Everyone,

iRacing is now offering a free 1 month trial! You get some D class cars for free and a track along with the standard content! Its a great deal I'd go for it! Check it out. Hope to see you on track.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=128241125479&ref=nf

Matt Berndt

pro: nicely designed tracks, road surface, force feedback
pro: hourly races
pro: safety rating

con: have to buy new cars
con: have to buy new tracks
con: have to pay a subscription to continue playing
con: doesnt seem to have a lot of ontrack information about the car and not much emphasis on setup (from what i saw)
con: can only race certain cars/tracks unless you buy the rest

overall: ultimately the same as rfactor but with a steep restriction on cars/tracks, there are so many great mods and tracks for rfactor with great physics that deserve (imo) to be bought more than the ones iracing wants to charge us for

while i have enjoyed my first day of iRacing (SR 3.46 and won a race wo0t) i see why some other people prefer it but i will not be renewing my subscription, i would buy it if it was priced like any other game, for sure, with the extra content being free or $1-$3

i will try to get the most out of the free month i have been given though

Setup parameters vary from car to car. The Skip Barber has very limited scope for setup changes, in keeping with the real car. The Lotus79, on the other hand, has a large number of setup options, as shown in the screengrabs below:

Suspension
Drivetrain
Tyres

The setup options available for a given car mirror the setup options that would be available for that car/series in real life.

I'm not sure what on-track information you're looking for but the F1-F6 keys provide information about laptimes, race standings, time deltas to other players, fuel load, tyre temps, pit stops etc.

That said, if you seriously believe that the quality of mods available for rFactor meets or exceeds the quality of the cars and tracks in iRacing, then iRacing is clearly not for you.

Just my opinion.. but I don't believe I can overlook mods like CTDP F1 06, GP1979, Endurance Series, FSONE08, V8 Supercars, BMW 320 E21, PCC 2007, Meganes, etc. I've given a lot of time into driving these mods and others.

Just because I believe that and prefer rFactor, why can't iRacing be for me too? I like it a little less and for different things but is there a reason I can't have both? Well there is only 1 reason for me, the cost, $156 for 1 year.. that's why it's not for me and I guess for a lot of other people.

It seems kind of elitist to be honest, to charge so much, but it's just my opinion and I'm not trying to troll or anything. I gave it a go and will enjoy it for the rest of the month

Thatīs a a very nice offering for a trial month.
Depending on the preference (road/oval) one gets another great car which can be used for some racing action in this month once the SR is above 4.0 as a rookie.
Which isnīt really that hard to be honest!

Yes, the costs of iRacing are steep indeed and I would prefer a more conventional release a la rFactor/GTR/etc. Wonīt happen unfortunately.

But the quality of the cars and tracks in iRacing by far exceed anything else on the market at the moment imo.

Ever since GPL I didnīt have so much fun with a virtual race car like I have right now with the Skip Barber.
Could drive that little car for the rest of my virtual racing career and wouldnīt miss a thing. Except being promoted to the higher license levels.

Because iRacing is at its core about fidelity of modeling the cars and tracks that it depicts; that is its principal stand-out feature. That fidelity comes at a cost: it is very expensive to license content and that together with iRacing's core philosophy of highest-possible-fidelity modeling means that the resources and capital costs involved in adding content are significant. If you seriously believe that the fidelity of add-ons available for rFactor meets or exceeds that of iRacing (and, to be honest, I find it hard to believe that anyone can seriously think that), then iRacing's principal feature is completely lost on you and consequently iRacing's higher cost cannot be justified. Simple as that.

On the subject of cost: mods for rFactor, tracks and cars, are for the most part unlicensed. Modders are essentially pirating the commercial rights holder's IP. That is clearly not an option for a business such as iRacing. If the commercial rights holders were to exercise their rights and protect their IP, then you would either be paying through the nose for rFactor mods or the mod scene would be all but dead.

The free trial has been terminated due to wreckers.

Glad a few of you got in there before they shut it down. You can still get a 1 month trial for 5 bucks I think right now, which is a steal.

Yes iRacing costs a lot compared to other racing sims. But coming from doing pickup races in GTR2 servers your paying for the actual service of a race season, each race meaning something, and racing against the best drivers from around the world.

True you can do this in organized leagues in other sims, but I like how simple it is in iRacing and think that alone is worth the cost. No billions of mods, skins, or tracks to download. Its all there and easily built into the website. For someone who was pretty new to simracing this was HUGE for me and still is.

While I do wish the pricing system was more like a MMO game where you get all content for a monthly fee I don't think the tracks and cars are too pricey. I purchase a few every now and then and only buy cars and tracks I like so its just like sinking cash into any other hobby.

I did not continue to play this after the first weekend.. every time I thought about playing it I just "couldn't be bothered". I think it's for people who only want spend time on one game/simulator, not for me. Free trial appreciated though.

That's what I said! It's for peeps who want to spend all their gaming time with one sim. There are so many sims to choose from, I just don't get how some peeps limit themselves to just one, or pay the big bucks and hardly use it. I don't get it. It's too bad about the wreckers though. Jerks.