I thought Road America was a very good addition to the game. I hated Long Beach from the day it arrived and I think I hate it even more now that I’m somewhat used to it. The Ring, however, is just an awesome addition. I realize that some may not like it because of its length, but I don’t mind that at all. The GP track is great and would have been a better addition to the game by itself than Long Beach too. It reminds me so much of Catalunya. There are lots and lots of short tracks in this game, so adding a long one was the perfect fit for me. I like all the longer tracks, but don’t care for Lemans at all, so this is just great. Those are that bothered by the length of it, you have plenty of other options…
its indirectly the length lou as you are goingto find out. the track has alot of variation to it which makes it hard to tune for. fixing the tune for one part of the track makes it worse for another part. rather than going for the ultimate tune you have to settle for the least worst tune. you cant go pure handeling because you wont have the time to catch up, you cant go pure speed because you’ll spend too much time off roading. you have to get a balanced tune then tweek it to compensate for your weaknesses as much as showcase your strengths. you can spend hours tuneing and testing and think you’ve finally gotten it only to take it online and have somebody eat your lunch. its time consumeing and alot of people lack patience.
that said i am happy its finally in. its one of the few times i can have patience. i love puzzles and its a huge puzzle. you get to do again and again because there is no single right answer (there are millions of wrong answers tho.) it feels great when all your work starts paying off.
Every aspect you touched on is what I like about it. With LeMans, you throw all your PI in to power, close your eyes, and hope for the best around the corners. Its like taxiing on the runway, taking off for a short flight, landing, then taxiing on the runway again. Its boring, IMO. This isn’t like that at all. You need more skill than just attaching 4 wheels to a rocket. You actually need to do something other than go full throttle for 90% of the track. Right now, I’m just using the Mini (gee, what a surprise) until I learn the track. Ultimately, I’m thinking either a Celica or the new Alfa Romeo will work well there in D class with a build/tune similar to that of which you’d use on the Alps. Maybe the Subaru WRX or Mercedes 190E for C class? I’m very curious to see which cars will work best as the track eventually gets run by the top players.
It doesn’t have those incredibly annoying curbs right smack in the middle of turns either, so I’m liking it.
Last night I put my Celica up at #4 in D-class, in just two laps. My first lap I was just noticing the major changes done vs FM4 and the 2nd was just a go for it lap. But a lot of time can be made up still, but as far as the #1 car for the track will probably be the new Alfa, it’s just too bad I dont have it yet seeing I’ve only had the game a week.
Gran Turismo 4 earnt me my permanent parole.