Gamescom: RaceRoom Racing Experience Hands-On

[Bram Hengeveld]

SimBin recently announced the name of their project they have been working on lately. What was first classified as GTR 3 seems to now be re-branded to RaceRoom Racing Experience. A Free2Play platform that blends in nicely with the (future) RaceRoom website and where a high-end PC racing game is provided for free during the autumn of 2012 on Steam. The first release will include the Aquila CR1 race car and a fictional racetrack called the RaceRoom Raceway

We visited the impressive RaceRoom stand last Wednesday at the Gamescom in Germany and spoke to various people of the RaceRoom franchise. One of them was SimBin's Creative Director Diego Sartori who showed us their newest game displaying on the trusted RaceRoom hardware.



Graphics
What immediately was clear to us was that all the screenshots we have seen the last couple of months were certainly not photoshopped as the graphics in game looked very good compared to previous SimBin titles and up to par with 2012 standards.

Physics
The physics felt like a continuation of what we've already experienced in the RACE Series but then maybe a tad more easier. My first laps in the Aquila CR1 car were quite easy and never did it really feel like a big challenge to keep the car on the track, though I assume some driving aids were turned on for the broader public. The steering actually felt a little smoother and more direct than we experienced in the RACE series.

Sounds
This is where this game stands out compared to its competitors in the (sim) racing genre. The sounds were spot on and impressed us immediately. Great work by the sound artists in Sweden, probably the work of their skilled sound engineer Anthony Monteil, who was also responsible for the quality sounds of SimBin's previous releases.

Interface
The thing that jumped out immediately in the little tour through the game that we got was the game's new menu and interface structure. SimBin got rid of the click-intensive deep page structure of the RACE Series and replaced it with an easy to use click-and-go kind of structure. The structure also emphasises social media as it is integrated with Facebook. The aim is to never have to Alt+Tab to get in touch with friends and rival. The game is planned to allow people to for example share their hotlaps and ghosts with each other without having to leave the game.

First Conclusions
We are the first to admit we have spent way too little time with this game to draw a proper conclusion as most of our time was consumed by Assetto Corsa. However our first impression is that SimBin traded the Get Real slogan from previous titles to More Than a Game with RaceRoom Racing Experience. It looks like an important change of direction away from the classic sim racing community and more heading towards a RaceRoom package with local gaming rooms, event setups and an online platform where everything comes together nicely.

We'll have to see how this works out for community racing like on RaceDepartment with the focus apparently also moving towards hotlaps and leaderboards. Nevertheless, RaceRoom Racing Experienced did breathe the fresh new and up-to-date atmosphere that SimBin needed after the RACE Series and will offer a complete multiplayer online racing environment.

Exclusive Screenshots
Below you find four screenshots exclusive to RaceDepartment.com featuring the Aquila CR1 and the BMW Judd 134. Click to enlarge and enjoy the images in full screen resolution.





Trailer and Gamescom Video
During our visit in Germany SimBin released the trailer of their upcoming title and today they added a second video including some raw roars from the Beemer! Thanks Peter Koch for the tip!

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Bram Hengeveld & Yoeri Gijsen

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[Birddogg66]

I will support this but if it is a replacement for GTR3 IDK to what extent. I really am not a big fan of F2P games but it's SimBin so I am loyal and will do my part but I will feel very cheated after all the hype up of GTR3 and if it never comes to be. It will be strike 1 for Klaus.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

SimBin never said that there will be no GTR3. Actually we asked specifically about it but for obvious reasons it was not possible to comment on it. Also quite logical as they are promoting RaceRoom Racing Experience at Gamescom.

The re-branded remark in the article was about some in-game buttons from the great looking game menu referred to GTR 3.

 

[Ivanjko]

@bram: you told us that aids were active...jay said that only the traction control was active. My thoughts are that this wouldnt be a real sim. what do you think? i mean against iracing and rfactor its really easy hm?

 

[Farrell Hudjik]

The Graphics and sounda are.........sorry fell backwards off my seat..Beautiful. Just beautiful!!

Ya I remember from a post Simbin put up. Saw it at BSimracing. Apparantly the sounds for the cars were actually recorded live at the track for the replay blow buys for every car they were modelling. Wait tll you have that sucker blasting by through your 7.1 surround speakers..

I've always been a huge Simbin fan along wih ISI. Their AI in the sims were brilliant. Only problem for me is I'm from Canada. Have a 50mb download ISP with 3mb upload. I don't know if it was the distance I was from their Server farms, but the lag was aweful in online.

Raced rFactor with people all around the world and that sim online ran just as good as iRacing imho. Netcoding may not be Simbins strengths and I hope they get it right with this.

Also agree with you Bram on GTR3 not being dismissed. Simbin are a no hype, straight up developer who likes to keep things on lock until they are ready. Personally, I love that approach. So it looks like they are going sorta the iRacing/SimRaceWay direction with buy the cars and tracks you want. Hope they have some organized racing series, and league racing would be great through RD.

I stoked for this Autumn. So much good stuff releasing. Two thumbs up.

 

[Peter]

Maybe Raceroom is a testing platform for new titles.
Marcus Jaeger said that when Raceroom released last year, I think whe still get GTR3.

Found this at Raceroom

 

[Von Butters]

Can I just add this?: http://game.raceroom.com/
The Audi R8 looks amazing!

 

[Aleksandr Bukarev]

"...for free during the autumn of 2012 on Steam..." - It will come out during fall, or will be free to download at that time?

 

[Philip Antonia]

Jay Ekkel quote from Raceroom forum:

I have confirmed the following a few times now on several forums. On GamesCom we used a build with the Amateur driving model, which means Stability control and Traction control fully enabled.
This is required because 99% of the people visiting our booth believe they are good racers, but they are not. Even on the amateur models they have their hands full!

Although the amateur driving model can still be good fun when pushed to the limit, noone (including simracers) have been able to get even close to the potential laptime of the aquila on that racetrack. If i am not mistaken the top simracers was still 5-6 seconds of a good time wih the gamescom build. The top time set by a simracer was 1.27.xxx where the potential is 1.22.xxx.

Judging the amateur driving model without being able to maximize it's use is impossible.....

Edit:
At this moment of time we do not comment on the status of GTR3 since we want full focus to be on RRR-E. I will say that it is absolute nonsense to think just because a game is not called GTR3 it is suddenly arcade...

He also said that much more info will follow now the Gamescom is over.

 

[Travis]

I especially like this part of Jay's quote: At this moment of time we do not comment on the status of GTR3 since we want full focus to be on RRR-E.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

We asked Diego Sartori and he said the same: http://www.racedepartment.com/forum...experience-hands-on.54708/page-2#post-1222969

All very logical though.

 

[Travis]

Ah, I missed that Bram

Lots of confusion as to if RR-RE is GTR 3 across the internet, hopefully SimBin release a torrent of info to make things a lot clearer for Joe Average.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

To be honest its nobody else to blame for this confusion than SimBin themselves. They have first hyped GTR3, then deliberately went the vague road by releasing screenshots of what we thought was GTR3 but what turned out to be another game.

All explainable as they have a new owner and who pays decides Just a matter of continuing with clear communication from now on.

The Gamescom presentation was crystal clear though! Good efforts of all involved there. Jay, Diego, J-F, Ann-Sofie, Johan and Magnus who we all spoke to.

 

[Travis]

Well said Bram. I agree 100% on the confusion being all down to SimBin management but it's heartening to know the presentation left you in no doubt about RR-RE and GTR 3 being 2 distinct titles.

 

[Andrew Ford]

I'm way behind the times here but...what is the catch with this game being free? Nothing in life is free! :-S

 

[Tom]

Free-to-play games are generally funded by microtransactions. Team Fortress 2, maybe the most prominent example by now, has it's own in-game item store which has been available even before the game went free-to-play. It's possible to buy items like hats, weapons and...well, mostly hats.

RRRE will probably have a base selection of cars and tracks but additional cars and tracks will cost a small fee, much like iRacing. Just without the subscription cost.

 

[Philip Antonia]

Hi Andrew.

RRRE will be free for the base content (not sure what that is yet) then additional content can be purchased seperately through "micro transactions" so you basically choose what content you do and don't want.

Though some people feel this is a way to make more money, but Simbin have never charged high prices on any full games, so I doubt extra content will be expensive.

The game looks to have some very nice idea's though, bit like a cross between Simraceway (free base + extra content) and iRacing's community based racing and leaderboards etc!!

 

[Philip Antonia]

Lol!!

I type too slow and Tom beats me to it.

 

[David Wright]

RRRE will probably have a base selection of cars and tracks but additional cars and tracks will cost a small fee, much like iRacing. Just without the subscription cost.

I'd be very surprised if RRRE prices are as high as iRacing. First, they don't have the expense of laser scanning and second they are aiming at a far larger market so should sell more volume.

 

[Andrew Ford]

thanks guys. another game to get excited about for 2013