I have fired up most sims over the past couple of years - I have just about all and do try them for sustained periods of time - some I try for a while then start laughing at how incredibly unrealistic they are eg. pCars beautiful graphics and for a while awesome unitl pushing the envelope on track and realising I can do things in the sim that are not physically possible.
RaceRoom similar thing and despite cool graphics etc the limitations eventually get to me, and also after sustained use the physics for me are not there - basically I get the feeling of the same physics for every car just power or grip dialled up or down depending on car.
I have all the Rally sims but they don't do it for me, maybe because I am a road racing guy...
So imo that leaves four very good sims out there to tuck into - and each of these does certain things very well for simmers like me.
- rFactor2 is getting better and better in terms of physics, AI etc but the graphics are dull and seem to lack punch despite my ongoing attempts to improve this. Also impotant if you test a new car or try it out for the first time (or after a layoff) you must do it on the right original track - my suggestion is Portugal (Estoril) and use that as a benchmark, then try the cars and decide from there.... in the early days my go to track in rF2 was Lime Rock and that was just an awful rendition of that great track, and after half an hour of trying it out I would pack it in. Thus important to choose a track you like and looks reasonably good. My favourite cars believe it or not are the Megane Trophy, and if you want to splash out on mods the URD EGT, T5 and PX are excellent on this platform.
- Assetto also gets better and better, imo the physics and graphics have always been pretty awesome and in the latest release for sure the once awful AI is very much improved. Again a good original track is important to benchmark test the cars. I am a fan of Mugello for this and now Barcelona Moto. I run a dozen different cars in Race Weekend mode (using practice or qualifying) and then test cars back-to-back which makes for interesting time and for sure you can have fun with the AI since 1.3 dropped.
My favourites at the moment are a mix of mod and original content the McLaren M23 which I run with the Ferrari 312 and a Brabham BT55 mod I found somewhere. Also really enjoy the GT2 BMW and Ferrari original content - very sweet.
- GSCE is always great to come home to - easy to fire up and get going. Few tintop mods compare to the Brazilian V8s - imo the best tintop sim mod ever. The karts (125) are very good once you get the hang and most of the Formula cars are a blast. AI great, physics great, multiplayer is good (race my son on our own server) but in our timezone multiplayer is deserted. If I was allowed only one sim on my machine it would be GSCE.
- iRacing simply unparalleled when it comes to online racing system and community (despite many dickheads pretending to be race drivers). The license system and leagues are trend setting for the online genre. Very serious (maybe too serious that's why I gravitated away) and probably the closest to a pro racing community you will find although the variety of cars pretty limited relative to the above mentioned sims. If you have the time and your goal is to make a 'career' out of sim racing then iRacing is the big cheese.
Now back to the original question of where is rF2 going - interesting question as it is ever improving and has huge potential.
Despite all the good stuff rF2 has the multiplayer areas are deserted and not only in my timezone - apparently everywhere. Thus perhaps rF2 can refocus and establish itself as the premier offline sim as I do believe there are definitely two elements of simming: offline and online - both attractive options for drivers in this niche world we play in.
In rF2 the AI and offline race setup is superb right now and throw in several cool tools (eg. rFactor2 Log Analyzer ver. 2 with offline and league Championship Manager) to enhance the experience and now need to be maximised.
I believe there is a big offline sim racing crowd - and I would propose rF2 bosses find a way to leverage the offline racing guys into some form of community where results can be uploaded, times compared, challenges met, leaderboards etc - all properly policed of course.
Offline simming in this manner has not been evolved - offline has not moved on at all since the early days of simming with Crammonds GP sims and Papyrus stuff and I think there is room for development here which rF2 could lead by thinking out the box to enhance and grow the offline experience.
What springs to mind for me is the GPL Rank system which could form the basis and further optimised so that offline race results, lap times, championships etc are run to some sort of "rule book' and can be shared/publicised on a community style website or portal where racing offline has some sort of ranking and/or points value, so that offliners do not race in an empty cocoon.
For lack of better explanation let's call it an offline iRacing style system for rF2 - this might well be an area where they can lead into the future...
Truth be told the abovementioned could be embraced by any sim developer: pCars, Assetto, GSCE and even iRacing should they want to capture a chunk of the offline market. IMO developers are missing a trick not developing an offline simming system and maybe rF2 can be smart enough to take the lead in this area.