On road courses, the track is your main opponent, while on ovals its the other drivers. It feels mesmerizing to go around an oval track, constantly dancing on the limits of adhesion...a few inches away from another car. Talking about realism: Using custom setups, our WMD aliens run lap times in the DW12 that would place them right in the mid field of the 2017 Indy 500 starting grid!
Both styles have their charm and I'm happy we'll get to simulate as many disciplines as possible in one package.
I agree, so long as there is a mutual understanding about other "unwanted" categories like rallycross or roadcars.
Personally, ovals bore me to tears. There also aren't any freeways or wide open land for miles from my house.
But in a diverse game like this, almost everyone should find something to enjoy and probably something else they'll never touch. One person's favorite car/track/category is inevitably "worthless" to someone else.
So bring on the ovals -- maybe dynamic time/weather, a large grid of AI, genuine pit stop features, etc. will make them more interesting to me than they've ever been before. PCARS1 already imbued life into circuits I previously thought were hopelessly tedious. 👍
I agree I personally don't like ovals either. First of all I'm European so whatever racing history I grew up with has been mostly F1 and rally. My first contact with ovals in a racing game was probably Indianapolis first in Real Racing 3, later in Forza 5 & 6. In a game as static as Forza (no dynamic weather, no dynamic time of day, no dynamic track) it bores me to the back of my teeth. But I'm willing to give it a go again in PCARS2 when the tracks and environments come to live. Besides that turbine car sure looks interesting enough to give a try as well.
I prefer circuit racing the most as well but mostly GT & LMP cars. So it's not just the oval racing, it's also open wheelers that don't interest me that much. I prefer cars with a bit more body weight and slower speeds.
However with the introduction of rallycross in PCARS2 and soon Dirt 4 releasing (they got the official FIA WRX license, PCARS2 only has a few cars and tracks - which IMO is fine seeing how much broader the game is) I started to dig myself more into the sport and I am ABSOLUTELY loving it. I don't like rally itself much (as a spectator sport) because of the long timetrial stages not showing any direct racing between the drivers. I don't like the snorefest that F1 has become either. Formula E is even more boring with cars that sound like malfunctioning vacuum cleaners. So GT & LMP endurance racing has been my main choice of races to watch. But ooh boy, WRX sure is coming strong to even top that. The entire system seems to work so perfect, several short races in a close quarter combat where the excitement is on a level I have never seen before. And if a race is boring it's over in 5 minutes anyway (ok if it's fun it's over in 5 minutes as well
).
I often play racing series on my TV screen as background fuz while I do other things in the house like cleaning, preparing dinner etc. Rallycross is the first racing sport in ages where I just cannot keep my eyes of the screen.
Take a look at this for example, one of the epic semi-final races of WRX at Hockenheim in 2016. I think it must have inspired SMS to put the Hockenheim RX circuit in PCARS2 as well.
I personally think it's even a rather boring circuit, I'm much more a fan of the RX purpose-built tracks.
epic semi-final at Hockenheim 2016 :
Watch this one, my personal favorite RX tracks in Montalegre. Not in PCARS2 but will be a new track for Dirt 4 :
Like with any new motorsport, it's a bit getting used to in the beginning. But after a couple of races when you start to know the drivers and the teams it's great fun. I also absolutely love the friendly atmosphere between the competing drivers in WRX. When Bakkerud won in Hell in 2016 you can see Ekstrom (competing driver from another team) run to his car making a selfie of them both, so fun to watch. Meanwhile over at F1 driver interaction is so boring and serious.
And this cracks me up as well, from this weekend at Lydden Hill WRX :
That entire WRX gang is so great, Bakkerud the fun-maker, the Hansen family, Sebastian Loab, Petter Solberg and a bunch of great fun racing guys.
