GTR2: Why are Modern Sims Still Not as Good?

[Paul Jeffrey]

GTR2 is 11 years old, features a series that no longer exists and was developed for technology less advanced than a modern smart phone. Unbelievably it's still one of the best sims available today.

What I want to know is why? Why in the last 10 + years have some of the many awesome features found in this now long forgotten game not made their way into something more modern? Ok granted many different games feature some of the bits in GTR2, but no single title has taken what was already an incredible base and expanded upon it with the aid of much advanced technology we now have at our disposal.

Driving School? Check
Fully animated pit workers? Check
Animated flag marshals? Check
Day - night transition? Check
Weather cycle? Check
Full official series licence, over two separate seasons? Check
...and the list goes on and on...

Simply put GTR2 was massively overdeveloped, period. SimBin Studios quite literally took every single aspect of the then premier GT racing series in the world and recreated it all into a compelling racing experience that still stands out as a top simulation even by the standards of today, 11 years after the game hit our shelves.

I just find it all incredibility bizarre. In very few industries outside of sim racing will you see a decline in product quality and content as the years progress like we have to put up with today. When GTR2 first shipped in September 2006 the game was a complete package, not splattered with ridiculous bugs that prevented anyone having a good time, not bombarded by wave after wave of disparate DLC content with little or no relevance to the main experience and not hanging on by the merest thread for dear life as another iteration of something that's been released by someone else already. It really was a golden time for sim racing fans, and those who witnessed it all first hand really did think this would be the beginning of something big in sim racing.

Fast forward to 2017 and sadly the progress expected post GTR2 has quite simply not materialised. The game, the official simulation of the FIA GT World Championship, was probably the very last fully feature complete racing simulation we have seen in our niche genre. We've had loads of new games since then, some of which have even been released by the same people responsible for GTR and GTR2, but none have even come close to matching the level of features and polish afforded fans back in 2006. It's down right strange.

Take RaceRoom Racing Experience for example, developed as the next GT game from the people behind GTR and GTR2, when the title first hit public beta stage back in February 2013 what did we have? Basically a hotlapping simulation with limited content, no official series licence, no AI to race against and precisely zero multiplayer features. Added to the still missing animated flag marshals and a range of other GTR2 items that haven't made the move over with time, it's all rather a depressing scene in which to take in.

Ok I appreciate Sector3 have worked exceptionally hard at improving RaceRoom to get to a level where it is barely recognisable now to what it looked like on launch day, but still to even consider releasing a game that was basically stripped of everything that made GTR2 great is simply mind boggling.

And it's not just RaceRoom that are guilty of missing out some key features considered par for the course 11 years ago, everyone is doing it! You only have to look at one of the most popular sims on the market Assetto Corsa as a perfect example, they consider themselves to be perfectionists on a mission to produce the most true to life experience possible, and they even miss out the core basics like weather and day to night transition, never mind such "nice to have" features like a driving school, proper flag implementation and multiclass racing options. It's simply amazing to realise that these features quite simply only exist in a game that was designed and released over a decade ago. Unbelievable.

GTR2 still looks pretty good on top graphics settings, still feels very nice indeed with my trusty CSW V2 and still sounds like it belongs in the very top tier of audio experience. All that whilst replicating a seriously mega international championship in a exceptionally detailed simulation that really does pick out all the little features that makes driving on a virtual track feel like the real thing. With that said and the pretty compelling physics considering the age of the title added up with stuff that no other sim has all together in one package, this is why I still believe GTR2 is, without reservation, the very best simulation racing experience one can purchase during 2017.

I love the game, it's just a bit sad that no one has thought to try and make something similar in the following 132 months since it was released.

GTR was released by SimBin Studios exclusively for PC. The game is still available to purchase on Steam for £4.99.

Like GTR2? Well lucky you, we are seriously considering a brand new informal league! Check out the GTR2 sub forum for general GTR2 discussion or our new GTR2 RDGT Championship forum for more details of the new league season. To prepare for the league all we ask is you have Premium membership, a fresh GTR2 install and these two additional patches HERE and HERE. Get ready for a return of the legend....

Do you still enjoy GTR2? What did the sim do right in your opinion? Why do features present in GTR2 still not appear in moderns sims? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[JayJayRaceinho]

you always here sentences that more content, cars/tracks, is not affecting any new features since the content-team and core-team are seperated and different - not entirely true if the physics-guy, the ai-guy needs to balance every car. that's why you end up what you have now @r3e and every other sim with bunch of cars. cars with old physics, old ai-codes, unbalanced ai, unbalanced track-ai-paths and there you have your 'little desaster', complaining people.

btw, here another gtr2 mod site http://gtr2-endurance.forumotion.org/c1-gtr2-mods-tracks

 

[Celtic Pharaoh]

GTR2 was very good. I spent a lot of time on it and its predecessor but to be fair, GTR2 wasn't "ground-breaking" or "revolutionary". Sure, it had great physics and a fully fledged single player mode with AI and animated pit crews but there were a few sims that came out before it that already did that. Primarily the GP games (R.I.P) and the EA F1 games. F1 Challenge alone had 4 different seasons of cars, licensed drivers and tracks and a championship mode and its physics was really good for the time and as I recall, GTR and GTR2 were developed using the gmotor engine from ISI. There is nothing wrong with that and SimBin did a fine job but I'm sorry, to say that GTR2 was revolutionary simply isn't true.

P.S.: If you're going to buy it, get the original disc version. The Steam version is missing the Ferraris and Porsches: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atari-GTR-...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488624719&sr=8-1&keywords=GTR2

 

[Tomaz Selcan]

Only game that come close to GTR2 is PCARS...after seeing some of new pictures and videos and other info, i think PCARS 2 will surpass GTR2, if we look whole picture. Only problem are physics. If this game would nail it, that would be new GTR...but we all know that this won't happen. Just maybe.

 

[Rob Every]

Modern PC based sims are not as good for one simple reason

Consoles

They are the biggest market so most games are developed on PC first, bug tested, QA tested then released, then ported over to console and necessarily there most players use a pad or something so the game HAS to be dumbed down a little as a result.

Some PC sims are just as good like Iracing and Assetto Corsa praps, but these early games were purely developed for one machine, not several completely different ones, and I think that is why some of the older games felt better. PCARS was a perfect example, I could tell in the early builds it was a console game yet everyone crowed about how great it was going to be, yet after release most serious sim gamers were not that impressed. AC is a little better, but the team there is so small they can't really match the big devs for content, though I do like their work.

Oh and we are mugs for demanding and paying silly money for DLC, meaning companies soon realise they can release 3/4 of a game for full price then make even more money than they otherwise would have charging these idiots for DLC that was written at the time the game was released.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

P.S.: If you're going to buy it, get the original disc version. The Steam version is missing the Ferraris and Porsches: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atari-GTR-...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488624719&sr=8-1&keywords=GTR2

Or you can use the fix that's in our mods section Here with the steam version..

 

[jc1993]

P.S.: If you're going to buy it, get the original disc version. The Steam version is missing the Ferraris and Porsches: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atari-GTR-...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488624719&sr=8-1&keywords=GTR2

I'd agree, except it's easy to fix with a patch. Googling the problem will find it.
In addition, the Simbin Mega Bundle contains GTR2 as well as all the other Simbin games, which are great in their own way. Extra points if you grab it while it's on sale.
Edit: Ninja'd again.

 

[David Wright]

GTR2 was very good. I spent a lot of time on it and its predecessor but to be fair, GTR2 wasn't "ground-breaking" or "revolutionary". Sure, it had great physics and a fully fledged single player mode with AI and animated pit crews but there were a few sims that came out before it that already did that. Primarily the GP games (R.I.P) and the EA F1 games. F1 Challenge alone had 4 different seasons of cars, licensed drivers and tracks and a championship mode and its physics was really good for the time and as I recall, GTR and GTR2 were developed using the gmotor engine from ISI. There is nothing wrong with that and SimBin did a fine job but I'm sorry, to say that GTR2 was revolutionary simply isn't true.

Maybe I missed the post you are replying to but the original article doesn't state that GTR2 was ground breaking or revolutionary. Indeed the fact that it wasn't underlines the point that it is disappointing that many current sims don't have the features it had (though no one is denying there has been progress in other areas).

 

[Miroslav Davidovic]

Simply put GTR2 was massively overdeveloped, period.

Ahhhhww Paul mate, you know what I think. Anyways, if you'd get the present time covered appropriately I'd not complain mate.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Alternative wording : most racing series don't race at night. The vast majority of races take place in dry conditions. Most series don't even include pit stops in the grand scheme of things. Many sim races - in fact the vast majority of them overall - don't use any of those either, even if those features are available. Yet how much time did we spend throwing shoes at Stefano over AC v1.0? lol

All the most important racing series that are licensed in these games makes use of 2 of the 3 options: pit stops, race under rain and some of them go under night too. Pretty sure AC fans would like to have a experience like this done properly

damn it, this is beautiful

IMO if you offer GTE and LMP cars a day/night cycle is the minimum that should come with it.

 

[Alx^]

F1 also do a night procession now too. Admitedly only 2 of their poor little drivers are brave enough to drive in the rain though.

 

[Kenny Paton]

I'd agree, except it's easy to fix with a patch. Googling the problem will find it.
In addition, the Simbin Mega Bundle contains GTR2 as well as all the other Simbin games, which are great in their own way. Extra points if you grab it while it's on sale.
Edit: Ninja'd again.

Or better still go here and get it for under a tenner saving 15 on Steam offer and gaining endless hours of racy goodness

 

[JayJayRaceinho]

damn it, this is beautiful

if a racing game looks like this i'm gonna buy it regardless how bad the rest of the game is .... even those little details like the muck on the windscreen which doesn't dissappear throughout the race... yeah and great motion blur, DoF and lightning. Todays racing games are all so 'clean' and 'sterile' in cockpit and replays aswell... except driveclub

 

[Miroslav Davidovic]

We are brewing on something a little bit different but which may have a huge positive impact on modding. Stay tuned.

I am sure I am gonna be surprised as hell, I might even consider buy the premium, if you catch throw.
Huge positive impact yeah. Like seriously dude! At least I mean, if you don't give a ****, be decent man, at least.

 

[Will Mazeo]

if a racing game looks like this i'm gonna buy it regardless how bad the rest of the game is .... even those little details like the muck on the windscreen which doesn't dissappear throughout the race... yeah and great motion blur, DoF and lightning. Todays racing games are all so 'clean' and 'sterile' in cockpit and replays aswell... except driveclub

ikr I love the details, I wish we'd have a sim with al this stuff and all track activities animated (like car tow back to pits, repairs, etc)
WEC at COTA in 2014, oh man that wet track at night was too amazing
simracing sucks when i look at real life racing

 

[JayJayRaceinho]

simracing sucks when i look at real life racing

nothing more to add

 

[Sascha H.]

I think the main problem is the time and date we´re living in. Everything got so fast and profit oriented, that quantity is over quality and passion. In the past where Internet wasn´t so important and Social Networks was even out of question, there was more time, less pressure and more passion for a product like Simbins´s GTR and GTR2. Today with mostly every game you see the lack of passion, this is missing and that is missing but charging us the full price. I really can´t wait to see IF GTR3 is going to be the successor of GTR2. I really really hope it´s gonna be that way....

 

[ronniej]

Or better still go here and get it for under a tenner saving 15 on Steam offer and gaining endless hours of racy goodness

Ahh...So, this was just another "billboard" article to raise funds for SimBin?

I was always curious why there has been so much "positive spin" attention to RRE and now newly formed Simbin UK......Is RaceDepartment an investor? Or is Paul Jeffrey's closet full of merch?

 

[Tim Ling]

Ahh...So, this was just another "billboard" article to raise funds for SimBin?

I was always curious why there has been so much "positive spin" attention to RRE and now newly formed Simbin UK......Is RaceDepartment an investor? Or is Paul Jeffrey's closet full of merch?

Cynical much??

 

[JayJayRaceinho]

Ahh...So, this was just another "billboard" article to raise funds for SimBin?

I was always curious why there has been so much "positive spin" attention to RRE and now newly formed Simbin UK......Is RaceDepartment an investor? Or is Paul Jeffrey's closet full of merch?

dude, that would be a pretty bad investment regarding RRE. and no marketing-campaign can help RRE these guys here@rd also have to pay their bills (well, i guess ), so what if they get some 'candy' for their articles as long they are not biased towards a company. others don't need much marketing, they convince with what they have

 

[Kenny Paton]

Ahh...So, this was just another "billboard" article to raise funds for SimBin?

I don't really think that 10 Simbin games for under 10 euros is going to keep the wolf from their door.
But the offer could bring a wealth of entertainment to many others