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| Live for Speed S2, BHMS Sim-Racing Game of the Year? |
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-david-
Joined: 18 Dec 2005
Posts: 26
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 Posted: Wed Feb 22, 09:36 |
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Normally, I believe that the Annual BHMS Sim-Racing Awards are - for the most part - extremely accurate. But this year, I'm 100%, completely baffled that Live for Speed S2 won Game of the Year.
Allow me to explain...
I have GT Legends (GTL). I feel it's simply the best racing sim I've ever played on the pc. Thought it had a good chance for game of the year, but couldn't be too sure since prior to the BHMS award's ceremony, I had not played any of the other 2005 contenders.
So, when I saw that Live for Speed won 3 awards (including Game of the Year), I knew I had to download it right quick and give it a spin.
First of all, it took me almost an hour just to figure out how to correctly configure my wheel within the game properly. It's just not very intuitive.
I will admit though, once you finally do understand the LFS menu system language, it's very powerful. There are more tweaks than I've ever seen in a racing sim. Heck, maybe in any game for that matter.
I finally got the game started and proceeded to put in some laps, change some options, put in more laps, change some more options, you know the drill...
This is when the confusion started to slowly settle in though...
This game, albeit a fairly nice one, simply did not feel like a 'game of the year' racing sim at all.
I'm not contending that GTL should have won game of the year, because as I've said, I can only compare GTL & LFS at this point, as they're the only contenders I've tested.
But, I don't think LFS deserved the title either.
To help illustrate my point, let's just compare GTL & LFS for a moment.
I will list what I believe are the main ingredients which should make up a 'Game of the Year' Racing-Sim, and award my winner for each category.
Graphics
Winner: GTL (bhms agrees, 2005 award)
Sound
Winner: GTL (bhms agrees, 2005 award)
Multiplayer
Winner: LFS (bhms agrees, 2005 award)
Physics
Winner: GTL (bhms does NOT agree - award went to LFS)
GTL's 'feel of the car on the track' is the best I've felt in a racing sim.
Also, I believe that the individual feel of cars is also better in GTL.
Every car 'feels' like you'd expect it should.
LFS falls short.
Force Feedback
Winner: GTL
GTL's force feedback simply rocks. Every bump in the road you feel.
Again, LFS falls short. There were times when it seemed LFS should have registered some ff, but gave me nothing at all.
Tracks & Cars
Winner: GTL
Just because LFS is from a small dev group which most likely can't afford the licensing for real-life cars & tracks, doesn't mean we should give them a mulligan here.
Menu Interface
Winner: Tie
GTL is polished & clean, but LFS has options up the Wazoo.
A.I.
Winner: GTL
FINAL SCORE
GT Legends = 6
Live for Speed S2 = 1
Last edited by -david- on Wed Feb 22, 16:57; edited 1 time in total |
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Flight
Joined: 05 Jun 2003
Posts: 215
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 15:04 |
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As much as I like LFS, and have immense respect for it's developers, I haven't fired it up in a long time...especially since GTL came out.
So I definitely have to agree with you David. I voted for GTL to be game of the year.
Aly |
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Juan Manuel
Joined: 20 Aug 2003
Posts: 66
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 16:57 |
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i agree with you, but my weapon of choice is rFactor, going on the howston or the ZR around the nurburgring is a blast, an amazing sim experience, and the pcc mod is great.
also i believe GTL is a wonderful game, beautiful physics, perfectly modelled cars and accurate tracks, a fantastic sim.
both sims are equally fun and well made, so for me there is a tie.
cheers! |
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liohhearth
Joined: 28 Dec 2003
Posts: 371
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 17:40 |
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Since this was decided by an election. I think the timing ot the releases had everything to do with it. Probably not enough people had GTL yet to make a decision on it.
Voting was only allowed only once? I noticed on the front page you can often vote over and over! |
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kilroy62
Joined: 03 Oct 2003
Posts: 173
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 17:41 |
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| GTL and R-factor are much better gemes lfs s2 is good ,butt not that good 2beat GTL and R-factor. |
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FOG>Steve
Joined: 16 Dec 2005
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 18:30 |
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| I'm glad I'm not alone here. LFS is a great game but it didn't deserve to beat either GTL or rFactor. For me GOTY has to be GTL with rFactor running a very close second. |
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tristancliffe
Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Sat Feb 25, 14:44 |
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Hmmm, I can't agree. I've played most of the sims on the shortlist, with only Nascar Simracing and a few of the arcadey titles being ignored.
Anyway, my take on LFS is:
Graphics
Winner: GTL (bhms agrees, 2005 award), but LFS is pretty close, with accurate colours and no pointless effects
Sound
Winner: GTL (bhms agrees, 2005 award) - for aural pleasure I agree, but LFS's has the more powerful sound engine, and you can use the sound as driving feedback becuase it's real time.
Multiplayer
Winner: LFS (bhms agrees, 2005 award) - got to be, but rFactor (once you get the right mod, and find a server with some people on it) comes close in some aspects, especially collision detection.
Physics
Winner: GTL (bhms does NOT agree - award went to LFS) - I felt that GTL's (and GTR's and rF's) physics are done via a table of numbers rather than real time simulation of every aspect. Which sim works out everything to do with tyres, like sidewall flex, bounce etc? LFS has a couple of small issues (slow speeds and recovering from a slide). Not really noticable if you are going racing speeds and not sliding (the whole point). I think GTR, GTL and rF feel like you're floating about 0.5 inches above the road. It's just horrid.
Force Feedback
Winner: GTL - But GTL uses effects. It plays 'understeer ffb' when you have understeer, regardless of how severe the understeer or whatever. LFS uses the forces simulated in the steering column. As such oversteer, understeer, and everything in between are beautifully rendered within the limits of FFB technology. I keep trying improvement's to rFactors controller.ini, but nothing has made it good yet.
Tracks & Cars
Winner: GTL - I think real cars are not always a good thing. Imagine you recreate the GT-40 at LeMans. But the lap times are 5 seconds out, mainly because driving a sim allows you to go faster as there is no fear of death. Do you a) admit your sim isn't perfect or b) artificially slow it down using tweaks? With fictional cars there is no comparison, so it's all to do with how it FEELS.
Menu Interface
Winner: Tie - I think GTL's is nice to look at initially, but LFS's is far easier to use. Needs tweaks from default though to get the best from it.
GTL is polished & clean, but LFS has options up the Wazoo. I don't think GTL is polished. It looks rushed and a bit naff to me. It's also missing options that are essential over ones that are more 'eye-candy'.
A.I.
Winner: GTL - no contest at the moment. LFS's AI is poo, but it IS sold as an online racing sim, and the AI do have the ability to REALLY learn a track and a car. Maybe one day it'll either kick ass or be removed.
I think rFactor comes closest to LFS, and GTL trails a long way behind rF. LFS is still king overall though.
Oh, and don't ask me questions cos I only visit this site once a month or so, so it'll be a while before you get replied :p As always my writings are just my opinion, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. I'm not saying you are wrong to like GTL, but I don't think it's fair to dismiss LFS out of hand when you haven't played much of the competition. |
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