Superstars V8 The Next Challenge

[jonboy1066]

Trailers Here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrFkt0rtTxY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1RdPm-0 ... re=related


The demo came out yesterday, the game is due for release on Feb 26th for £30 on PS3, 360 and PC

16 Players Online

Evolving track conditions (wet track developing a dry line, etc)




I had a quick blast with this demo last night and I think it's very good.

The wet effects are very good and actually affect the cars handling by a lot, on time attack after a few laps you really do get a dry line forming and a corresponding change in grip between the wet and dry parts of the track.

The cars are very well done and look almost on a par with FM3 graphics.

The damage seems good and the cars are nowhere near as overly fragile as FM3

The AI is aggressive but fair.

The track modeling is very good (Although in the demo there's only Monza to see) but I am very hopeful for the other tracks in the game which are all legenday world famous circuits.

Force Feedback is good (I've had a lot better but also a lot worse), it varies with the type of tyres you use ie:

Soft tyres on a dry track = more grip = more feedback

Wet tyres on a wet track = less grip = less feedback

Going off track and into the gravel traps causes awesome FFB effects

Handling is good, if you ever played ToCA RACE Driver 3 on Pro Sim you'll find it kinda simillar, on a dry track it's difficult to get the back end to swing out unless you get into a tank slapper, but on a wet track it's a whole different kettle of fish. In many ways I prefer it to FM3 which is overly back-end-loose- with some cars.

Setup options, it's hard to say exactly what's there as some of it is locked for the demo, but you can change brake bias, aero, tyre types (Soft/Hard Slicks or Wet/Intermediates) Engine mapping can be set so you can have a medium setting, a wet setting which provides less power/more traction or an extreme setting.

The penalty system seems good, I've not found any of that pesky super sticky gravel or super slippy run-off like you get in FM's 2 & 3 but what you do get is something simillar to GT5P in that if you blatantly cut a chicane and keep your foot in, you'll be slowed by the CPU and a 5 second countdown begins, once the countdown is up you are relkeased to continue at race speed again, if you accidentally outbrake yourself and cut a chicane, but come off the gas and slow before rejoining without gaining a position then the CPU seems to notice and will forgive you for your Faux Pas.



All in all I think if you are a fan of racing and want a simulator to give you real racing conditions then this is a must buy for the console, if you are a Forza fanboi, or see Forza more as a game than a Simulator then it's probably not for you. There's no gaining of earnings, no drifting, no painting, etc etc but what it provides is exactly what T10 decided not to provide with FM3............RACING!

I am definately going to buy this game and for £30 I think it'll be money well spent, I'm now looking forward to getting online in a field of 16 players and having some awesome touring car action. I'm bound to be in a minority and get shouted down but if -like me- you have the attention span to be able to play a racing sim without the need for constant rewards that celebrate mediocrity, you don't need the prettiest graphics, and are not overly bothered about frame rate (I can't tell the difference between 30 & 60 FPS and don't care as long as I feel immersed in a race) then this is a vital adition to your racing library.

[lukeozade0405]

Cheers for that jonny, a very detailed and insightful review.

i'll give the download a go when I get in, in the morning. Really looking forward to the racing line becoming dryer as the race progresses.

[Jackal]

I really liked the first V8 Superstars game. More racing, less nonsense.

The only thing I'd say was the tyre wear (when siwtched on) became too excessive and you couldn't make a pit stop to change tyres. A shame when you've built up a ten second lead and a bit daft seeing as you could drive into and out of the pit lane)! And there didn't seem to be much difference between intermediates and wets in the wet and there was no spray kicked up from the car in front.

Hopefully the new game will address these and I really like the sound of the dry line appearing and grip levels changing. I'll definitely be buying it.

[debbie.dakin]

Absolutely agree with the tyre wear issue - driving became impossible by the end of a long race! Love the look of the changing track conditions, but, correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't that supposed to be on the old one aswell? Looks great though! Thanks for the review!

[lukeozade0405]

Hate to be a pessimist but Forza is much better.

[mabratley]

I just found out that im getting it for my birthday. The MAB-inator expands

[jonboy1066]

Hate to be a pessimist but Forza is much better.

That would depend on your priorities.

Forza's a great game, but when it comes to replicating a real world championship with real conditions, on legendary tracks and a decent sized grid to race with Forza is one of the worst out there.

I enjoy Forza, it's good fun, but, 8 car grids in this day and age is just lame and far too last gen, the handling's good but not a patch on RACE Pro, the tracks and cars are pretty but too clinical and cartoony to be realistic, they have no atmosphere!

The damage is spectacular in Forza but c'mon, how can any game calling itself a "Definative Racer" really expect to convince a sim racer, when you can just bump the front wing alittle bit, lose 2 seconds a lap and not be able to repair the damge in the pits? Yet destroy the engine, drivetrain gearbox, suspension and every other mechanical part all at once to the point of "Red Damage" and still limp back to the pits....have a complete new engine rebuild, repair all broken mechanical parts and resume racing in seconds?

I'm looking forward to Superstars V8's, I think it will make a nice accompanyment to my library of racing games alongside Forza 3, RACE pro, Ferrari Challenge, GT5P and Mario Kart Wii. All of which provide good times in their own right.

[BTCCKID08]

I just found out that im getting it for my birthday. The MAB-inator expands

I just hope for my birthday I can buy a MAB prevention forcefield :D

[DanB66]

Me as well, a Mabinator proof car would be an awesome present.

[planetpug]

Would anybody be interested in a online championship on the xbox?
Something like a race every couple of weeks possibly even running similar dates to the real thing www.superstars.it
Just an idea

The game is brilliant I love it

[SpeedRacer]

I had the choice to buy it yesterday but seen as the first one was lack lustre I went for Assassins Creed 2 instead. Imo Forza does everything I want from a racer atm and it also has the R8.

[simon1220]

I had the choice to buy it yesterday but seen as the first one was lack lustre I went for Assassins Creed 2 instead. Imo Forza does everything I want from a racer atm and it also has the R8.

Same feeling with me, would never buy this or another racing game until im bored of Forza and Race Pro .. which wont happen soon.

[Sparkz]

I played the demo of the game and got incredibly bored very quickly. :(

[mabratley]

PROBLEM!

In a race you CANNOT pit even if you have damage

[BTCCKID08]

PROBLEM!

In a race you CANNOT pit even if you have damage

Well learn to use the brakes then mate. ;)

[simon1220]

PROBLEM!

In a race you CANNOT pit even if you have damage

Dont get damage then?! :p

[mabratley]

you do full damage and tyre wear

[jonboy1066]

I finally got my hands on a copy yesterday, even though I'd had it on order on Play for ages, they didn't have it in stock until now. I bought the PS3 version because I have more friends who have it for that console although it's also available on XBox 360 and PC

I've started by playing offline and have completed the School and Academy levels which were a bit too easy, but I suppose a good place to start if you're new to the Genre (I do doubt though that anyone new to the genre would buy V8's, they're more likely to have FM3 in a bundle)

I've also got myself 3 rounds into the offline championship mode.

First Impressions.

I like it a lot, it's exactly what I'm after in a racing game and the complete antidote to the major let down that is FM3.

It's kinda no frills so if you were sucked in by the pretty pictures of Forza and GT5P and have now decided that nothing compares based on looks then you probably won't like V8's


BUT!

It's got pretty much everything a motorsport enthusiast will enjoy.

In Championship Mode you can do a full race weekend which comprises of.

Practice
This is a timed 30 minute session where you can learn the track and tweak your setup ready for qualifying. You can do the whole 30 mins, skip it completely or just move to the next session when you feel happy. You'll get a display saying what the fastest time of the session is and where you are in relation to everyone else.

Qualify
Another 30 Minute Session to set a good qualifying lap....same again, you can skip it and start from the back or just move on when you're happy.

Race
In full weekend mode you race against 18 other cars for the amount of laps that you pre-determined at the start of the championship twice.

Race 1 You start in the order of qualifying.

Race 2 Has a reversed top 8 (WTCC Stylee)



Impressive touches

In practice and qualify the AI cars seem to attempt to stay out of your way if you're on a hot lap, especially if they're exiting pit lane. They don't always succeeed but they do try.

Corner Cutting is dealt with by the CPU in a very effective and common sense way and much better than any other console racer that I have played. ie If you cut the track onto grass you will lose grip in a realistic way instead of Forza's stick grass, if you still gain time and or a position when you rejoin the track the CPU takes hold of your car and slows you down for 3 seconds, if you lose time/positions, you are forgiven your faux pas and can carry on unscathed...in a simillar way to GT5P...but it works.

Setup options are kept simple and effective, you can only change a few key things such as suspension, aero, tyres and Engine mapping

Engine mapping is a great touch, you can set the engine from a wet setup which reduces horsepower and increases traction, to an extreme setup which increases HP.

Tyres gives you a choice of Dry-Soft, Medium and Hard as well as wet tyres so you can qualify on Soft rubber to set a good time, them race on the harder rubber for endurance. The tyres do wear during th erace so you need to choose carefully which rubber to use for the track/race length/weather conditions.

There's also a range of preset setups that you can choose for each session to save you worrying about setting up your own car if you like.

AI...so far I have found to be pretty good, they give racing room but not too much and they race well...contact happens, if you leave yourself open to it, but on the whole it is kept to a minimum. I've only tried racing the AI so far on "Hard" setting wich is a bit too easy, in the championships I've set the races to 10 laps and I seem to finish 15 seconds ahead most of the time...there is a "Legendary" setting which I will try out but today I'm just gonna plough through and unlock all of the tracks.

The track lives!!!! Yes it really does, so far I've not had a wet race but I did witness the drying line in the Demo, what I didn't realise was that the track "Rubbers in" over the course of the weekend giving off more grip by race 2 that it did in the practice session, there also seems to be a slight marble effect although you can't see it, you do seem to lose grip off the racing line as the race progreses.


Force Feedback.......Not sure on this, at first I found that the FFB was awesome as long as you were crashing! On the Gravel and Grass it was second to none, however on track it was pretty much limp with a big deadzone.......Then! for some reason last night halfway through practice at Magione the FFB suddenly kicked in! And the game came to life.
For comparison, felt through a Fanatec Porsche wheel, I would give Ferrari Challenge a 10/10....Forza3 a 8.5/10 and V8's a 7/10....not awesome and there's clearly a bug there somewhere but it's pretty good for the price of the game.

Handling is good, the terms simulation vs arcade these days get banded about most of the time with the player not actually knowing how a car handles in real life let alone having a driving licence, owning a real car or even having ever driven a real race car...in FM3 for instance I find the handling varies from crazy over/understeer to reletively accurate depending on the car of your choice, the assists you use and how you setup/upgrade the car. In Superstars V8 TNC with all assists off I think the handling is very good....simillar in a way to ToCA Race Driver 2 on Pro Sim setting, it's challenging enough without needing days of practice to get to grips with it.

Damage is difficult to tell at this early stage for me as I've been racing and avoiding crashing where I can, but the cars are no where near as overly fragile as they are in FM3, you can nudge, be nudged, bump and hit a wall without writing your car off but hard hits do effect your steering, gearbox engine etc The pit lane is open but only to drive through as far as I can tell, yo cannot stop to repair damage or change tyres.

Multiplayer, so far I only have anecdotal evidence as I've not been online myself yet, but everyone I have spoken to has said that they run regular 16players races online with no lag.


Value for money is awesome.......I payed £29.99 for my copy and am happy...but a mate told me yesterday that he saw it on Amazon for £17.99! At that price I would say it's a must buy!!

[Lambert1]

Got this game for £9.51 on eBay! I think it is great :D

[Jackal]

Really good game - best PS3 racing game I own without a doubt. No nonsense, just straightforward racing with decent car behaviour, good graphics, sound and some very interesting circuits.

Am doing full championship at present in Audi and have won 6 of first 8 races. However, this with traction control on and tyre wear off. Haven't had significant damage yet so don't know about being able to pit for repairs or not?

Haven't tried going online for a game yet but am guessing this will be a bit tougher. There are sure to be some people out there who really know how to thrash it!

[lukeozade0405]

Just picked up this game for very cheap and have to say I love it, the graphics aren't great but you don't think twice about it when you're playing this game. The sounds are brilliant, the AI is very very good at defending and overtaking.

It's no flim flam back to basics Italian touring cars, has some good features like getting your licences before you race.

If anyone wants to grab those pesky online achievements on the 360 i'm happy to help because as you may know the online play is dead..... no one at all.

Gamertag is Lukeozade0405 or message me on here.

[nealfan]

Been trying to find a copy of this game. Been all over the shops, could i find one anywhere? No!.... Told by one local shop that he does not stock the game when its at a ridiculous money to buy, so gets them in when he knows it will sell for cheap. Only place I can find it is on the internet for minimum of £20, might end up paying that if i dont find one soon

[lukeozade0405]

Been trying to find a copy of this game. Been all over the shops, could i find one anywhere? No!.... Told by one local shop that he does not stock the game when its at a ridiculous money to buy, so gets them in when he knows it will sell for cheap. Only place I can find it is on the internet for minimum of £20, might end up paying that if i dont find one soon

For £20 I still don't think you'll be disapointed.

[nealfan]

For £20 I still don't think you'll be disapointed.

I decided to download the demo again. After 1st playing it thought, nah nothing special. After reading jonboy's review, I thought I would give it another chance. So i set the difficulty at legend........ WOW......... I have been looking for a racing game with this kind of difficulty for a long time, Ive always found AI really easy to beat, but not now. You really have to push to get anywhere, I like it. The only things it lacks is graphics and a few little odd handling. But apart from that, as tony would say they're grrrrrrreat

[lukeozade0405]

It's the smaller things that really impressed me as well, the dry line that appears in wet races, was like wow! haven't ever played a game that develops dry lines throughout a race. Also in the real game you can do races up to 20 laps on many more tracks that are beautiful.

There are other things like getting ur racing licence before you start which makes for very good playing.

[nealfan]

It's the smaller things that really impressed me as well, the dry line that appears in wet races, was like wow! haven't ever played a game that develops dry lines throughout a race. Also in the real game you can do races up to 20 laps on many more tracks that are beautiful.

There are other things like getting ur racing licence before you start which makes for very good playing.

Formula one 2010 is going to have the dry line appearing in wet races aswell.


Cant wait to get both these now, and all I need to do is order superstars vw the next challenge as it has already been released

[b2uk]

might have to get my mitts on this! Getting a bit bored with Forza3 and NFS Shift!! :mad:

[Jackal]

Won legend mode championship very easily with Audi with a few driving aids left on. Have now moved to Maserati with tyre wear etc on. This is very hard. Won 2 of first 8 races (at Imola and Mugello) but one event struggled to a 13th and a 9th in the two races there. One thing I'd like is an ability to pit for fresh tyres or an option to gamble on slicks on a damp track.

Is it possible to pit for different tyres during a wet race - if so can someone tell me how!!!???

Apart from that it is very, very good.

[nealfan]

Ive ordered a copy off of ebay for xbox 360. Can't wait that much, I keep playing the demo over and over again, getting quicker and quicker. Cant wait for it to turn up. Really hope it turns up tomorrow morning so i can play it when i get home

[nealfan]

might have to get my mitts on this! Getting a bit bored with Forza3 and NFS Shift!! :mad:

Yeah me too. Im a bit unsure about shift, not as good as forza3 or superstars v8.

[Dan F]

Just bought this for £12.99 from Morrisons. Looking around at online reviews I'd started to think I'd made a mistake, but reading this thread that I semi-remembered has re-ignited my interest - cheers! :)

(OK, now to go off and actually play it)