Automobilista 2 V1.5.6.1 RELEASED - Now Updated to V1.5.6.3

Reiza, Kunos, Studio397, IRacing, Sector3, Polyphony Digital, Turn10, Warthog Games, SMS & Scavier.

The Golden Ten!

That's terribly few developers for a genre. I'm glad they're all so different. nobody needs 10 identical fingers.

 

But in an ideal world, all 10 fingers work together, doing different tasks, not trying to make the same thing the finger next door.
On that rational, we would be better to have only one team scanning tracks, one team doing graphic content, one team doing physics, one team doing UI, one team doing Ai opponents, etc.

I guess that's already happening... using ME ou UE is part of that rational.
I doubt Reiza or Kunos have there own team scanning a track, it would be a waste of resources. Buying the scan makes a lot more sense.
I really can antecipate something like this also happening on AI opponents engines (due to lack of competent people in this area).

 

So the Formula E Gen 3 EVO car has been announced and idk, I think I really like the idea of up to 470hp AWD single seater racing, sounds so fun and unique!
This is getting really high in my wishlist.

 

rFactor 2 has all the Formula E cars, but also tracks as DLC and many free ones in workshop.

 

All is said

 

I mean who could ever say no to waiting half an hour for the game to load - I get to make a cup of coffee in the meantime!

 

Nah, competition is good for us. We want them to compete and push the boundaries further. Otherwise we'll end up with good enough tracks, good enough physics but nothing too fancy.

Variety is good. It's possible to play multiple games and have fun in all of them.

 

Its still faster than waiting on a potential AMS2 Formula E DLC

 

Don't be fooled, to have competition you need resources.
I've heard, too many times, "it's a small studio" here and there. So, we have an excuse for things not to be perfect.
I'd rather have two/three big actors in this scene than 10 trying to survive/make profit.

 

I get what you're saying, but I doubt we'd get "perfect" or even better than what we have now. AAA title would still have cut corners everywhere possible to maximise profits. Game quality and realistic experience would be a tertiary priority (after profits and marketing).

What I admire now is those small studios (like Reiza) who can with limited resources move the bar higher in some aspects forcing bigger players to up their game too. And smaller players can move fast without gazzilion of board room meetings to get stuff done. They know what to do without someone telling them to.

Also I doubt if such big title, even if they could add something like Brazilian Stock Cars or Copa Fusca, let alone those fantastic tracks I've never heard of before because we'd end up with GT3s on Spa and Monza, like Rennsport with their big financial backing is focusing on. And that whole esports nonsense pushed down our throats.

Rant over

 

@Joaquim Pereira

But big developers also have to make big money and try to find as many customers as possible. This leads to SemiAcarde games.

However, when I look at how brilliantly the modding scene works in sim racing, I'm sometimes surprised that there hasn't already been an open source SimRacingEngine Project.

 

Let's face facts. The sim racing community will always be small relative to the rest of the gaming community. A sim racer needs space, at least $300, before we even talk PC or console to get started vs just needing a mouse and a keyboard. That limits potential investors to those passionate about the sport.
I would love more competition to AMS2. Most other sim racing titles suck in comparison these days. Most don't load as fast, need tweaks or mods to get a real experience and cost much more relatively speaking.

I'm really happy with best sim racing title on the market and that its studios is totally dedicated to constant improvement and the history of the sport!

 

Well, PCars (Project Community aided racing simulator) began open source. How it came in the hands of Ian Bell, i don't know. The result is well known and i think that would be the way of all "free" simulators...

 

Its strange, because I feel pure arcade games are a dying breed while sim oriented racing games are doing better nowadays, who would have thought an AC or ACC would be on consoles 20 years ago, or that EA in all their marketing bull****e be pushing a more "realistic" experience as one of their main gameplay marketing features. GT7 is more "realistic" than its predecessors as well. The only really successful pure arcade game I can think of nowadays is Forza Horizon and BeamNG (yeah its a "realistic" arcade game IMHO)

 

Oh you never know~

 

The biggest issue with Pcars was not Ian Bell or any single person, it was Namco. That's the biggest difference between Pcars and AMS 2, AMS 2 is self-published and Pcars wasn't. SMS had to deal with Namco breathing down their neck, pushing for things to be released earlier so they could make a larger profit off of it leading to less polish.

Let me put it into perspective, Project Cars released in 2015, and the final patch came out for Project Cars 2 in 2018. We are at the point where AMS 2 has been out for as long as the entire mainline Pcars series. AMS 2 was given the time and space to develop, SMS didn't have that luxury.

By blaming Ian Bell, or any single developer we are (by omission) letting Namco off the hook for something that was ultimately their fault.

 

I agree with the pressure Namco must have put on SMS, but Ian did tend to over promise and undelivered on more than a few occasions, so I would put it on a 70-30 Namco-Ian blame split for the issues PC2 had and a 85-15 split for PC3.

Still you are absolutely right in that AMS2 is free from such developer pressure but they still need to make money and must also now comply with whatever the timeline or agreement is with IMSA, so I wouldn't say they have a luxury, SMS must have gotten some money from Namco, so we have to look at both sides of the coin.

 

Namco also put the pressure on Project Cars 3 having the 3 in the name, when it was supposed to be a more arcade spin-off instead.

 

I can empathize with over-promising, which is why I don't think it's a big deal so long as it's not purposefully misleading with no intent to actually do those things. I mean feature-creep is a mistake everyone in game development (or any art really) makes. Maybe part of the reason SMS "under-delivered" (which is the exact same thing as over-promising) was due to the exact reasons I mentioned earlier. Not being given the time and space to actually deliver without other more important parts of the game being sacrificed. Think of how much less AMS 2, BeamNG or Iracing would be if they stopped development after two or three years due to a publisher thinking they're not worth it. All three games would've "over-promissed and under-delivered".

At the end of the day we have already seen both sides of the coin. SMS isn't making games anymore, and Reiza is. Project Cars 1 and 2 ultimately failed despite all the promise, AMS 2 is currently succeeding despite having the same foundation, which proves that SMS were onto something and thus that the ambition wasn't unfounded even if it ended in failure.

 

That wasn't Namco, it was Codemasters who wanted the 3 in the title iirc.