Be Excellent To Each Other

I thought it sounded dreadful too but from everything I've read the new wireless wheel is meant to be surprisingly good, responsive and accurate and the triggers have a nice long travel. Nothing like as good as a proper wheel obviously but a good alternative to a pad. However it doesn't have a place to plug in a headset.

The reason I ask is I saw one for £20. Might be worth putting it on my Xmas list for Santa

I just imagine it's like the Wiimote as in it's all floaty and horrible with no fixed point of travel. If I can't let go of the wheel to centre it again it just doesn't feel right. I think I'd just probably use a pad if I didn't have a proper wheel.

That's just me though, obviously.

I saw a guy using it on Eurogamer a few months ago, promoting Forza 4. It looks terrible, because it's not fixed to anything you're dependent on keeping your arms steady and that means they'll cramp up even faster than they already would holding up a stupid floaty wheel.

Whereas most of what I've read from people who actually have one and know their racing games seem to indicate that surprisingly it's pretty good and nothing like using a wiimote.

Spent most of my time this weekend doing a few races online against random strangers, and mostly getting my arse handed to me. It was surprisingly ok for the most part though with quite a few people playing the game properly. I have also learned that there is a massive disparity between the times achievable with cars of a similar PI. So I spent the rest of the time trying to get a competitive car in each class, I shall pop all these into the club garage when I'm done so people can see what they think.

Definitely. Some cars suit different tracks, also. I'm not relishing racing the stock cars around Infineon Raceway, that's for sure.

It also seems hopelessly skewed towards some of the big American things. Apparently the last 40 years of car development were a bit of a waste of time because one of the fastest cars ever to have taken to a track is a Dodge Dart from the early 1970s, who knew eh?

Speed Wheel research update!

I went into Game at Cheshire Oaks yesterday to look at the wheel in the flesh. Looked smaller than I thought it would be, but pretty sweet. I asked the splendidly moustached sales assistant if he'd ever used one. His reply...

"I never have, but I've been told they're very good. It's when you turn them side to side that they get a bit wobbly"

My reaction

"... Isn't that the point of a steering wheel?"

Infineon Raceway is just a terrible track. I want Brands Hatch.

Also from reading up it seems that the Dodge Dart thing is a bit of glitch, they are patching it out and wiping all those times from the leaderboards.

Yeah, good luck with that. Forza is very US-biased, so I wouldn't hold out much hope. I guess in the same way that GT is Japanese-biased.

We need a UK-based sim dev to be picked up by a big publisher!

I think it was TOCA2 where you could race Bowler Wildcats around Loch Rannoch, that was awesome.

The TOCA Race Driver games had Bathurst, etc - shame they weren't very simmy. I haven't really liked any of the TOCA games since the first two. Race Pro is very good and features some interesting tracks. Superstars V8 Next Challenge was reasonably decent, and reminded me of the early TOCA games.

Yeah, I don't think that's sustainable these days, Race Pro just didn't sell enough and got no support at all. To make a decent racing game of the Forza type costs a fortune and so it needs to sell to Americans, which means it must heavily feature some sort of skidding contest, dozens of shit old American cars and loads of their dreadful "raceways". Laguna Seca is good, though.

You mean 'speedways' - Laguna Seca is a raceway.

I like oval racing and American cars in general, but I would like to see something a bit more Europe-centric.

I meant like that Infineon shit hole, but yeah the speedways too. I don't mind oval racing as a distraction and it was pretty fun last week in multiplayer but I can't imagine wanting to go near it otherwise. I don't think I've even driven any of the muscle cars yet, some of them look quite nice but that's about it.

I guess I'm expecting that we might see DLC with european cars/tracks but its probably too much to ask for anything that you know or might have even driven on. I do like the american cars/tracks but its not very relateable and thats a big part of the enjoyment for me, thats why I like driving the sierras and golfs and that.
I wonder if we lobby turn ten they might give us the austin metro, escort mkII and the carpark behind tesco to drive on...

There's actually a MKII Escrote in the December DLC, the RS1800.

There's a 92 RS Cosworth in the main game as well.

YAAYYY Iv always been a bit disgusted about not having them, iconic as they are. off to get it now...

@myp yeah but mk5s dont really count, not the right shape

I guess I'm just not as old as you decrepit fools.

is there more than one nov DLC?
cant find mkII...



25 today

Happy birthday wookie

You have the eyesight of a octogenerian.

oop, gettin old. wheres my slippers? bloody hooligans.

The December DLC's out tomorrow I think. I might get it actually, I fancy the Escort and the Suzuki hill climb thing.

Yeah, I told myself I wouldn't buy any more Forza DLC as the cars always end up in the main portion of the next game. However, there's a shedload of stuff I want in this one.

FYI next week's race (the 14th) is currently unconfirmed.

I'm guessing we can have a 'non-championship' week without you this Wed?

I should be on tonight around 9-930 if anyone fancies a few laps.

Im there

I shall be around from 9:15pm onwards. Maybe if it's just the 'hardcore' we could try some long races.

Yeah yeah. How about we take it to the streets and challenge some fools to throw down? Then we can beat them cus our cru iz brutal.

Crikey, there were connection issues a-go-go tonight. I guess it's teething issues with the new dash.

Sorry Ramsea and Kalmar - I can't connect to Live now so can't come back on.

Ah, was wondering why nobody was playing when I came on after the footy.

Perhaps unrelated but Dimrill and I got thrown out of BF3 co-op (which equals insta-disconnect and essentially insta-fail) twice in the space of two minutes,

I've seen on Twitter this morning that they're taking the Forza 4 servers offline today for a short while. It might be game-specific.

I think they might be doing some leaderboard wipes and stuff.

Is there anything specific I need to do/unlock before Wednesday?

Grind the career until you earn 900k credits so you can buy and paint your own stock carnah.

Just make sure you've redeemed the track and car dlc code that came in the box.

Done. Back marker Davpaz reporting!

Have a go with the Audi A4 touring cars (R2 class) around Silverstone International. They are brilliant.

Hello happy Forza people. Is there any objection to doing this on TUESDAY DECEMBER 13th instead? Only I won't be around Wednesday in all likelihood.

Get fucked.

(ok)

Yeah, should be in for that.

Only day I cant do is Tues, so a no go for me.

This game feels... ace, somehow. So far I've raced a few E/D class FWDs (a Fiesta and a Ka), and two D class RWD (MR2 and Mustang). The cars all feel very different from each other, but all feel solid and... well, great, in general. Awesome stuff.

I cannot use a button on a steering wheel as a clutch though. My mind rebels.

As the good Doctor says, this game is bloody brilliant.

I've not played anything that feels quite so much like real driving.

Short of something like iRacing on the PC, I'd have to agree. It's only now I realise how disappointing Forza 3 was.