Pretty happy with this update so far. Not a Mustang guy, but the new Rocket is pretty sweet, the garage sorting is great, and the fix for the Sweeper suspension is much appreciated as I quite liked it before they broke it in the last patch. The new circuit is great too, BugBear really have some fantastic circuit designers on their team and I feel that's a really underrated part of the game.
The new season challenge with the checkpoints is pretty fun. While I suppose it would make it more difficult and therefore frustrating to some people, I kinda wish there were even more taxis driving around. It's a little predictable when they are spread out, but after a few laps they tangle at the crossover and it can mix things up.
The main thing that has been holding me back from playing more is the fact that everyone seems to love A-class so much for some damn reason. It's very very rare I see a B-class lobby, and C-class usually has a mixed lobby up but rarely more than one, so if it's full you are screwed. I don't get it really, the faster cars are more significantly impacted by game performance issues (framerate/lag mostly), A-class is unbalanced as hell, and while all the crashes are bigger because they are happening at higher speeds, that just means that the field spreads out more so there are less crashes overall throughout the race in my experience.
I mean of course people can play however they want, but when I turn the game on and find 8 A-class lobbies with 10+ people but only 1 C-class lobby that is full, I usually just go play something else instead of wait for a spot to open.
Trying not to spend money on games right now and you all keep tempting me...
I will pick up the vanilla game at some point, when I cant resist any longer...
For those of you in the know, a question on the tournaments. Are these time barred - I.e. once the new tournament season starts, can you not play the previous one?
If that's the case, what else can you do with the new cars from "season1" dlc? If it is just the career mode which you can do with the vanilla game, then season 1 wouldn't have much value to me.
If it is like e.g. Assetto Corsa, where the DLC special events are retained permanently, I am more likely to buy the DLC.
I know it's not helping, but with the release of Season 2 they have a new "Complete" version of the game that includes both DLC passes for $49.99... Great deal. I think the base game had a general price drop to $29.99 from $39.99 as well, but that might have happened a while back and I only noticed it now.
The "Season" thing is a little confusing for this game. The Season 1 Tournaments and their prize cars were all free and are separate from the Season 1 DLC Pass.
The Tournaments don't require any DLC to play. They consist of events and prizes, which generally include a vehicle and some unique livery/customization parts. The events are only available for a limited time. The daily and 3-day challenges are pretty simple challenges like "wreck X number of vehicles" or "win this race" using a specified vehicle that you don't need to own (the game lends you a car, even when it's DLC), at a specified track. The weekly/monthly challenges are usually more unique challenges and pit your scores against everyone else playing the game on your platform, so they are understandably time sensitive.
As for the Tournament prizes, at the moment, all the previous prize stuff is still available for purchase using in-game "Fame" points you earn from Tournament mode... But we don't know for sure if that will always be the case. All the Tournament prizes can be used in any mode (as long as the vehicle fits the restrictions). It should be noted that the Tournament mode and daily challenges aren't as demanding/grindy as some games that have similar things, and you certainly don't need to dedicate time to playing every day just to earn the prizes.
The Season 1 DLC Pass had new vehicles and customization options. Some of the vehicles are definitely good, but none are so "OP" that you need the DLC if you really don't want to buy it, especially if you will just be playing single player. There's a pretty customizable free play mode and multiplayer of course, so you
can use the the DLC cars outside of career mode though. There is a car in one of the packs that is very fast if you want to do leaderboard stuff or will be trying hard in multiplayer, but Tournament mode offered a free car that can rival it now. There are some cool/fun vehicles in the packs, and other than a few unique vehicles like the monster truck Beetle, all offer a pretty good selection of customization options.
The paid DLC is a pretty eclectic mix and I feel like they have been pretty lovingly crafted, so personally I don't mind supporting the devs on it as the game is already a great deal. I play multiplayer pretty often and enjoy jumping from vehicle to vehicle so I feel like I get my money's worth easily.
Edit: Yeesh, wall of text, but hopefully that clarifies things.