Watch: First Le Mans Ultimate Gameplay


Image credit: Motorsport Games

After Motorsport Games and Studio 397 announced their upcoming Le Mans Ultimate title, we went along to the real life Le Mans event to experience the unreleased sim first-hand.

The developers behind rFactor 2, Studio 397 and their parent company Motorsport Games recently revealed that a new sim will be hitting the market in December 2023. This title, called Le Mans Ultimate, will allow players to experience the World Endurance Championship.

While many of the cars and tracks are available across other sims, including rFactor 2, Le Mans Ultimate promises to bring something new to the table as a standalone title. To introduce the game to the world, Motorsport Games brought a demo version to the real life Le Mans event. There, eager WEC fans could try it for themselves. Our editor Angus couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a look.

Le Mans Ultimate Gameplay​

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Angus reported that Le Mans Ultimate feels similar to rFactor 2. In fact, it seems to have been developed in the same engine and uses the same physics model. Naturally, this meant that the overall experience was pretty good for an early demo version.

There were some issues, though. For instance, Angus reported a lack of feeling on the brakes. This means that it was difficult to avoid lockups, and to properly get the car slowed down on corner entry.

Another problem was to found in the form of the kerbs. They were very aggressive, causing the car to lose balance and stability at the drop of a hat.

The two cars available for selection were the Ferrari 488 GTE and the Porsche 963 hypercar. Angus opted for the latter, as it is not yet available in rFactor 2.

Le-Mans-Ultimate-Queue-min-1-1024x769.jpg

Le Mans Ultimate was available to play at the real life Le Mans event. Image credit: Angus Martin

In terms of sound design and force feedback, there was clearly still a lot of development left to be done. The soundscape in particular lacked many of the elements one would expect, such as wind noise and the sound of the transmission.

To hear more of Angus’ thoughts about the Le Mans Ultimate gameplay demo, and to see the game in action, watch our latest YouTube video.

What do you think of the first Le Mans Ultimate gameplay footage? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
About author
Jacob (OverTake)
My name is Jacob and I have been writing for OverTake since November of 2020. I come from the UK, but I'm now living in Berlin. I love to watch, write about and sometimes shout about all forms of racing.

Comments

Mixed feelings there. I thought it could be a good opportunity for 397 to shine with a full new game with a narrower perimeter. But I heard there is that it's rfactor2 but the physics, the graphics and the sounds are a downgrade and the technical flaws of rfactor2 are there. Why showing the game in this state? Will it be really ready in 6 months ? I really have doubts now. I think I read that the game has been in development for 2 years starting from existing engine and tracks, 2 cars are out and at least one doesn't feel good and 6 months are left to complete the game. Ok...
depends who told you what. There are quite a few different setups at the site from Thrustmaster and different settings from more children and beginner friendly to slightly more simish, there are obviously a lot of aids used as its aimed at the average race fan at the track to check it out, this isnt simexpo. That might or might not heavily influence the opinion of more experienced simracers. And from people that tried it I heard the graphics have gotten better for example and in gereral on the more advanced rigs it was reported to me that it was just as good as rF2, but since I didnt try it I dont know how true that is.

As with all games, just wait and see what comes out of it and what doesnt. I personally will see when the game is shown at its release state to decide. It could be amazing now and terrible later or the other way around at this stage.
 
Premium
Just waiting and hoping Assetto Corsa 2 is the game we all want. I wish ISI good luck and hope they can reproduce the glory days of their game engine, but it's not quite there.
 
Just waiting and hoping Assetto Corsa 2 is the game we all want. I wish ISI good luck and hope they can reproduce the glory days of their game engine, but it's not quite there.
I didn't read AC2 or ISI in this thread, you have posted in the wrong place, or do you go on random thread to give your wishlist ?
 
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so this is the same engine as Rf2….so essentially Rf2 has been split into a new title? Trying to get excited ……but not sure if it this is the Same game being sold separately as a totally new sim .
The official F1 game does this each year. How often was this done with rFactor 2? In fact, rFactor 2 is a totally different game from what it was 5 years ago and all the game improvements we got in a game I bought many years ago.
 
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Premium
I may be in the minority, but I'd be happy if they simply just polished the existing rFactor2 a little bit, introduced all the WEC teams, liveries & tracks, then couple it with a comprehensive WEC rule set. Completely ACC'ed it. Just re-badge & re-package, getting too adventurous could lead us down an 'NASCAR Ignition' style path.

Anyway, who cares if its going to be this, or that. Life's too short to get worked up about this kinda rubbish, if it dropped for £39.99 & it drove like the existing rFactor2, I'd buy it, this is my only real hobby. A mate of mine just spent £400 on a driving wood for heavens sake and that's just a odd shaped twig at the end of the day
 
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I’d rather wait for AMS2’s version, as Project Cars2’s is very good albeit, the weird handling through the Mulsanne chicane. Panoz Esperante GTR1 is my choice with PC2.
with AMS 2:
- 32 grid max
- no driver swap
- no correct time acceleration to simulate 24h in 1h (x24) or nothing like x12 x48...
- no formation lap
- no safety car
- weird random weather system
I can go on, AMS2 is not a good game for Endurance....
 
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hmmm... talking of raging dumpster fires and MSG, one thing we can be sure of is after they release this broken game they wont go back to fix it after... anyone remember nascar ignition 21...? or that abandonware game kartkraft?
 
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So it's basically RF2 with RF2 graphics and content?
That's not safe to say. It'll use the same engine and some of the tracks. Portimao and Fuji are still to be done. On the car side they might only be able to transfere 2 or 3 of them. The rest needs to be done from scratch or a heavy rework.
 
yes, it's just a DLC standalone with 2 more tracks, and some cars
Exactly what I thought…that was the initial question I was asking.

Seems the trend on forums/social media is to misinterpret others' statements and impose their own perspectives instead of addressing the original question.
 
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How are you going to watch 24 hours of Le Mans

  • On national tv

    Votes: 58 33.1%
  • Eurosport app/website

    Votes: 52 29.7%
  • WEC app/website

    Votes: 32 18.3%
  • Watch party

    Votes: 10 5.7%
  • At a friends house

    Votes: 4 2.3%
  • At Le Mans

    Votes: 19 10.9%
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