interested in : motorcycles - motorsport (not F1) - snowboarding - rollerblading . Also like spendin...
interested in : motorcycles - motorsport (not F1) - snowboarding - rollerblading . Also like spending days out with my family . . NOT INTERESTED IN : Soap operas and Celebrity gossip
Member since:05.01.2007
Reviews:47
Members who trust:10
Overview:
As the name suggests GTR2 is the sequel to the popular GT-R and is also produced by the people resposible for GT Legends (GTL) The cars included are frombased on the official FIA GT championship and includes four classes. GT, GT2, GT3 and NGT.
Installing
The game comes on DVD-ROM so you will need a DVD-Rom drive to install it, also a decent sixed hard drive with empty storage available, although unlike GTL there is only one copy protection code so it makes things slightly easier. The manual explains how to install, but if you have installed games before, this should be "old hat" by now. Like most modern racing sims, you will need a decent graphics card to get the best out of this, infact the game may not play at all if your system specifications are too low. Also one the game is installed, I would recommend downloading the latest patch to bring the game upto date. (An internet search for GTR2 patch should give good results. and most sites will allow you to download for free, even if they require you to register a user account first - also free) The patch fixes some bugs in the game, but don't let that worry you, the game runs pretty well anyway.
Gameplay:
Again, like other racing sims, driving with the keyboard will make things difficult, so invest in a joypad or steering wheel, A joypad is usually the cheaper, smaller option. The ingame options allow you to configure buttons and keys to make things easier to remember (there aren't that many controls to remember). You can play offline, on the various standard tracks, getting used to the cars and setups. Although the handling isn't 100% true to each car, they are playable enough, and a good step on from GTLegends (I never playerd the GT-R game).
The game has various
modes which affect how difficult the car is to drive, but unlike GTLegends you don't have ot save up money to buy cars that you want to drive. Drving the car on track, the graphics rush past with suprising smoothness considering the amount of detail you can see. Although if your graphics card is struggling you can alter the graphic settings to reduce detail slightly (for instance trackside detail - do you really need to see all those crowds??). Compared to GTLegends though, other cars that are visible while you race don't seem as real to me. Don't get me wrong, the cars look OK, but in GTLegends, the cars sound and feel like they are around you, you wince if you hit or nearly hit them, and you can almost feel the weight of the steel as they hurtle round the bends. GTR2 cars feel like toys compared to GTL.
This is what alot of people have bought the game for. Although you do need a decent internet connection, You made need to create an online account before you can play. Although you are usually given this option when you connect to the multiplayer option for the first time. Once connected you will be taken to the main lobby screen, where you can see race servers available, other drivers who are online, and which server they are in. Be careful of what race mode you have selected though, as most servers are on the "simulation" mode. This led to confusion when a friend tried to join me on a server and the list he could see was completely different from mine. He had a different mode selected and nothing matched at all. This took about 10 minutes to sort out.
Servers that are open to the public appear in white, and those that have passwords on them appear in red. The serves will have information displayed including: Server Name, Track running, Session, Number of players, etc Clicking on the top of each of the columns will sort the order out accordingly. So if you want to join a server with players already in. simply click the number of "players" column at the top, and the game will "bubble sort" the servers into those with the most players online, then work down. Clicking the same column header will reverse the order, so servers with the least will now be at the top (usually zero) One important column here is the PING. This is the time it takes a signal to be sent tfrom your PC via the internet to the race server and then back (Think of the sonar "ping" submarines use) The higher the number the longer the ping. I would recommend you don't try to join servers with the ping over 250, and for a decent coonection, try to avoid servers with pings over 150..
Once you select the server, you are then taken the car selection screen. Then you are connected to the server, and placed in your pitlane garage. From here you can setup the car, chat to other drivers in the server and take the car for a spin. (You cannot connect to servers where the session has moved to race. ) The server will give you details of the session running: (practice , qualify, warmup or race) and will countdown to the end of the current session. You may also see other drivers connect or leave. One thing to note is that when you join a server, your car's "skin" is loaded onto other drivers games. (A skin is basically the picture of a car, wrapped around a 3 dimensional frame). So the other cars you can see are basically a car shape with a "skin" strecthed over it to form the image and paint scheme. It is possible to produce custom skins if you wish, but I won't bother with the details here. Loading a skin takes a short amount of time, but this still can cause a problem when out on track. For instance if you are pushing a car to its limits around a tricky series of corners and suddenly a new players joins, then the animation can stutter while your PC struggles to cope with doing the extra task of loading the new skin ready to use. This can have the effect of causing you to crash when you least wanted it (I know, I know, you don't want to crash anyway). So most drivers slecte the option which forces skins to be loaded only when they are parked in the pitlane. Unfortunately, this means any new drivers entering the server and driving onto the track will be "invisible" to anyone who is already driving around the track . Any resulting collision would send the "new" driver flying, whereas no effect would be seen on the other.
Like other racing sims, try to drive fairly and show good sportsmanship. Other drivers will appreciate this and will thank you via the chat system. (Chat messages appear at the top of the screen while driving). If you decide to drive badly on purpose, like driving the wrong way round the circuit, smashing into other cars, blocking the circuit for no reason, then you will soon alienate other players. This will probably lead to a vote being called for your removal, or, if there is a server admin online, you may be kicked immediately. Either way, good or bad, your display name will be remembered after racng in a few servers, and how you drive will reflect in the reputation you get from others. Bad drivers will be recognised on entry to servers and may be kicked off the instant they try to join. Not only that but alot of drivers play more than one game, and a bad reputation in GTR2 may also see you being booted off other game servers such as GTLegends, Rfactor and others . .
Take your time to get used to the game, drive farily, give way to faster, more experienced drivers and you will enjoy it alot more.
Downside: Like all online games there is a problem with the small number of idiots who just try to ruin the game for everyone else. In racing games, this means they will deliberately drive into others simply to wreck racers and spoil the fun. Although any server admin online may kick these "wreckers" off when they see it, the only other way to remove them it to call a vote and hope that the majoity of drivers agree. If the problem gets too bad, then you can always join another server, there should be plenty, or like many other racing sims, there are a number of "virtua race teams" who have members club together and pay for a dediocated racing server to play in private. These servers appear in the list and usually have the websites URL in the server name.
If you visit these websites then they usually have a way to contact them. If you are polite and patient with them, they will help newer drivers with any problems, and may allow you to join in with them on private games. (I would recommend this route once you get used to any racing sim)
The game itself is quite large and uses alot of computer resources to run it. This means you will need a high performance PC to play it. (Oh yes and its addictive too, you can enter a race and completely lose track of time. )
Pictures of GTR2 (PC motor racing game)
GTR2 frracers skin
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
brilliant review on what sounds a groovy game...i think ill wait for my lil bro to get this one, then i can check it out! gaunty
rosycn1979 30.01.2007 14:02
fantastic review
nereesa85 30.01.2007 13:28
Another well deserved E. couldnt have improved that in anyway in my op. Sounds like a pretty cool game. I dont really play pc games at all but it seems that i might have to start, might get me off that xbox once in a while!!!
exceptional by (7%):
very helpful by (87%):
helpful by (7%):
