^I'm perfectly happy to wait until release next month. I'm excited to see what appears on Youtube from the usual suspects over the next week or so though.
Then definetly whait until release The crowdfunding campaign is not about having early access to a full fleshed product, (don't forget, it's a beta and it will have some hickups and restrictions, that could harm your experience, if you're in for having the full thing in advance) it's more about giving the devs financial trust in advance (with something in return), if you're thinking it's worth it and you're even betatesting, without being paid, more of the opposite even. Nobody, who is sane, would ever push you, to do this! I'm somewhat of a Reiza fanboy since AMS and love their fast support and always improving work and i've made very excellent experiences with them, so i decided to back the company, but if i wouldn't had experienced it, i would've never done that, because i rarely "preorder" something! So for a good experience in the first place, if you're just interested in having the sim good to go, it's better to be patient.^^
Yeah it is 1 hour delayed. So for me it will be tomorrow. 23:00 CET is just a bit to late. After the release I also need to download it first and that will take some time as well. So the first thing I do tomorrow morning is fire up my PC.
First few laps and the physics and ffb are spot on, it's like coming home if you are used to driving AMS but more up to date.
I've tried it briefly yesterday, overall it feels good, BUT the tyre physics are a bit strange to me (feels very similar to PCARS). The first car I've driven was the Dallara F309 and I felt it has too much grip for an F3 car, it was way too planted and easy to catch even in stormy conditions. But I'll drive more today.
I went ahead and jumped on board. I feel like I just bought the PCARS2 Brazilian DLC. A little background to better quantify my comment: I always regretted not taking a chance on the early backing campaign for PCARS1. I spent countless hours in it turning laps on my Xbox. PCARS2 was was an instant preorder for me, along with a the last east gen xbox and a wheel. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the only way PCARS2 was going to play the way it was intended was on a PC. So, I bought an Oculus Rift and I built a solid (for the time) gaming PC and a rig for my G920 wheel and pedals. I spent a ridiculous amount of hours turning laps, playing career and eventually getting tired of the weird little things like the inconsistent physics, AI and numerous other things. I’ve since upgraded to a i9-9900K, RTX2070, 32g DDR-4 3600, a Rift S, T300RS and T3PA Pro. I figured I would give this a chance, and I get it, it’s a beta. Visually, the GUI looks like a hasty mod of the PCARS2 interface. The cursor, menu elements, the options within the FFB, controls, etc menus, right down to the cut track and pit exit warnings. All of these things are straight out of PCARS2. Hell, even the driver model is lifted straight from it. I was excited about VIRgina. And first few laps looked really familiar. It is defiantly a port of the RF2 map. The color palette, the low poly buildings. All of it. I know it’s a beta, but this is a low energy mod slapped onto of an existing game. This is PCARS2, from the GUI, to the models and right down to the slippery ice like feeling of the out laps when you’re trying to war the tires. Granted, it runs great even with the details maxed out, but that should be expected from an engine this old. I’ll stick with it and see how it develops, but I’m pretty sure that I’m just going to be thinking “I’d rather be hot lapping the 911 GT3 Cup in RRRE.” And because internet is gonna internet, I’m sure someone will be along shortly to tell me my opinion is wrong.
A few interesting vids appearing online now, and I remain cautiously optimistic about the whole thing. Visually it looks good, VR performance is supposedly solid, and FFB sounds encouraging.. There do seem to be a range of 'not finished yet' issues present though which are hard to judge at this point. 'It's only Beta' is valid to a point, but there's <1 month until release now. The amount of PCars UI elements still in use certainly raised an eyebrow. It could be that this Beta version was branched off some time ago and is already way behind the curve of where they're at, but who knows. Still lots to be excited about though, and it'll be interesting to see where it's at next month.
In today's world of long supported software products (things being in early access or beta for years), I somewhat doubt they will get it all "done" as intended in a month, but that is okay with me, as long as they keep going
So after one day of testing and finetuning some things: It turns out the F3 car felt strange because the default FFB settings are completely wrong for Thrustmaster wheels. After finding a fitting setting for me, suddenly I was able to test the limits of the F3 car as well. Don't get fooled by the "same as PCARS2" comments, the end result is significantly different, even the same car-track combo requires totally different things from you in terms of driving style. I spent almost the whole day driving the different cars on different tracks and I'm satisfied with them in general. There are various issues and missing things to fix until the public release, but that is expected.