Super Car Challenge

[Shaggy Alonso]

I'd say I visited every game shop here in Dublin couple of weeks ago. One of them told me that each store had only been given 3 copies or something.

About the car setups - You have a limited car setup which is only editable from the main menu. So if you're online, you have to quit the lobby etc. and go back to the main menu. That's even if the setups make a difference in online play - not sure. I havn't bothered with the setups because the one thing I wanted to do is soften the suspension on 333SP and some other cars, but the softest setting is the default already.

You're from Dublin? Cool, display that under your screen name brutha!

 

[Alan_G]

Yes.

Well I kicked off my treasure hunt in HMV on Grafton st.
Went on to Game on Dawson st.
Continued over to Henry st - HMV.
Went into Game Stop next door. Nothing.
In to Ilac Centre - Game Stop again. This time asked the guy what's going on. He said all the stores got 4 copies, but he's sold out.
Went to Smyths. Guy had never even heard of the game.
Back to Game Stop on Henry st. - asked what's going on. Guy said they're sold out, but rang Game Stop on Liffey st. to see if in stock. They had one copy left.
So round to Game Stop on Liffey st., got my copy finally.

 

[Shaggy Alonso]

Yes.

Well I kicked off my treasure hunt in HMV on Grafton st.
Went on to Game on Dawson st.
Continued over to Henry st - HMV.
Went into Game Stop next door. Nothing.
In to Ilac Centre - Game Stop again. This time asked the guy what's going on. He said all the stores got 4 copies, but he's sold out.
Went to Smyths. Guy had never even heard of the game.
Back to Game Stop on Henry st. - asked what's going on. Guy said they're sold out, but rang Game Stop on Liffey st. to see if in stock. They had one copy left.
So round to Game Stop on Liffey st., got my copy finally.

Wow, only one copy in the whole of Dublin, a city with a population of about one million.

 

[Biggles]

Wow, only one copy in the whole of Dublin, a city with a population of about one million.

Scary... like being down to the last pint of Guinness!

 

[Hun200kmh]

well, I have a worst tale to tell. Zero copies in Lisbon and the surrounding metropolitan area (yes, I've looked ... ), with over 2.6 million people.

After so many guys asking "What? What game you say?" I'm starting to wonder if SCC really exists or if you guys are just making it up ...

 

[DaddyVDUB]

Hopefully with the GT5 news System 3 may actually make a few more copies,and hey what the heck send a few over here. 💡

 

[Shaggy Alonso]

Scary... like being down to the last pint of Guinness!

Heh, I think Ireland would literally implode if that were ever to happen. I used to think people saying the Irish are big drinkers was just an old stereotype, then my brother went to a big night club in Barcelona, packed out. He approached the bar and noticed all the staff were bored stiff with no customers, they were all sitting down or on the dance floor, just sipping the odd drink. So he waltzed straight up and was served immediately. In a packed club or bar where I'm from, you can be waiting to get served for anything up to about 45 minutes, depending on how aggressively you bunk the queue, and everyone ends up plastered off their faces. To be fair, it's like this in the British Isles as a whole really, the English are probably even worse than us.

Have to say I've never liked Guinness. I suppose being forced to down a pint of it wasn't the best first impression Tasted like a pint of crude oil IMHO. Can you get Guinness in North America? Is it popular or just the sort of thing that's sampled at global beer festivals? I remember taking a tour of the Guinness brewery and being amazed that the biggest consumer of it other than the Irish was Singapore or something. Maybe Nelsinho had a few too many last year, not aware of his actions

I know, all entirely relevant to this discussion.


EDIT: I misspelt Guinness, sacrilege!

 

[Biggles]

I suppose being forced to down a pint of it wasn't the best first impression

they probably shouldn't have tried that before you were fully off the mother's milk

 

[Alan_G]

well, I have a worst tale to tell. Zero copies in Lisbon and the surrounding metropolitan area (yes, I've looked ... ), with over 2.6 million people.

After so many guys asking "What? What game you say?" I'm starting to wonder if SCC really exists or if you guys are just making it up ...

Alright. I can't take it anymore. THERE'S NO GAME.

People do crazy things in anticipation for an overdue GT series game.

 

[Hun200kmh]

👍

 

[pino-r]

Hi pino, so you can setup the cars for any mode? or is it like FC where you had (very limited) setup options and only in Challenge mode?


PS - btw, and not SCC related, do you have Superstars V8?

hi Mario ,I don't have Superstars V8 I think that I will buy it' used .

the setup changes in all mode, I have not tried online I will try'.
unfortunately the setup and' very limited ,and it needs to always return in the menu' principal of the game to modify
and' very strange that System 3 don't distribute the game in all the countries

I have tried to make a small test video ,it would be beautiful to succeed in saving the replay.....💡
we hope soon in the patch.
good vision ,bye bye 👍

 

[jjaisli]

I had a guest drop by over the weekend in the form of one SimcoeAce (a.k.a. Biggles) who brought his PS3 and G25 with him to my home up in into the wild reaches of the Ramapo Mountains for a night evening of wild sim racing. He managed to avoid any bears but was nearly viciously attacked by a flock of roaming chickens. (And no, that's not a joke).

We were able to network our PS3s and like his previous visit back in March (See the back story by clicking here), run a series of LAN races with Ferrari Challenge. But we were also able to compare Ferrari Challenge and Supercar Challenge, back to back. At one point, I was driving the 355 Berlinetta at Mugello on SCC and would then switch to his PS3 and run the same car at the same track. Some of the differences were not as big as I thought, others were quite pronounced. But at least with a wheel, every car feels slightly different because of the improved steering response.

- Both at Mugello and Infineon, the elevation changes (with SCC) are quite noticeable and the tracks are more "natural" and drivable as a result.

- The deadzone is much smaller with SCC and the cars (with a wheel) are much more predictable. Selecting medium or low FFB results in an even smaller deadzone (although I prefer the more visceral feel of the FFB on high)

- Some cars are noticeably more refined in SCC (550M) and others feel remarkably similar (250 Testa Rossa). In both cases I consider it a good thing. 👍

- As much as we complained about the graphics in Ferrari Challenge, especially when compared directly with Prologue, I think in many ways the graphics of SCC are a step backwards. The in-car graphics in SCC are clearly superior. Of that there's no doubt. And I simply LOVE the new dash view in SCC. Definitely my view of choice. 👍 But the backgrounds in FC, despite their over-saturated colors, are actually much nicer and richer in detail. And I was a bit dismayed to see them next to each other at the same time. One step forward, one step back.

- As Biggles doesn't yet own SCC, we weren't able to test it's LAN play. But as with our previous meeting, a LAN environment completely transformed the gameplay in Ferrari Challenge and eliminated the laggy, jumping, bouncing cars. I have little doubt that SCC would be similar. Although, on-line play in SCC is much smoother than it was in FC so the benefits are likely not as pronounced.

Thanks for stopping by, Biggles. 👍 I hope the next time you come around, you have a copy of SCC with you.

I had a series of online races last night with Hun200kmh where we constantly shuffled the car and track, trying to get a feel for some of the vehicles and tracks we hadn't previously driven. We were able to do a WET race at VIR in the 550M. In Ferrari Challenge, this would have been almost impossible. Or at least let's say it would have resulted in some rather angry and disgruntled players. (Except for Danjama that is). I can actually imagine using this car to run some serious events in SCC now--it's really a joy to drive (for a road car) and driving it in the wet honestly feels like driving a big, heavy, powerful RWD car on slippery roads. In FC, even under dry conditions, at 50% throttle, with the wheel perfectly straight in your hands, the rear end would step out and it was utterly ridiculous.

The 'Hun' managed to get >300 kmh out of the mighty Veyron on the Mugello straight before realizing he would have to brake at some point. But I think this car is more interesting than the CCX. The F50GT is an absolute rocket, nipping at the heels of the DB9R. The 365 GTB/4 is another car that feels much more realistic and drivable than it's FC counterpart.

 

[Vincent Viceroy]

Damn, If I knew you were online I would have joined in.

 

[jibber]

I got this game on friday. Here's what i posted on another forum:

I decided to give this a try. Went ahead and bought the game out of boredom.

With the correct settings (assists off (especially ABS off seems to be very important, otherwise braking feel is ruined), force feedback on minimum setting, low steering sensitivity (results in about 720 degree wheel rotation), etc.), this game/sim is really good!

The "supercars" aren't the best cars for showing off the physics, so the initial impression wasn't great. However, most of the other cars feel great with the G25. 348tb challenge, 355 berlinetta, 360 modena, 430 gt2, etc. They all feel really good to drive!

There's still some fps drops like in Ferrari Challenge, but it's minor. Overall the game runs a lot more smooth now. Graphics seem to have improved a little (more AA this time) and they aren't as dark anymore as they were in FC.

Steering input has been smoothened out aswell. The deadzone and steering lag from FC are 99% gone. I would say regarding steering input and linearity, this is easily the best racing game/sim available on the PS3. It's really good.

The physics have improved aswell IMO. Basically they feel pretty much the same as Ferrari Challenge, but more detailed. Especially when the tail of the car is stepping out, there's a lot more control now. FC sometimes felt a little arcade-ish when sliding around the cars... like the game would help you with countersteering (it was a little too easy sometimes). This is gone now.

Weight feeling of the cars is still as good as in FC. Aswell as the rest of the game, it simply feels a little more smooth and detailed in SC now.

The only real issue i had with the game was the following:
When i first played it, i set ABS to 1 (ABS is on, but on minimal setting). This results in cars that don't let you feel when they start understeering, which feels absolutely terrible. FC never felt like that, so in the beginning, i almost gave up on the game (to my luck i tried a little longer). With ABS off (and minimum FF strenght), you can feel when the front tires lock up, or when you turn to hard and you start to develop understeer.

Another thing which only added to the issue was the force feedback. I had set FF to maximum strenght, which also seems to be a bad idea in SC.
I generally like strong force feedback, but what happens in SC when you use maximum strenght, is that the effects get "washed out", and you don't feel the "soft" effects anymore, which results in a numb feeling car. In order to get the best FF in Supercar Challenge, you need to use the lowest FF setting. This way, the strong effects stay strong, and the soft ones are, well... soft, and you can still feel everything.

It seems that with the wrong settings, SC feels quite bad, but with the right settings, it's a dream. Again, steering input/response and force feedback are brilliant (for a PS3 game)!

Overall i'm really impressed with Supercar Challenge (so much that i've played it for the whole weekend).

One thing they deserve a medal for is the new additional in-car view (closer to the windshield, steering wheel barely visible). In some of the cars it almost feels like iracing when the steering wheel is disabled in the car. It is the perfect view for driving with a G25.

I love it!

PS: Clutch still isn't working. The funny part is, in FC, in the game menu, they displayed a G25 including the shifter and pedals, labeling the controls. The clutch was labeled as "clutch", but was never working. The fix for this in Supercar Challenge... is... *drumroll*... the clutch isn't labeled anymore in the picture! LOL!

 

[jjaisli]

I'm glad you're enjoying the game jibber. I agree with most of your findings, although I prefer the FFB on high and think it's very easy to feel understeer being transmitted through the wheel on that level. I found the low setting to be a bit too soft for my tastes.

Hopefully you'll consider joining the ROC event:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=120870

@ Vincent: It was kind of late when we started playing. If I had seen you on-line I would have sent you an invite for sure.

 

[vompatti]

I just had an interesting run with the SC beta. Little bit of background: even though I didn't play FC online, I did play twice through all that there was in offline mode. Some info, so that you know that I'm aware what kind of physics there is in FC and I'm not totally new to the series, as most of you probably don't know me Anyway, I played FC with DS3 and now just recently I got myself DFGT. Of course I was testing the wheel by going through all the racing titles I have. When I came to the SC beta that was still on the hard drive, I naturally decided to give it a go too. I drove the Nurburgring track and I was amazed how I had to struggle with the car on the track. It wasn't quite how I did remember FC felt and the past quick test with SC beta that I had done earlier. I went to check out my lap time (as said, was done in a quick online test several weeks ago with others on the track) on Nurb and decided to go after it. I drove about 20 laps, but I couldn't get near it. I was especially struggling to keep the car on control in the brakings of first corner and the chicane in the end. Keeping the car in balance under heavy braking was really hard. I started to get suspicious and decided to try it with DS3.

Oh, all of these are naturally done with all aids off and manual. Well, in SC they dumbed my favourite control setup from FC, so I had to drive with a setup that I'm not familiar with (that's actually the reason why I didn't drive the beta much, there wasn't a good controller setup for me). First flying lap, I did some off-roading, oops. Second flying lap and I'm already one second faster than my best time with the DFGT. Compared to DFGT, I felt like I was able to drive more aggressively over curbs, brake later, and under braking if the rear end became loose, I just kept brake in 100% and fixed the situation with countersteer. All the time the car was under control. I just couldn't do it the same way with DFGT. Of course, I'm new with the wheel, so more experienced drivers surely can handle things better with the wheel than I can. But then on the other hand, in GT5 I was able to beat my DS3 results...

I'm starting to wonder if it's so that in SC(&FC) wheel users can't be as fast as pad users. It would be interesting to know if others have similar experiences. And of course if beta is different from the full version in this aspect.

Oh, and excuse me my english, it's not my native language. I hope the text is understandable.

 

[Pamarac]

I did not try the pad but you are describing exactly waht I have to deal with usin the DFGT .
Regarding this aspect there seems to be no difference between the the beta and the full game .

 

[Shaggy Alonso]

Wow, I don't know why it's taken me this long but I think i've broken through a serious barrier of mine with this game

I was practicing with the McLaren Mercedes SLR at Mugello (hitherto a car that I thought was a complete dog). Earlier on in the day the fastest time I was able to set was a 2:23 (Alan G's best was a superb 2:15) and I honestly couldn't see myself going much faster than that. I came back to it tonight, tuned the car a little and my times were all over the place, probably averaging around the 2:30 mark , frequently spinning and thinking that the game and this car in particular only existed to make me feel like a crap driver

Just when I was nearing the end of my tether, I started driving around casually, not concentrating, without using full throttle very much and all of a sudden I noticed I was flying around the track almost by accident. My lap times plummeted by a second each lap roughly from 2:24 down eventually to a low 2:19. The best part of it was that I felt like I could have gone a couple of seconds faster ultimately as well as I was learning with each lap, and my fastest lap was about a second slower in the final sector than my previous lap but still 5 tenths faster overall.

Basically, the root of this success was by using very little full throttle. I was mostly at half throttle, and much more progressive with my throttle application coming out of corners than I had been before. Much less snap oversteer and overall a lot smoother. I began to get a feel for when I could plant my foot once the car had properly settled - before this was mostly guesswork for me, sometimes nailing a nice power slide out of a corner but more often than not it was me putting the car far too sideways and losing loads of time. With this new approach I was able to develop a rhythm for this circuit and not only had I found about 4-5 seconds extra pace, but I was also consistent. I was still paying certain corners too much respect and I know I can still improve as most guys on here are still in a different league, but at least I can now envisage where they're gaining all the time on me - before I put it down to them being complete freaks of nature (I suppose there are a couple who genuinely are, I'm looking at you Sarrinen, Derrick and Alan ).

I haven't tried this new patient style of driving with any other car on any other track yet but I imagine it will help me no matter what car i'm in.

Sorry if this sounds like I'm boasting, I'm really not. It's just that I seriously suck at this game, and to all of a sudden have found loads of performance almost by accident is very exciting for me. I think I will enjoy it much more now

 

[Alan_G]

Sorry if this sounds like I'm boasting

Absolutely not! It's exciting to find any kind of improvement, and great to hear you've had some success. 👍

I came back to it tonight, tuned the car a little and my times were all over the place...frequently spinning...

When I'm really working on a good lap with a car/circuit, one of the last things I do is think about setup. The default setup is alright. Everything is set to soft, so the handling should be managable. Maybe seeing how other cars' setups overlap, I may apply some of these settings initially. But all of the big time is to be found not in setups, but in practicing the circuit and knowing exactly how you want to approach each corner (before, during, after). Whether SCC setups gives raw speed is debatable. What setups will really do is possibly make it easier to find the time that is already there.

Basically, the root of this success was by using very little full throttle. I was mostly at half throttle, and much more progressive with my throttle application coming out of corners than I had been before.

It sounds like previously you were overdriving cars; trying to go to fast, too soon. I know exactly the feeling, especially in online races - sometimes there are some people around with more speed, and you end up going out of your natural style, pushing too hard to try and make up the difference.

The golden rule - never slide, never wheelspin. It just slows you down and makes the car unstable. In saying that, I find myself sliding sometimes, but not very often.

Learning a lap begins with the braking points. Generally the approach speeds to corners will be the same every lap. So learn the braking points, refering to visual clues (100m boards are the main ones). On exit, if it's a powerful car, just learn how much you can squeeze the throttle without wheelspin. A key focus for choosing a line is to carry good speed exiting the corner.


That SLR car is one of the most difficult to drive in the game. Huge power, understeer-prone, bit of a brick really. So if you can manage in that car, you should be good in others.

 

[mr_VOLCANO]

We'd stand a better chance if System 3 was actually interested in selling the game. Still no word on a North American (NTSC) release, still not available in Scandinavian countries, still not available in Portugal...

Yeah, cant understand why they dont want to sell games I am hopefully getting my SCC copy soon from holland (thank you blitz187!!)

 

[Hun200kmh]

Nice to know you'll be getting this one mr_V. Hope you like it, although it doesn't feature the 512BB

 

[Shaggy Alonso]

Absolutely not! It's exciting to find any kind of improvement, and great to hear you've had some success. 👍




When I'm really working on a good lap with a car/circuit, one of the last things I do is think about setup. The default setup is alright. Everything is set to soft, so the handling should be managable. Maybe seeing how other cars' setups overlap, I may apply some of these settings initially. But all of the big time is to be found not in setups, but in practicing the circuit and knowing exactly how you want to approach each corner (before, during, after). Whether SCC setups gives raw speed is debatable. What setups will really do is possibly make it easier to find the time that is already there.

Yes this is probably true. As you say changes in aerodynamics and gear ratios access extra speed, but since neither of those are available in this game, it's more a matter of tweaking the set up to suit your driving style the best in order to access your best lap times. However, I think negative camber would simply help anyone. Since there's no front wing to increase the angle on, this is probably the next closest thing available which you can alter to get the car's nose pointed in more quickly.

It sounds like previously you were overdriving cars; trying to go to fast, too soon. I know exactly the feeling, especially in online races - sometimes there are some people around with more speed, and you end up going out of your natural style, pushing too hard to try and make up the difference.

The golden rule - never slide, never wheelspin. It just slows you down and makes the car unstable. In saying that, I find myself sliding sometimes, but not very often.

Learning a lap begins with the braking points. Generally the approach speeds to corners will be the same every lap. So learn the braking points, refering to visual clues (100m boards are the main ones). On exit, if it's a powerful car, just learn how much you can squeeze the throttle without wheelspin. A key focus for choosing a line is to carry good speed exiting the corner.


That SLR car is one of the most difficult to drive in the game. Huge power, understeer-prone, bit of a brick really. So if you can manage in that car, you should be good in others.

Yes, with hindsight I was being too forceful with my driving style, pushing the car to go faster with lots of throttle and opposite lock, without just letting the car do the work for me. Once I got the hang of this last night, it strangely reminded me of when I was first learning how to play the drums. When I relaxed and let the drum stick do the work for me I was able to do much faster drum-rolls, and then I always wondered why I ever had the problem to begin with as the new style became so natural.

To be fair, I have tried driving in a more patient way before but I was doing it all wrong. Going into a corner I would be all throttle and then no throttle at all and then I'd be trying to fight the understeer by using a dab of full throttle to get it pointed in - i've discovered that this is of very limited use as although the nose points in, the whole car has moved wider from the apex and you begin to run out of room, and are usually out of shape for the following corner. I found this exasperating, because when asking UKOG Geordie and Turnupdaheat if they like their car to be tail happy, George said most definitely and Derrick said it depends on the car and track - but privately i'd always suspected a smoother approach to be faster, but since they were so fast, their lap times were able to back up what they were saying - so this really threw me when it came to my approach to driving. But as you say, I think I would agree that any sliding or wheel spin is usually a bad thing. Now instead of being on and off between full throttle I spend much more time on half throttle and I'm able to carry more speed through the corners without the car becoming out of shape.

Thanks for your tips though Alan, they all make perfect sense to me now 👍

 

[rocket99]

I recently got my hands on a copy of Supercar Challenge and wanted to write up some of my initial impressions. I was a bit doubtful about buying this game, but I enjoyed Ferrari Challenge and was encouraged by the feedback left by other people.

First of all it's pretty hard to place this game. In my opinion it's not really a sequel to Ferrari Challenge. In some respects I consider FC to be a superior game to SCC. The graphics look prettier, there's ingame music and the whole package feels more polished. However, the most important parts, the game play and game modes have most definitely been improved.

What seems to be the case is that FC was built on a much bigger budget than SCC. A lot of FC was recycled in SCC and a minimal of new content was added. Most of the development effort has gone into refinement. It wouldn't have been possible to release a lot of these changes as a patch to FC, although a future patch implementing some of these refinements especially in the driving model would be appreciated. FC is still a fine addition to the game collection of anyone who likes driving games even with SCC available.

My initial impression of SCC and also of the beta was not that positive. Like many others I was struggling to get a feel for the controls which seemed a bit strange as I had become quite comfortable with those of FC. Strangely enough my experience changed completely when I switched from 3rd person to in-car view. Steering into corners became more accurate and AI drivers were causing less spin outs. I can't remember there ever being such a pronounced difference between in-car driving and from 3rd person in FC.

At least I was glad to be in control of the car and started to win some races. After messing about a bit with the starter cars, I decided to get myself the Ferrari 333 SP. In FC this car had vastly superior characteristics to anything else and this seems to be no different in SCC. It really is great money making machine. When put in quick oval races raking in the cash to buy whatever you want is a breeze.

Such tactics may not appeal to everyone but I know it can be an important selling point to a lot of people with limited time much like myself. There does seem to be a bit of a brick wall to hit in this game after unlocking the first 2 tiers. The amount of stage points required to unlock the final world stage in the challenge mode seem to force the player to redo the races of the lower tiers on pretty high difficulty levels that disallow the use of racing lines.

Overall I am quite pleased with SCC, the lack of new content may be a deal breaker to some, but the quality of game play is to be cherished. It may not appeal to the masses but it is encouraging to see that gems like this can still find a place between the big budget titles.

 

[Blitz187]

Yeah, cant understand why they dont want to sell games I am hopefully getting my SCC copy soon from holland (thank you blitz187!!)

No problem

 

[Hun200kmh]

Great review rocket99. I suspect you are right about FC being a bigger budget game than SCC.

I don't find a big difference from an "ease of play" point of view with either in car or outside views, but in everything else I agree with you.

About that F333SP being a cash cow ... I never drove it and I'm not sure exactly how can I earn quick cash, but I'm needing this scheme because I need to get to try lots of cars before I choose what cars will be used in ROunds 4 and 5 of ROC.

Yesterday I tried one thing, using a different account. I used the cheat code to get the 599XX and the Stirling Moss SLR for free (both cost over 100.000) , then I sold them - getting more than 80.000 ofr the sale - and THEN I tried to use the code again.

Didn't work

But it was a truly cunning plan, wasn't it?

 

[Blitz187]

Yesterday I tried one thing, using a different account. I used the cheat code to get the 599XX and the Stirling Moss SLR for free (both cost over 100.000) , then I sold them - getting more than 80.000 ofr the sale - and THEN I tried to use the code again.

Didn't work

But it was a truly cunning plan, wasn't it?

You sly devil you...

 

[Biggles]

Ok, I might try & get my sister to bring this game over for me, when she visits. Is there a bricks & mortar store in the UK that has a good deal on SCC? If not, the cheapest I'm finding it is about 25 Pounds online.

Unlike some I could name, at least I have had the integrity NOT to rush out & buy SCC (full price) at release.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Unlike some I could name, at least I have had the integrity NOT to rush out & buy SCC (full price) at release.

Yeah, the spineless bastards ...

 

[jjaisli]

Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just glad you'll be joining us soon.


Edit: Maybe try this place.

 

[Biggles]

Thanks Jeff. I'll give it a try. (My sister thinks I'm a pathetic geek ... )