OnlineRaceDriver honoured to be CVG’s Site of the Week

We’re incredibly pleased and honoured to have been picked by the legendary Computer and Videogames site as their ‘Site of the Week‘. It’s a regular series recommending the best gaming websites around, and tends to showcase those who really specialise and know their subject.

So it’s a priviledge to be featured alongside such good company, and it’s also really nice after the hard work that’s been put into this site, especially by Tom, Kalps, GTDon and several other great people who have helped us get this far, and are working hard to help us keep making such great progress. To put it into context, we’ve gone from a handful of people reading the site to just under 20,000 people this month, and we’re growing every single week and month.

And it’s also a recognition of the input every single one of you has had in reading what we do, commenting, sharing on social networks, and telling other people about the site wherever you chat about games. We really appreciate it, and hope to get you more involved in the future of ORD, along with releasing a load of site updates, and a new contributor we’ve currently got locked in a garage completing his race training ready to make his debut on the site.

So here’s to a great 20 months of ORD so far, and here’s to making the site even better as the home of online racing in the future!

“Your Ambition Outweighs Your Talent”

“Your Ambition Outweighs Your Talent” Ok hands up – who has got overexcited at the start of a race, braked too late for the first corner and punted someone off? Oh good, it’s not just me then. We’ve all done it. Not that I meant to, and I am very sorry to those that I hit… I just got a bit… ambitious.

As Casey Stoner said to Valentino Rossi after The Doctor lost control of his Ducati while attempting an overtake on the Queensland rider in the Jerez Moto GP, “your ambition outweighs your talent”. Whilst this may not be strictly true in the case of a nine-time World Champion, it is certainly true of a great number of online racers.

After a brief affair with Gran Turismo 5, I am now spending the majority of my gaming hours back with the brilliant BAFTA-winning F1 2010. I can forgive such a good game for having a few minor flaws, but racing online can be a frustrating experience as too often a race can be ruined at the first corner by racers getting too hot-headed and steaming into turn one too fast. If I can avoid first corner collisions I am almost guaranteed a podium, but should I suffer damage, my race is effectively run. I imagine it’s the same for you too.

And then there are the quitters. F1 2010’s online lobby isn’t the greatest, and it’s often pot luck as to how long you’ll have to wait before a race begins. After a long wait tension on the grid is even higher, pressure to make a good start is heightened, and the frustration of a first corner collision can be greatly enhanced – leading to many people quitting races there and then. This can be doubly-frustrating for anyone wanting a 12-car race as there are often only a few left by the end, and no deterrents are in place to stop people exiting early. I personally find it preferable to stick with a race whatever happens and enjoy the challenge of a fightback, but would love to see some kind of penalty imposed on early quitters in the forthcoming F1 2011 to ensure a little more consistency in races. Just like middle-lane hoggers and people that don’t indicate before changing lanes on a motorway, this is bad driving behaviour that is rife because it is so rarely punished.

If you share my frustrations there are a couple of things you can do. To start with, I now prefer to do longer races, as driving standards tend to be better and there is less pressure on the outcome of turn one. In a 50-lap race there is an awareness from those taking part that the race is a marathon rather than a sprint, and any first corner contact will just feel like an unwelcome time penalty come the end of the race an hour or so later – so people take it easier. I also tend to adjust my first corner strategy depending on my grid position. If I’m at the front I’ll really go for it, just to save myself the risk of being punted from behind. If I’m at the back I’ll hang around and cost myself a few seconds while watching the inevitable accident unfold, before picking my way around the cars and debris strewn across the circuit. If I am stuck in the middle, I just pray and hope for the best.

But nevertheless I would like to appeal to all you virtual racers out there to take it easy into turn one next time you’re online – nobody wants to spin and the race can’t be won on the first lap. Unless it’s a one-lap race, obviously. And don’t quit straight away next time you get hit – it happens, so practice avoiding it – and if it does happen, deal with it more maturely. Think of poor Casey Stoner, he dealt with it really matur… oh.

Why I founded OnlineRaceDriver.com

The last three months have been great for OnlineRaceDriver. We celebrated our first year anniversary in January, which coincided with a big increase in traffic, which has kept going for the last three months, and shows no sign of slowing down. We published a load of stories, added a forum (which you should go and register on, as it’s been quiet so far, but we’ve got some big plans), and also started to get more support from various companies involved in online race games – the latest include the amazing team at iRacing, the wonderful people at Roxio, and the friendly PR people at Indigo Pearl, to name but a few).

The month of April is significant for me for a few reasons, besides the fact racing really gets underway, and it struck me that I’ve not really explained why I started this site and continue to develop it alongside two full time businesses and raising a family.

The background to OnlineRaceDriver:

It all really goes back to my father, who has been into cars and motorcycles for most of his life. He never quite got to the stage of actually racing, but his passion for automotives and motorsport meant that I grew up surrounded by magazines, models and motorsport on TV. And some of the earliest family outings were to local circuits Brands Hatch and Lydden Hill to watch Rallycross in particular.

It was great timing as the late 80s saw Group B rally cars ineligible for rallying following the sad death of Henri Toivenen and his co-driver, so many of the legendary machines made their way into Rallycross, which for the unitiated, is circuit racing with off-road sections. So I got to stand a few feet away from a field of cars usually including the likes of Will Gollop’s Metro 6R4, Martin Schanche’s Ford RS200 and Dimi Mavropoulos in his black Audi Quattro.

Bikes were also a big part of my youth, as soon as I was able to reach the pillion footpegs, so out trips then included British Superbikes, World Superbikes and GPs. And as I got a bit older, we went further afield – Donington, Silverstone, etc.

So that’s the real world bit almost done, except for one thing.

While I didn’t get any closer to racing competitively than my father, I did get more involved. Besides cars and bikes, one of my other passions was writing, and I’d always dreamed of being a journalist. So what better fulltime  job could I have somehow lucked into after university, than on the world’s biggest motorcycle paper and website at Motorcycle News. I got to meet and talk to racers (some of whom had been my heroes for years), ride on trackdays, and indulge my passion for motorsport with a bunch of other people who spent thier lives immersed in engines and racing. (I’d actually also lucked out by getting work experience and my first bit of freelance work for the Official Dreamcast Magazine – the paid printed work probably helped a lot in getting my foot in the door at MCN).

It was around that time that I first thought about the idea which became ORD, but for various reasons it never really came to fruition until 2010 – by which time I’d left MCN. And when I decided to start my own businesses, ORD became a much larger part of everyday life.

So why start OnlineRaceDriver?

There’s some simple logic behind ORD. You don’t get many general sports magazines or writers, because there’s a world of difference between basketball and golf. And when you look at music, or film, you’ll also tend to find a huge number of titles which focus on one specific type or genre. And yet all the big games magazines and websites all try to cover pretty much everything.

You might play every type of game, from platformers to strategy games, but often you’ll find you might prefer particular genres. And all too often I’ve read reviews written by game journalists who openly admit to not enjoying particular types of game, but were forced to cover them because noone else was available. Or they were writing about things they’d never had the briefest experience of.

I’ve not only played games for a long time (Roughly 27 years, but I did start very young!), but I’ve also played a lot of racing games. They’ve ranged from the brilliant to the terrible, the accurate to the bizarre. And I’ve followed the apparently impossible challenge of simulating a motorcycle and rider on a screen (probably the best attempts have been TT Superbikes and Tourist Trophy for the PS2 for the record).

So why couldn’t there be a site which covered racing games in-depth, and was written by people who not only loved virtual racing, but either had a lot of experience in racing games, or some experience of real world racing either as a competitor or involved in some other way?

At the same time, racing games were really coming of age with the likes of iRacing, Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo etc, but also with the rise in online gaming for console owners. PCs were getting more powerful and relatively cheap, and were getting slightly easier to use, but still require a little bit of effort to work for gaming. But the Xbox really started simple and effective online gaming for console owners, followed by the rival efforts of Sony’s PS3 and the handheld market starting to get in on the act. Now you can also include mobile phones and tablets!

And finally, it’s about you – the gamers. Online racing may not carry quite as much physical danger as real world racing, but to race competitively definitely requires a lot of skill and commitment. Simulations now require as much virtual tuning as you’d expect for a real world team, and the amount of feedback is increasing all the time. Projects like the GT Academy have led to gamers proving their real racing skills and going on to compete at a very high level, and virtual racers such as Greger Huttu have shown they can jump into a race car for the first time and post laps far beyond what you might expect, all from their experience with a sim racing game.

So why should there be a place that covers the virtual racing and virtual racers with as much respect as any other motorsport? If professional racers are not only using games to learn new tracks but also competing on a regular basis, that’s a sign of the level gaming has reached.Various types of game have given rise to professional gamers competing in global tournaments, and becoming famous in various countries, and I hope ORD can be a part of raising the fame of online racing to a wider audience – particularly as it’s such as instantly identifiable experience for non-gamers.

So that’s it really. I hope this site can:

• Help more people find out about online racing – particularly the clubs, tournaments and racers.
• Help all online racers to find ways to get faster and enjoy themselves more.
• Keep up with the latest news, reviews and videos – all written by people who love and understand racing.

And I’m also hoping you can help in lots of ways:

• Want to write for us?
• Want to keep us updated on your club/tournament?
• Why not share your views and insights in the comments, or in the forum?
• Recommend our site to friends, family, or strangers you meet in the street?
• ‘Like’ us on Facebook or  ‘Follow’ us on Twitter
• Send us your suggestions for what you’d like to see on the site, or what would help your racing
• And if you’re interested, then the ORD Racing Team is always open to new drivers across all games and formats.

Thanks for reading the site (and this length explanation), and hope you enjoy what we do!

Dan

P.S. I couldn’t not mention all the people who have helped with the site so far: GTDon, Tom Bowker, Kalpesh, Gareth,Steve,Chris, Wren, and Jigowatt, who kindly donated our lovely logo. And finally my family for understanding why my ‘leisure’ time is spent either working on the site, or trying to become a better online racer…

MotoGP 10/11 release video

Indycar and iRacing partner for new championship

Indycar and iRacing have teamed up for the new iRacing.com IZOD Indycar Premier Series, which is an 18-race, 36-week series hosted on many of the same tracks as the 2011 IZOD Indycar Series.

Racers will compete for oval and road titles, as well as an overall series champion. Both the oval and road champions will win a cash award, but the overall series champion will also get a trip to the IZOD IndyCar season finale to receive the season trophy and be recognized during pre-race driver introductions.

Ther series will use the virtual version of the Dallara IC 09 IndyCar, and tracks already on the schedule include the Indianpolis Motor Speedway, Barber Motorsports Park, Texas Motor Speedway, The Milwaukee Mile, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Infineon Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with Iowa Speedway and Twin Ring Motegi currently under construction and to be added as they become available.

In other iRacing news, the Jetta TDI Cup D-Class series will now become the Class D Jetta MX-5/Roadster Series, with a 12-week schedule featuring mixed class racing with the Volkswagen Jetta TDI and Mazda MX-5/Roadster. Circuits hosting the series will include Sebring, Zandvoort, Road Atlanta, Silverstone and Spa.

OnlineRaceDriver.com celebrates it’s first birthday

Having been a gamer for roughly 28 years, and a journalist for over 10, I’d thought about starting videogame sites for a long time – in fact my first paid freelance work was for the Official Dreamcast Magazine a long time ago. But it was just over a year ago I finally put some of my ideas into practice and got together with a few people to launch OnlineRaceDriver.com.

The basic philosophy behind the site (and the more recent launch of FPSPrestige.com) is that videogames are a huge part of daily life for many people, and a large number of those people are very passionate about particular games or genres. So why is it that sports magazines generally focus on one particular sport such as football or basketball, with in-depth knowledge and coverage, but gaming magazines and websites attempted to combine coverage of everything, even when journalists and writers admitted they weren’t particular fans of certain types of game? Why shouldn’t gamers who love racing games read news, articles and features by people who live and breathe racing games, or have experience of racing in real life, to give the kind of insight needed for a really in-depth and valid opinion?

Hence why I spoke to people like GTDon, whois incredibly experienced in the Forza world, having started the Forza World Championship many years ago. And TomBowker, who combines an obsessive passion for Formula One with an obsessive passion for F1 games, and also asks questions like ‘Where’s the safety car in racing games?’

And luckily enough, a surprisingly large number of people seem to agree with our plan, considering in our first year, with no money for promotion, advertising, or celebrity endorsements (At this point I have to credit Jigowatt for helping out with our logo), and just enough to secure hosting and a blog template from StudioPress), we’ve achieved:

• 46,831 Page Views.
• 30,705 Visitors.
• 59 Fans and growing on Facebook. (We haven’t really promoted our Twitter account yet!)
• Over 1,100 views of our videos on Youtube.
• We’ve been credited on sites such as Wikipedia.
• We’ve started going racing

Not bad for a few guys who have only ever talked and raced online. And over the last year, we’ve had some great articles. The most popular so far have been:

• Where is the safety car?
• Is iRacing enough to buy racing?
• Cars missing from racing games: #1 The Metro 6R4 (I really need to update that series!)
• The Non-Racing Dept – Hands on with Kinect Sports
• The Demise of Two-Player Split Screen

So what’s next for 2011?

I have a slight confession to make, in that we actually officially launched the site on January 3rd, but the excuse is that we’re all busy working on new stuff.

For example, the current OnlineRaceDriver shop on Cafepress has been updated to rectify our initial logo/colour problems, and we’ll be expanding the range soon.

And if you’re a smartphone user, you should find that the site automatically transforms itself into a smartphone-friendly version when you visit us. It should work with most handsets, but let us know if anything is broken…

Plus the track directory and various other areas for the site will be overhauled to make them way more useful. Plus there’s some new stuff on the way.

But most importantly of all…

We now have an OnlineRaceDriver forum.

So if you want to chat with other racers, get tips on a particular game, track or corner, swap set-ups, ask about getting liveries painted, or anything else to do with online racing, sign up now! There’s also a section for chatting about real world racing, as so many of us are fans of all motorsport, and a For Sale/Bargain area if you’re looking to offload a game or accessory, or you’ve spotted a racing game on sale for a bargain price.

We’re expanding our coverage, with more games, more information and more racing than ever, plus we’ve got a couple of new regular writers and some additional guests. We’re lining up more features, getting involved in more race series and generally going all out in 2011.

But we need you!

It’s you that makes this worthwhile and makes it work by reading and hopefully enjoying what we do – so let us know in the comments (or on the forum) if you’ve got ideas, suggestions, contributions etc. Sign up for the forum, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, and share our content if you use Stumbleupon, Reddit, Digg etc. It’s all free for you and much appreciated by us.

And if you do happen to be in the market for a new game or accessory, if you plan on buying from one of our linked retailers anyway, why not use our links? It won’t cost you anything extra, but does mean that we might get a few pence towards hosting costs and improving the site.

Time to party?

Now if you’ll excuse me, rather than celebrating with a few beers and a cake, I need to get back to practising for the next IFCA ALMS race at Mugello on Saturday, and there are some stories to update first…

Thanks again for making ORD so great over the last year

Dan

Watch the final round of iRacing.com’s World Championship Road Racing

You’ll be able to watch the final round of iRacing.com World Championship Road Racing on Saturday, as it will be broadcast live on iRacing.com. The race takes place on Saturday, October 16th at 6pm EST (22:00 GMT), and there’s a special 15-minute preview showing before the race starts.

The title has already been claimed by Greger Huttu, who won the first 15 races of the season and $10,000 in cash. But there’s still a fight on for second place, and a $3000 prize (and third will get $1000).

The contenders include England’s Richard Towler, Finnish driver Illka Haapala and Canadian Shawn Purdy. Plus a top 30 spot in the championship guarantees a place for next season, so there’s a lot riding on the race throughout the field.

The venue for the final race is Mid-Ohio.

ORD reviews Codemaster’s F1 2010 – 4.5/5

Well, where do you begin? After all the hype and expectation, the first Formula One game for four years has arrived. Much was hoped for when Codemasters obtained the licence – a company with a good track record in making great racing games, and their style is immediately apparent when you boot up the game.

The presentation and menus are all beautifully presented – clean and modern, no lag when switching between menus and very easy to navigate. There aren’t a hundred logos and start-up screens to skip through every time you start the game and everything has been generally well laid-out. It’s also worth mentioning the soundtrack at this point too – the remix of Ian Brown’s F.E.A.R that formed the soundtrack to the developer diary videos is the perfect fit, with soothing strings re-recorded at the Abbey Road studios sounding effortlessly cool. In short, the presentation is top notch, crisp and good-looking.

But obviously looking and sounding cool is useless unless you have content to back it up, else you end up with the gaming equivalent of a T4 presenter – always has a great appearance but is ultimately incredibly boring. Fortunately this is not the case in F1 2010. Having said that, there are no real surprises in terms if game modes – you can start a career, do a time trial, have a one-off Grand Prix weekend or go online – nothing new there, but each option is fully customisable. If you want to do a full-length Grand Prix complete with free practice and qualifying sessions you can. If you want to do a whole season of one-lap races you can do that too. You can also create custom championships – pick your favourite tracks and do them in a sequence you choose. You can make the game your own which is far better than picking from a few rigid, uniform options.

The online modes are interesting too – firstly because there are only four to choose from and yet they adequately cover all bases. You can compete on a hot lap Q3-style shootout called ‘Pole Position’ as well as doing 3-lap, 10% and 20% – length races including mandatory pitstops. Damage levels are customisable, as is car performance – meaning you can choose all cars to be equal or for them to reflect their 2010 standings. Making them equal seems like the only fair thing to do online though – as it will be pretty frustrating to trundle round in an HRT for 20 laps and watching a Red Bull zoom past you just because you joined an online lobby late. But again, you can specify the criteria of games you want to join.

Online participation is rewarded in the form of experience points/XP – meaning you can rank up by setting fastest laps, finishing in the top three and even by completing clean and penalty-free racing laps. If you cause an accident or get disqualified all your XP will be void for that race – so it’s a nice incentive for racers to be a bit more careful online and will hopefully deter perennial rammers. In my first race I did Silverstone and ended up on my roof at Club – something made more frustrating by my not realising I had to press start and then ‘reset to track’ in order to carry on. I finished a lap down. Poo.

So let me stop myself beating about the bush any longer – it’s all about the quality of the racing. It’s probably why you are reading this and clearly the most important aspect of the game. And I’m xelighted to say Codies have nailed it. With all the namby-pamby options switched off like brake assist, traction control and ABS the cars are brilliantly brutal. There is a good learning curve when driving them and the feeling of speed is immense, and with all the circuits recreated in such detail it makes for a great experience. I can’t vouch for how the cars handle with all the driving aids turned on because I haven’t tried them out yet – but needless to say you can customise the game (and AI skill level) to make it as easy or hard as you want to and still have a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

As I just mentioned, the circuits look great. They are all 2010-spec, meaning Singapore’s Marina Bay night race is included complete with minor tweaks to the chicanes and the Korean Grand Prix features for the first time in any racing game. Added to painstakingly recreated classics like Monaco, Monza and Spa-Francorchamps there is more than enough to keep hardened F1 fans happy for a long time. Little hills and spectator banking on the outside in the track are in the right place, even food outlets can be seen where they should be – and overall the graphical design is a superb achievement… and all this is before you factor in the weather.

F1 2010′s dynamic weather system is very impressive – to the point where it can genuinely ‘rain’ on different parts of the circuit at any one time. For instance it can be wet at Spa through La Source and Eau Rouge, but when you get around to Poulin the track is dry – which is where the game allows you to employ Jenson Button-esque tyre call tactics. Do you stay out on slicks and hope it dries up? Or pit early for wets and potentially make up a lot of time? These are calls that will make and break real championships, and their inclusion adds a whole new dimension to the game. The rain itself looks stunning – making it both exhilarating and terrifying to closely follow in another car’s spray.

Pit stops themselves are also quite interesting – you can set these to ‘automatic’ and ‘manual’ and as always in racing games the ‘manual’ option is a lot more fun and rewarding. This requires you to brake down to the put lane speed limit as you enter, and hold down the rev limiter. Then you have to slow down for your pit box – as overshooting will cost you valuable time and you’ll have to sit patiently as your mechanics push you back into position. Then it’s back on the rev limiter and away. If you’re also using manual gears the pit stop is quite a technical exercise, but one that is very enjoyable once you know what you are doing. I imagine anyway, as I keep overshooting my put box. Poo.

The only criticisms I can level at the game are relatively minor, but they do prevent F1 2010 getting a perfect score. My two biggest gripes are the lack of a two-player split screen, and the limitation of online races to twelve cars per-race. Codies did a sterling job last year with F1 2009 on the Wii, and managed to squeeze in a full two-player split-screen championship mode. Given the increased power available to the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in particular I’m disappointed at the exclusion of the feature. I wouldn’t mind it so much had the online modes catered for full F1 grid of 24 players racing simultaneously. Having done a few races online and seeing the general carnage for myself I can see why they have chosen to limit the numbers, but a twelve-car grid for an F1 race still seems somewhat disappointing. If the designers were worried about newbies and rammers spoiling everyone else’s fun they could have implemented an XP system where you unlock the ability to participate in full races. There may be other technical reasons for it too, but it still seems something of a missed opportunity.

However neither of these ‘problems’ are things that detract massively from the overall experience of playing the game, and are very minor criticisms given the brilliant overall experience the game offers. F1 2010 has had me going ‘ooh’, ‘wow’ and ‘whaaaat!’ for a couple of days and has genuinely set a new benchmark for the genre. It is a game that will keep fans of the sport more than happy for a long time to come and I can categorically say that it was definitely worth the wait.

Looking to buy F1 2010? We recommend:

Amazon: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3.
(Currently with the lowest prices – £34.99 for new copies for Xbox/PS3)

Game: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3.

Gamestop: Xbox 360, Playstation 3.

Play.com: PC, XBox 360, Playstation 3

The PC version is £29.99 from Game, Play.com and Amazon.

Production class rebuilds my love for Forza Motorsport 3 online

One of the good things about Forza Motorsport 2 was the fact that the host of a room could force everyone to use the same car – meaning that you could create races in standard models with no tuning to give everyone equal machinery.

While Forza Motorsport 3 (ORD’s FM3 Review) allowed that in private lobbies, in the general online rooms you were stuck until recently. And it’s noticeable how much more I’m playing in public lobbies since production racing was introduced.

The reason is simple. I know how much time and effort it takes to get into the top few percent for any track. And a lot of that is down to car selection and tuning, so unless I finally finish setting up cars for every single track and variation, I’m always going to be at a disadvantage. While I’m happy to put the time and effort into high-level tuning for specific competitions (when I can grab the time), there’s no way for me to limit the online racing to just the tracks I’ve covered.

So that’s where the production racing comes in – suddenly it doesn’t matter which car it is, and it’s just down to circuit knowledge, which is much more accessible.

Of course, there are still skill differences of several seconds per lap, but without any kind of tournament qualifier and bracketing, it’s about as close as it can legitimately get.

It’s great, because I can get back into online racing as a casual gamer who has work and family taking up a lot of time, as well as committing to the more hardcore competitions when I do get the chance to spend some more time behind the wheel.

And to finish up on another positive note – I’m finally coming to terms with the new lobby system for online public racing with friends. It was a shock after Forza Motorsport 2, but if you think of it like a Call of Duty lobby and map/match-list, you’ll be fine…

If, for some reason, you don’t already own Forza Motorsport 3, support ORD by buying it from the following links:

Forza Motorsport 3 via Amazon

Forza Motorsport 3 via Game

Forza Motorsport 3 via Gamestop

Forza Motorsport 3 via Play.com

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Limited Edition

Tempted by the limited edition? To get exclusive access to the Alfa Romeo 8C Competitizione, and Ford Shelby GT 500, plus immediate unlocks for the Porsche Cayman S, Dodge Challenger SRT8, Audi TT RS Coupe and Chevrolet Camaro RS, you’ll need to pre-order Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from Game straight away!

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