Having had a few 2P battle sessions with friends here are some ideas that may or may not work for you. Comments appreciated.
Tracks
Most guys (yet to find any women who regard GT as anything other than strange male pastime) want to jump straight in and drive. So let them, but inevitably they will over-drive the car and spin off. Therefore Eiger Nordwand is ideal as you can't spin right off the track like you can at say Fuji, and it's more interesting than the HSR. I've then found Suzuka to be the best track. London seems to be difficult for many to learn. Eiger is also relatively short and easy to learn, important for those new to the game.
We find a three-lap battle enough to get into the drive, recover from early mistakes yet not bore people and keep the action flowing.
Cars
Clearly a lower-powered FWD car is going to work best initially, assuming you have inexperienced drivers over-driving the car. Minis and Focuses work well, but the best races we've had have been in Copens.
Challenges
Some ideas:
1. Oval Race. Pick something like a Focus or Mini and run a 3-lap battle. Explain the concept of slipstreaming. You're guaranteed a close battle with plenty of lead changing as slipstreams are traded and the chances of a crash are low so it's a great skill equaliser. Then change cars up to say a WRX, then SL55, the the Ford GT.
2. Baton Race. Pick a circuit with a pit lane. Two teams of two; the first players start, do a lap and come into the pitlane. They must stop and then their partner takes over the car and does a lap before swapping again. Don't bother with a pit lane speed limit.
3. Team Controls. Again two teams of two, but one player does the pedals the other does the steering.
4. F1 Challenge. Have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxjTfAghcU
and you can recreate your own at Suzuka albeit with only one car. How much of a headstart will you give someone? 30 seconds? 45? 60? This is a great battle for players of mixed ability and very entertaining to watch too. Set the laps to 1.
5. Mix Match. If you have players of different abilities things can be evened by giving the quicker player a slower car. This doesn't work so well at Daytona Road or HSR as they have long full-throttle sections, but works a treat at Suzuka and Eiger. Combos:
- Mini vs Swift
- GT-R '07 vs Lancer Evo or WRX
If you have the credits, buy two of each of your favourite cars in different colours so they look better on the replays. By the way did you know the replay view can be changed and zoomed in? You can even things out with tyre choices too but that's not as interesting and exciting.
6. Championship. If you have three or more players work out a championship where everyone races everyone else with 1 point for a win. Any ties and you go head to head.
7. Spin City. The F40 on N1s, or any TVR. Enough said. Warn them beforehand and everyone else can take bets of on how corners before they are in a world of tyre smoke going backwards. Hint; lowest bet usually wins.
8. Blind cars. Select cars for the players but they're not allowed to know what you've selected and they must race with bumper cam. Mention you might be switching tyres and other options too, eg auto or manual. One guy took two laps before he realised he was in a auto ;-) This tests how quick you can adapt to a vehicle, especially one with a strange setup choice ;-)
Other tips
Car list. Make a list of all your cars, print a couple of copies so people can see what they can choose from.
Track list. Print out the track maps for the same reason.
A laptop with the world rankings:
http://eu.gran-turismo.com/gb/products/gt5p/ranking/
open is helpful for working out relative times of cars around the track.
Basically have fun, we do! More ideas welcome.
Tracks
Most guys (yet to find any women who regard GT as anything other than strange male pastime) want to jump straight in and drive. So let them, but inevitably they will over-drive the car and spin off. Therefore Eiger Nordwand is ideal as you can't spin right off the track like you can at say Fuji, and it's more interesting than the HSR. I've then found Suzuka to be the best track. London seems to be difficult for many to learn. Eiger is also relatively short and easy to learn, important for those new to the game.
We find a three-lap battle enough to get into the drive, recover from early mistakes yet not bore people and keep the action flowing.
Cars
Clearly a lower-powered FWD car is going to work best initially, assuming you have inexperienced drivers over-driving the car. Minis and Focuses work well, but the best races we've had have been in Copens.
Challenges
Some ideas:
1. Oval Race. Pick something like a Focus or Mini and run a 3-lap battle. Explain the concept of slipstreaming. You're guaranteed a close battle with plenty of lead changing as slipstreams are traded and the chances of a crash are low so it's a great skill equaliser. Then change cars up to say a WRX, then SL55, the the Ford GT.
2. Baton Race. Pick a circuit with a pit lane. Two teams of two; the first players start, do a lap and come into the pitlane. They must stop and then their partner takes over the car and does a lap before swapping again. Don't bother with a pit lane speed limit.
3. Team Controls. Again two teams of two, but one player does the pedals the other does the steering.
4. F1 Challenge. Have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxjTfAghcU
and you can recreate your own at Suzuka albeit with only one car. How much of a headstart will you give someone? 30 seconds? 45? 60? This is a great battle for players of mixed ability and very entertaining to watch too. Set the laps to 1.
5. Mix Match. If you have players of different abilities things can be evened by giving the quicker player a slower car. This doesn't work so well at Daytona Road or HSR as they have long full-throttle sections, but works a treat at Suzuka and Eiger. Combos:
- Mini vs Swift
- GT-R '07 vs Lancer Evo or WRX
If you have the credits, buy two of each of your favourite cars in different colours so they look better on the replays. By the way did you know the replay view can be changed and zoomed in? You can even things out with tyre choices too but that's not as interesting and exciting.
6. Championship. If you have three or more players work out a championship where everyone races everyone else with 1 point for a win. Any ties and you go head to head.
7. Spin City. The F40 on N1s, or any TVR. Enough said. Warn them beforehand and everyone else can take bets of on how corners before they are in a world of tyre smoke going backwards. Hint; lowest bet usually wins.
8. Blind cars. Select cars for the players but they're not allowed to know what you've selected and they must race with bumper cam. Mention you might be switching tyres and other options too, eg auto or manual. One guy took two laps before he realised he was in a auto ;-) This tests how quick you can adapt to a vehicle, especially one with a strange setup choice ;-)
Other tips
Car list. Make a list of all your cars, print a couple of copies so people can see what they can choose from.
Track list. Print out the track maps for the same reason.
A laptop with the world rankings:
http://eu.gran-turismo.com/gb/products/gt5p/ranking/
open is helpful for working out relative times of cars around the track.
Basically have fun, we do! More ideas welcome.
