Billy Strange: Sim Racing In 2022 Spotlight -

Billy Strange drops by to give his opinions on the state of sim racing games in 2022, have we reached euphoria?

Our great writer and all round “tell it like it is” author Billy Strange gives his opinions on the state of sim racing in 2022. We know many of you out there like to read this type of content, without getting triggered. Enjoy!

Billy Strange

I’ve slowly grown tired of the “incomplete” experience in modern sim racing. The piecemeal addition of content with seemingly no plan or place to integrate said content effectively into the sim is frustrating to say the least. I find it frustrating because, like I talked about in my rFactor 2 Quarter 1 update piece, it’s typically content that I would really enjoy. When a sim doesn’t have a strong multiplayer presence, it then relies heavily on the sim’s single player offering to bear the weight of how effective and useful that content is.

That’s an issue when content continues to be pumped out, but large and moderate issues are not fixed. This goes the same way in a multiplayer focused sim as well. If the tools and structure can’t really support the new content to create a fun, engaging and immersive experience; then that piece of content quickly collects cobwebs. The car, track or mode could be great, but if the sim does nothing to foster that engagement, well…I hope you like hot lapping (I know some of you do by the way).

These developers have bills and employees to pay, so I’m not talking about this in a vacuum. I know that there needs to be some sort of profit turned on these “platforms”. Again, this seems to be a short sighted solution though. A consumer will only pay so many times before they just assume that the new piece of content available for purchase is a waste of money and won’t be supported.

Just like the aforementioned rFactor 2 content, Automobilista 2’s new 1995 Formula USA (a tribute to CART of that year) is great. It’s fun and engaging until it isn’t. There’s no real multiplayer to speak of and the AI racing just falls apart. An odd pairing of chassis manufacturers, engines and teams removes the possibility of doing period correct paints by the amazing painters out there. I would have done another video on these cars, except I would be repeating my last video on AMS 2 almost verbatim. It’s just so bizarre to have content that is aimed squarely at what I want, but is useless when the sim cannot deliver a complete experience.