Lewis Hamilton TT, worth the money or not?

  • Thread starter Pearl Jam
  • 185 comments
  • 22,249 views

Is it worth it?

  • Yes

    Votes: 187 72.2%

  • No

    Votes: 72 27.8%
  • Total voters
    259
oper8or
Other players' Time Trial replays & ghosts were already available for viewing & chasing in-game, but there were no awards for doing so. This DLC just gives me a nice incentive (big jackpot) to be a ghost-buster, which gives me a chance to (hopefully) finally acquire & drive some of the game's most expensive classic cars (like the Ferrari 330 P4, the Shelby Daytona Coupe, & a few others) without eternally grinding campaign/AI races for tens-of-millions of credits.

I tackled Nordschleife first since it's the longest course and because I've always struggled at Nordschleife in every racing game/sim I've played, so I wanted to get my worst nightmare out of the way first, hoping everything else will feel less daunting after that. It took me a great many attempts over a few sessions/days to finally get diamond at Nordschleife (barely a couple tenths faster than Lewis). One down, nine more to go. I've begun my battle against Mount Panorama and I hit the gold time, but I've still got my work cut out for me to get diamond at Bathurst.

I've got a B driver rating and an S safety/sportsmanship rating in Sport Mode, I'm using a standard first-party DS4 gamepad (thumbstick steering) with manual transmission, chase cam, steering sensitivity at 7 (max), ABS on default, TCS at 2 (in the AMG GT3 & Sauber C9, not on every car), no ASM, no CSA, & no driving line overlay... So if anyone is wondering if mere mortals have any hope of hitting diamond times in these time trials with a controller, I'd say yes - if you're determined & persistent. If I'm lucky, I expect it might take me at least a couple weeks to get all 10 diamonds.

5 things I'm not thrilled about:

• I feel like the AMG GT3 & Sauber C9 have a lot of understeer & weak brakes

• the name & flag banner hovering over Lewis' ghost car almost totally blocks my view (in chase cam) sometimes when I'm very close to the ghost car (I've been using the ghost offset option to put Lewis at least a half-second further out in front of me just so I can keep that banner out of my face)

• the 1-lap-at-a-time format breaks my flow, making me repeatedly wait through restarts after every lap (I'd prefer continuous uninterrupted hot-lapping until I manually choose to exit/quit, just like in the game's other Time Trial modes)

• the in-game "driving tips from Lewis Hamilton" videos offer no substantial insights or inspiration

• it seems like there will be no point to ever replay any of this DLC after beating all of its diamond times

Curious... In the in-game "driving tips from Lewis Hamilton" video for Monza, Lewis said he's racing at Monza (in real-life) "this week." Lewis' hair in these time trial videos matches his hair from the early September 2018 F1 Monza race photos (he had cornrows in the September 2019 F1 Monza race photos). If Lewis put in these Time Trial laps around the same time these in-game videos were filmed, he might have been running version 1.23 or 1.25 of the game, whereas this DLC was released with the version 1.50 update (over a year later). I wonder how much the game's physics have been altered/updated between those versions/updates, and if players are truly on a level playing field with Lewis' ghost laps.
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If you "hide" Lewis ghost car you can still see time differance between you and him just not his car/banner.
 
I know I'll never diamond but gold will come with some work, the money reward plus supporting pd for all the work they've put into this game is deserving of a yes from me
 
graveltrap
Is it possible to make the result viewable without having to vote please!
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Almost a week on and I’m addicted.

There’s something very satisfying about chipping tenths off your lap time and improving as a driver.

I hope we see more tracks added to the Hamilton DLC and future Time Trial challenges with other drivers.
 
NAXEHT
I'm a tad curious how you end up at 50/50. What's behind the yes as well as the no for you?
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If you are good enough to get that bigger cap and the 100 million or you want to support PD because you have some spare cash go for it but don't do it out of necessity to win credits and cars because then it becomes a Mercedes themed starter pack.
 
George Jakob
If you are good enough to get that bigger cap and the 100 million or you want to support PD because you have some spare cash go for it but don't do it out of necessity to win credits and cars because then it becomes a Mercedes themed starter pack.
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Well, the cap is increased at all gold, diamond isn't necessary for that (only for the extra 100,000,000 and the VGT LH) so that should be achievable by quite a few more who might struggle pushing it to diamond.

But yeah, if I was just after credits I wouldn't get it, GT League does that job even if it takes substantially longer that method still works. I instead got it because the challenge itself is very well done, the special car would be really cool to get your hands on, not going to lie about that. It also costs very little and I don't mind supporting Polyphony some extra for the games they've given us and continue to support.
 
NAXEHT
Well, the cap is increased at all gold, diamond isn't necessary for that (only for the extra 100,000,000 and the VGT LH) so that should be achievable by quite a few more who might struggle pushing it to diamond.

But yeah, if I was just after credits I wouldn't get it, GT League does that job even if it takes substantially longer that method still works. I instead got it because the challenge itself is very well done, the special car would be really cool to get your hands on, not going to lie about that. It also costs very little and I don't mind supporting Polyphony some extra for the games they've given us and continue to support.
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Fair enough 👍 i actually find the diamond gift car lame to be honest.
 
George Jakob
No i mean overall its just a VGT with extra bits similar to what we could do until GT6 with GT Auto and a very simple livery is not special enough in my opinion .
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Sure but what other car would you have placed there? Obviously there's also a prestige factor. :D
 
NAXEHT
Sure but what other car would you have placed there? Obviously there's also a prestige factor. :D
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Hmmm maybe a Mercedes-ONE LH edition which you would have to get diamond for it until the normal version came to the game a faw months later or actually modify the VGT to make it more worthy.
 
Not worth it. I got it just to contribute to PD for the things I like in GT but that isn’t a good reason to value something. The only thing I can see using it for is credits if another 20 mil car pops up because my bank account is full right now. Some people on here want to redefine what a micro transaction is to win arguments, saying it is only buying credits. Well, that is what I am using this time trial for.
 
oper8or
Curious... In the in-game "driving tips from Lewis Hamilton" video for Monza, Lewis said he's racing at Monza (in real-life) "this week." Lewis' hair in these time trial videos matches his hair from the early September 2018 F1 Monza race photos (he had cornrows in the September 2019 F1 Monza race photos). If Lewis put in these Time Trial laps around the same time these in-game videos were filmed, he might have been running version 1.23 or 1.25 of the game, whereas this DLC was released with the version 1.50 update (over a year later). I wonder how much the game's physics have been altered/updated between those versions/updates, and if players are truly on a level playing field with Lewis' ghost laps.
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I started to wonder on this too. One strong discrepancy I see is that the top speed of the C9 is different. This is amply evident down Döttinger Höhe, where I make up time hitting the limiter.

Don't get me wrong, I probably will have a hard time getting the top 2 awards... but they simply look like a formula. It would have been great if they were averages of his total laps. E.g.: gold is his 3 lap average. It seems like (without doing the math) gold is 1% more, rounded, silver 2.5%, and bronze is 5%.
 
oper8or
• the 1-lap-at-a-time format breaks my flow, making me repeatedly wait through restarts after every lap (I'd prefer continuous uninterrupted hot-lapping until I manually choose to exit/quit, just like in the game's other Time Trial modes)
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Agree 1000%, so annoying. Just let me keep running laps until I decide to cry uncle and cave in.
 
ynot
Agree 1000%, so annoying. Just let me keep running laps until I decide to cry uncle and cave in.
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You have to match Hamilton's speed going over the start line and get an equal start to your lap every time.

I like it like that as I only have to nail the last corner once per lap. A nice luxury.
 
kilesa4568
You have to match Hamilton's speed going over the start line and get an equal start to your lap every time.

I like it like that as I only have to nail the last corner once per lap. A nice luxury.
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However, it's not equal. Suzuka or Interlagos doesnt do it this way, some tracks you're going faster or slower at the line, and in one of the instances you're headed at an off angle compared to Lewis. So, not 100% equal.
 
I intend to buy the DLC when I can beat the gold / diamond time by practicing in the time trial.
The best I could do was silver time on the dragon trail, I didn't think it would be this hard..
 
Having bought GTSport (disc) Feb 18 for £17.99 and all the free updates to the game since, i bought the Lewis Hamilton Time Trial sight unseen to support my fav game since Feb 18.

Having sprained my wrist last week, today will be the 1st time i can try it out.
 
If I purchase this DLC someday it would be for credit farming. Nothing more.

I could probably gold most of these with some practice, so I have to decide if spending $7 is worth 10 million credits.

If beating the diamond/platinum times was even a remote possibility, then yes, $7 is worth the 100mil credits.

Otherwise, from my previous experience with PD TT’s, they are usually screamingly tedious, aggravating, and not worth the effort.
 
Jubby
However, it's not equal. Suzuka or Interlagos doesnt do it this way, some tracks you're going faster or slower at the line, and in one of the instances you're headed at an off angle compared to Lewis. So, not 100% equal.
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You have raised a very good question with your comment, did Lewis do these TT with single laps like we have to do or did he do them like in regular TT where he can get a good rhythm going that we can't.
 
I silvered everything, got 2 cars (could sell one of those i already bought) so a cool 5.300.000 credits and some much needed new challenges.
I would like to get the rest of the stuff, but honestly that will not happen :)
 

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