iRacingIt always scared me a little. Not only because you pay for it with a subscription, which I never felt interested enough to use online. racing simulator sign up in one place, but because it’s serious. Giggles are prohibited. Follow the limits on the highway, spend hours fiddling with the shock settings, don't touch my bumper or I'll call three different serious police departments. Volume 42 pages. official document of the sports code for level members seriously seriously.
iRacing Arcade, its new brother with the Steam Next Fest demo, is thankfully not quite as serious.
“Funlop” reads the parody text scrawled on the bridge above the game's version of Japan's Tsukuba Circuit. Honestly, the simple fact is that the developers of Original Fire Games and iRacing chose the classic Grand Tourism the track as the venue for the only Porsche race that makes up the Next Fest demo sold me 90% before I could even turn the wheel.
First there was a two-lap qualifying session in which each 911 entered the track at the same time, but at intervals. As I quickly learned, when approaching another car in one of these sessions, it simply turns into a ghost to prevent collisions, so even if you approach those in front, there is no danger of being blocked. However, you may well receive a speed limit penalty, which will force you to temporarily slow down as punishment for cutting a corner. This is a reminder, in case you need it, that this is still iRacing, so you'd better find the brake pedal instead of trying to bounce off the walls at full speed, son Jim.
If you keep it between the lines, driving a licensed GT racer with a controller is amazing. The model is a cute miniature version of the full-size 911, but it has the same energetic soundtrack that screams the inline-six. It's fun to slam into one of Tsukuba's tight hairpins, and it's challenging to balance on the edge of grip when you're trying to maximize speed through the sweeping chicane halfway through the lap or hold on for dear life through the sweeping right-hander of the final turn.
Once the grid is set, the six-lap race begins, which unfortunately doesn't allow you to experience the cartoonish pit crews keeping a watchful eye on the pit lane. To be fair, Tsukuba's lap times are under 30 seconds in the Porsche iRacing Arcade, so over that length of the sprint there's hardly enough wear on the tires to warrant fresh tyres. If you're in the middle of a pack, things immediately get nice and chaotic, with the AI drivers flocking together like a swarm of hornets trying to make their way through.
Shhh. Come here so I can whisper it without paying attention to iRacing. You can run into people. You won't be fined. Each minor hit will only cost you one of your car's very generous hundred health points. These bumps and bumps aren't nearly as satisfying or play out as the more anarchic arcade racers, offering little more than a thud resulting in little to no visible damage on contact, but it's progress. Who knows, maybe in ten years we'll be able to hear from iRacing. Festival of the Crash.
I'll admit, by not double-checking the assigned handbrake button, I wasn't able to get the rear-wheel drive racer to drift that much either. Please keep this a secret, I don't want to get a letter in the mail that says “MAKE CARE OF YOUR TIRES.” GRAINING, MARBLE, CONTACT PATCHES, SIDEWALLS. DO THESE HOLY TERMS MEAN NOTHING TO YOU, PAGAN?” I beg your pardon, oh lowercase i racers.
iRacing Arcade will be released on December 2nd this year, and you can get the keys to its Next Fest demo at its Steam Page.
