HONEST REVIEWS | RFACTOR 2 | THE KING OF AI RACING!!!

#simracing #rfactor2 #reviews

My favourite sim for offline racing finally gets an Honest Review from me. RF2 has a special place in my heart for its out of this world AI, that no other sim can match its performance. (Once you have it tweaked correctly for the car and track of course)

[robpoitras]

Thanks for the review. Certainly tempts me to purchase RF2. I do have Le Mans Ultimate and yes the AI was a big surprise. Quite amazing. That and the driving experience is so natural. Also noticed the flat spot vibration after a spin. That game really raises the bar for the others that I have experience with: ACC, AMS2, RaceRoom. I hope the funding doesn't dry up. IMHO everyone that can afford it should fork out the price and support this group that is responsible for such high level software.

[bundy]

I have tried them all, and i will say that I'm obsessed with RF2. Visually there are better (ACC, AC, AMS2) but the driving satisfaction I get from this sim is second to none.

[dathyr]

I find RFactor 2 game is very good and I use VR with this game. I have most the tracks for offline racing with AI - Nascar series, Indycar series. I now found the 7 tracks similar to what is in the new LMU game - few are done by RF2 the others done by modders which all are pretty good for my driving.

I agree with everything you say in your video about RF2.

Lastly, unless the new LMU game adds allot more tracks, I will not get this game for just 7 tracks. I am not a big fan to do online races, don't have the time anymore. And LMU, I think, will not provide modding capabilities like RFactor 2 game does.
Thanks for the video and take care.

[EricW]

Great refreshing honest simracers review!
Subbed.

[simbits]

I finally have a very full set up and also finally I have everything working and performing well. I'm now going through all the cars that came with the sim and configuring the four wheels I have with each different car. I'm setting up a profile for each car in the game and on my Simucube 2Pro I'm having obscene amounts of fun learning how to work with the different types of car, that is how to set and and drive them whilst adjusting steering ranges and FF settings etc.
Have to say I am blown away with pretty much everything to do with the physics, I am a very experienced driver with some real racing experience, and even in test practicing I am having and also observing some amazing experience with the AI too, sometimes I wonder if the AI is not AI at all but real intelligence :), and yes they don't quit do they?

[ejqr]

Another great review! I enjoy your insight on rF2. Maybe one day you help me figure out out .

[RandyMagruder]

@9:00 watching you compliment the dive bombs and fighting tactics. Those are all great, provided the AI is running the same physics as you are. When they are not, they can be programmed to do insane moves and get away with it because their rear tires are glued to the road in a way yours, with the full physics model, are NOT.

[durrrrrrrrrr]

I was amazed when I notice then defend the inside at the end of a straight.. never seen that

[Skumtomten]

Great review and I agree with almost everything. Haven't touched any other sim since I got this in early 2023. Runs great on my 8 year old system, physics is the best I have ever experienced and most cars sounds really good as well.

The only thing I don't fully agree with is the AI. I think they are both amazing and bad at the same time. As you showed in the video, they can be amazing, the best in any sim, but they can also be very frustrating to play against. Sometimes they don't even recognize you are there, and they often hit your rear when breaking. I'm always really scared when having an AI close in my mirror, I know I can't break normally or they just hit me. But yea, overall they are great and have by far the highest potential out of all the AI:s in simracing.

[forbidden]

I am on the fence to buy RF2. Thanks for the video!

[alkallata]

Man. You can't say the bad things motorsport games do with the 24 Hours of Lemans when you know that iracing has the same policy with 12 Sebring, 24 Hours of Nürburgring and most simracing events. Good video I like that rfactor 2 you like it again

[DustinNuttall]

I just bought it on sale. I don't have time to sit on a long online race and I take shits too much to race online 😂 I like AI and can pause the game when needed.

[Slakass]

Last week I was hovering my finger over the 'buy' button on Steam as this sim was on sale for such a low, low price. Wanted to buy Rf2 and AMS2 but I got confused by the very poor and lacking game description, which is why I only bought AMS2 instead.
Please clarify this, should this sim go on sale again: does it come with any cars and tracks or must you buy these separately? For the life of me I couldn't find an answer to this. Being afraid that RF2 was a money-grab like iRacing I passed on it. Steam was quick to show you cars and tracks you could buy for Rf2 (not on sale, mind you) but there was ZERO description of whether you get any vehicles with this title or if what you got even let you play online. At least with AMS2 you know you get a ton of cars and tracks (plus VR support) so that was a safe bet. And really glad I did, being able to try out the new Le Mans DLC for free was great. And in VR too mind you. I don't suppose that one would expect Rf2 to support VR seeing how its graphics were designed to run Pentium II. But is this a shameless money grab like iRacing?

Maybe you could clarify the above question? Being Christmas time it's not like I had much time to spare searching for the answer and the sale ended a couple of days ago. However I'd be interested in getting this title, especially after seeing all the fun you had racing the AI.

[jrrs]

Looking very good indeed, I got rear ended by the AI too much the last time I played (2 months or so ago) and just gave up on RF2. How is their pit and strategies logic? Do they make mistakes and DNF? Those kind of features are what make the old sims like GP4, GPL, NR2003 so good. Not only was their wheel to wheel good (at least in GP4 and NR2003) but the overall flow of a full race was very realistic, with mistakes and failures and such. Nowadays only the F1 games manage that same magic.

[lxvideostuff]

in rf1 you can train the ai for new(3rd party) content. probably you can do it in rf2 too. so the inconsistency you have noticed might be evaded, if your moding is done properly.

[pcholakov]

With offline racing, it helps a lot to let the AI have a qualifying session. It's worth it in my experience, even with first-party content only sessions.

[dvascocampeao]

Thank you, it's improved, but still in rfactor 2 when the car behind touches the back of my car I spin immediately, just a light touch for the car to spin, is there any way to improve that too?

[RandyMagruder]

I DETEST rFactor 2 AI. It goes off the track and yet loses NO speed as it’s on curbs and dirt, then moves back onto the track hits you. Also, especially in touring cars, every time there’s an AI to user impact, the user takes the brunt of it while the AI manages to drive diagonally down the road miraculously avoiding spinning. I get quarter panel spun constantly by it even when I’m holding my line, and it moves over and hits you on straights. In short, I’ve found that rFactor does not accurately represent a human being who is in any way trying to avoid impact, and the artificial ability to avoid being the one who spins means no consequences. Physics are better than AMS2, but the AI is just awful.

[dvascocampeao]

There are some cars in factor 2 that when we make the turn, even if the turn is slow, the car loses its rear end very easily, is there a way to fix this?

[CorAdriaan]

I must admit, what you show here looks great, so it makes me wondering, did they tweak the AI recently ? (Can't find anything about AI in any recent patch notes.)
I'm asking because earlier this year (2023) I first tried RF2, after I came across a lot of positives on the Internet. I mainly race offline, so against AI, but at the time I personally didn't like the AI at all. (Think it was May 2023.)
I must admit, I might not be the best simracer in the world and I only tried a few track-car combo's, but my opinion at the time was based on some very strange and consistent AI-behaviour, I'll describe below. (It's a while ago, so I might be a little bit off reproducing some details by now !?). Oh, and I just checked, I have about the same AI-settings as I saw in the video.

- Daytona Speedway 24 hours with GT3's => From the start of the race the AI braked way to early for turn one. And it seemed there was no slipstream effect for me at all on the oval parts, but the AI did have it !?
- Then it was Monza - if I remember correctly - also GT3's => In the middle of the home straight, every AI-car had a big wiggle and moved quite a lot, which made the AI look like on rails (strangely shaped rails that is).

But I must admit that every sim I tried so far has it flaws regarding AI. I mean, I'm maybe just not really impressed in general regarding progression on AI-behaviour/level versus what developments in other departments have been recently.
Well I guess, it's maybe because online racing is just much more popular, so it gets 90% of attention on development !?

Lastly: I really don't like how the store works in RF2 ! (I'm sorry, but I would rank RF2 at the bottom of the list regarding the store.)

But I might give it an other try/change soon. Thank you for the video; appreciate !