Annoyances...

[Wombat1965]

I've been playing this game since it came out...and over the last couple of years started playing the "Missions"...1 to 10 were brain bending, but 11 onwards...good lord...

A bit of background...I've been involved in motor sport for maybe thirty years now, since I was a spanner twirler in the pits for a school friend at age 15 who had a "bomber" (a cheap old car raced on a dirt oval), to move on to dirt track racers, then to a bit of amatuer rallying, drag racing (car and bike), and tarmac racing. At the moment I've got an old Celica with a stove-hot 18RG in it. So i noticed a few things about the Missions that kind of vary from real life racing conditions...something which the game is supposed to replicate accurately...

* Years ago with computer games, we used to say that "challenges within a game can be made difficult, but they shouldn't be made so difficult that the "average" player has no hope of achieving them...nothing creates an annoyed player who is likely to not buy your future offerings than intentionally making challenges in a game that are practically unachievable".

* The AI...this is a big issue. Many years ago we used to say that in certain games, there is "AI", and there is "PAI", or "Perfect Artificial Intelligence"...computer opponents that are, to put it simply, "too damn perfect for thier own good". The opponent cars in the missions fall into that category...they never make mistakes, they don't appear to be affected by understeer or oversteer, they never accidentally lock the brakes, and they basically follow every racing line perfectly.

* "Reality"...the way you make a challenging race is to bring in rules and regs and homologation specs that mean everyones cars are as close as possible to each other...no one has a significant advantage over the other guy. This is how things are done in real racing of most sorts. However, in these missions, what is the point of starting someone in an underpowered ill-handling car up to 30 seconds behind a far superior lead car? Most guys, entering the 3rd last lap and being told he was 30 seconds plus behind the leader (especially on a technical circuit like the diabolical laguna Seca), and knowing he would have to make up 10 seconds plus a lap, would just try for a place and some points.

* It might have sounded trite in Days Of Thunder with Tom Cruise, but "rubbing is racing"...in real life circuit racing, if you rub against another car, you don't automatically slow down for five seconds (especially if he's the one who cuts across your bows and knocks you...). If you brush a barricade, you don't slow down for five seconds...like it or not, swapping paint in corners is jus part of life sometimes...my Celica has the scars to prove it.

* If you get one wheel slightly in the dirt in a real racing car, you don't maniacally spin off into the sand...

* Racing cars have, you know, racing tyres...not the squeeling virtually gripless rubber seemingly fitted to most of the cars in the Missions.

* To answer a query on another thread on this site, yes, downshifting at too high a revs does indeed have more of an effect than a puff of flame out of the exhaust and a "rev-rev-rev-rev-rev" off the rev limiter...it results in either/or a detonated motor and shredded gearbox...in the corner of my shed is a destroyed 302 Ford V8 and four speed from just such a mistake I made several years ago...oops...

* In the missions, driving to your absolute limits seems to be rewarded by spinning off or the aformentioned slight wheel in the dirt and off into the wall. In real life racing, we had a name for the guys who drove like thier pants were on fire and with little regard for thier own safety or the panelwork of their racer...that name was "trophy winners"...

Oh I still love the game, expecially the 'Ring which I went around in real life a few times in the passenger seat of a freinds Mercedes (an old 380SL with good tyres and suspension)...but I will be avoiding the Missions like the plague, as much as I would love Jay Leno's Tank Car...

 

[Remy Zero]

Nice analysis..

 

[bellybox]

If you have got stuck on 11, don't give up yet as they get easier after that. I did some more & then returned to 11 with a most patient mind-set and eventually succeeded.
Good luck mate!

 

[AlexGTV]

I would like to correct you by saying that what you talked about difficulty being at a level an average player can tollerate, goes for casual games and not nessecarily for more skill oriented games; and certainly not for sim and hardcore games such as GT4.

There are a ton of people who have 100%, and not all of them have no lifes. Missions are among my favorite features of the game. Why? Because it takes nothing less than perfection to clear them. And to be perfect and relaxed is a hell of a feeling.

If you cannot clear all missions ,except the last one, don't call yourself an experienced GT4 player, I don't. Furthermore go check the Nurburgring Hotlaps leaderboards and prepare to be humbled.

 

[Wombat1965]

Well I suppose they could label it "for extremely experienced and very patient gamers only...all others will eventually throw a controller at the wall"...

I was just commenting on how "the real driving simulator" isn't that "real" when it comes down to brass tacks...I sometimes wonder if the sterile and clinical Japanese developers ever ventured out into the real world and saw what goes on during a race? They might have programmed in a little allowance for error in the AI drivers routines...I've followed them round and round just to check them out and attempt to improve my driving lines at Laguna Seca, and they are, literally, perfect...amazingly even lines through corners, no sliding, and if you attempt to match thier speed and line, probably 7 times out of ten you will come unstuck in a big way. With the GT40 in this Mission, that would be wholly and solely down to the tyres...as I said above, they don't "feel" like race tyres at all...it's like someone put bargain retreads on a high performance car and then was surprised at the results.

In a real race, unless we are talking Formula One level stuff, error is all part of the game...you make a small mistake, it doesn't automatically mean you have literally no chance of winning...each and every lap on a real track isn't inch-perfect, and opponents can be pushed into making mistakes...monstering them from behind and making them wonder what you are going to do will eventually bring them unstuck usually...not that I'd know about such devious tactics...

As I said, great game, but why should it be restricted to the upper echelon of gamers instead of being for everyone to enjoy every part of it? Imagine what GT5 will be like...will the whole game be of this level, where only the truly dedicated can enjoy it to the full? I certainly hope not...

 

[Wombat1965]

OK, I sat and tried the Laguna Seca GT40 mission again for a couple of hours today...

I think I see what I'm doing wrong...I took the printing all over the game that it is "The Real Driving Simulator" a little too literally. It's a video game...I was expecting the Missions to match the reality that is shown in the rest of the game.
At the Mission stage, it reverts to a "video game", pure and simple...something that requires not just "driving skills", but "video gamer skills". Just because you might understand how a real car feels on a real track or real twisty mountain road, doesn't mean that those cars in that section of the game will behave that way. In the rest of the game, people would complain "the legendary supercars like the Superbird and some Corvettes don't handle in corners!"...no, they don't...and that's what the originals were like...they were made to go extremely quickly in a straight line, and you have to corner like a little old lady in a rusty Toyota Corolla, then hammer it out of the corner and down the straight. The racing cars in the rest of the game handle like real ones when fitted with good rubber...you feel like your head might well come off from the g-forces in a corner. The missions are just a little different and some of that logic has gone out the window, thats all...

Now that I've come to that personal revelation, I'll see if I can improve things...I just have to forget everything I learned in the rest of the game and drive it like an arcade game that's out to get me...

 

[PF]

Also remember that in the licenses and missions the cars are fully infected with AIDS, whereas most serious drivers/gamers and tuners in GT4 set 0/0/0 AIDS as the first thing they do when getting into a car.

I'd also suggest that the 'perfect' racing line is far from 'perfect'. This can be seen most clearly in the license tests where you can have the line on screen (R3 IIRC). Depending on the car, you need to deviate a small but significant amount to gold the tests.

That said, please note I could be talking rubbish. I have no experience nor interest in IRL motorsports and finally got my license last year at the age of 33. I actively dislike driving unless it's a trip of 200km or more. It is a true aberration in my character that GT has had me entranced since about 2001.

 

[GT_Prologue5]

As much as you hate it, GT pushes you because it can. It creates a challene for you, and you have to accept it, become better, and it makes you a better driver.

 

[Wombat1965]

Just sat again and tried it for an hour, and the closest I got was five seconds down. I don't think there's much more I can wring out of it, but a bit of cleaning up of corners might just do it. I still don't agree that a video game should only allow the most dedicated and long-time players to progress however...everyone should be able to enjoy every part of it with a little extra effort.

This was after trying to get into a "video game" mindset, rather than looking a it as something that replicates anything close to reality.
This was also after "forgetting", or ignoring the unreality of, things like:
* The obviously hard as a rock tyres on the GT40 that squeel and slip at the slightest provocation, which if fitted to a real race car would see the mechanic throttled at the first pit stop by the driver.
* The fact you can't cut corners...at all.
* That you can't afford to put a wheel in the sand, and that if you do, you will either maniacally spin out or slow down remarkably, as if it's quicksand or glue, instead of skipping across it.
* Most importantly, remembering that your opponents won't be fazed by you monstering thier rear bumper, they won't make mistakes, and if you dare disrupt thier perfect line and hit you, you'll be the one that cops the penalty.

I'm off to try it again...all it took was to forget thirty years of racing experience in the real world, something that has stood me well in the rest of the game...up until now...

Wish me luck!

 

[Shoogar]

I have to agree with you. There is the whole 'Cheating AI' part of GT4. They hit you, you cop the penalty. You have to move out of the way for them. They have the race line. In the end, in my opinion, it comes down to luck. Getting that perfect start, those perfect corners. I cant seem to remember, but what track is this mission on?

 

[GTsail]

....Just sat again and tried it for an hour, and the closest I got was five seconds down. I don't think there's much more I can wring out of it, but a bit of cleaning up of corners might just do it. I still don't agree that a video game should only allow the most dedicated and long-time players to progress however...everyone should be able to enjoy every part of it with a little extra effort....

You're getting close! Don't give up just yet!

I agree that the Missions start to become harder after the first ten, however, they are by no means impossible if you learn to drive the way the game is trying to teach you. Each Mission requires a slightly different set of driving skills, that once you learn, passing the Mission becomes possible.

Some Missions are much harder than others of course (M34, yikes!) (the number of posts in the specific mission thread gives a good indication of which missions are the hardest), but all can be beaten with enough practice and by re-reading everyone's comments.

The AI is by no means perfect, and therefore can be beaten once you get comfortable with each car and each track. Keep at it! There is tremendous satisfaction once you beat one of the tough missions.

It does take a dedicated gamer to reach 100% in the game, but I disagree that the game can't be enjoyed by a less experienced driver. There are many races that can be won using either A-spec or B-spec if you use a car that is better than the AI. Of course, there are also those races that require much more effort and skill, like the GT World Championship. But that is the challenge of GT4.

After all these years, GT4 still offers a wide variety of racing experiences, which is why so many of us still play the game.

Respectfully,
GTsail

 

[Wombat1965]

Nope, sorry...four more hours total time trying to get my head around what is required in the mission at Laguna Seca with the GT40, and that's it...back to the normal game I'm afraid.

Call me an old fogie who's brain is set in the real world of racing, but I still can't seem to get used to a car that handles that badly and "rewards" truly hard driving with spitting you off as punishment. The closest I got was within sight of the leader on five occasions, only to fall victim to "AI induced accidents", where the second place winner would continue following his perfect preset driving line and nudge you into an unrecoverable slide...well...if the tyres on that Ford were better than hard old second hand Chinese retreads, you might be able to save it...not to mention the fun way that if you get in sight of the leader, about a hundred meters behind him, your car no longer seems to corner quite the way it did and does fun stuff like flicking sideways in a corner...even after literally hours of getting your lines what you thought was right...ain't programmers a whacky bunch...? It's quite obviously something to force you to "improve"...though exactly how forcing you to do the same race over and over for hours is quite another thing. Maybe the "casual player" has no place in the rarified world of GT4 Missions...do you have to chuck the hand controller and invest in several hundred bucks worth of steering wheel and foot pedals? I've seen pre-release advertising for GT5 in the stores, and every single display includes a PS3, an example of the packaging of GT5, and an extremely expensive set of pedals and wheel on a stand...

Here's an example of how an outsider can even spot what is wrong with this portion of the game:
My wife doesn't have a real full-time interest in motor sports much (and has literally zero time for video games at all)...she used to help us in the pits, help prep the cars and bikes for a race, she has an understanding of some of the ins and outs of the sport, but she's not a huge motor head. However, when she walked past and watched me trying the mission yet again, she immediately asked "What the hell is wrong with that car? Why are the tyres squeeling even in a straight line accelerating away from a corner? I'd shoot you if you'd bought tyres like that for the Celica when we were racing..." Then she also noticed that you can't "go hard or go home", and "brake late and turn" style racing doesn't actually do anything...in fact it seems the harder and more furiously you drive (something that would get you somewhere in a real race), the worse you do. She also spotted the way an AI car would run into you if you cut across his perfect driving line, yet you get the penalty...for some reason...guess that's the programmers saying "thou shalt not disturb my careful programming".
She also asked, quite rightly, "Hey, how come the lap timer doesn't start at zero when you cross the line? What's with the 9 or 10 seconds there?". I've no idea, my dear...she also seemed annoyed that I couldn't "put him into the wall" or 'just cut him off in the next corner", when one guy wouldn't get out of my way...that way leads to madness...and a quick trip to the sand trap...

I'll continue having fun with the rest of the game, but the missions are just too unrealistic, compared to the rest of the game, to be "fun"...I looked on the package and didn't see a warning saying "Please do not enter the "Missions" part of this game unless you are prepared to forget about having fun and instead are willing to devote large chunks of lifespan trying to get it right".
.

Now for a real challenge...driving the Benz motor carriage around the 'Ring...

 

[ZG-Gnom]

I'm not some GT4 expert, I don't even own ps2 just borrow it once a year from friend so I can play GT4 and I didn't have any problems with missions (never tried the last one). I don't even have much IRL racing expirience but I've read few books on racing and I can say that basic principle of fast driving can be applied here so less you work, faster you go. From what i can see is that you might be having trouble with controller or wheel you are using, you obviously are not that comfortable with it. So more practice, especially doing licence tests will help with that issue, if you have gold on 20% and silver on others you shouldn't have any problem with most missions. Laguna seca with gt is definitley not easy but there are couple of corners where poor line can cost you second or more so finding the optimal line is crucial (second corner and 4th and 5th one). Hope you won't quit, it's really good feeling when you complete those missions, far better than winning in races.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

I've been playing this game since it came out...and over the last couple of years started playing the "Missions"...1 to 10 were brain bending, but 11 onwards...good lord...

A bit of background...I've been involved in motor sport for maybe thirty years now, since I was a spanner twirler in the pits for a school friend at age 15 who had a "bomber" (a cheap old car raced on a dirt oval), to move on to dirt track racers, then to a bit of amatuer rallying, drag racing (car and bike), and tarmac racing. At the moment I've got an old Celica with a stove-hot 18RG in it. So i noticed a few things about the Missions that kind of vary from real life racing conditions...something which the game is supposed to replicate accurately...

* Years ago with computer games, we used to say that "challenges within a game can be made difficult, but they shouldn't be made so difficult that the "average" player has no hope of achieving them...nothing creates an annoyed player who is likely to not buy your future offerings than intentionally making challenges in a game that are practically unachievable".

* The AI...this is a big issue. Many years ago we used to say that in certain games, there is "AI", and there is "PAI", or "Perfect Artificial Intelligence"...computer opponents that are, to put it simply, "too damn perfect for thier own good". The opponent cars in the missions fall into that category...they never make mistakes, they don't appear to be affected by understeer or oversteer, they never accidentally lock the brakes, and they basically follow every racing line perfectly.

Right. To get the money, prestige, and possibly ego-boost which comes from being one of GT4's best, a good way to test yourself is to finish these missions. Which means you'll need to drive near-perfectly for some of them. Not all missions require absolute perfection, you see.

* "Reality"...the way you make a challenging race is to bring in rules and regs and homologation specs that mean everyones cars are as close as possible to each other...no one has a significant advantage over the other guy. This is how things are done in real racing of most sorts. However, in these missions, what is the point of starting someone in an underpowered ill-handling car up to 30 seconds behind a far superior lead car? Most guys, entering the 3rd last lap and being told he was 30 seconds plus behind the leader (especially on a technical circuit like the diabolical laguna Seca), and knowing he would have to make up 10 seconds plus a lap, would just try for a place and some points.

The missions aren't supposed to apply to real-life rules, regulations, or homologation specs. We're on PD's time here, and PD is making the rules.

I would agree that for the actual Simulation and Arcade mode races, though, it would be lovely to see some sort of equality in GT5, because it's definitely missing in GT4. But PD needs to be careful. Rubber-banding was a method of keeping everyone equal in GT2, for instance. This means no matter how fast (or sometimes how slow) you go, the Ai is going to able to keep up and/or catch up, which actually creates silly-feeling races at times.

If you haven't played GT2 yet, just imagine all 5 cars swarming around you like a pack of wildebeests to get an idea.

* It might have sounded trite in Days Of Thunder with Tom Cruise, but "rubbing is racing"...in real life circuit racing, if you rub against another car, you don't automatically slow down for five seconds (especially if he's the one who cuts across your bows and knocks you...). If you brush a barricade, you don't slow down for five seconds...like it or not, swapping paint in corners is jus part of life sometimes...my Celica has the scars to prove it.

Actually, rubbing a car or barricade in GT4 doesn't always incur a 5-second penalty. It's only when we slam them face-first (or they slam us in the same manner), or we slam face-first into a barricade that the penalty shows up. Slamming another car or barricade with the corner of our bumper also incurs penalties, but I would disagree that rubbing always causes pain.

I've tapped bumpers with an Ai car for instance, and was not given the penalty. I've rubbed fenders with other cars during missions and Special Condition races plenty of times, and was not always given a penalty. Sometimes yes in this case, sometimes no. Usually no.

...I would totally agree that the penalty system IS annoying overall, though.

* If you get one wheel slightly in the dirt in a real racing car, you don't maniacally spin off into the sand...

This doesn't always happen in GT4 either. I've gone slightly into the sand or grass PLENTY of times. Usually I'm able to control my car; rarely will I spin. I would agree that PD's rendering of physics on this matter doesn't always match up totally with real-life, though.

* Racing cars have, you know, racing tyres...not the squeeling virtually gripless rubber seemingly fitted to most of the cars in the Missions.

* To answer a query on another thread on this site, yes, downshifting at too high a revs does indeed have more of an effect than a puff of flame out of the exhaust and a "rev-rev-rev-rev-rev" off the rev limiter...it results in either/or a detonated motor and shredded gearbox...in the corner of my shed is a destroyed 302 Ford V8 and four speed from just such a mistake I made several years ago...oops...

Over-revving in GT3 and GT4 also causes overall engine power to lessen over time. I would agree that there should be more penalty for over-revving, though. In GT5, I really hope there is more consequence to over-revving then just what GT4 gives us, but I'm not holding my breath.

* In the missions, driving to your absolute limits seems to be rewarded by spinning off or the aformentioned slight wheel in the dirt and off into the wall. In real life racing, we had a name for the guys who drove like thier pants were on fire and with little regard for thier own safety or the panelwork of their racer...that name was "trophy winners"...

Oh I still love the game, expecially the 'Ring which I went around in real life a few times in the passenger seat of a freinds Mercedes (an old 380SL with good tyres and suspension)...but I will be avoiding the Missions like the plague, as much as I would love Jay Leno's Tank Car...

No you won't avoid them! You'll someday get the bug (like all of us here have) and you'll force yourself to finish up the missions; assuming you don't move on to GT5, that is. You'll do it because you haven't done it yet.

...I'm kidding...but not really...

 

[Wombat1965]

Oh I've kept on trying...I'm just taking a rest from that mission now.

So far my best was 0.9 seconds behind the lead car. Then there were 18...eighteen...instances in other goes I had at it of closing in on the lead car, and taking a corner only to be cut off by the perfect AI of him follwoing a computer-precise line, being hit by him (he slams into the side of my Gt40, not in "the usual spot for a penalty" on my car, the front bumper), which results in ME incurring the 5 second penalty. Then there were three instances of this happening with the lead car itself in the last two corners. then there's the "odd" way that once you are closing in on the last two cars in the last lap, if the GT40 with it's hopeless tyres gets slightly out of shape once, it appears to be "more likely" to get out of shape from that point on. Odd. Strangely convenient, one might say.

...and I still can't figure out for the life of me what the point is in my counter having to start at just under 10 seconds when I cross the "start" line and actually, you know, "start"...

I'm going back to it now...but it isn't "fun", it's just mental torture...this is definately not how a video game is supposed to be designed...it's supposed to be something like a level of 3 or 4 goes at it for an excellent player, and maybe 5 or 6 for an average player...then you can go on to try and improve your lap times, or possibly next time you try that level, the difficulty of the opponents goes up. I won't even contemplate purchasing GT5 until I've seen a few months of reviews, and whether they make more of the game as "realistic" as the missions are...

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

I only found 2 of the missions to be exceptionally difficult. Those being the one with the Toyota 2000 GT on New York and the last one with the SLR on Nurburgring. It was so painful setting there for 3 minutes waiting for your turn to start and then trying to catch that 300 SL that had the 3 minute headstart. Even more so if you bumped the railing or got off track with the penalty system. That one took a few tries.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Oh I've kept on trying...I'm just taking a rest from that mission now.

So far my best was 0.9 seconds behind the lead car. Then there were 18...eighteen...instances in other goes I had at it of closing in on the lead car, and taking a corner only to be cut off by the perfect AI of him follwoing a computer-precise line, being hit by him (he slams into the side of my Gt40, not in "the usual spot for a penalty" on my car, the front bumper), which results in ME incurring the 5 second penalty. Then there were three instances of this happening with the lead car itself in the last two corners. then there's the "odd" way that once you are closing in on the last two cars in the last lap, if the GT40 with it's hopeless tyres gets slightly out of shape once, it appears to be "more likely" to get out of shape from that point on. Odd. Strangely convenient, one might say.

A good way to get this mission, or any mission done, is to practice. Buy or win that car (if you can), slap some tires on it, and make sure you've got whatever driving aids seem appropriate ON. I forget if the GT40 at Laguna Secan has Aids on or not, and I forget what tires it has on, but I'm about to do this mission to nite so I'll let you know if possible.

For instance, when I did the final SLR Mclaren mission at Nurburgring, I actually wound up buying an SLR (610,000 credits down the drain), keeping the S2 tires on it, turning OFF ASM, but dialing the TCS down to 1 or 2. It's been well documented here at GTP by others trying to finish this mission that this particular car has its ASM off, TCS on 1 or 2, and is riding on S2 tires, so this is what I did.

And then obviously I did hot-laps around the ring until I was in the ballpark so far as what sort of lap time I needed to finish. The only problem then, was when I actually did the mission. I would need to figure out (spontaneously) when to avoid whatever dunce-car was flying up in front of me.

...and I still can't figure out for the life of me what the point is in my counter having to start at just under 10 seconds when I cross the "start" line and actually, you know, "start"...

I'm going back to it now...but it isn't "fun", it's just mental torture...this is definately not how a video game is supposed to be designed...it's supposed to be something like a level of 3 or 4 goes at it for an excellent player, and maybe 5 or 6 for an average player...then you can go on to try and improve your lap times, or possibly next time you try that level, the difficulty of the opponents goes up. I won't even contemplate purchasing GT5 until I've seen a few months of reviews, and whether they make more of the game as "realistic" as the missions are...

Hey man...I feel ya. Missions (and license tests) aren't supposed to be fun. I'm of the opinion that license tests are necessary to teach us, but missions are....I don't know what they're supposed to be! Some of them are lessons for sure, like that one where the only way to beat it is to draft other cars properly. But others are just torture; very much agreed.

I cheated the final mission at Nurburgring by making 3 grass cuts for instance. Yes I cheated, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. But you see, I spent 2 WEEKS OF MY LIFE trying ot finish up that mission. 2 weeks. So one day I said "screw it".

After finishing all 34 of them, I've always seen the Missions as ways to make extra cash, and maybe acquire a certain prize, so now whenever I do them, it's no longer for the ego. I've already done them all; I ain't torturing myself any more, unless I need cash or a car. Like my driver tonite is doing Missions 1 thru 24 (I think) so he can get that Pagani Zonda LM. He is then going to use the Pagani in an attempt to capture the World Cup. I already tried the Jaguar XJ220 LM, which couldn't do it (too heavy). I refuse to just get in an actual Group C or LMP/GT1 racer you see...I like doing things the hard way (so far as World Cup and other sim races go).

But I'm not going to do the following missions after 24....like you noted, they're just torture. I only want that Zonda LM and the money along the way....

 

[AlexGTV]

I love the 1 Lap Magic series. Beating by less than a second the leader is one of the best feelings GT4 can give you.
Consistent, clean laps is the way. If you can't stay in the road, forget it. If you can't be consistent, forget M34. It's that simple.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

I love the 1 Lap Magic series. Beating by less than a second the leader is one of the best feelings GT4 can give you.

Um, so you're saying you LOVE the missions?

 

[AlexGTV]

Um, so you're saying you LOVE the missions?

Most of them. What's there not to like, it's not that you except only winning. Progress is what I want to see. If the second time I cut off half a second, the third time 1 second and so on I close my ps2 in satisfaction even if I didn't clear it.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Most of them. What's there not to like, it's not that you except only winning. Progress is what I want to see. If the second time I cut off half a second, the third time 1 second and so on I close my ps2 in satisfaction even if I didn't clear it.

*cough* BDSM lover! *cough hack!*

Just kidding as always! Never ever take me too serious. 💡

Okay, Wombat, just finished up Mission 12, took me 4 tries. I would rate my driving from "near-perfect" to "damn that was sloppy", depending which corner I was attacking, and passed the leading Viper on Lap 3 going into the Corkscrew. Notice: I definitely DID partially drop some tires into the sand here and there, got side by side with the Viper (rubbing) and did not get that penalty.

I'm thinking the actual Ford GT of the test needs to be won somewhere. So if I were you (and if I didn't have the actual Ford GT LM spec II), I would instead buy the Ford GT that's in the dealership, put R3 tires on it, buy a wing kit, although I can't be sure what settings to use...I would try maxing them first and see how that feels.

Put ASM Understeer, ASM Oversteer, and TCS on "1". The Ford in this test definitely has all 3 Aids working. Again, I'm not sure what the actual settings are, but that's where I'd start. Do not touch any other settings, do not buy any other parts.

The LM is probably lighter than the dealer's car, so maybe you might need weight reductions as well. But I'm thinking that since the Ford GT from the dealer is a cousin of the LM, it'll still make a good practice car, weight reduced or not.

And like I said, just hot lap around Laguna Seca. Get a feel for the game and what it's trying to make you do. Your driving definitely does NOT need to be perfect.

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

You win the Ford GT LM Spec II in the Championship at the bottom of the Professional events. Or at least this is the case with the North American version.