Iracing worth the cost?

[mizzou]

It looks sexy as hell

Anyone subscribe to this?

 

[zerocool84]

Depending on how realistic it is, it could really suck. I don't find driving left for 3 hours fun.

 

[blurredvision]

I'm a subscriber. zercool84, don't be a dick, there are plenty of oval AND road courses on the service.

mizzou, what do you want to know about it? If you decide to sign up, let me refer you and net myself some free credit.

 

[mizzou]

I'm a subscriber. zercool84, don't be a dick, there are plenty of oval AND road courses on the service.

mizzou, what do you want to know about it? If you decide to sign up, let me refer you and net myself some free credit.

I was following it's development a long time ago but forgot about it. Looking for a 2004nascar style sim and that game looks pretty freaking great.

$14.xx per month isn't that bad....

 

[Whirlwind]

It is a true racing sim.....if you liked the Papyrus nascar sims......then you will like this....if you did not then you will not like this.

Alot of Nascar Drivers are using this.

 

[blurredvision]

I was following it's development a long time ago but forgot about it. Looking for a 2004nascar style sim and that game looks pretty freaking great.

$14.xx per month isn't that bad....

It's definitely the sim of all sims, IMO. The monthly cost isn't bad, especially considering that if you pay for a year or two up front, you can get it down to roughly $8/month. However, make sure you are aware that you'll have to buy a lot of the content in addition to that monthly subscription fee. You get something like 3 vehicles and 2 or 3 tracks, but you need to purchase the rest if you want to use them. Vehicles are $12 and tracks range from $12-$15.

All-in-all, it's an expensive game, but worth it if you love simulation racing. The community seems to get bigger every week and the competition is way too good. If you decide to try it out and sign up for 3 months or longer initially, use my email addy for a referral if you don't mind: joshpuckett-at-roadrunner-dot-com.

 

[mizzou]

Are there repercussions if you suck and cause huge accidents?

 

[blurredvision]

Are there repercussions if you suck and cause huge accidents?

Definitely. There are two major rankings that you need to be aware of while racing. The biggest is SR, or Safety Rating. There is an entire system in place that constitutes what leagues you can race in and what licenses you have depending on your SR.

You start with a rookie license and a 2.5 SR (I'm pretty sure it's still 2.5). As you race clean laps, your SR increases after each race. Once you hit the 3.0 SR threshold, a new league will open up. As you hit 4.0 SR, you will be eligible to go to the next license, at which point your SR will decrease and you begin the climb again. They used to only do license upgrades every 3 months, but I believe they've changed it now so that you can upgrade as soon as possible.

However, there are many factors where your SR can decrease. Running off the track, making contact with the wall, going the wrong way, and making contact with other cars. Each incident is rated on a 1-4 scale. Running off the track is at the lower end while hitting other cars is the high end. Make no mistake about it, having 2 or 3 incidents during a race can stagnate your SR or even lower it. You really have to do your best to drive clean. The SR and the subscription model pretty much keeps out the idiots and lets you focus on racing. People still make mistakes though, and the SR system does not try to find fault. That means if somebody runs into you, you most likely will still get counted for an incident. It can be frustrating since you can drive cleanly and still loose SR, but it is what it is.

The base subscription model gives you enough tracks and vehicles to compete in the rookie leagues. Once you get to the D league, you have to start buying stuff on top of your subscription.

The second rating I mentioned above is your iRating. You only start with this once you start racing in D leagues and it's a measure of your skill. The better you do, the higher it goes and you are attempted to be paired with people of similar rating.

You also have the option to race in hosted sessions, which is basically user-made races that aren't attached to the leagues at all. A lot of people run their own leagues with their own websites and stuff, and these hosted sessions completely ignore SR and iRating. The hosted sessions are also a great way to race on tracks with vehicles that you normally wouldn't have the license for. When I first started, they didn't have hosted sessions, just the official league races. I picked up a couple of tracks and cars, but couldn't do anything but practice on an empty track because I didn't have the proper license.

I actually don't race much on the service anymore. I run a few practice laps every now and then, but that's pretty much it. Overall though, if you don't mind the cost, it's pretty awesome.

EDIT: Forgot to add that if you go in and start causing wrecks (or somebody does to you), there is a complaint system where you can report the driver and submit a replay. iRacing themselves will investigate and take action on anyone intentionally ruining the game for others, and they've been known to kick people off the service.

 

[mizzou]

wow, that sounds pretty awesome. I think a monthly test subscription should be in the works for my birthday =D

I've been itching to put my MOMO racing wheel setup to good use. NASCAR games are my fav

 

[getbush]

Hey peritus -

I tried this last fall and enjoyed it some but then my ancient (2004) gaming desktop bit the big one.

What processor and video card would I need to max iracing out? I don't want to dump a bunch of unnecessary cashola into a possible rig if I don't have to. Thanks!

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Depending on how realistic it is, it could really suck. I don't find driving left for 3 hours fun.

That was hilarious.

 

[blurredvision]

Hey peritus -

I tried this last fall and enjoyed it some but then my ancient (2004) gaming desktop bit the big one.

What processor and video card would I need to max iracing out? I don't want to dump a bunch of unnecessary cashola into a possible rig if I don't have to. Thanks!

Not really sure what exact hardware you'd need to max it out. I'm using an almost 4-year old E6600 Core 2 Duo and a GTX275, and I have everything pretty much maxed out with minimal slowdown.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

So now that this game is running for couple of years, how is it?

I only learned about it today myself. But it looks kind of cool.

 

[brainhulk]

i just bought a 1 year subscription. I've have both gran turismo and forza, and I am running it with a i7 3770k, gtx 560ti, g25 racing wheel, and playseats evolution chair. My conclusion is the physics in iracing is superior to both. I'm don't race my real life cars, but I do take them on track days and I can say iracing feels the most realistic.

The game my not have the plethora of cars the console games have, but the feel of the cars during low speed, high speed, at the limit traction, trail braking, power oversteer etc is spot on.