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#Xtra pc reviews 2019 driver
There are none of the mollycoddling driver aids you find in the majority of sims – the only concession is an automatic clutch, and that's begrudgingly included because some PC steering wheels don't come with a separate clutch pedal. The upshot of all this realism is that the game is extremely difficult. It was only after I'd rescued the wayward rear wheels that I realised I'd been holding my breath. Trying to keep control of a 230mph racing car when it's behaving badly is a combination of restrained precision and blind panic. For example, I came hammering out of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's pitlane at top speed in an Ind圜ar and caught a wicked bump that very nearly chewed me up and spat me into the infield. The sim also boasts the most accurate circuits we've ever seen in a PC racer – the dev team's proprietary laser scanning system does an incredible job, and you'll discover bumps and undulations that simply aren't there in sims using handcrafted tracks. Mastering the subtleties of the more lively cars would be impossible without the precision of a wheel and pedal set. For a start, a steering wheel setup isn't an option, it's a requirement. There's so much subtlety to the handling and circuit modelling that you feel you're learning every square centimetre of the track and developing a genuine mastery of your chosen vehicle.įormerly of Papyrus, the development team already have recognised pedigree, based in no small part on their work on the astonishing Grand Prix Legends, but the level of detail in iRacing's on track experience is unparalleled, hence its popularity as a training tool. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though – much like the satisfaction of simply finishing a race was pleasing in of itself, I found pounding the virtual tarmac alone and watching my slow progress toward a respectable lap time enormously rewarding.
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Attempt to dive straight into one of the hourly scheduled races without adequate preparation – a mistake I initially made in my eagerness to play against others – and you're likely to end the race facing backwards with your safety rating plummeting like a lemming that just watched Das Boot. As a result, much of iRacing is a lonely experience as you gradually work your way up to racing speed.
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Your only options for fettling your racing lines and mastering your braking points are the testing sessions, where it's you, the circuit and a stopwatch.
#Xtra pc reviews 2019 drivers
IRacing is built specifically as a platform for competition between human racers, so you won't find any AI drivers to practise against.
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