GTPlanet Community Spotlight: Of Course, You Know This Means War

– Freightliner Argosy CAT Edition in Oslo, Norway as it appears in Euro Truck Simulator 2, June 7th, 2015, courtesy of spinner.

Now just hold on for one minute: a truck is the first thing you’re seeing this week, but why? Every once in a while it’s nice to shake things up in a completely unexpected manner because, and this is purely speculative as I’m assuming you’re scratching your noggin pretty intensely right now, it attracts attention in the most wonderful ways. That particular picture is from the critically-acclaimed, overwhelmingly positive reviewed, addictive-as-you-know-what Euro Truck Simulator 2 on PC.

I wish I could explain why this game is so addictive but I can’t because I don’t know why; the game is entirely based upon your upstart trucking company that you build upon by purchasing garage spaces, hiring drivers, buying new trucks, and of course delivery jobs.

If it sounds like it wouldn’t be your cup of tea because it doesn’t sound appealing in the absolute slightest than you wouldn’t be alone as I once shared that very same thought, that is until I played it. This isn’t an advertisement of any kind nor is there a partnership involved so instead of this coming across as such I’ll give it to you straight: Euro Truck Simulator 2, or ETS2 for short, is quite possibly one of the best independent efforts for a simulator that I’ve ever come across. Did I mention that it’s absolutely addicting? If you don’t believe me have a look inside the ETS2 forum and see for yourself. If you have a PC or laptop it’s definitely worth a try if you want to try something you’ve never thought about before.

If you want to see more radical titles included in the Spotlight such as ETS2 let me know, but until such a time arrives I have but one question: who’s ready for the Spotlight?

GTPlanet Picture of the Week

It might not be a truck (I promise that’s the last time I mention trucks this week) but it most certainly is this week’s featured image, an image recommended to us by Brewguy44 and courtesy of Thorin Cain, featuring the Ferrari Dino 246 GT speeding past Eau Rouge on Spa-Francorchamps.

If you like what you’re seeing and have a suggestion for next week’s featured image, start a conversation with me, entitle it “GTPlanet Picture of the Week” and fill it to your heart’s content with suggestions and they’ll be featured in upcoming Community Spotlight articles. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTPlanet Gallery of the Week

This week’s featured gallery is Pebb’s Photomode Zone coming to us from the man himself, Pebb. Opened on the 27th of October in 2012 the gallery began as a showcase of all things related to the original Forza Horizon on the Xbox 360, and on the 5th of October in 2014 the gallery was repurposed into one that would showcase all things related to Forza Horizon 2.

The gallery approaches Forzatography in a way that quite frankly exploits the environment to create some of the most clever abstract, action, and detail shots seen yet. You can find Pebb’s gallery here in all of its splendor if you want to look through an entire catalog that offers something a little bit different than the rest. The latest update being Wednesday, August 12th.

– Lamborghini Diablo SV, August 1st, 2015.

If you like what you’re seeing and have a suggestion for next week’s featured gallery, start a conversation with me, entitle it “GTPlanet Gallery of the Week” and fill it to your heart’s content with suggestions and they’ll be featured in upcoming Community Spotlight articles. NOTE: You cannot elect your own gallery.

GTPlanet Thread of the Week – Simply Unforgettable

– SRT Viper at Trial Mountain, July 16th, 2015, courtesy of The R!CE Guy.

Many refer to it as nostalgia and while that’s correct in a literal sense, I much prefer to call the games responsible for our racing game addiction the “breakthrough period”. That is of course the period of time when racing games were seen as nothing more than something different from your normal gaming routine, or perhaps you already had an interest in cars and wanted to get behind the virtual wheel of whatever car you dreamed about at the time.

Whatever the case may be we all have a catalog of racing titles that we look fondly upon as being responsible for the hobby we all now enjoy, and this thread created by 8bitter (and merged with another) wants you to do exactly that: recall those games from the early days, preferably pre-Gran Turismo if possible, or if Gran Turismo was your introduction to racing games than of course you’ll want to share that.

There’s a lot of games that will undoubtedly trigger a nostalgic feeling in some of you, so what are you waiting for? Stop by the thread and start reminiscing already!

Tire Punctures in Gran Turismo 7?

– Nissan Skyline 350GT Coupe, August 9th, 2014, courtesy of jiovane.

You won’t have to search very long for criticism on Gran Turismo’s overall damage modeling system, and a great deal of that criticism dates back to the model being shown off before the eventual release of Gran Turismo 5 and the eventual revelation that the more intense modeling wouldn’t be consistent across all cars. Damage modeling could be better in both GT5 and 6, and should improve once GT7 is released or at least one would think, but what about tire punctures?

It would have to be done in a fashion that’s uniform with the rest of what the game offers, so that rules out an RNG-style system where the punishment would occur randomly as opposed to dynamically. What are your thoughts on the matter? There’s no denying that Gran Turismo is going to continue to evolve and adapt for the entire duration of its lifetime but is there a point where enough is enough? Stop by the thread put together by our own Fat Tyre and discuss the matter yourself, let us know whether or not GT should adopt a more realistic tire model and if so how you think it should be done, and if not, why?

Forza Motorsport 6 Direct Feed Gameplay – Lamborghini Huracan and Audi TT

With the release of Forza Motorsport 6 drawing closer there hasn’t been too many direct capture gameplay videos, but they’re beginning to pop up ever frequently now and what better way to have a look at what awaits you on the 15th of September (or the 10th if you sprung for the Ultimate Edition which entitles users to early access) then with videos showcasing one new feature to the Motorsport series and a returning one: wet weather and night racing.

With a little more than 26 days stifling the release of Forza 6 you’ll want to wet your whistle and have a gander at these two videos showing the Lamborghini Huracan and Audi TT.

GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week

Driveclub – What’s Next?

Driveclub is perhaps one of the most immediate examples of a game that’s undergone a complete and utter 360-degree turnaround from where it began; a launch that was marred with problems of just about every variety and the absence of the recently-made-available PS Plus edition as a result of those problems. Evolution Studios remained transparent throughout the entire ordeal – fixing those problems, ensuring their online infrastructure was stable enough moving forward after the surprisingly unexpected adoption rate, and all with new content, features, and embracing nearly every aspect of the community to boot.

As we’re well into the second half of the year Driveclub stands as a polished title and is praised as such, but with the season pass coming to an end as of last month, the question now becomes “What’s Next?” and the simplest way to answer that is “More”.

How much more hasn’t been made clear just yet but what has been made clear is Driveclub will be the first game to feature Ferrari’s turbocharged 488 GTB – you read that correctly, no need to reach for a cloth to clean your screen or wipe down your glasses – Driveclub is getting the 488 GTB this month, in addition to at least one other goody that’s been revealed.

Stay tuned for the full reveal of what’s up next for Driveclub in August.

GTPlanet Tune of the Week

– March 2nd, 2015, courtesy of Loading.

This week’s featured tune is all about tackling the Nurburgring 24-Minute Challenge with a vision of style, and that style belongs to the Mazda LM55.

“This tune is an all around use for the Vision Mazda LM55 at 650PP. Any track/race is fine, however, I tuned this specifically for the Nurburgring 24-minute Challenge in the Super license section of races.

This is a fog/wet/rain race, and was tuned on Racing Intermediate tires. (RH and RS work fine). It’s a 600,000cr + reward race with login bonus, and is great training for high speed racing during rain.

It’s 3 laps around the ring, pitting after lap 2 only for fuel. Very fun, great cash, and awesome training exercise (which is why I even made the tune, to get better at fast rain and make cash doing it).”

Be sure to stop by demonchilde’s tune page and give this one a go, but be warned: the LM55 isn’t for the faint of heart as its lineage is derived from the 787B. Can you rise to the 24-minute challenge?

Sector3 Teases Nurburgring for R3E

Sector3 Studios are showing off their first track add-on to R3E to utilize laser-scan data, the Green Hell itself, Nurburgring Nordschleife.

Alongside the track coming to iRacing that will also be laser-scanned, R3E will be one of three racing sims on the PC to offer an incredibly accurate recreation of the track behind Assetto Corsa. There’s been no word on a release time frame as of yet so there might still be a little bit of a wait involved, but combined with the news of Spa-Francorchamps and the FR2 coming to the title at some point as well, R3E is shaping up into an entirely different experience.

Assetto Corsa – Now 27% More Effective!

– August 4th, 2015, courtesy of GregTheStig.

Since the release of Update 1.2 and the Bonus Pack DLC alongside it, Kunos have followed up with some minor fixes and a little bit of humor.

1.2.3 Changelog

• Added MAX_BALLAST_KG to server_cfg.ini (defaults to 100Kg if the value is not there)
• 4WD cars now behave better at very low speed
• New ABS code won’t allow individual wheel braking and improves stability and directionality
• Fixed clutch remaining unlocked at high speeds in some occasions generating engine “stutters”
• Fixed tyre blankets not working in HotLap and other oddities
• Nissan GT-R new central active diff logic
• Corrected camber sensitivity values for all tyres
• Corrected brake balance for some cars that had heavy oversteering problems under braking
• Various memory optimizations to allow more cars to be used
• Fixed FPS cap to allow precise FPS selection. Please reset your values from the launcher
• Fixed Alfa Romeo 155 autoclutch range for 1st gear starts
• Tweaked tyres skid pitch, especially for race cars with slicks
• acServerManager : added “Create Manager Package” to use this tool on remote machines
• acServerManager : some performance improvements
• acServerManager : added “External Server” to run multiple servers on the same PC.
• acServerManager : weather settings are no more limited to 3

1.2.4 Changelog

• Fixed Mercedes SLS GT3 Hard Tyre short name
• Fixed high resolution timer disable notification filling the log
• Improved ABS, cars will now have correct braking distances while braking on a straight line.
• Changed all electronics.ini files with updated frequencies for ABS and TC for all cars.
  We advice modders to use RATE_HZ=250 and SLIP_RATIO_LIMIT= from 0.14 to 0.20 for optimum ABS, also use higher frequencies for TC
• Changed brakes.ini for various cars to improve braking.
• Experimental aero ride height values and stalling on Pagani Zonda R, Huayra and Ferrari
• 599XX to better simulate what happens in extreme curves like Eau Rouge
• Corrected Mercedes Benz 190E DTM steer rod ackerman geometry
• Adjusted Steer ratio on Lotus Exos and Exos S1
• 3D driver preload animation starts earlier on 458 GT2
• Up to 27% more placebo effect

The Last Lap

I crammed so much into this week’s issue that what was supposed to be seen this week will now be saved for next week – hey, stuff happens! At least I can tell all of you that things are slowly beginning to calm down and I’m going to enjoy this period of peace because next month I can almost guarantee someone will be scraping me off of the wall. It’s going to be absolutely insane dealing with all of that, and yes, I absolutely will be including The Phantom Pain in the Spotlight next month so prepare yourselves for that.

If you’re wondering where the Member of the Week has gone even after the new schedule that was worked out to my own benefit the answer is really simple: there aren’t any suggestions! So if you want to see the feature return sooner rather than later you’ll want to send some suggestions my way and remember to title it “GTPlanet Member of the Week”, and no I’m not holding the feature hostage, at least not intentionally.

Last week I teased the new office/gaming chair that I picked up and boy has it made things far more comfortable for just about every possible activity that involves sitting. It’s a glorious thing indeed and before I write a love poem about a chair let’s cut to the picture.

Yes that is a doorknob on my floor, and yes the radiator covering is littered with dust rabbits (those are no bunnies!), and that is a dinette table because I’m too used to it to buy a proper desk. A DXRacer Formula series for those wondering and it’s well worth the money if you’re looking to buy a new chair but make sure you get the one attuned to your weight and/or height requirements. You won’t suffer much if you happen to pick up a chair not attuned to your height like I did, but paying attention to weight is a must.

That’s about all from me for the week of August 14th, 2015, this is Walter Cronk—wait, no, wrong exit phrase and definitely wrong person. Let’s try this again: until next week you know what to do, keep racing!

Trucks.

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