I Racing

Anyone do it here? I was seriously looking at it but them my wife got me a PS3 and GT5.

Can some one give us some incite in to it?

Good?

Bad?

Ugly?

I'm doing it on an occasional basis. I like it, but then again I don't have a comparison to the console sims. It's got the typical "issues" with all the advanced sims that you need to put time into it, the more the better, but that's normal.

I used to play rFactor a lot and am probably going to pay for rFactor 2, also, but I prefer iRacing over rFactor.

I just got it on Christmas. I REALLY like it!

I get to drive the tracks that i will be racing on for real this year.

Plus, the competition is pretty stout. I hope it makes me a better driver!

Rob R.

I didn't love iRacing when I tried it out. I really didn't like their pricing model either. Here is my "review" from August 2011... http://www.alsoranracing.com/?p=158

Thread from GRM on the same topic: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/iracing-20/38375/page1/

How does the racing work? You can't just host a race at any time like gt6?

I think you can host one, but it might cost money. There's an SCCA group I'm a member of that occasionally hosts their own race series.

Other than that, you just join a series you're eligible for.

In reply to Rufledt:

Your series moves to a different track every week. The timing of events vary depending on the series. You can practice on your own or in an open lobby, practice sessions start every 15min and are 30min each. Qualifying sessions start every half hour and you can try to improve your time throughout the week. If you don't qualify you start in the back if more than one doesn't qualify it goes off of your rating. You can also chose to start from pit lane to hopefully bypass first lap agrresiveness. The races start every half hour or hour (depending on series) and you run the same track all week to try and accumulate as many points as possible before the next weeks track. If enough people are registered for a race they group you depending on your rating to try and equalize groups. I know there is more to it and maybe someone else will chime in.

I liked it, not as much as our GT5 series but I liked it. I just don't have enough spare time to devote to it and really don't have the computer to run it which is the biggest reason why I don't do it anymore. You need a good computer.

BradLTL wrote: I didn't love iRacing when I tried it out. I really didn't like their pricing model either. Here is my "review" from August 2011... http://www.alsoranracing.com/?p=158 Thread from GRM on the same topic: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/iracing-20/38375/page1/

I read your article, I can't believe how much it costs in the long run, it's crazy. Right now their site shows 50% off on new memberships, but I still think i'll save my non-existent cash and stick with what I got. I understand charging for things, or a monthly fee in order to maintain income for more development/maintenance and stuff, but not both. They might find with a one time membership price (and pay as you go upgrades) total membership would increase a great deal, leading to more upgrades from hooked members and ultimately more profit. Then again they may be trying to dissuade people from joining in order to have only truly serious members. I see the logic there I guess.

Maybe I'll pretend I quit iracing (like it's smoking or something) and put my hypothetical $10 a month into a mini savings for car toys for mysel...err, my soon-to-arrive child. Hotwheels are still cheap, right? By the time she's old enough to play with such small toys there could be quite the fortune saved up... Maybe scrap the hotwheels and go for a powerwheels mustang or something?

iRacing is pretty good but it takes a lot of practice and it's frustrating until you get past rookie status. They want you to take it seriously and treat it like a real race so it's structured such that you have to use your real name,maintain a public safety rating that limits your ability to race if it gets too low (and kicks you off the server if you are a total jackass). I consider those positives. They are slow with new content - just got a Porsche Cup car after 6yrs of saying it was coming... etc.

You absolutely need a good wheel, pedals, some sort of seat/rig to hook it to. You also need a fairly serious computer, heavy hitter video card and nice monitor so... unless you already have some of that... it's a big jump. I already had a wheel from the playstation, and a big ass workstation (job related) so all I had to swing was the graphics card - it was still $200 bucks.

As far as the game itself... I have never paid full price for anything - they bait you with 50% deals to sign on... then you let your membership run out and they bait you with 50% deals again. I bought a bunch of content bundled on sale, etc.

I already have a G25 wheel, a 32" monitor (it's actually a television, but I don't have cable) and a pretty rocking gaming computer because I'm a nerd. It's a bit old now but it's well above what the website says is required. Were those expenses factored into Brad's calculations in the article?

No... I looked at strickly the game/sim costs. I have a pretty good gaming PC already so I didn't have any other expenses.

I wrote that article pretty early, but I stuck with iRacing for nearly 2 of the 3 trial months. Got all the way to my C (?) license (I think it goes Rookie - D - C). I had a good safety and competition rating, typically was on the podium for races and even won a couple... but Inever loved it. I didn't want to shell out the extra cash for tracks, I didn't want to shell out the extra cash to host a GRM series. It just seemed that the whole thing was built to play their way and continue to cost you more money to play at higher levels.

I even went as far as to write the I racing management and suggest to them a way to keep me engaged. I don't car about ovals or NASCAR so half of my monthly fee was wasted on content I wouldn't use. My suggestion was that they create a "Road Racer" and/or "Circle Track" package to compliment their base subscription. That would have given me a few more tracks and cars and keep me engaged for longer... but their response was "No thanks."

BradLTL wrote: No... I looked at strickly the game/sim costs. I have a pretty good gaming PC already so I didn't have any other expenses. I wrote that article pretty early, but I stuck with iRacing for nearly 2 of the 3 trial months. Got all the way to my C (?) license (I think it goes Rookie - D - C). I had a good safety and competition rating, typically was on the podium for races and even won a couple... but I never loved it. I didn't want to shell out the extra cash for tracks, I didn't want to shell out the extra cash to host a GRM series. It just seemed that the whole thing was built to play their way and continue to cost you more money to play at higher levels.

They have a subscription based service model and additional content is... well, additional. I don't find it any more terrible than console franchises who come out with the same game engine and a few new things each year for $60 a pop. I paid $44 dollars for my yearly sub because of a sale + some credits from an old season, and needed two tracks to compete in a series I wanted to run. I got $9 in participation credits. So... iRacing cost me about $70 +/- a buck or two for 2013. In that same time I bought GT6 and NFS Shift 2. The games themselves cost $50 a pop or so and both sell "upgrades" for $20 a couple times so it's not the money for me...

But the part about the love? I get that. iRacing has gotten a lot better technically over the last few releases but it's kind of a hassle to race. You don't just log in to a server and jump into a race at a track you like. You enter a series that may or may not be at some track you enjoy. Then... you have to wait until race time. There are no AI cars so if you wind up alone there is no traffic and you can't make some. Driving in the sim is reasonably decent but there are no "advanced" features (like rFactor had in 2003) such as night racing or weather change during a race (the sun does not set, it never rains...).

So... my nickel summary is that it's pretty damn good overall, not cheap but not terribly expensive if you are looking for racing where there is a very serious attempt to keep people racing clean and to model cars and tracks accurately. But that is really what you are paying for - it's not a super advanced simulation engine or a terribly compelling list of cars. It takes real practice to be good so it's not easy to dabble in it. When you are a rookie it's extra frustrating because even if you practiced the guy behind you will take you out in turn one because he didn't.

If you have a good computer and graphics card, wheel and pedals you can try it for under $20 for a month and use only provided content to make up your own mind so... that is what I'd recommend.

I wanted to love it. I don't, really. But... I keep re-upping when they send me the "Come back and take 50% off a year!" because it's good enough and in the winter I get some enjoyment out of hopping in an SRF with 3 fingers of scotch and killing a couple hours when the real racing is a few months off.

WHY ARE MY PARAGRAPH BREAKS NOT WORKING!? (sorry for the wall of text)

Iracing is a bit costly but I just didn't have the time to devot to it.

If you really want to learn race craft and like a rigid structure it is a good platform. After getting your licenses up you eventually end up running with good groups of racers. Had some great door to door battles. Just not able to justify the cost vs time available factor.

After 2 years playing on and off I finally upgraded from a crappy wheel to a g27 and still struggled. Last night I was about to drop below 2.00 and loose my D license and the track switched to limerock for the mx5 series (I like it because of the fixed setups), its normally my bane and I have a hard time even setting a lap time in practice. I finally just went cruise control for the race running 4 seconds off my best, soon I find myself in 4th after starting from the pits with no incidents so far, and realize I'm just casually driving within a second of my best time, get to 3rd after that guy spin, finish the race with no incidents in 3rd after getting lapped right at the end because I semi spun the last turn. I think thats the 2nd time in 2 years I've finished a race with no incidents. Then I did another race that had a spin from avoiding a stopped car and I cam in 2nd. I went from 2.3 SR at 5pm yesterday to 2.08 at 7:30pm, then 2.50 by 11:30. Feels good man. I wish I could double dip this week with the production car series in the JDM mx5, but its also at lime rock and I feel that trying to run 2 similar but very different cars at the same track alternating every half hour is gonna berkeley me up.

when I'm hooked on iracing I'll play the lights out of it. Problem being I'm so busy and travel so much it's hard to keep up with, then subscription runs out, then a kid pops out, and then I'm like "oh wait that money could go into a real car" and my account lays dormant for 6 months and I pick it back up for another 3 months or until they send out a 50% off everything including 3 month subscription.

The problem I have with iRacing they seemed to have kicked the trend to pay for additional content on the reg. Now consoles have latched onto the idea and you pay $60 for the game then they want to you buy all this add-on content every few months at $15-20 a pop. Over the course of a year you might pay over $150 for a game. Go to trade it in? You get $15 bc downloadable content can't be transferred. At least the servers are almost always working and you can kind of pick and choose what you want. I can run iracing on my i5 laptop on decent settings when I travel if I have a solid internet connection too.

It's still a blast and the fixed setup series are the best.

I play the iRacing on a regular basis now. I've always been a casual sim racer, and I have played pretty much every game I can find on any platform. iRacing is by far the closest to real life. If you want something that you can just sit for a minute and have a few beers and slide a car around, then it isn't going to make you happy. It is fairly expensive, but if you want to get the same chills you do when you take the green flag in a real race, I haven't found any other game that is as good. It is just like real racing in the way that the more you practice and the more money you spend on your equipment (ie. wheel and pedals, cpu, seat, etc) the faster you will be. I think the things I learn in iRacing will definitely transfer to the track and make me a better driver.

jvanstone12 wrote: ...but if you want to get the same chills you do when you take the green flag in a real race...

I'm sorry... but I have to call you out on that one. No one who has ever taken a green flag thru turn one in a real car in a wheel-to-wheel situation is going to get chills playing iRacing unless you play in a meat locker. Or maybe they are paid sponsors like Junior. Hell, skydiving doesn't even intimidate me anymore. Racing is a deal breaker for all other adrenaline pumping fixes. I can't even masturbate without a gun to my head anylonger.

It's a pretty well managed sim environment for people who like to take it seriously and you can use it learn which way the road goes before visiting a new track or improve your race craft from a technical standpoint but - 'cmon. It's fun. It's ok that it's only as close to racing as CoD is to war. And I'm totally happy hooning my SRF around with a scotch in the cup holder. Hell, I even make the top split more often than not ;)

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I can't even masturbate without a gun to my head anylonger.

You too?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

jvanstone12 wrote: ...but if you want to get the same chills you do when you take the green flag in a real race...

I'm sorry... but I have to call you out on that one. No one who has ever taken a green flag thru turn one in a real car in a wheel-to-wheel situation is going to get chills playing iRacing unless you play in a meat locker.

Call me out all you want, but even though I've only taken a few green flags in the "real cars", and hundreds in a shifter kart, I still get all puckered at the drop of a green in iRacing. Maybe you've just lost some of the lust, or maybe your driving rig at home doesn't engulf you in the race as well as it could. You can call it what you want, but you can't tell me what I feel.

I'm intrigued by nicksta43's GT6 challenge, but I bet there are a few other folks who haven't upgraded yet, and it'd be fun to compare times...

Man, I need to get back into it. It's been about 4 years or so and my cockpit has been scraped but I still have my wheel and pedals.

I am too cheap right now though, I gonna keep working on GTR 2.