Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends

For anyone interested, the game is now 55% off (for 12.59 EUR) in Steam Summer Sale. I got it and so far it's ok. Shame the visuals are a generation behind the competition.
 
I use a keyboard (on a laptop at that) and use the Pro driving settings with the driver's aids turned off.

How are you expecting to drive well with that setup? Even with a decent wheel and pedals, turning traction control off in any simmy game is a huge challenge, how will you drive when your only input options are 0% and 100% throttle?
 
Just did some events using the F355 Challenge and instead of the usual red car they give me, they give me this ugly thing:

f355challenge_02.jpg


Still OK since it's a 355 (one of the most beautiful cars ever made) and it's kinda cool since this is the first car I drove that has different racing liveries but it's not nearly as nice as a flat red one:

test-drive-ferrari8.jpg


...which the AI got to drive...:(
 
How are you expecting to drive well with that setup? Even with a decent wheel and pedals, turning traction control off in any simmy game is a huge challenge, how will you drive when your only input options are 0% and 100% throttle?

I've done it in many sims and haven't had any serious issues. The driving itself isn't the issue. I actually catch up the opposition in the corners, but in the straights they are leaving me for dead...even though we are in the same cars. I'm just not catching up enough in the corners.
 
I've done it in many sims and haven't had any serious issues. The driving itself isn't the issue. I actually catch up the opposition in the corners, but in the straights they are leaving me for dead...even though we are in the same cars. I'm just not catching up enough in the corners.

I think it's arguable that if you're competitive in a 'sim' game using your keyboard, it's probably not a sim... I couldn't even think about getting a car around a corner in rFactor or LFS with the keyboard
 
I think it's arguable that if you're competitive in a 'sim' game using your keyboard, it's probably not a sim... I couldn't even think about getting a car around a corner in rFactor or LFS with the keyboard

Don't mock. You can beat 99% of drivers using keyboard if you master that particular controller. Or any other controller, for that matter. After all, at the end of the day you are applying same inputs into same physics engine as you would with a wheel and pedals, only with a different device and, in case of digital inputs like a keyboard, less fidelity. It's all about figuring out a style of driving that suits the device and works it's way around the limitations.

Back in the days I used to do GPL and wheel controllers weren't as common as they are now there were people who had really mastered keyboard driving, and they were insanely fast.
 
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Indeed, I think learning the racing line and braking points are somewhat more important than having the option to apply 60% throttle as opposed to 100%.
 
This is currently on sale in Steam, 75% off. I'd say it's easily worth a fiver or so...

I got it early this week and have been playing it for a few days, I quite like it... A few specific thoughts:
- The difficulty is fine. I'm playing with hard difficulty and pro settings, using my xbox 360 pad, and haven't had any issues with it so far (I'm about 15% into the game). I've had to take a few stabs at some of the hot lap challenges, but that's what you'd expect for a hard difficulty. The race challenges are ridiculously easy, though. I'm generally between five and ten seconds a lap faster than all the AI drivers.
- The driving model. I quite like the physics with the old cars, a nice mix of handling in a realistic way but still being quite easy and fun to drive. Haven't driven the newer cars much yet, though, so I'll reserve judgement.
- Pad steering. It's quite bad, really... It generally feels slow and floaty, mostly because it centers quite slowly and does not react consistently to the inputs. Sometimes it also does odd things. For example, I was driving through a left-right esses at Misty Loch and after the lefthander I was on a bit of a slight slide when I needed to start turning right, the game presumably assumed that I wanted to correct the slide and gave me about two degrees of steering lock when I needed full lock to take the righthander. Which caused me to go straight off the track. I've had the same problems multiple times.
- Career mode. I quite like. There is good variety, but maybe a bit too many repeated missions (multiple races on same track with same car in a row). However, I haven't seen any odd scripted events described above yet.
- Graphics. I like.
- Sounds. I really like.
- Circuits. I really, really like. Driving around Rouen, old Monza and old Silverstone is like meeting with old friends from the GPL days.

So yeah, it ain't a sim and the steering can be aggravating, but overall I still like it. A bargain for 5?.
 
Had a $3 coupon for Amazon.com so I got this from $4 to $1. Love it so far and for the first time in a long time I actually feel like a Ferrari fan again.
 
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