Discussion
First I should say this: I love racing games. Over the years I've had a collection of different steering wheel on different platforms.
My mate has just bought R-factor, along with that £180 Logitech wheel. He already had one of those racing chairs he used with Forza II.
Now when it's up and running (as another mate has) it's pretty impressive, BUT, what a pain in the aRse this game is - I just can't see the attraction of all the messing around and fiddling required.
Even the mate who has had it all set up for a while now was struggling with different issues and bugs.
Now as an IT pro, I specialise in messing around
with complex computer systems, but having to do this with a game is just depressing! When I went around there we seemed to be spending more time tweaking settings, trying to remember what key does what etc that I just got fed up.
Is it really worth all this effort?
My mate has just bought R-factor, along with that £180 Logitech wheel. He already had one of those racing chairs he used with Forza II.
Now when it's up and running (as another mate has) it's pretty impressive, BUT, what a pain in the aRse this game is - I just can't see the attraction of all the messing around and fiddling required.
Even the mate who has had it all set up for a while now was struggling with different issues and bugs.
Now as an IT pro, I specialise in messing around
with complex computer systems, but having to do this with a game is just depressing! When I went around there we seemed to be spending more time tweaking settings, trying to remember what key does what etc that I just got fed up.Is it really worth all this effort?
Never any effort for me either and I used to swap between an xbox 360 pad and a wheel all the time.
Not sure what you mean by messing around and fiddling, unless you mean all the options that gamers
want and need for this type of game (such as seat adjust, force feedback adjust, car tuning etc etc)
Those are just things I would expect.
Did he just have trouble getting the wheel to work, is that what you are saying? Game wise, once you are used to it, you can boot it up, turn on or off any assists etc, jump into a car, change the camera to your fave view and be racing in about a minute.
Not sure what you mean by messing around and fiddling, unless you mean all the options that gamers
want and need for this type of game (such as seat adjust, force feedback adjust, car tuning etc etc)
Those are just things I would expect.
Did he just have trouble getting the wheel to work, is that what you are saying? Game wise, once you are used to it, you can boot it up, turn on or off any assists etc, jump into a car, change the camera to your fave view and be racing in about a minute.
Emeye said:
trying to remember what key does what etc that I just got fed up.
That's the same for people playing an Xbox or PS3 game for the first time if they don't have a console and never used one of the multi-button game pads before. It takes a few times for you to remember, how ever for rFactor if it's a wheel and pedal setup the only things you need to remember are the left pedal slows the background, the right pedal makes it louder, the wheely thing changes direction and the lever on the right makes it faster or slower. The only buttons you might want to use on the wheel are for looking left and right, pressing both for a rear view but you have mirrors for those. I trust you are also driving in cockpit and not in console style unrealistic flying camera 50ft in the air behind the car you're supposed to be in?
I've just sold my PS3 to return to PC gaming. Since my favourite genre is first person shooters, I decided I hated playing them on a games console.
I found it far harder to remember which buttons to press on the joypad than I do playing the same games on a PC. A situation that especially isnt helped by the fact that many games often seem to use totally different button layouts. The aiming is also really rather pants using a joypad. You could get used to it I guess, but I just didnt like it.
Much prefer the "WASD" layout of a PC, and the aiming with a mouse.
Also, I was surprised to see that games had to be installed on a PS3, and that the machine seemed to require updates on a very frequent basis. In that respect, I thought it barely any more convenient than a PC in some ways.
PC games are often cheaper too, but I'll say no more about that. Though I grant you, the selection of games is often better on a console. And at least you know that your console will run the game without any problems. PCs seem to require fairly frequent upgrades, at least every 2 or 3 years in my experience. But then, most consoles only seem to last that long these days anyway. PCs are significantly more expensive to buy, so that offsets the cheaper game argument too.
Like most, I install the game, pick settings that are realistic for my machine to run, and get on with it. Sometimes some fine tuning is involved, but in some ways, that caters for my tweaky desires. For example, I discovered that on Far Cry 2, I was only getting 24 FPS running at Ultra High detail with 8x AA, but with a bit of tweaking I got that up to 45 FPS (mainly by dropping the AA level), and I could not tell any difference. I'd be surprised if the console versions ran as well.
My PC is connected to my plasma TV, and seperates hifi system by way of a DAC, and I have a bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse. Playing games on this rig is every bit as enjoyable for me as a console.
Swings and roundabouts though, I guess.
I found it far harder to remember which buttons to press on the joypad than I do playing the same games on a PC. A situation that especially isnt helped by the fact that many games often seem to use totally different button layouts. The aiming is also really rather pants using a joypad. You could get used to it I guess, but I just didnt like it.
Much prefer the "WASD" layout of a PC, and the aiming with a mouse.
Also, I was surprised to see that games had to be installed on a PS3, and that the machine seemed to require updates on a very frequent basis. In that respect, I thought it barely any more convenient than a PC in some ways.
PC games are often cheaper too, but I'll say no more about that. Though I grant you, the selection of games is often better on a console. And at least you know that your console will run the game without any problems. PCs seem to require fairly frequent upgrades, at least every 2 or 3 years in my experience. But then, most consoles only seem to last that long these days anyway. PCs are significantly more expensive to buy, so that offsets the cheaper game argument too.
Like most, I install the game, pick settings that are realistic for my machine to run, and get on with it. Sometimes some fine tuning is involved, but in some ways, that caters for my tweaky desires. For example, I discovered that on Far Cry 2, I was only getting 24 FPS running at Ultra High detail with 8x AA, but with a bit of tweaking I got that up to 45 FPS (mainly by dropping the AA level), and I could not tell any difference. I'd be surprised if the console versions ran as well.
My PC is connected to my plasma TV, and seperates hifi system by way of a DAC, and I have a bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse. Playing games on this rig is every bit as enjoyable for me as a console.
Swings and roundabouts though, I guess.
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