What was it that made you stop playing other sims?

This question is of course for those of us who ended up not playing much else... but what was it that made you stop playing other sims?

For me the answer is a combination: I can't quite put my finger on why, but AMS2 was always more fun than other sims. AC is very technical and ostensibly the benchmark for "correctness", but the AI feels so robotic I just felt lonely. ACC feels like a big gatekeeping exercise and I could never get anywhere near the laptimes anyone else could and I couldn't understand why AT ALL. But AMS2 felt like a fun challenge back when I had to set the AI to 90, and it feels like a fun challenge now I set it to 105.

The other reason is the fact that I STILL keep finding tracks i've never seen before that are done so well. I've still not yet raced on Interlagos old track but it is probably amazing and I can set up a realistic race on it. I know I could set up 80% of e.g. a realistic F1 season for basically any decade since the 60s and almost anything in between. I only recently found out about the ELMS series and, again, for the most part, (with the new update and the purported LMP2 cars) I can replicate it almost completely. I set up a pretend Hungaroring race on the old Austrian circuit for a 1990 championship I set up (no other sim has this except potentially for modded AC and well, the quality varies) and had just the most memorable race of my life.

All the other games seem like a waste of time and money to me, especially e.g. Rennsport and LMU as they come up. What was it that made you stop playing other sims?

Anyway, just looking for some fun discussion until the new dev update update comes out...

 

It's good enough at such a wide variety of things that it makes it hard to play other sims, as you find the features lacking. I do not enjoy online racing so I'm 100% racing the AI.

AC = AI terrible, lots of mods, but varying quality. Also takes a while to set everything up for a race, no save between practice/qual/race.

ACC = AI issues , and even though you have save games for a long endurance race (yay!) , no safety car/FCY or even AI retirements as they drive almost perfectly. Sort of realistic for a sprint race but anything more than an hour gets REALLY boring, as there is no change unless you make a mistake.

rF2 = nice to drive, quality 1st party content, but takes forever to set up a race in regards to difficulty level.Mods of varying quality like AC.

iRacing = has really good AI, and lots of tracks/cars (i dont mind the cost of subscription/tracks/etc as hey its my hobby) but again let down by no save between practice/qual/race , and AI pit strategy is just "if im out of gas", no pit windows/etc. Weather is great though.

RaceRoom = pretty good overall, but no weather, no modern prototypes (my preferred cars to drive) , AI is OK but inconsistent track to track.

LMU = Is actually really good. Very detailed for an endurance fan. Just waiting for the co-op save/resume/whatever mode to come out and I should be set to do a WEC season!

So given all that, i'm AMS2 only (HOPING 1.6 has endurance related enhancements!) as its the most fun, easiest to set up, and has all the features. Weather that works, AI that is mostly competent, save between sessions at least, and the AI driver to take over a stint is functional as well! And yeah, switching between sims kind of gets you out of wack on how cars handle IMO.

 

AC is fun but for me the mods don't feel realistic, ACC feels very unnatural in braking, RF2 the AI drives like a train behind each other and a lot of stutters, raceroom I just can't get the FOV right, no matter what I try. I'm playing AMS1 or AMS2 now, just feels really good, learn better trail braking and the AI is really good, sometimes it feels you drive with real life opponents so good can be the AI, AMS all the way for me

 

I used to only play ACC on my laptop, but the graphics became bad one day. I started playing around with other sims and AMS2 was the best. I could actually run it at 60FPS. Though I felt like something felt off. Then V1.4 arrived and I’ve not really touched any other sims except when I’m making a video on them. I also played WRC, but the physics feel a little off IMO and AMS2 has RX cars. V1.6 will make them feel even better so I don’t really care

 

I'm using a very loose definition of driving sims here, since the OP didn't specify

• AC: I drive every now and then to try track mods of locations not available in other sims. The original content doesn't appeal to me.
• ACC: I don't like modern GT racing, and I don't do competitive multiplayer racing. Bought it on sale just to have as a comparison.
• AMS1: No lock to horizon in VR, so I get motion sick after a few laps. Almost all content has been migrated to AMS2 and is/will be in a better state than AMS1 in the upcoming v1.6 update.
• BeamNG: I tried getting it to work in VR a few weeks ago. It was too buggy with my Pimax headset, but I'll give it another try soon.
• Dirt Rally / Dirt Rally 2: I drive every now and then to get my rally fix, whilst trying to ignore how the cars feel. Braking is supernatural, drivetrain doesn't feel quite natural, and asphalt feels like gravel just with higher grip level.
• GP Bikes: Best VR bike simulator I've tried (don't want to joint the Facebook ecosystem so I haven't tried VRider SBK). Still, I haven't yet gotten hooked on bike racing, so it's been 2 years since I last visited this sim.
• GT7: Only tried it on gamepad, and the way the understeer works there is horriffic. Very little feel of weight balance as a way to control the car. But the graphics are superb, as is also the whole scope and feature set of the game.
• iRacing: I drive every now and then for the large amount of unique laser-scanned tracks. I've stopped participating in the multiplayer, though. It was a fun challenge to get my safety rating as high as possible, but after that I realized that I need a much more competitive mindset to fit with the other players. Now I only do single player in iRacing.
• KartKraft: Some awesome unique kart tracks that I drive every now and then, but after a while I just miss how much better the karts feel in AMS2.
• LMU: No VR no buy. Even if it gets VR, these modern GT cars aren't for me.
• Project Cars 2: A sim that tries to be everything for everyone and therefore excels at nothing. Keep that in mind, Reiza! Dare to be different.
• R3E: I drive every now and then to try TCR racing as well as some of the unique tracks, as well as the Nordic content. However, the horizon movement makes me motion sick after a while.
• Ride 4 (UEVR): Showing lots of promise for what bike sims can do if they get native VR support. This is gamepad only, while in comparison GP Bikes even has FFB support. I just tried this game as an hour long UEVR experiment before I refunded it.
• RBR: I've had a few days that I dedicate to driving RBR. However, it's too difficult to get to run reliably in VR, takes at least 10 minutes of faffing about every time, and every car needs novel adjustments to work in VR.
• rF2: I drive every now and then for unique historic original content / mods. However, the horizon isn't stable enough even with full stabilization enabled, so I get motion sick after a while.

Note: Above I use the term "every now and then" - consider it to mean something like a day or a weekend every 2 months or so.

 

One word; Time

There was a period where I was actively racing RF2, AMS2 & RaceRoom but then MSFS (Microsoft Flight Simulator) came along and my world changed. With that and other non simulation games I found myself racing other titles less & less to the point I just stopped, even AMS2 would only get a brief look in after every major update.

That's changed somewhat since v1.5 as I'm now driving AMS2 more than ever, it's superb development progression & improvements mean I'm switching between that and MSFS a lot more regularly.

Plus alongside "real life" I'm less inclined to spend time at the PC when I could be doing something else, therefore Time becomes the main reason for only firing up this of all the racing Sims out there. That may well change in the future, but it's the way it is right now.

 

I am purely offline racer:
Rf2, unfinished science project, can only do single races, gfx hit and miss, offfical content and mods hit and miss, looks dated, fps is a mess and performance is all over the place,

RRR! Too samish and beige, lifeless, dated gfx, no weather or time of day,

AC, seemed unfinished, weird design choices for some of the functionality, no atmosphere,

ACC, Performance heavy, terrible blurry gfx, too sterile and samish, limited tracks and cars,

F1 series, no comment required,

LMU, too limited in scope, way unfinished,

AMS2 has everything I need and more.

 

I'm purely an offline racer, so relatively competent (or better) AI are a factor. As AMS2 continues to evolve, I appreciate its ability to excel at representing greater complexity in tire-grip based on track surface and weather conditions. After continued play over time and finding my ideal ffb settings, all other titles tend to be lacking in ffb by comparison. I believe there will be more reasons why AMS2 will be my main sim as it evolves in even more ways.

AC: Physics feel "Basic" to me. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, it just feels outdated now. There are some great mods but, managing them can be a chore sometimes.

ACC: This title leaves me more than a bit confused. On paper, it has much to offer, but in reality, I just can't stay engaged with it for very long. The worse aspect is with how the title produces motion effects, completely different than any other title and I loathe the results.

rF2: I still play rF2 from time to time but, it can be frustratingly slow to setup and use. While I appreciate some of the vintage / classic car mods available, I'm generally disappointed with the lack of image and sound quality they offer.

iRacing: The Sub-cost makes it a non-starter for me. It's just not sustainable for my use over the long term. Not a fan of the ffb either. I recognize that it does excel at some things, though.

LMU: Still watching this one to see where it goes but, disappointed with some development choices. I think rF2 FFB is a bit better and the lack of a per-car ffb adjustment is something I really miss. I also don't like the lack of audio tuning options and the general "less is more" approach to simulation.

Raceroom: Like AC, R3E feels very basic in simulation terms. The graphics and lack of dynamic TOD and weather don't help but, everything just feels kind of sterile, even the FFB and motion. I do like the variety of content available, though.

So, for me AMS2 just feels more dynamic, more engaging, easy to setup and play - even if time is quite limited. I really enjoy the variety of content and experiences it offers. Whenever I play other titles, returning to AMS2 just feels like coming home again.

 

There are many reasons for me

• Extremely easy to setup and race
• Content! There is something for everyone
• FFB is the best for me
• Excellent AI on wheel to wheel against the player, although it still needs a lot of work in AI vs AI (still competent)
• How modular it is, it's not a mod machine like AC, but between the skin packs by IMG and others, plus the other mods around its incredibly easy to do multiple seasons of different disciplines, without the need to fiddle a lot with settings.
• Custom AI! It's not perfect but this is one of the most important features as to why I love this game so much. The ability to set up individual characteristics to the AI is awesome and something most modern games don't have and if they do, it's much more complicated than in AMS2, even more so with LuxMundi excellent Custom AI utility tool.

And finally Reiza just feels like an old school with modern tools developer not restrained by publisher pressure and developing the sim with features and content most of us old school sim racers love from ye olde GP4, F1 career challenge, GTR2, etc. games.

They have really spoiled me, can't really play many other racing sims right now. I do some racing in the F1 games here and then, because they are very good at simulating an F1 season/career. But other than that, nothing gives me the immersion AMS2 does.

 

Ia have the most common race titles but only PC2 and AMS2 let me feel home when I race.