- 786
- United States
How we feel about PC2 depends to a large degree on how you play the game, and on what you play the game.
If you only play offline on a killer PC rig (and a nice VR setup!), you've got possibly the best sim out there. If you play online on a killer PC rig against others in private server league rooms, you've got arguably one of the better sims out these (as long as that server and the connections are rock solid). If you play solely online on a decent PC rig, you've probably got problems, especially if you are playing public rooms that no longer have a host kick option. All in all, on a PC, you are possibly pretty happy.
Things change a LOT on console.
If you play offline only, on a PS4Pro, you've got a pretty decent game, as long as you get used to the AI inconsistency. On a vanilla PS4 and even more so on a base XBONE, you have serious grid size issues and iffy graphics in higher stress situations (weather, large grids, transitioning lighting, certain resource hungry tracks), sometimes leading to FFB and handling issues.
But online on console is a total mess. Unless you are playing private leagues (where griefers are locked out by password) lack of host kick has ruined online. Connection to servers is often iffy at best, and the port from the PC lobby system is crippled by bad coding. Rooms cannot be sorted other than in groups of 20 (rather than by total rooms running) and there is no 'Next 20/Prev. 20' button to allow you to peruse all available. There are no room titles, so every room is a crapshoot finding similar minded players, full rooms disappear off the list (so best of luck finding a room you want to join and waiting until there's a slot), sort options are limited (no 'stock tune' sort, no sort by rating), host migration is bugged, there is no text chat (the best way to avoid a microphone cacophony), and the time left before entry is accepted, or time to event start and finish are absurdly inaccurate.
The trend in racing games is towards esports, and this is the area that PC3 needs a TOTAL rewrite (PC2's lobby system is barely changed from PC1). If SMS focus on this as their ONLY improvement to PC3, it stands a chance of saving their bacon. But another game with the same utterly flawed online system for consoles dooms it in the console market.
Unless you only play offline, don't care about custom championships, and stick to doing TT's or Quick Races. And, how much of the game is that?
Unless Ian Bell has had his head under a rock for the last year, he cannot have missed the incessant posts about these issues both here and at his own company's forum (where, curiously, he cannot announce the new game and comes here to do it!). Serious change is needed. Does he care? Does he want a larger slice of the huge console market? After two failed efforts, only the gullible are lining up for a third without checking first whether these issues are fixed once and for all.
It's crunch time...
If you only play offline on a killer PC rig (and a nice VR setup!), you've got possibly the best sim out there. If you play online on a killer PC rig against others in private server league rooms, you've got arguably one of the better sims out these (as long as that server and the connections are rock solid). If you play solely online on a decent PC rig, you've probably got problems, especially if you are playing public rooms that no longer have a host kick option. All in all, on a PC, you are possibly pretty happy.
Things change a LOT on console.
If you play offline only, on a PS4Pro, you've got a pretty decent game, as long as you get used to the AI inconsistency. On a vanilla PS4 and even more so on a base XBONE, you have serious grid size issues and iffy graphics in higher stress situations (weather, large grids, transitioning lighting, certain resource hungry tracks), sometimes leading to FFB and handling issues.
But online on console is a total mess. Unless you are playing private leagues (where griefers are locked out by password) lack of host kick has ruined online. Connection to servers is often iffy at best, and the port from the PC lobby system is crippled by bad coding. Rooms cannot be sorted other than in groups of 20 (rather than by total rooms running) and there is no 'Next 20/Prev. 20' button to allow you to peruse all available. There are no room titles, so every room is a crapshoot finding similar minded players, full rooms disappear off the list (so best of luck finding a room you want to join and waiting until there's a slot), sort options are limited (no 'stock tune' sort, no sort by rating), host migration is bugged, there is no text chat (the best way to avoid a microphone cacophony), and the time left before entry is accepted, or time to event start and finish are absurdly inaccurate.
The trend in racing games is towards esports, and this is the area that PC3 needs a TOTAL rewrite (PC2's lobby system is barely changed from PC1). If SMS focus on this as their ONLY improvement to PC3, it stands a chance of saving their bacon. But another game with the same utterly flawed online system for consoles dooms it in the console market.
Unless you only play offline, don't care about custom championships, and stick to doing TT's or Quick Races. And, how much of the game is that?
Unless Ian Bell has had his head under a rock for the last year, he cannot have missed the incessant posts about these issues both here and at his own company's forum (where, curiously, he cannot announce the new game and comes here to do it!). Serious change is needed. Does he care? Does he want a larger slice of the huge console market? After two failed efforts, only the gullible are lining up for a third without checking first whether these issues are fixed once and for all.
It's crunch time...