On the bright side, at least nobody’s taking it seriously.
If you’re not a Formula 1 fan, then you might have missed what’s happening with Formula E. It’s a single-seater spin-off championship of Formula 1 using fully electric cars. It’s probably the closest we’ll actually get to real-life Speed Racer, outside of what’s happening with the drone racing league.
There’s elements like FanBoost, where viewers can submit votes for their favourite driver through a website or app that then translates into a surge of power from 133kw (180bhp) to 200kw (270bhp). It’s enough for one good overtake, which is a pretty crazy element to introduce into an already hyper-competitive sport.
Formula E been going for a couple of years now, and to keep the fans happy the sport has introduced various side activities. One of those is eRace, a pre-game event where 9 Formula E drivers sit down in racing setups with 1 lucky fan. There’s 2 races with six laps each, at the end of which the sound cuts out and nothing really happens.
It’s all for fun and show, and rFactor 2 was used as the virtual arena of choice. It’s a decent, but aged simulator. It certainly doesn’t have the graphical quality of a Project CARS, nor does it have the community or the expansive leagues of iRacing.
But man, Formula E didn’t do a good job of showing off the game at it’s best.
The in-game racing started just after 4 minutes, with no in-game sound whatsoever. Having a massive pile-up at the start didn’t help proceedings, nor did the intermittent lack of collision between the drivers. The drivers themselves were having fun, at least, with Loic Duval ignoring the track limits entirely at one point.
After six minutes, the sound technicians finally patched some commentary over the in-game feed. It took another 30 seconds before the in-game sound joined the party. I feel awful for the developers because while it’s cool to see rFactor get some top billing, the game deserves a better showcase than this.
But it doesn’t seem like Formula E will be using rFactor 2 much in the future. The sport’s next association with video games will be with Forza Motorsport 6, with BT Sport broadcasting the virtual affair.
Intriguingly, the CEO of Formula E added on the official website that the sport would be unveiling a new program “that will be a world first in this sphere and will demonstrate Formula E’s commitment to bring new fans into the sport and offer an unprecedented level of access and opportunity”.
Whether that’s an officially licensed video game, the inclusion of Formula E into an existing one (Project CARS would be nice) or something else, no-one knows. Oh and if you want a laugh: jump to 18:49 to see what it looks like when a Formula E car rolls and flips into the trees.
Comments
5 responses to “Formula E Just Made rFactor 2 Look Pretty Crappy”
What rFactor 2 lacks in licensing, it makes up for in everything else.
Terrible article.
It’s not a slight against rFactor 2, more the way it was presented. Game deserves better.
Agreed. Rfactor2 isn’t not a graphics showcase, but it has a far more robust physics engine than project cars or forza.
Iracing is pretty good, but it only trades blows with rf2, and has none of the modding framework.
The crap broadcast and pile up are not exactly reflections on the game engine used.
And that asset work looks goddamned horrendous! I’ve seen nicer looking scgt mods!
I had no idea what E racing is or rFactor 2 is before this article. I still no nothing. Why are the graphics so bad? When you search the game they look totally different https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=rFactor+2&safe=off&biw=1920&bih=965&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiStuGOvMPLAhXFoJQKHUNKCrMQ_AUIBygB
Rfactor 2 can look fantastic, this mod looks like an rfactor 1 port and not even a good one plus the audio is the fault of the organisers not setting things up right, not Rf2. PCars is not a particularly good sim racer and can’t be held in the same category as Rf2, iRacing or Assetto Corsa. Pcars/forza/gran turismo have very limited customisation and no mod support.
Assetto Corsa and RF2 were really the only good choices for what they tried to achieve here but neither of those games were going to make that potato mod look good.
EDIT: I don’t even know that the mod is that bad, It’s the track that’s the issue, bare in mind most Rf2 tracks are user created, and this one I can almost guarantee is a Rfactor 1 port that does not utilise the full grunt of the rf2 engine at all