The Racing Game Thread

[Chris2K]

That lack of interesting new features seems like a bad mix of "not enough to convince people who didn't buy it last year to buy it this year" and "not enough to convince people who did buy it last year to move on to the 2023 version".

[Bobfoc]

My biggest concern is how quickly Frontier stopped updating last year's game. It makes me think that they're doing what so many other developers of annual sports series do by leaving promising features underdeveloped so that they can churn out the next game.

[Bobfoc]

Here's a gameplay trailer with almost no gameplay in it.

[Bobfoc]

A few more details were revealed in a livestream today.

Driver and staff development is a little different this time in that you select a general area of focus for their training. You no longer pick individual attributes to spend points on, so stat changes are organic.

Mechanical failures are part of the game, although no footage was shown of them occurring. This is based on a durability system that affects all parts you manufacture, and is dependent on your facilities, staff quality and part development focus.

Work has been put into ensuring that the field is split more realistically during races. In last year's game, you would often see DRS trains all over the circuit, with cars swapping places in every DRS zone. Apparently, that should be less common this time.

You can now swap teams, but only when a post-launch update in September comes out. Like in Football Manager, you can't just join any team you like mid-save, instead only receiving job offers based on your previous performances. This means that you won't be able to join Mercedes after getting sacked by Haas, for example.

[METALMAN]

Quite underwhelmed by the reviews for F1 Manager 23. It still looks good on race day (except STILL no mechanical failures??????) but they don’t seem to have done much to address everything beyond that feeling so bare and lifeless.

[Bobfoc]

It does look like a step sideways, rather than forward. What surprises me is that the My Team mode in the regular F1 games has more in-depth personnel management than a game that's entirely centred around management. I can't imagine that Verstappen would be pleased if you made him let Perez pass him in real life, but there are no consequences whatsoever in this game.

[Schlitzbrille]

 

This is exactly the type of shitpost car I look for in a racing sim.

[Baddar]

Paid the hefty price of £3.89 for The Crew 2 the other day, and gave it a go last night.

There's lots to do, isn't there? I don't mind that there's no career mode or much of a story to follow as such, but there's a really good variety in events from what I can tell.

I mainly decided to try it out as there's the added bonus of transferring any of the earned vehicles over to Motorfest when that's released. Not sure how that'll affect progression in that game or how many new cars that'll have compared to 2, but this one does feel like it'll scratch the racing game itch for a bit.

[JasonM]

I think I played Crew 2 when it was on a free weekend or a beta, and I thought it was alright. At the time definitely felt like its scope went a bit too far beyond its quality, with all the different types of content feeling very light on actual depth and being thrown in just for the "this might be cool"-factor. I would assume that between then and now they have improved it a lot.

I tried picking Forza Horizon 5 back up the other day, and I just kind of felt lost. I have so many cars, most of which I have never driven because the game hands them out like candy, and there's not an easy way to filter out all the races that I finished 2 years ago, so the map is a clutter of all sorts of icons.

[Baddar]

Yeah this is what feels a bit different in TC2 that I'm kind of enjoying so far. I only have one vehicle for each discipline at the moment and they were handed to me for free, so I've got to build up my cash before I think about buying a new one. I do love the main series of Forza games and enjoy Horizon too, but it throws so many vehicles at you that you'll never bother driving.

[Bobfoc]

F1 Manager has once again fallen below sales expectations, meaning that Frontier will lay off an as yet undisclosed number of employees.

A bit of good news is that F1 Manager 2023 is coming to Game Pass on Thursday. I do hope that gives the game a bit more of a player base because, despite the game's lack of certain features, I really hope the series can continue to exist and grow.

[METALMAN]

I think I say this every time this game comes up but I just find the design choices Frontier made for this game baffling. This is a time where Drive to Survive has made the personalities, the rivalries and the storylines (contrived or otherwise) incredibly popular. Yet these things are all non-existent in the game. It's like one of these 90s managerial games where players are little collections of stats that will go out on the pitch and play at 100% no matter what and never complain and always be happy to play for Exeter in the fourth tier even when they are the best player in the world. Whereas I want something a bit more like the personality and man management aspects of the latest FM. Surely I'm not the only one so I can't imagine why it's not there.

And the world just seems so bare. You're just pressing buttons with no comment or action. Sometimes the media and interviews on FM can be a bit inane and I'm not always going to read transfer rumour stories or whatever but you really miss them when you're playing FM Manager and they're not there at all.

[Meacon Keaton]

I would imagine most won't care, but the NASCAR video game rights have been granted to iRacing which is just amazing news. I love what iRacing offer but not at their price point. Being able to enjoy their physics and racing while not needing to pay a monthly fee or deal with real people driving like idiots has me very excited.

[Bobfoc]

What's particularly surprising is that Frontier managed to make Planet Coaster, in which every guest has their own personality traits and tastes, but then made all the drivers in F1 Manager have no personalities whatsoever.

[Meacon Keaton]

Did anyone here ever try the 1991 mod for F1 Manager 22? It looks pretty. No F1 for the next few months and I'm thinking of giving it a try if someone can tell me it was worth a few hours of play.

[Bobfoc]

F1 Manager 2024 was announced today, with the first details being revealed on Tuesday. I hope they can improve on the personnel management and add some more variables into the game world because there's a promising racing experience waiting to be fleshed out.

[Bobfoc]

F1 Manager 2024 will have a Create-a-Team option, as well as a new mentality system that supposedly gives drivers and staff members individual personalities. Curiously, the press release says that the game will cost £29.99, which is about half as much as its predecessors.

[Chris2K]

I feel like this is the last chance for the series, the reduced price speaks to the lack of sales for the last game (which is mainly on them for offering so few new features).

Personally I simply can't get into it despite my love of F1, I really enjoy watching streams of it, but the amount of time and concentration it requires just isn't something I can muster.

[Bobfoc]

I find it to be enjoyable as something to do while listening to or watching sport. I feel as though it's verging on being very good, and perhaps this entry could achieve that if it can inject a bit more soul into the off-track management.

If I'm being realistic, though, I'm not sure I have much hope for the series in the long term. I'm just not really sure there's enough of a market for sports management games to make anything outside Football Manager and OOTP sustainable, especially if you're paying what must be a significant amount for the F1 licence.

I think it might be best to put a management mode in the standard F1 games, a bit like they do with the likes of Madden and what used to be FIFA. It would certainly make me more likely to play them.

[Schlitzbrille]

So AC2 has a name now. Can't wait for the mod scene and the six hundred M4 GT3 releases (not that that's my scene, sign me up for the odd shit)