Thoughts on Le Mans Ultimate

Hello all, I am curious about your thoughts on the new Le Mans Ultimate release. Have you played it? What are your experiences so far? What does this release mean for the market AMS2 is in?

Please share your opinions. (And please, keep your comments civilized.)

 

Yes. It is a rfactor 2 reeskin but with improvements.

The sound in the cockpit is amazing, that is something I say reiza could be copied or at least try to replicate.

The FFB also is good, very informative and have some minor things like a wooble or rubberish sensation on your hands when you apply stress to the tire. I like a lot. Is better than the rf2 imho.

Physics side, well, the cars for me, maybe because Im used to Ams2, are difficult and sensitive. But, I like a lot how the suspension works and behave and the chassis yaw inside a curve.

A part from that, lot of bugs and issues. I wish they will fix over time.

 

Not sure about pricing in other countries, but here in Brazil getting LMU would be cheaper than getting the endurance cars & tracks DLCs in rF2. Maybe that would be a reason to get the game after they fix the bugs.

 

My experience was 3 CTDs and then refund

 

Fantastic ffb and physics. Graphic, performance and sound good to very good. AI is suprsingly quick in overtaking and laping. They hardly lose time on the player and do have a good interaction with the player when near to. Tracks are pretty detailed, LMHs do have proper hybrid simulation, kicks in differently depending on their regulation basis (LMDh/LMH). Clean, modern and appealing UI and HUD.
So far this EA is on a very high level in my opinion. Sure....there are things which doesn't work at the moment or features still to be implemented as in all sims certainly at that stage, often at a later stage as well. Online MP I still have to try.

It's worthy to take a look and not to be too much influenced by any (too) early reviews where people only scratch on the surface if at all.

Impact on AMS2? Both do have several scopes....and I believe both can live well beside each other.

 

I spent 8 hours in LMU
So far very disappointing
Especially the Poor FFB and/or physics make taking especially the slow corners a gamble, There is no feedback from the FFB.(I am spoiled with the AMS2 FFB with the custom files possibility)
The FFB disappears completely in slow corners, and makes me feel like I'm always sliding.
You have to have taken the turns many times and know them by heart to get through them without spinning.
Graphically, the game is good
Sound is bad, just like the FFB, the sound disappears in slow corners and there is no usable feedback from the sound of the tyres and there are far too few setting options for the sound
What is good are the scheduled races, unfortunately with fixed setup.
The default setups are still very bad.
It's hard to find a good setting for the AI

 

It doesn't have VR support (yet), so I haven't tried it.

 

I'm quite interested in this title and so far it looks alright for an early-access title which is available since 24 hours. Hope they keep fixing everything and VR is available soon, then I'll probably grab it.

 

Very enjoyable for me so far... It's basically just a more streamlined rFactor 2 which I'm all for. Great physics, FFB, sound and graphics. It's good stuff.

I welcome any new sim titles.

 

I'm very interested but the lack of VR is an immediate killer for me, whilst there is a hacky way to get it working I have no intention of wasting my time with that, currently AMS2 is all I need for my racing needs. But I will be keeping an eye on progress, it's also far too "early" in Early Access for me, been there done that with AMS2 & ACC and don't fancy doing it again.

So I'm gonna let it mature, get some of the main features implemented (AI driver swaps, VR, Championships etc) and big bugs out of the way then I'll dive in at some point.

 

I had the same experience but think I'll keep it since it has potential.

The SteamDB numbers are pretty crazy though. It launched higher than both Forza Motorsport and EA Sports WRC.

I hope some of those players give AMS2 a try...

 

A hotfix just dropped too. I'll give it another try later but the wrists in cockpit view look funny.

 

Right now there's only 7 tracks, I wonder if they'll add the remaining tracks of the 2024 season (Losail, Imola, Interlagos).

 

I will have a look if it improves

 

Currently there is only season #2023 ingame. But this

will follow later the year.
They are also working on VR-support, SP championship, mid-save options, possibilites to switch between players to run races against the ai, hosted servers etc.etc.

 

no vr = doesn't exist
it's 2024. I know it's said to be coming but... no VR on a sim in 2024?

 

I'm tempted to try it... Is triple support in place?

 

Yes, it is.

My first impressions (updated 20240313):

• Graphics are quite good.
• Sound is good.
• Physics are great.
• FFB is great, though needs some per-car tweaking.
  
• Cars feel grounded with good connection to the road.
• AI is quite good at handling slower traffic, though can be messy in the first laps of a race. Sometimes faster classes have a tendency to punt slower classes.
  
• Still some CTDs after the first official patch.

I think the limited scope of this sim will help to realize its potential. At least they are open about them: Known Issues - Le Mans Ultimate Let's hope they will fix the issues at a reasonable pace.

 

From the videos I've seen, the AI's ability to handle multiclass is excellent: overtakes are smooth, opportunistic, aggressive and believable. It achieved the ideal in that it looked as though humans were driving. However, the player's car does seem to get bumped a fair bit when in close proximity to the AI. That situation will surely improve after a few patches.

 

Pros:

• Sound: phenomenal, probably the best in the market
• FFB: responsive, informative and intuitive
• Physics: rF2 standard which, to me, is very high quality
• in-game options: lots of features (fuel mixture, regen, TC, TC angle, TC slip), extremely immersive
• AI: excellent in multiclass, in overtaking and defending

Cons:

• Need to reload a race every time you want to make a small graphic adjustment
• Long loading times
• FPS are quite disappointing, even with a recommended spec-pc, not on the same level of graphics, which are pretty standard
• WEC 2024 not yet included (not really a con, I'm just impatient)
• no savegame mid-race
• limited number of tracks

Overall I think is probably one of the best early access beast in the recent years, lots of potential, especially after few adjustments and the 2024 DLC.
This further strengten my current use of different games:
AC for hotlapping
AMS2 for single seaters/single class races and especially the historical content
LMU for multiclass racing (instead of rF2 which became somewhat confusing, really)