Review: GTR2

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Ad or Fad?

Much talk has been made of the ”Dynamic Advertising” feature which was to make its debut in GTR2. This means, sponsors can buy advertising space on the virtual tracks. During off-line and online sessions I have never given it much thought and I must report that I have not noticed any unsolicited calls to the internet, performance issues that might be attributable or relate to this DA feature, nor have I noticed any changes in ads, billboards or track commercials when driving.

But then, I try to keep my eyes on the road and the other cars rather than reading ads around the course. In my view, dynamic advertising in racing sims ”is dead, Jim”.

Modability

Following the rather locked approach in terms of modding where GTR and GTL had encrypted physics files; the developers have left GTR2 open to modding of the content. Already physics mods and cars with revised physics are appearing. Whether this fact is good or bad depends on your own point of view and how you value encrypted physics over the potential of GTR2 having more mods than GTR or GTL combined. I do believe we may well see a GTL mod for GTR.

The reasons for opening GTR2 to modding are unknown. Perhaps it has something to do with rFactor taking off in terms of mods and potential longevity.

Multiplayer

It is always a very special feeling competing in multiplayer. The first many races will leave you gasping for air, heart beating at a much higher rate than usual as you anxiously wait for all drivers to join the grid. Then you wait for the red lights coming on one by one. When they are out it is the signal for you and all other drivers to manipulate the clutch and accelerator in such a way that you'll get good traction off the start-line and possibly winning a spot or two in the process. Other times you'll find that you reacted quicker than the guy in the car in front of you, so you'll have to slow down a bit in order not to run into him. Now you worry about the driver behind you. Will he posses the same situational awareness and quick mind as you, or will you feel a gentle or perhaps not so gentle tap as he runs into you?

During the race you'll get a good workout which will likely make you sweat through your clothes as you concentrate mentally all the time, and work the steering wheel, the pedals, the gearbox, smoothly but with authority, lap after lap after lap. Thinking strategy. When to pit. Always feeling what the car does, how the tires hold up. Quick to decide if a sudden shower should prompt you to visit the pits for a change of tires. Never a boring moment!

Perhaps it is from the experience with GTR and GTL that I was able to register and connect to the multiplayer lobby with a minimum of fuss, or perhaps SimBin have taken the clue and made the multiplayer registration more intuitive. As long as you remember to register first, and then connect with user-ID and password, you should have no problems entering the multiplayer lobby.

The multiplayer lobby works quite well and will let you perform a hierarchical sort so you can sort races by ping, then by number of racers, and then by server name. This is very useful to find the races you would be interested in joining.

The SimHQ Motorsports staff tested GTR2 by setting up an online event using the in-game lobby hosting function. In spite of a 4MB pipe with 3 racers, we experienced noticeable lag with cars not being shown and / or lateral movement.

Not only was "20mm" booted as a possible cheat... what really surprised the crew was that shortly afterwards I was also booted as a possible cheat and consequently "20mm" and I wondered if the real cheat wasn't "guod" or even "Chunx" who just drove on completely unperturbed.

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