Bloody hell, look at all these mods!
Right then, what about modding?Well, just as there are professional companies producing add-on packs like mad for MS Flight Sim X, there’s a veritable plethora of extras for rFactor. I by plethora I mean bloody tons of ‘em. So much so that it’s almost overwhelming where to start. Of course, ISI doesn’t have the licenses to use any real cars in rFactor but that hasn’t stopped the modding community producing or indeed ISI themselves putting look-a-like cars into the game.
The same goes with tracks, if you can’t find what you want in the game itself, you can be pretty sure that the modders have it. The beauty of this mod-friendly system is that an avid fan can keep up with all the latest revisions to tracks and cars and enjoy some of the more niche racing classes. And of course there’s the fun aspect too with some fun modders just producing daft stuff like the aforementioned shopping cart… classic!
Online play, like pretty much every other simulation game out there, has suffered from bugs in the past but seems pretty seamless now. It’s certainly lag free (except when some bugger decided to stop and start recording the session mid-race) which is essential for a game where split-second timing is needed all the way through the race. But it was fun to take my uber-ZR out to destroy the opposition and, true to form, I got my tailpipe handed to me on every lap.
Click for larger imageAs with most online communities, there’s some very helpful drivers out there who’re more than willing to help out n00bs and there’s some total dicks that you wish would just slam into the wall and leave you alone.
Which brings me to my biggest gripe about the online aspect of rFactor, which is that most players online have been going far, far longer than you and seem to have an almost precognitive control of their cars… seeing the chequered flag from anything better than 10th place is going to be very rare unless you stick in some serious hours.
