track insurance, travel expenses, etc.. Your talking $500-$1000 (depending on the car and your skill level) right there on top of the event registration (which needs to be done usually at least a month ahead of time, often a couple months.) Also assuming you don't have any catastrophic failures like the first time I went I blew the engine on my car and didn't get back up and running until a year and a few thousand dollars later.

Regarding the manufacturers and damage, they draw the line when it comes to car parts falling off. In GT5, the long fabled damage system was essentially one large crumple zone, but doors and bumpers would only ever fall off the racing models, such as the rally cars. Your average Ferrari would not just fall apart (despite being so light). It's all to do with public image around safety and all that jazz. There have been exceptions in certain games, but I suppose a manufacturer would not take too much heed if it's an arcade racer. If, however, it's marketed as "The Ultimate Driving Simulator" for it's realism, they fear fragility may be seen as a true-to-life feature.

I love iRacing. I've been a member since the beta.

If I actually had income, I'd probably be lost in this. Time to get a job!

Fanatec CS V2 mentioned, which are pressure sensitive, spring loaded with a hydraulic dampener, for 250€. Actual hydraulic pedals for simracing will set you back about 1000€. Yes, 1000€. People who spend that kind of money exists. When you invest that much in a hobby, the price iRacing demands is just a little drop in the ocean.

Red Neck Burning Man indeed. @ Jeff :D

I would love a wheel like that but I just don't have the room.

The game seems cool for people that are into heavy simulations, but the whole payment situation is really fucked, regardless of having no real competitor.

I have bought a wheel 3 separate times, jazzed-to-the-razz to get all into racing sims, then proceeded to get bored of them within a few days... This does look legitimately cool. I just know I'd get bored of it after a little while, like I always do.

OK, pedal porn.

Emery Emond's Tilton based hydraulic set:

$1300 + shipping. He does offer a cheaper Wilwood based set for about $800 though.

The last year a lot of new hydraulic sets have popped up on the market. Hopefully the competition will reduce prices, but these are actual racing pedals, and they obviously don't come cheap.

I'm still using the stock G25 pedals.

Looks like a Hotline Miami leaderboard :P

Oh I'm so glad we have Drew to show us weird stuff like this.

And man, this is the only driving game I've seen where crashing actually looks scary, like when Drew went off the track on that first drive.

I upgraded the spring in my G25 pedal set and found it helped quite a bit.
I know a friend went from that to a load cell and found it much better still.

I'd recommend the spring at a minimum.

Americans are actually intimidated by manual gearboxes?
It's not as if it's difficult!

I need to upgrade my G27 pedals *kisses G27*

@brad Open that car. Fuck collectors.

A 'failed' button. That makes no sense, at all.

A very informative and matter of fact Quicklook. It was neat, now let's do a Vinny edition for the giggles.

Awesome, I've actually raced in a Legends car before. They're insanely twitchy in real life due to their really short wheelbase. They're 5/8 ( iirc) scale tube frame cars powered by 1200cc motorcycle engines.

I've also tried iRacing to pass time in the winter here in MN and it just wasn't for me. Getting meaingful physical feedback that I normally expect from a real car was pretty much impossible and I didn't have the time to invest to get past the learning curve.

Super awesome that it exists though and I'm glad other people enjoy it.

QLs with Drew are always welcome. You can never have too many. Lol.