[WSTE_M]

(It seems a bit quiet in here, so Ill use this moment to raise a few eyebrows, lest everyone falls asleep)

Dear Mac Gods, hear my prayer.
End my frustration and desperation, and give me a racing game that will not make be go bananas everytime I play it.

All I want is:
• A game that is built upon a real racing series
• A game in which the races are neither 10 hours long, nor 3 laps, but a proper distance in order to get a sense of realism, yet not enough for me to cancel all weekend arrangements in order to play them.
• A game that does NOT have auto-catchup AI drivers.
• A game that is not a console port (so it will have a mouse-able interface)

Dear Mac Gods, hear my prayer.

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Today I was racing along in Total Immersion Racing, and I realised that this game, the worst racing game I have ever played (on my mac), is also the best (on the mac).
And shows what a sad, sad state mac racing is. It is almost down there with flight sims, which are by all means and results, dead.
The good thing about TIR, is ofcourse that it is a good port (stable, fast, bug free, etc) and the feel of the cars.

But apart from that, it is terrible; some of the cars did, in reality, not compete agianst one another (The Audi TT "abt" car is a DTM car (the only in the game) the BMW M3 GTR only had a brief period in ALMS, after which it was scraped, the McLaren F1 GTR (1995), BMW V12 LMR (1999), and Audi R8 (2000-4) are all from different times, and dident actually compete against one another)
IMHO a clear case of a game company that focused on what cars they could easily get persmission to use, rather than focusing on the broader goal of having a complete (and comparable) series.
The AI drivers, not only uses auto-catchup (which is bad enough), but also drive along a predetimened path, so they dont really have any "skill". (TIR players; note how all the cars seem to hit the dirt on the Ullman straight on the Sebring track for instance), and they also seem to think that you are air, which they can push away, should you make a crazy thing, like overtaking them.
The interface is somekind of sadistic joke, and the game modes are even more so. The games main mode (Challenge) is a series of championships and races akin to Gran Tourismo / Forza motorsport unlockable modes, but badly balanced.
There is for instance, a series of races with only one lap, or one two hour race, in which the time advantage that you save up for a pit stop is reduced to zero by the auto-catchup of the AI drivers. They are all doable, but not exactly fun IMHO. And the games second mode (Career) seems more like an afterthought than a real planned part of the game.
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I had a brief look around, and this game FIA GTR2 looks like the thing I want.
real cars, real tracks, in a real series, and I can expect, with proper racing lenght and realism. The screenshots (especially from inside the cockpit) look really great. (And FIA GT cars kick rear wings).
I have also looked at TOCA racer 3 which looks good too, and has DTM (wee!!!) and other stock car championships.
But it is made by Codemasters yuck!

But I would like to hear if you outhere can think of a better title.
The game does not have to be a game over a GT series, it can be Formula 1, or Le Mans (droooooool).
It doesent have to be 100% super-realistic, but just enough to make it believable.
(and yes, I know we are about to be hit by Need for Speed: Carbon, and that game is everything I dont want. I dont object to it, my nephews love it, but I dont like it one bit)

So what do you think; am I asking for something possible ? or a flying pony ?

W

[Lord Heavy]

Being a huge racing fan, I can thoroughly recommend GTR2, Race, GTL and rFactor. The first two are obviously based on current series (or at least, usually a year or so behind); GT Legends portrays the FIA historics series for GT and tourers; rFactor is an open platform in effect, that relies on community projects to create content. This means there's a plethora of options, but quality can vary.

Unfortunately, the reality is probably that because race sims are reasonably niche in themselves, the chances of a niche game being released on the even more niche Mac platform is unlikely - we constantly read that the porting companies have low sales (in relative terms) of even AAA Mac titles. There are also tech issues: race games are usually high poly, processor killers, meaning Mac Pros all round (though the new iMacs look interesting) and the issue of getting multiplayer to work effectively in general, let alone cross platform. Lag can be annoying in an FPS, in a racer i makes it unplayable...

Similar to you, I'm not that interested by the NFS series, even though I'm very pleased that it is at least being released. So, Boot Camp is the best bet for the time being. Until I bought my Mac Pro last year I always maintained a PC rig just for race games - so at least the Windows box is now out of the house, if not the OS! Another advantage of running 'native' is peripheral support: for the hardcore racer there are some amazing (and wallet-busting in the extreme) sim set-ups that just won't work on the Mac even if we had the games.

However, I hope this will change: Colin McRae will be great when it's released (though it's maybe not in the exact race series area you mention), and I'll be monitoring the EA releases with interest. If they succeed, and Apple actually put some effort into promoting the Mac as a viable gaming platform, then perhaps we will see a next-gen race sim ported in our lifetime...