AMS2 is currently my favorite, every aspect of the races can be customized in the settings, it is so user friendly, it's so rare to have a sim title that's essentially "pickup and play" like this
Once you get past the setup, you can really engage with this title very quickly. One of the things I like was being able to adjust the FFB on the fly for each different car. That really is a nice touch.
I just got the G Pro wheel from logitech and let me tell y’a ACC And AC and RF2 AMS2 From the G923 night and day I kid you not night and day difference it’s a completely new driving field best investment I’ve ever had I’ve been sim racing for 15 years now possibly 20 and I’ve just entered a new world
@@bernl178 Cool, I've been looking for a DD as well, I think I'm gonna get a Cammus LP8 that is more on my ballpark, I've found one on my country around the same price of the base of the R5 and the Cammus C5 bundle, when I can I'll get that 100%
@@bernl178 I recently went from a G25 to a Thrustmaster TS-PC a good friend gave me a terrific deal on. Even that was a major upgrade so I can only imagine how I'm just at the tip of the iceberg as to how good it can be. I just ordered an ASR 6 profile rig. Once I get it I will upgrade my wheel, shifter and pedals. Likely add a button box too. I expect my driving experience to go to a whole new level. We'll see
@@OlderGamersPerspective it's true, you can have full manual control in the pits, its in the gameplay option. and I can confirm that the spotter isn't working as of yet in AMS2. Nice overall review though.
Thank you for the clarification on the spotter and the pit options. I look forward to playing with that later. As for the spotter, I guess crew chief it is, but that's no bad thing.
A good video although I have noticed a couple of things that weren't mentioned. Firstly you have the option to have complete control of the car in the pit lane and exit the pit yourself by turning off the automatic pit lane setting. Also with multiplayer the main issue causing some of the points you have noticed is that all multiplayer lobbies are set up and hosted by someone or on someone's server, not pre-made by the Automobilista 2 devs, so the long practice times are due to the way the lobby has been set up and can be both shortened or removed entirely. Also if you have people online with you you can often create a lobby with the settings you would like and choose one of the more popular cars and tracks and get a full lobby without too much issue, although this might only be possible at more popular times of the day when there are more players on.
Thank you for your comments. A few people have mentioned that I was wrong about there being no spotter and my comment about the car being on automatic from the pits. While I have been able to find the spotter in the settings, and I tried it today (basic, but does the job), I cannot find the settings for manual driving in the pits. I found the one to turn off the auto-cool lap, but the pits settings alludes me. For the multiplayer, yeah I figured it was something like that, and I think I mentioned, or at least wanted to mention, that if you can gang together with some people you, then a good time could be had in multiplayer, in AMS2. The low population numbers that I saw though, probably means you'd have to preplan it, which of course, is no bad thing. Like I said, it's nice to MP in any game, just here, it felt a little tacked on. But that's not really a huge problem as I think most people who multiplay are in iRacing or ACC. For me, AMS2's strength is a really cool single player experience.
@@OlderGamersPerspective the pit stop settings are in main menu, options, gameplay, manual pit stops yes/no (way down the screen & for some reason this options page doesn't fully scroll down with mouse wheel so either down arrow or clicking on the scroll bar on the right will get you there). It's 5th from the bottom of the list.
@@SRS13Rastus thank you,.that's very kind. I did eventually find this setting, and also the spotter setting . Stuff is well hidden in AMS2. Almost a mini game figuring out where everything is.
@@OlderGamersPerspective Yup it's still using the legacy UI from PCars 2 atm, the recent dev update has mentioned a long planned UI change SHOULD be arriving some time in 2024 but given Reiza staffing levels being between 24 (at launch) to in the 30's now they HAVE to reprioritise many things based on the state of the game, so sadly delays are often and can be prolonged for many planned features. Just for example the season pass WAS planned to be fully released between 2019-2021 and we still don't have all season pass content yet.
I really love the FFB and physics of rFactor2, but I don't have the time and patience to work out how to set up multiplayer after I've forgotten the procedure coming back after a few weeks' break. AMS2 is my choice for its ease of multiplayer setup.
I have rFactor2 on my list of Sims to review. I will take your comments with me when I start to go into it in depth. At the moment, I've only looked at it casually. AMS2 is very easy to access and use, the setup needs improvement, but otherwise, it really is cool.
Thank you for the feedback. I would maybe look on the second hand market for a wheel, maybe the Thrustmaster T300 or similar? Perhaps with a pedal set included. It will make your racing more intuitive. VR can wait though :)
@@OlderGamersPerspective I'll have to keep an eye out for one but I'm worried about the noise for those I live with, is the t300 one of the quieter models?
@@GeordiLaForgery Been a while since I used it, but I think it's fairly quiet? Bit of fan noise, I think, but mostly it would probably be about as noisy as the computer you are running it all on.
Hey there OGP, there is a Mod for VR HUD adjustments that is downloadable on race department called "AMS 2 HUD Position Mod (VR) 1.1". There is an in game spotter, it can be found under Gameplay>Display Settings. I believe you need to turn up pit volume in the audio settings as well. Most people use crew chief though. There is also a helicopter proximity indicator in game as well. MP races don't have mandatory Practice or Qually for that matter. Those settings are up to the lobby host. Cheers.
Cool, thank you for the heads up, I will add that Mod to one of the many I need to install and then revisit this review. For sure I am going to need to do an updated AMS 2 with mods review, or overview. I have heard about the ingame spotter, but most forum posts seem to indicate that it doesn't work, but I will investigate with your tips. "a helicopter proximity indicator"? Seriously? That's wild. I will look at that as well. Yeah I did wonder about the MP Practice/Qualify thing, seemed odd that it was set to two hours, maybe they were just trying to gather enough people for a race.
Yes, It has come a long ways right now I keep jumping between AC and then a cc of course RF two and this one and quite frankly all of them are superb depending on how you set up your PC and if you’ve got a great wheel.
I still have to get into RF2 and ACC, they are on my list :) But yes, as you say, if you put the time and effort into the setup, AMS2 and many of the others are frankly very good. We live in the future :)
@@OlderGamersPerspective Hope you have a fairly solid wheel, I just got the logitech G Pro and on it for about a month now and it’s like a have never seen before the field is just amazing. Can’t say enough about it. Needless to say, the G9 23 is up for sale ha ha ha ha
I have a Moza R9 on a GT Omega ART rig with the T-LCM pedals (there are reviews of all these on my channel if you are interested). I upgraded from T300. One of my biggest disappointments from this years ADAC sim racing show was the lack of either Logitech or Thrustmaster on display as I really am mega interested in the Logitech G Pro. Have fun with it, the G Pro looks like an awesome wheel.
@@OlderGamersPerspective I've had an Omega Art rig since 2015. It's a great piece of kit. I've had my G Pro for 4 months, had a G29 before that. I was looking at a Fanatec DD set but they were always out of stock. I'm glad now. It is a great wheel/pedals.
Before I start, thanks for the video. I appreciate the effort. Just a quick note, I'm not against iRacing. It is actually a pretty good sim, however... Personally I'm a little fed up of hearing inexperienced (or experienced) racers talking about iRacing, especially as a comparison to any other PC sim. It's not the benchmark. rFactor 2 is arguably the benchmark, or even BeamNG, in terms of physics and handling, but if we're to go for an overall racing package then Pcars 2 is the benchmark, especially in the instance (I hear some scoff in the comments when reading this. I'll get back to Pcars 2 in a sec). Once price is factored into the equation - let alone every other variable - as it should be as it is with pretty much everything else, then iRacing becomes an absolute rip-off and shines a spotlight on/magnifies it's many major shortcomings the more the game is mentioned. If anything, it must be the sheer price of iRacing that alters people's perception/bias towards it... As for ASM2; it is a good package, even exceptional, but let's not give it too much credit. It's merely Project Cars 2.5. In fact, Pcars 2 came with a colossal car & track roster at one price and to this day has a similar player count as ASM2 (much higher until it was pulled, I'm not sure why that would alter someone's enjoyment - it just means new players can't buy it from Steam, it's still for sale elsewhere and the servers are alive and well). I'd have preferred Pcars 2 received the same update as AMS2 than the devsr mangle the IP and manufacture that daft cash-grab effort, Pcars 3 - but that's EA for you (totally lacking integrity and foresight). ASM2 is effectively a very expensive update for Pcars 2, minus many of the great vehicles and tracks. You can however purchase DLC for extra tracks and cars for AMS2, which is more money for what Pcars 2 players already own. However, I am pleased AMS2 exists. It means that Project Cars is still alive, but not in name. It also means that there's potentially less people paying money to the iRacing devs. No offence iRacing fans/devs but your greed is not only a bad influence on other devs but relatively speaking your game is simply not worth the colossal price tag and hassle, whilst there's better sims available regardless of price. As for iRacing multiplayer, for newcomers, is a disaster. Once you're out of the newcomers destruction derby you then have to wait for more slots, dates and times and - wait for it - you must also pay more for the 'privilege' of each car and map on top of the already extortionate monthly or annual fee. Unlike Pcars 2 or ASM2 where you can very easily create your own server and play god with the track, rules and weather conditions, and more importantly, who joins and remains in your event. I'm not sure where you got the idea that ASM2 multiplayer has extremely long anything unless you desire it - the races are what you make them or what you choose to join. Find a server that suits you or just create your own. Online really is the most simple and rapid experience of all racing sims. I dive in and out of ASM2 all the time. There's literally no reason to state that AMS2 has and hour two anything let alone compulsory practice, in fact I believe that's entirely reckless to state such false information - it's almost as though you're working for iRacing who effectively rely entirely on MP (multiplayer). The example you showed on screen was the highest of hyper subsets, a very poor set of examples, especially Nordshleife 24 of all events (a 2hr practice for a 24hr event at one of the longest race tracks on earth is actually reasonable). It's almost as though you're trying to put people off playing the game online or buying it all. Do I sound unreasonable or did your review of the ASM2's multiplayer sound unreasonable? As for single player; it's great and there are great experiences, just no cheesy console style 'pat the player on the back' for doing what can already be done. Besides, sim racing is all about the online experience which has effectively been trashed in this review - effectively, so too has the single player experience. On a lighter note, I'm curious, Mini's are front wheel drive, barring the 4x4 Countryman, they weight as much as a church with a wheelbase as long as a church or the a Land Rover Discovery/Classic Range Rover... all MX-5's are nimble & rear wheel drive, unless you're driving in reverse... I guess what I'm trying to say, via nitpicking, how is the Mini an MX-5 replacement in any metric barring the fact that they have wheels, seats & doors 😜 One more thing, you don't have to and probably shouldn't use a HUD and it's available in correct the locations where most would use them, in 2D. A HUD is not necessary. You wouldn't have one in genuine racing. I honestly have never used one in ASM2 using VR. I appreciate that you use VR, by the way. I believe VR is the only way to experience any sim. I'll always give a big thumbs up to those who use and enjoy AMS2, let alone celebrate VR. Virtual reality has absolutely recked 2D racing for me. I can't remember the last time I race online in 2D. In fact, other than BeamNG (which is brilliant but the VR implementation is too wonky to use at this stage of development), I've not used VR for sim driving since 2016. I also appreciate your effort making the video, regardless if you feel I was bit harsh. You did a very good job. Thank you very much.
Hi there, and WOW! Thank you for, what has to be, the longest comment I have received so far. I am honoured that you spent so long letting me know your opinions on my video. Sim racing is a hobby that I have been following now for a number of years, but it still feels like I am learning something unexpected everyday, and most of that learning comes via the comments to my videos. So, lots to unpack... Let's dive in. I compare iRacing with pretty much everything as it's the dominant force in Sim racing, at least at the moment. It's not the best, certainly not the cheapest, and also, at times, often disliked by the sim racing community, but it is a big monster that most people have tried and know about, so I reference it a lot. I haven't yet tried RF2, but when I do, it will be included in my comparisons. I do chat about PC2, and I do some comparisons there, at least I did, but because sim racing is ongoing, with new titles, and updates to old titles, I can't really keep talking about something that new players can no longer buy. But you are right, for performance, price, value and playability, it's still very much waiting still to be beaten. I think ACC comes close in graphical fidelity, it is a beautiful looking game, but it still lacks the polish of a career mode, even though it does sort of have one (sort of). Same comment from me for AMS2, it does get a lot of credit, which considering it's PC2.5, it probably shouldn't do, but there is a loyal fan base, and when I drive the sim, and get into championship mode (I am still yet to be convinced about Multiplayer, although RCO is cool) I am also convinced about how good a title it is. That being said, it does have some foibles that I could do without, like a very basic interface, and a lack of a manual, but if you can manage with out the latter and wade through the former, you will have a good time with AMS2. And a cheaper one than iRacing. I agree that iRacing in the rookies is a rough ride. I raced there last night, in the formula Vee at Charlotte (limited track for the Vee), I was P3, and on the very first corner I heard, there is an incident behind, and when I came past the pits, half the field were in there. It's no wonder that many people do the free month, or whatever they get with their steering wheel, and then don't come back for more. Why would they? The reward for getting better is spending more money buying more tracks and cars. It's a tough ride. That being said, I still race it because it offers one of the better multiplayer racing experiences, and offers some of the best VR performance from all the sims. AMS2 VR performance is not so good, but the graphics, even on low, tend to be better than iRacing, and ACC offers lower performance than iRacing, but better than AMS2, in VR, but also still looks so much better than iRacing, and probably offers a better driving experience of them all. But that is of course my subjective opinion. I would say the main reason I come back to iRacing is that it offers a broad spread of events and cars to race, where as ACC is mostly GT3 with some GT4 happening, and AMS2 is pretty much the same, with some other events going on. But iRacing offers open wheel as well, which I like to dip into, even though, when I go back to iRacing, in VR at least, everything looks a little PS3. Your comments on AMS2 multiplayer, and the remark I made about the practice session sessions being too long. Again, this was from my point of view of a new player, coming to the sim and finding the servers set out so. In a later video, I have done a deeper dive into AMS2 multiplayer and understood it a little better, but I would say that most players coming to AMS2 for the first time will probably have the same reaction I had. They will dial up a server, and wonder why it has such a long practice time. The lack of clear instruction in this area of the interface doesn't help. I sorted it out in the end, but there is no doubt it could be better. Take a look at my Multiplayer AMS2 video and let me know if I have not corrected the mistakes found in this video. I do make mistakes all the time, but it's usually the mistakes that other sim racers will make when engaging with the sim. That's the angle I take with my reviews; just an ordinary sim racer trying out a title. And I take that angle because that's who I really am. I don't get sent stuff, I buy all my own gear, and no one sponsors me. If I find something cool to use, I will say so. If I make a mistake in a video, I will try to offer a correction in a follow up. I don't think I trashed the single player experience, nor the multiplayer one, of the latter, I said, it is what it is, and then in a follow up review, I went into more detail. Same with single player experience, which I went back and explored in more detail in my Championship mode video. I do miss the console style hand holding career mode of PC2, and I don't apologise for liking it, or wanting it back, AMS2 is cool to race using single player race mode, and I often use it for practice, but I do still pine for the career mode of PC2. Sad but true. I am sorry you think I trashed AMS2, I believe I gave a personal and balanced opinion. My own. Like I say, I am an independent reviewer, and I say what see, and try to correct mistakes I make in future videos. Three of which I have created about AMS2, which I think deals in part with the issues you have with this video. On a lighter note.... The mini comment! Yeah, that was meant as ironic humour, but I think I rushed the delivery of that section, so the joke didn't land. The only thing the mini has in common with the MX5 is that they are both cars I have driven, and enjoyed driving, and still wish I owned them, mostly because I would love to turn one or the other into a track car (assuming I find a large bag of money under a park bench). So yeah, that's why :) Has to be said, whenever I sit in an MX5, in VR, it brings a smile to my face. The other day I nearly fell out of my sim rig because I tried leaning on the open window frame while waiting at the grid! I agree with you about the HUD. I mostly find them a distraction and I really hate radar because for me that's like a cheat mode? I mean, do they have radar in real cars like the GT3's? I don't know. But it feels like that cheat you could get for CS that let you see enemies through walls. And as you say, most of the HUD is useless, and I mostly turn it off. I prefer a good spotter, like crew chief, which I also reviewed for AMS 2 :) I was relieved to find in ACC that I can push the HUD far enough away from me that I barely notice it. VR has been in my sim racing life since around 2017. Once I got a VR headset (the original Oculus) everything about sim racing suddenly made sense, and I could actually see my times get better. It doesn't work for everyone, and it is a major pain in the arse to get working, and stay working, and offers some really poor performance when compared with a big single screen, or even triples, but I still love it. I climb inside my GT Omega Art, strap on my headset, and I am literally in any car that I want to be. That takes some beating. It does have some restrictions. I can't live stream because it stresses out my current 3070, which can't cope with the load, and it sounds like a helicopter coming into land if I am in a race with a lot of cars, which wakes up my dog. I will probably install a single screen to my rig, a 50 inch 4k tv, at some point, so that I can try out streaming like that, or I will get a 4070 Super, now that they are available, and see if that allows me to stream. Once thing I want to do in the future is to organise a race with any subscribers who may want to join in. Keep an eye out for that announcement on my UA-cam page if you are interested. Don't worry about your comments being harsh, you have concerns and I hope that I have addressed at least some of them, or that my other AMS2 have provided some clarity and corrections to this video. My apologies for taking so long to reply. See you on track my friend.
Hey noticed you having issues with overlays to position angle ,degree and angles are and can be adjusted with a plugged in xbox controller along with what you have mentioned a keyboard and mouse. just to let you have a better driving experience.
That's interesting. How does that work? Which button would I use to select the item I want to move?I should perhaps add these issues are only if I am trying yo move overlays in vr. On screen, there is no problem.
@@OlderGamersPerspective i exclusively run my sim rig with HP reverb G2 VR . what i do is i use a usb micro that plus into my sons xbox controller and plug the usb into the pc. the left joystick move the curser and and the buttons turn it the way i like the number pad does move the overlay as well but i assure you it is all adjustable. i use a 6 ft cable to allow me to sit in my motion rig and its long enough to get the job done .when im done i just save the configurations to my liking then unplug the cord from the pc and the xbox controller... Merry Christmas.
Correction, this game does have a spotter. You need to turn the volume on and up in settings. Also, youvcsn turn off the automatic pit driving in settings as well
Thank you, I will look for the spotter option in game. A number of people have said this option is there, but some others have said they can't get it to work. I've found it (tucked away), not sure why it would be off by default, but I will test it today, and include my findings in a future video. The automatic pit driving option I cannot find at all. Where abouts is it?
While I kinda disappointed how little modern FWD TCR in AMS2 (only the mini), to my surprise I really love the GT1 and Grp.C in AMS2. or even the Stock car and V8 actually drives good, and I can dial down AI to suit me for a enjoyable offline race as I'm really terrible at RWD cars
I am the opposite, I love the RWD cars, probably because I drive one now and my all time favourite car that I have personally owned was an MX5. At the moment, the McLaren in the GT4 has my attention, I really love the way it drives, and I love driving it on the Brands Hatch circuit. I might even stump up money for Silverstone. It is a bit different from iRacing, control wise, but it's fairly easy to get the hang of. That being said, the mini is a whole lot of fun and I really enjoy driving that at Oulton Park.
I haven't tried that, but I will look into it. On iRacing, I have engine noise down very low, but tyre sound up hight to help figure out when the tyres are about to lose grip. Do you find that a problem in AMS2 with the settings you use?
@@OlderGamersPerspective probably - i been learning the sim so no expert at setting up. The tyre noise in particular was giving a false impression of the grip, and it really did help turning it off. This is quite a widely known "solution" to the excessive floaty feel. I also use a controller, so i dont rely on feedback at all. People are saying that the feedback plus is one of the best out there, aside from Rfactor 2
@@OlderGamersPerspective nope, just start a race replay with you VR headset on. As long as they are done for that track you should feel like you are standing at the track. You will need to bind the "next Camera" and "previous camera" in your controls so you can flick to the next camera as the cars go by. Should look like this. ua-cam.com/video/sjKM4f7R-C8/v-deo.html
@@OlderGamersPerspective Sorry I got games confused. I just checked Race Department and there are NO career modes for AMS2 BUT there are 12 pages of them for AC. Maybe you look at one of those? Again, sorry for the confusion.
Bought it just today, compared to AC, ACC, rF2 and iRacing, it's really good. Definitely gonna become my go to next to classic AC for having fun in single player. My online racing needs still can only be met by iRacing as of right now, though rF2 got a new online mode and it's clear it's inspiration was iRacing. Haven't tried it too much yet. Anyways, AMS2 worked out of the box on my Fanatec CSL DD, so I think they will get to support Moza by default as well at some point.
I know what you mean, I spend so much time on iRacing, it leaves little time for others. But I am trying to branch out into new sim racing areas as there is a lot of fun to be had out side the big one that is iRacing.
For historic F1, with all of the complete season skins & AI mods on Race Department, I actually prefer AMS2 to AC these days as an F1 sim! I’ve lost many fun hours this year driving around Sudschliefe + Nordschliefe in various F1 cars 😊 (I know F1 never raced the Suds but just the fact we can do this in AMS2 is soooo much fun)
I have not yet got into F1, although I am becoming slowly addicted to open wheel cars, more than I thought I would be... How do you find the steering on the F1 in AMS2? I have heard it's not as realistic as in other games, but I have no personal experience.
@@OlderGamersPerspective I’ve never driven a real F1 car so my opinion probably isn’t valid (!) but certainly the McLaren M23 in RF2 feels fairly similar to me as in AMS2. AMS2 has got a LOT closer to RF2 lately in my humble opinion.
@@OlderGamersPerspective yes the BTCC, Endurance & GT3 packs in RF2 are fantastic, wait for steam sales as they’re stupidly expensive! The free stuff in the workshop varies in quality. The online is amazing now - I’m pretty average top10 ish (certainly no alien!) but have had a lot of fun this week racing on there, it’s always full. Fun close and usually respectful racing in my experience!
@OlderGamersPerspective Good video dude.. Regarding control assignment issues... To assign the steering or pedals you HAVE to pull and recenter the steering and stamp/release the pedals and do so in about 1 second, pull/press and hold won't be detected, if you're too slow in the process you'll see "Multiple inputs detected" go faster. then you MUST calibrate the wheel and pedals to correctly set the degrees of rotation and pedal travel.. (I'd suggest making a vid of this as it's a stumbling block for a LOT of players). I think I must've posted the above to about 2 dozen threads on Steam regarding steering wheel problems as it's one of the games big problems alongside often losing the wheel after an update, meaning you have to re-assigning everything when this happens. From memory the CSL DD also didn't have a native profile in the control options, it took about 6 months for this to actually happen. One thing I didn't see you mention is the real weather options, AMS2 can simulate actual historical weather for the last 40 years so if you WANT to you can try to match Senna in the 1988 British GP at Donnington, just pick the date & time of the race and set real weather, if the details are available they'll come close to replicating the recorded weather. Reiza chose to allow all players access to DLC tracks in online play, the only thing is you need to own the DLC to setup an online race there, only DLC cars are blocked from non DLC owners so Nords with GT3's you can join, Nords with GTE's you can't unless you own Racin USA Pt1, Racin USA pack (Pts 1-4, 4 unreleased atm) or the season pass that includes all content except Hi Tech pack, historical track pack pt 2, the upcoming Le Mans DLC and all DLC's yet to be announced. Other ideas for "How to vids", adding to any "Modding AMS2" vid consider adding installing the custom FFB files to be found on Reiza forums. I found these far more detailed than default or default+ FFB profiles, for me they made feeling tyres letting go much clearer and avoiding those WTH? spins AMS2 can suffer from. Strangely enough another vid that might open some eyes would be on Reiza themselves and how to raise bug reports, as Reiza has such a small team they can't assign someone to trawl Steam forums so bugs NEED to be added to the Reiza forum bug report thread, if not you'll only get advice from other players, having said that there ARE loads of helpful people in the steam forums who can generally help with a fix/workaround or point players to Reiza forums if they can't help. Also worthy of a vid is joining Discord/Facebook groups being beneficial to the multiplayer experience, I've joined several myself including time trail groups, racing groups like RWB International, Slipstream Racing (both have events in other games too), Racecraftonline runs hourly & weekly races via their website and have categories you can progress through based on a rating of your events, from Rookie to Platinum. This was a race with Slipstream recently, had a real ding dong battle with these guys including a stupid incident that everybody took responsibility for.. ua-cam.com/video/of8CSL7x4ZU/v-deo.htmlsi=mqwRA1n-zmYDAmA2 So whilst AMS2 multiplayer can be very poorly populated the player numbers ARE increasing over time & it's one of the very few racing games that can say it's beaten it's highest concurrent players repeatedly...
You know, I did all of this that you describe here, to set up the wheel, and encountered all those problems you mention. In fact it was so frustrating, that once I had it done, I didn't want to touch it again in case I stuffed it up. But yeah, when I am feeling like I have a very calm moment in my life, I will jump in and do a tutorial on how to setup the wheel and pedals. The historical weather thing isn't something I have tried yet, I think that goes beyond my level of motor sport, but there are some races I clearly remember, in the rain, and I would love to try those. But I have some way to go before I can manage an F1 car. I have competed a short mod video, on how to add Crew cheif, probably the easiest mod anyone will ever do, but yes, further mod videos are needed to show off the true modding power of AMS2. I'll have a look at discord, I don't go there very often though, and I don't do FB at all I'm afraid. been there, done that, won't be going back. I will also keep an eye on AMS2 Multiplayer, see if the numbers improve, and if it's tempting to enter. Thank you for the link, I will check it out :)
@@OlderGamersPerspectiveIt's better on Discord than FB (don't use it much myself either), multiplayer is usually more populated between 3-10pm UK time with usually 1000+ playing, this is more often than not when league events are run, Slipstream do Sunday and Mid week 10 week long championships @ 18:45 start time. RCO has several hourly and also weekly events where members are required to start in Rookie class and complete 3 clean laps before they can register to race, they have their own player ratings system which decides your available tiers. So yeah there's everything from time trial groups, to set races any member can join to full on championship leagues that can be found.
Yes, you are right. PC3 doesn't get a good rep at all. I am tempted to buy it just to see if it's as bad as people say. For the life of me I don't know how they dropped the ball after the success of PC2. But, we do now have AMS2, which is a very cool single player experience.
It surprised me, considering how old the engine is that's running the sim, how good this actually was. It certainly will be something I use a lot, and I can imagine that once I start to mod it, AMS2 will just get better for me. BTW - Do you have a link for that other sim you wanted me to look at? I couldn't track it down.
I did, yes. But I looked under game play options and audio, when in fact it's listed in the second tab of the gameplay options under display. I guess that's why I didn't find it. But I have found it now and will do a follow up video on where it is to help out others who couldn't find it.
You know I did see that, but I thought it was just a truncated name badge. Thanks for telling me. It did remind me of a golf that I used to drive, I guess that's what fooled me. Was the Gol a racing version of the gold or a totally different car?
@@OlderGamersPerspective The Gol is a Brazilian local project from the late 70s intended to replace a car called Brasilia, that was an attempt to replace the Beetle (but the Beetle were produced in the country until the 90s, outliving the Brasilia). It's a little smaller, lighter, simpler, cheaper and under powered than the Golf (that was sold in Brazil as a category above). This "Copa Classic" cars is based on a vintage race modified league that happens in Brazil, but the cars represented on AMS2 are specific from the Rio Grande do Sul state local league, but it's (both B and FL) based on the 2015 championship (if I'm not mistaken). The actual 2023 (that you have all the races available on UA-cam) championship had way more car models and the São Paulo state local league is even larger. If not mistaken, the current Copa Classic regulation have one or two more divisions (one were an experimental using vintage compacts from the 90s, that I hope someday Reiza deliver on AMS2). Anyway... the Gol had eight generations and the AMS2 versions (Copa Classic FL and B, plus the Hot Cars, that is based on the 80s Divisão 3) are all race modified based on G1, but two different revisions (the Divisão 3 is the first revision from 85, I believe, and the Copa Classic on the third or fourth, from early 90s). The Gol was discontinued on 2022 and only two variations still on the market (the Voyage, that is a Gol sedan, and the Saveiro, that is a small pickup truck).
Fascinating. Thank you for the detailed breakdown. I'll be sure to name check you when I talk about this in the follow up video I am planning for AMS2.
Forgot to say that the Hot Cars (Divisão 3) was fully supported by VW, but the Copa Classic is an amateur league. Because of that, the HC has high specs as it was intended to have the top Brazilian Drivers from it's time with bigger budgets (even if it was supposed to be an entry division for Stock Car Brasil, most of it's grid was shared, as there wasn't that much drivers in the country, back then, with money to race professionally)
Good review overall. The biggest problem imo is not the game mods or certain problems with vr but the madness engine. Absolutely dead gorgeous? Sure. However , it carries some peculiarities that render certain cars a bit of a pain to drive. Over time , Reiza have massively improved upon the driving behavior of most cars however there still are some cars that require you to use slip angles that are frankly a bit too much to reach race pace. Some slip angle is always necessary but when you are doing inverted steering wheel on a gt4 or an f1 , there is a problem. I highly suggest , you grab the original AMS in the upcoming Christmas sale. I think you'll be left impressed on the physics side.
Some good points, thank you. I will look at these issues in the coming days. I am not a big F1 driver, but I am tempted to do some of the lower class formula cars. Are they suffering the same slip angle issues? I do have AMS 1 in my library, I bought it in the Humble deal a while back, and one of the things that intrigued me with this title was the large mod base that supports it, so it's going to be one I look closely at soon.
@@OlderGamersPerspective it is entirely hit or miss in my experience. As you said the car selection is absolutely imense. So take your time and enjoy everything ams2 has to offer
@@OlderGamersPerspective For sure Brasilian stock cars. Fantastic cars and definitely under appreciated. They introduced them to iracing too and it's a dead series literally no one racing them. You can start with interlagos but then there are a lot of crazy unknown Brazilian tracks for them like curitaba for instance or that airport ( don't remember the name ). The sprints with the steering wheel in the middle of the cockpit are also fantastic cars.
I hear a lot about the Brasilian stock cars, so I will have to try them out and see what all the fuss is about. Good call :) As for a car with a steering wheel in the middle... Yeah, that HAS to be driven :)
re. MOZA wheel: You realise the Moza is development of the past couple of years and is also not that commonly used? Fiddly is ok. Not operational would be a problem. Spotter? Crewchief is best-why complain? No career mode: thank God for that! And yes, as you, I started with a VCS2600. ;-)
It's certainly a wheel that is fairly young to the market, but the video I have made on the Moza R9 remains my most popular video of all time, so it is, at least, interesting to a lot of sim users out there, even if ultimately they do buy something else. But yes, you are right, fiddly is good, or at least okay-ish, not working is worse. And thankfully, when it is setup, it performs flawlessly with AMS2. Spotter I eventually found, with the helpful comments here, there is one built in, it's no where near as good as crew chief (the latter I reviewed in another video), but it is there, once you have tracked it down inside the less than helpful options menus. No career mode is a good thing? On that we will have to disagree. For a sim racer that is mostly used for off-line single player racing, it is an essential element and I look forward to it being added later this year (or next). I mean, if it wasn't something people wanted, the mods that exist to make it happen would not be as popular as they are. But hey, it is a subjective point of view, and you made me smile this morning as you took me back to the 80's when I worked in a shop selling VCS2600's :) Those were the days :)
I agree with the spirit of what you are saying, but for those that aren't aware, I do need to mention AMS's linage. But yeah, AMS2 is a long way ahead, from where PC2 was when it ended.
What a daft comment. ASM2 is Pcars 2.5, with less content available without DLC. If Pcars 2 had the same update it would be an overall much better package.
@@inky5168 of course, you’re entitled to your opinion. I personally think that calling AMS2 PC2.5 is the dumbest, most uninformed opinion I’ve ever heard.
With LFM announcing that they're partnering with AMS2 it's probably going to be one of the better Sims in general, as well as their recent partnership with IMSA, out of AC, ACC, and AMS2, I 100% prefer ams2
@OlderGamersPerspective I've done my first race with lfm recently and am going to start running miata cup until it comes to AMS2, once the foundation has been laid for ams2 I'll def be jumping ship from AC
@OlderGamersPerspective yes, but with how established LFM is with AC1 and how established the moding comunity is with AC1 It will probably take a while for Evo to get traction with the comunity, unless it has a very good online match making system out of the gate, I don't expect alot
@@OlderGamersPerspective I was talking to one of the LFM team members in the discord and they're hoping to have the first session before the end of 2024
5:56 the game does have a very basic spotter but its hidden in Options > Gameplay > Display > Spotter. It is off by default. I'd say this is a classic example of bad UI design this game has.
Hi, thank you for commenting. Yes indeed, I found this setting eventually, mostly after other people pointed out where it was hiding. I've got an update to this video where I talk about this setting and how to install Crew Chief, you can find it here :) ua-cam.com/video/yZv1EWY57DA/v-deo.htmlsi=N-749AxWJoi1hU-T
Career mode is coming but it will take a while 2025 is the plan but knowing reiza habit of taking their time and delaying it could come in 2026 hopefully I’m wrong though Absolutely love ams 2 though is by far the sim that takes most of my time currently
Yes, I eventually found the Spotter, with the kind help of peoples comments. It did fool me by being in the DISPLAY tab of the game options :) But I got there in the end. I saw that Career mode is delayed for a year. That is a shame as it's really the only thing that's missing for me. If that were in place, I would have a lot more motivation to do the single player races. That being said, I haven't yet got into the championship mode...
I agree. There was talk of it getting it soon, but they have now pushed it back to 2025, which is a shame. I guess they are trying to ramp up the sim and the content to combat the onslaught from AC2, due out sometime soon (ish).
AMS 2 still has terrible physics. Cars sliding like stupid and updates don't fix it much. I love to play this game because of excellent VR performance but I hate spinning during most of the races. I don't believe that they going too fix it with update 1.6, rather I'm looking forward for Assetto Corsa Evo release ,
I have seen that patch 1.6 is going to address these issues, so I am more hopeful, but I understand your doubts. More testing is going to be needed, when they release the patch. Hopefully soon. Evo I tried at the Expo, video on my channel about this, and that was cool, but the FFB didn't impress me as much. But the version I was using had Pre-Alpha on the splash screen, so make of that what you will.
7/10, overpriced, few players, many multiplayer delay bugs, sound bugs, camera bugs and bipolar random grip. Nice tracks and cars pack, historical content is the best, I recommend it for solo play too, not online.
Yes, I would agree, solo play is the best setup for AMS2, although I would imagine that if you have a group of people who would meet up for this, and race together in a closed race, that would be cool. But at the moment, I am not tempted by the multiplayer in AMS2.
AMS2 is currently my favorite, every aspect of the races can be customized in the settings, it is so user friendly, it's so rare to have a sim title that's essentially "pickup and play" like this
Once you get past the setup, you can really engage with this title very quickly. One of the things I like was being able to adjust the FFB on the fly for each different car. That really is a nice touch.
I just got the G Pro wheel from logitech and let me tell y’a ACC And AC and RF2 AMS2 From the G923 night and day I kid you not night and day difference it’s a completely new driving field best investment I’ve ever had I’ve been sim racing for 15 years now possibly 20 and I’ve just entered a new world
@@bernl178 Cool, I've been looking for a DD as well, I think I'm gonna get a Cammus LP8 that is more on my ballpark, I've found one on my country around the same price of the base of the R5 and the Cammus C5 bundle, when I can I'll get that 100%
@@bernl178 I recently went from a G25 to a Thrustmaster TS-PC a good friend gave me a terrific deal on. Even that was a major upgrade so I can only imagine how I'm just at the tip of the iceberg as to how good it can be. I just ordered an ASR 6 profile rig. Once I get it I will upgrade my wheel, shifter and pedals. Likely add a button box too. I expect my driving experience to go to a whole new level. We'll see
@@bernl178 I upgraded from a G29 to the G Pro. Agree with everything you said.
You can have full manual control in the pits, and there is a spotter setting in there somewhere as well.
I have looked into the spotter, but according to some forum posts, it isn't fully working at the moment. But I will check it out.
@@OlderGamersPerspective haven't checked it myself as I use crewchief as well.
I think most people are, so I will do a video that shows how to install and use this, but maybe see if I can get the built in one to work.
@@OlderGamersPerspective it's true, you can have full manual control in the pits, its in the gameplay option. and I can confirm that the spotter isn't working as of yet in AMS2. Nice overall review though.
Thank you for the clarification on the spotter and the pit options. I look forward to playing with that later. As for the spotter, I guess crew chief it is, but that's no bad thing.
A good video although I have noticed a couple of things that weren't mentioned. Firstly you have the option to have complete control of the car in the pit lane and exit the pit yourself by turning off the automatic pit lane setting. Also with multiplayer the main issue causing some of the points you have noticed is that all multiplayer lobbies are set up and hosted by someone or on someone's server, not pre-made by the Automobilista 2 devs, so the long practice times are due to the way the lobby has been set up and can be both shortened or removed entirely. Also if you have people online with you you can often create a lobby with the settings you would like and choose one of the more popular cars and tracks and get a full lobby without too much issue, although this might only be possible at more popular times of the day when there are more players on.
Thank you for your comments. A few people have mentioned that I was wrong about there being no spotter and my comment about the car being on automatic from the pits.
While I have been able to find the spotter in the settings, and I tried it today (basic, but does the job), I cannot find the settings for manual driving in the pits. I found the one to turn off the auto-cool lap, but the pits settings alludes me.
For the multiplayer, yeah I figured it was something like that, and I think I mentioned, or at least wanted to mention, that if you can gang together with some people you, then a good time could be had in multiplayer, in AMS2. The low population numbers that I saw though, probably means you'd have to preplan it, which of course, is no bad thing.
Like I said, it's nice to MP in any game, just here, it felt a little tacked on. But that's not really a huge problem as I think most people who multiplay are in iRacing or ACC. For me, AMS2's strength is a really cool single player experience.
@@OlderGamersPerspective the pit stop settings are in main menu, options, gameplay, manual pit stops yes/no (way down the screen & for some reason this options page doesn't fully scroll down with mouse wheel so either down arrow or clicking on the scroll bar on the right will get you there). It's 5th from the bottom of the list.
@@SRS13Rastus thank you,.that's very kind. I did eventually find this setting, and also the spotter setting . Stuff is well hidden in AMS2. Almost a mini game figuring out where everything is.
@@OlderGamersPerspective Yup it's still using the legacy UI from PCars 2 atm, the recent dev update has mentioned a long planned UI change SHOULD be arriving some time in 2024 but given Reiza staffing levels being between 24 (at launch) to in the 30's now they HAVE to reprioritise many things based on the state of the game, so sadly delays are often and can be prolonged for many planned features.
Just for example the season pass WAS planned to be fully released between 2019-2021 and we still don't have all season pass content yet.
I really love the FFB and physics of rFactor2, but I don't have the time and patience to work out how to set up multiplayer after I've forgotten the procedure coming back after a few weeks' break. AMS2 is my choice for its ease of multiplayer setup.
I have rFactor2 on my list of Sims to review. I will take your comments with me when I start to go into it in depth. At the moment, I've only looked at it casually. AMS2 is very easy to access and use, the setup needs improvement, but otherwise, it really is cool.
It looks really good, I don't have a wheel or VR but hopefully can still have fun with it. Thx for the indepth look.
Thank you for the feedback. I would maybe look on the second hand market for a wheel, maybe the Thrustmaster T300 or similar? Perhaps with a pedal set included. It will make your racing more intuitive. VR can wait though :)
@@OlderGamersPerspective I'll have to keep an eye out for one but I'm worried about the noise for those I live with, is the t300 one of the quieter models?
@@GeordiLaForgery Been a while since I used it, but I think it's fairly quiet? Bit of fan noise, I think, but mostly it would probably be about as noisy as the computer you are running it all on.
Hey there OGP, there is a Mod for VR HUD adjustments that is downloadable on race department called "AMS 2 HUD Position Mod (VR) 1.1". There is an in game spotter, it can be found under Gameplay>Display Settings. I believe you need to turn up pit volume in the audio settings as well. Most people use crew chief though. There is also a helicopter proximity indicator in game as well. MP races don't have mandatory Practice or Qually for that matter. Those settings are up to the lobby host. Cheers.
Cool, thank you for the heads up, I will add that Mod to one of the many I need to install and then revisit this review. For sure I am going to need to do an updated AMS 2 with mods review, or overview. I have heard about the ingame spotter, but most forum posts seem to indicate that it doesn't work, but I will investigate with your tips.
"a helicopter proximity indicator"? Seriously? That's wild. I will look at that as well.
Yeah I did wonder about the MP Practice/Qualify thing, seemed odd that it was set to two hours, maybe they were just trying to gather enough people for a race.
Yes, It has come a long ways right now I keep jumping between AC and then a cc of course RF two and this one and quite frankly all of them are superb depending on how you set up your PC and if you’ve got a great wheel.
I still have to get into RF2 and ACC, they are on my list :) But yes, as you say, if you put the time and effort into the setup, AMS2 and many of the others are frankly very good. We live in the future :)
@@OlderGamersPerspective Hope you have a fairly solid wheel, I just got the logitech G Pro and on it for about a month now and it’s like a have never seen before the field is just amazing. Can’t say enough about it. Needless to say, the G9 23 is up for sale ha ha ha ha
I have a Moza R9 on a GT Omega ART rig with the T-LCM pedals (there are reviews of all these on my channel if you are interested). I upgraded from T300.
One of my biggest disappointments from this years ADAC sim racing show was the lack of either Logitech or Thrustmaster on display as I really am mega interested in the Logitech G Pro.
Have fun with it, the G Pro looks like an awesome
wheel.
@@OlderGamersPerspective I've had an Omega Art rig since 2015. It's a great piece of kit. I've had my G Pro for 4 months, had a G29 before that.
I was looking at a Fanatec DD set but they were always out of stock. I'm glad now. It is a great wheel/pedals.
Before I start, thanks for the video. I appreciate the effort. Just a quick note, I'm not against iRacing. It is actually a pretty good sim, however...
Personally I'm a little fed up of hearing inexperienced (or experienced) racers talking about iRacing, especially as a comparison to any other PC sim. It's not the benchmark. rFactor 2 is arguably the benchmark, or even BeamNG, in terms of physics and handling, but if we're to go for an overall racing package then Pcars 2 is the benchmark, especially in the instance (I hear some scoff in the comments when reading this. I'll get back to Pcars 2 in a sec). Once price is factored into the equation - let alone every other variable - as it should be as it is with pretty much everything else, then iRacing becomes an absolute rip-off and shines a spotlight on/magnifies it's many major shortcomings the more the game is mentioned. If anything, it must be the sheer price of iRacing that alters people's perception/bias towards it...
As for ASM2; it is a good package, even exceptional, but let's not give it too much credit. It's merely Project Cars 2.5. In fact, Pcars 2 came with a colossal car & track roster at one price and to this day has a similar player count as ASM2 (much higher until it was pulled, I'm not sure why that would alter someone's enjoyment - it just means new players can't buy it from Steam, it's still for sale elsewhere and the servers are alive and well). I'd have preferred Pcars 2 received the same update as AMS2 than the devsr mangle the IP and manufacture that daft cash-grab effort, Pcars 3 - but that's EA for you (totally lacking integrity and foresight). ASM2 is effectively a very expensive update for Pcars 2, minus many of the great vehicles and tracks. You can however purchase DLC for extra tracks and cars for AMS2, which is more money for what Pcars 2 players already own.
However, I am pleased AMS2 exists. It means that Project Cars is still alive, but not in name. It also means that there's potentially less people paying money to the iRacing devs. No offence iRacing fans/devs but your greed is not only a bad influence on other devs but relatively speaking your game is simply not worth the colossal price tag and hassle, whilst there's better sims available regardless of price.
As for iRacing multiplayer, for newcomers, is a disaster. Once you're out of the newcomers destruction derby you then have to wait for more slots, dates and times and - wait for it - you must also pay more for the 'privilege' of each car and map on top of the already extortionate monthly or annual fee. Unlike Pcars 2 or ASM2 where you can very easily create your own server and play god with the track, rules and weather conditions, and more importantly, who joins and remains in your event.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that ASM2 multiplayer has extremely long anything unless you desire it - the races are what you make them or what you choose to join. Find a server that suits you or just create your own. Online really is the most simple and rapid experience of all racing sims. I dive in and out of ASM2 all the time. There's literally no reason to state that AMS2 has and hour two anything let alone compulsory practice, in fact I believe that's entirely reckless to state such false information - it's almost as though you're working for iRacing who effectively rely entirely on MP (multiplayer). The example you showed on screen was the highest of hyper subsets, a very poor set of examples, especially Nordshleife 24 of all events (a 2hr practice for a 24hr event at one of the longest race tracks on earth is actually reasonable). It's almost as though you're trying to put people off playing the game online or buying it all. Do I sound unreasonable or did your review of the ASM2's multiplayer sound unreasonable?
As for single player; it's great and there are great experiences, just no cheesy console style 'pat the player on the back' for doing what can already be done. Besides, sim racing is all about the online experience which has effectively been trashed in this review - effectively, so too has the single player experience.
On a lighter note, I'm curious, Mini's are front wheel drive, barring the 4x4 Countryman, they weight as much as a church with a wheelbase as long as a church or the a Land Rover Discovery/Classic Range Rover... all MX-5's are nimble & rear wheel drive, unless you're driving in reverse... I guess what I'm trying to say, via nitpicking, how is the Mini an MX-5 replacement in any metric barring the fact that they have wheels, seats & doors 😜
One more thing, you don't have to and probably shouldn't use a HUD and it's available in correct the locations where most would use them, in 2D. A HUD is not necessary. You wouldn't have one in genuine racing. I honestly have never used one in ASM2 using VR.
I appreciate that you use VR, by the way. I believe VR is the only way to experience any sim. I'll always give a big thumbs up to those who use and enjoy AMS2, let alone celebrate VR. Virtual reality has absolutely recked 2D racing for me. I can't remember the last time I race online in 2D. In fact, other than BeamNG (which is brilliant but the VR implementation is too wonky to use at this stage of development), I've not used VR for sim driving since 2016.
I also appreciate your effort making the video, regardless if you feel I was bit harsh. You did a very good job. Thank you very much.
Hi there, and WOW! Thank you for, what has to be, the longest comment I have received so far. I am honoured that you spent so long letting me know your opinions on my video. Sim racing is a hobby that I have been following now for a number of years, but it still feels like I am learning something unexpected everyday, and most of that learning comes via the comments to my videos.
So, lots to unpack... Let's dive in.
I compare iRacing with pretty much everything as it's the dominant force in Sim racing, at least at the moment. It's not the best, certainly not the cheapest, and also, at times, often disliked by the sim racing community, but it is a big monster that most people have tried and know about, so I reference it a lot. I haven't yet tried RF2, but when I do, it will be included in my comparisons.
I do chat about PC2, and I do some comparisons there, at least I did, but because sim racing is ongoing, with new titles, and updates to old titles, I can't really keep talking about something that new players can no longer buy. But you are right, for performance, price, value and playability, it's still very much waiting still to be beaten. I think ACC comes close in graphical fidelity, it is a beautiful looking game, but it still lacks the polish of a career mode, even though it does sort of have one (sort of).
Same comment from me for AMS2, it does get a lot of credit, which considering it's PC2.5, it probably shouldn't do, but there is a loyal fan base, and when I drive the sim, and get into championship mode (I am still yet to be convinced about Multiplayer, although RCO is cool) I am also convinced about how good a title it is. That being said, it does have some foibles that I could do without, like a very basic interface, and a lack of a manual, but if you can manage with out the latter and wade through the former, you will have a good time with AMS2. And a cheaper one than iRacing.
I agree that iRacing in the rookies is a rough ride. I raced there last night, in the formula Vee at Charlotte (limited track for the Vee), I was P3, and on the very first corner I heard, there is an incident behind, and when I came past the pits, half the field were in there. It's no wonder that many people do the free month, or whatever they get with their steering wheel, and then don't come back for more. Why would they? The reward for getting better is spending more money buying more tracks and cars. It's a tough ride.
That being said, I still race it because it offers one of the better multiplayer racing experiences, and offers some of the best VR performance from all the sims. AMS2 VR performance is not so good, but the graphics, even on low, tend to be better than iRacing, and ACC offers lower performance than iRacing, but better than AMS2, in VR, but also still looks so much better than iRacing, and probably offers a better driving experience of them all. But that is of course my subjective opinion.
I would say the main reason I come back to iRacing is that it offers a broad spread of events and cars to race, where as ACC is mostly GT3 with some GT4 happening, and AMS2 is pretty much the same, with some other events going on. But iRacing offers open wheel as well, which I like to dip into, even though, when I go back to iRacing, in VR at least, everything looks a little PS3.
Your comments on AMS2 multiplayer, and the remark I made about the practice session sessions being too long. Again, this was from my point of view of a new player, coming to the sim and finding the servers set out so. In a later video, I have done a deeper dive into AMS2 multiplayer and understood it a little better, but I would say that most players coming to AMS2 for the first time will probably have the same reaction I had. They will dial up a server, and wonder why it has such a long practice time. The lack of clear instruction in this area of the interface doesn't help. I sorted it out in the end, but there is no doubt it could be better.
Take a look at my Multiplayer AMS2 video and let me know if I have not corrected the mistakes found in this video. I do make mistakes all the time, but it's usually the mistakes that other sim racers will make when engaging with the sim. That's the angle I take with my reviews; just an ordinary sim racer trying out a title. And I take that angle because that's who I really am. I don't get sent stuff, I buy all my own gear, and no one sponsors me. If I find something cool to use, I will say so. If I make a mistake in a video, I will try to offer a correction in a follow up.
I don't think I trashed the single player experience, nor the multiplayer one, of the latter, I said, it is what it is, and then in a follow up review, I went into more detail. Same with single player experience, which I went back and explored in more detail in my Championship mode video. I do miss the console style hand holding career mode of PC2, and I don't apologise for liking it, or wanting it back, AMS2 is cool to race using single player race mode, and I often use it for practice, but I do still pine for the career mode of PC2. Sad but true. I am sorry you think I trashed AMS2, I believe I gave a personal and balanced opinion. My own. Like I say, I am an independent reviewer, and I say what see, and try to correct mistakes I make in future videos. Three of which I have created about AMS2, which I think deals in part with the issues you have with this video.
On a lighter note.... The mini comment! Yeah, that was meant as ironic humour, but I think I rushed the delivery of that section, so the joke didn't land. The only thing the mini has in common with the MX5 is that they are both cars I have driven, and enjoyed driving, and still wish I owned them, mostly because I would love to turn one or the other into a track car (assuming I find a large bag of money under a park bench). So yeah, that's why :)
Has to be said, whenever I sit in an MX5, in VR, it brings a smile to my face. The other day I nearly fell out of my sim rig because I tried leaning on the open window frame while waiting at the grid!
I agree with you about the HUD. I mostly find them a distraction and I really hate radar because for me that's like a cheat mode? I mean, do they have radar in real cars like the GT3's? I don't know. But it feels like that cheat you could get for CS that let you see enemies through walls. And as you say, most of the HUD is useless, and I mostly turn it off. I prefer a good spotter, like crew chief, which I also reviewed for AMS 2 :) I was relieved to find in ACC that I can push the HUD far enough away from me that I barely notice it.
VR has been in my sim racing life since around 2017. Once I got a VR headset (the original Oculus) everything about sim racing suddenly made sense, and I could actually see my times get better. It doesn't work for everyone, and it is a major pain in the arse to get working, and stay working, and offers some really poor performance when compared with a big single screen, or even triples, but I still love it.
I climb inside my GT Omega Art, strap on my headset, and I am literally in any car that I want to be. That takes some beating.
It does have some restrictions. I can't live stream because it stresses out my current 3070, which can't cope with the load, and it sounds like a helicopter coming into land if I am in a race with a lot of cars, which wakes up my dog. I will probably install a single screen to my rig, a 50 inch 4k tv, at some point, so that I can try out streaming like that, or I will get a 4070 Super, now that they are available, and see if that allows me to stream.
Once thing I want to do in the future is to organise a race with any subscribers who may want to join in. Keep an eye out for that announcement on my UA-cam page if you are interested.
Don't worry about your comments being harsh, you have concerns and I hope that I have addressed at least some of them, or that my other AMS2 have provided some clarity and corrections to this video. My apologies for taking so long to reply.
See you on track my friend.
Hey noticed you having issues with overlays to position angle ,degree and angles are and can be adjusted with a plugged in xbox controller along with what you have mentioned a keyboard and mouse. just to let you have a better driving experience.
That's interesting. How does that work? Which button would I use to select the item I want to move?I should perhaps add these issues are only if I am trying yo move overlays in vr. On screen, there is no problem.
@@OlderGamersPerspective i exclusively run my sim rig with HP reverb G2 VR . what i do is i use a usb micro that plus into my sons xbox controller and plug the usb into the pc. the left joystick move the curser and and the buttons turn it the way i like the number pad does move the overlay as well but i assure you it is all adjustable. i use a 6 ft cable to allow me to sit in my motion rig and its long enough to get the job done .when im done i just save the configurations to my liking then unplug the cord from the pc and the xbox controller...
Merry Christmas.
I will take a look at this and see if I can make it work on my system. Thank you for the tip.
Correction, this game does have a spotter. You need to turn the volume on and up in settings. Also, youvcsn turn off the automatic pit driving in settings as well
Thank you, I will look for the spotter option in game. A number of people have said this option is there, but some others have said they can't get it to work. I've found it (tucked away), not sure why it would be off by default, but I will test it today, and include my findings in a future video.
The automatic pit driving option I cannot find at all. Where abouts is it?
@OlderGamersPerspective in settings under gameplay/authenticity, theres an option for manual pitstops close to the bottom of the page
Cool, thank you. I will check it out
While I kinda disappointed how little modern FWD TCR in AMS2 (only the mini), to my surprise I really love the GT1 and Grp.C in AMS2. or even the Stock car and V8 actually drives good, and I can dial down AI to suit me for a enjoyable offline race as I'm really terrible at RWD cars
I am the opposite, I love the RWD cars, probably because I drive one now and my all time favourite car that I have personally owned was an MX5.
At the moment, the McLaren in the GT4 has my attention, I really love the way it drives, and I love driving it on the Brands Hatch circuit. I might even stump up money for Silverstone. It is a bit different from iRacing, control wise, but it's fairly easy to get the hang of.
That being said, the mini is a whole lot of fun and I really enjoy driving that at Oulton Park.
switching off all movement and turning off tyre sound worked wonders for me making it feel more drivable.
I haven't tried that, but I will look into it. On iRacing, I have engine noise down very low, but tyre sound up hight to help figure out when the tyres are about to lose grip. Do you find that a problem in AMS2 with the settings you use?
@@OlderGamersPerspective probably - i been learning the sim so no expert at setting up. The tyre noise in particular was giving a false impression of the grip, and it really did help turning it off. This is quite a widely known "solution" to the excessive floaty feel. I also use a controller, so i dont rely on feedback at all. People are saying that the feedback plus is one of the best out there, aside from Rfactor 2
If you use VR, there are dedicated VR trackside cameras for replays for about 75% of tracks now. Be interested to see if you like them.
Interesting. I will check them out. Is there any special trick to activate them?
@@OlderGamersPerspective nope, just start a race replay with you VR headset on. As long as they are done for that track you should feel like you are standing at the track. You will need to bind the "next Camera" and "previous camera" in your controls so you can flick to the next camera as the cars go by.
Should look like this. ua-cam.com/video/sjKM4f7R-C8/v-deo.html
@@OlderGamersPerspective ergh, see my other reply. Its been a long day :)
Cool. I will check them out.
Would love to see a video on loading a career mode. I know they have a nice selection on Race Department. Thanks for the video.
That is a cool idea. I will look into it.
@@OlderGamersPerspective Sorry I got games confused. I just checked Race Department and there are NO career modes for AMS2 BUT there are 12 pages of them for AC. Maybe you look at one of those? Again, sorry for the confusion.
Bought it just today, compared to AC, ACC, rF2 and iRacing, it's really good. Definitely gonna become my go to next to classic AC for having fun in single player. My online racing needs still can only be met by iRacing as of right now, though rF2 got a new online mode and it's clear it's inspiration was iRacing. Haven't tried it too much yet.
Anyways, AMS2 worked out of the box on my Fanatec CSL DD, so I think they will get to support Moza by default as well at some point.
I know what you mean, I spend so much time on iRacing, it leaves little time for others. But I am trying to branch out into new sim racing areas as there is a lot of fun to be had out side the big one that is iRacing.
Millions of Fanatec devices (and for years) vs. 1000s of Mozas and on-market since 5 minutes. Give them time as you said.
For historic F1, with all of the complete season skins & AI mods on Race Department, I actually prefer AMS2 to AC these days as an F1 sim!
I’ve lost many fun hours this year driving around Sudschliefe + Nordschliefe in various F1 cars 😊
(I know F1 never raced the Suds but just the fact we can do this in AMS2 is soooo much fun)
I have not yet got into F1, although I am becoming slowly addicted to open wheel cars, more than I thought I would be... How do you find the steering on the F1 in AMS2? I have heard it's not as realistic as in other games, but I have no personal experience.
@@OlderGamersPerspective I’ve never driven a real F1 car so my opinion probably isn’t valid (!) but certainly the McLaren M23 in RF2 feels fairly similar to me as in AMS2. AMS2 has got a LOT closer to RF2 lately in my humble opinion.
Can you recommend RF2? I have yet to try it
@@OlderGamersPerspective yes the BTCC, Endurance & GT3 packs in RF2 are fantastic, wait for steam sales as they’re stupidly expensive! The free stuff in the workshop varies in quality. The online is amazing now - I’m pretty average top10 ish (certainly no alien!) but have had a lot of fun this week racing on there, it’s always full. Fun close and usually respectful racing in my experience!
Great video mate. Ams2 has came along way since the original version. I seem the potential in the sim a couple of years ago
It certainly has. I really still want a proper career mode, but as it is now, I still think it's a great sim.
@OlderGamersPerspective Good video dude.. Regarding control assignment issues... To assign the steering or pedals you HAVE to pull and recenter the steering and stamp/release the pedals and do so in about 1 second, pull/press and hold won't be detected, if you're too slow in the process you'll see "Multiple inputs detected" go faster. then you MUST calibrate the wheel and pedals to correctly set the degrees of rotation and pedal travel.. (I'd suggest making a vid of this as it's a stumbling block for a LOT of players).
I think I must've posted the above to about 2 dozen threads on Steam regarding steering wheel problems as it's one of the games big problems alongside often losing the wheel after an update, meaning you have to re-assigning everything when this happens.
From memory the CSL DD also didn't have a native profile in the control options, it took about 6 months for this to actually happen.
One thing I didn't see you mention is the real weather options, AMS2 can simulate actual historical weather for the last 40 years so if you WANT to you can try to match Senna in the 1988 British GP at Donnington, just pick the date & time of the race and set real weather, if the details are available they'll come close to replicating the recorded weather.
Reiza chose to allow all players access to DLC tracks in online play, the only thing is you need to own the DLC to setup an online race there, only DLC cars are blocked from non DLC owners so Nords with GT3's you can join, Nords with GTE's you can't unless you own Racin USA Pt1, Racin USA pack (Pts 1-4, 4 unreleased atm) or the season pass that includes all content except Hi Tech pack, historical track pack pt 2, the upcoming Le Mans DLC and all DLC's yet to be announced.
Other ideas for "How to vids", adding to any "Modding AMS2" vid consider adding installing the custom FFB files to be found on Reiza forums. I found these far more detailed than default or default+ FFB profiles, for me they made feeling tyres letting go much clearer and avoiding those WTH? spins AMS2 can suffer from.
Strangely enough another vid that might open some eyes would be on Reiza themselves and how to raise bug reports, as Reiza has such a small team they can't assign someone to trawl Steam forums so bugs NEED to be added to the Reiza forum bug report thread, if not you'll only get advice from other players, having said that there ARE loads of helpful people in the steam forums who can generally help with a fix/workaround or point players to Reiza forums if they can't help.
Also worthy of a vid is joining Discord/Facebook groups being beneficial to the multiplayer experience, I've joined several myself including time trail groups, racing groups like RWB International, Slipstream Racing (both have events in other games too), Racecraftonline runs hourly & weekly races via their website and have categories you can progress through based on a rating of your events, from Rookie to Platinum.
This was a race with Slipstream recently, had a real ding dong battle with these guys including a stupid incident that everybody took responsibility for..
ua-cam.com/video/of8CSL7x4ZU/v-deo.htmlsi=mqwRA1n-zmYDAmA2
So whilst AMS2 multiplayer can be very poorly populated the player numbers ARE increasing over time & it's one of the very few racing games that can say it's beaten it's highest concurrent players repeatedly...
You know, I did all of this that you describe here, to set up the wheel, and encountered all those problems you mention. In fact it was so frustrating, that once I had it done, I didn't want to touch it again in case I stuffed it up.
But yeah, when I am feeling like I have a very calm moment in my life, I will jump in and do a tutorial on how to setup the wheel and pedals.
The historical weather thing isn't something I have tried yet, I think that goes beyond my level of motor sport, but there are some races I clearly remember, in the rain, and I would love to try those. But I have some way to go before I can manage an F1 car.
I have competed a short mod video, on how to add Crew cheif, probably the easiest mod anyone will ever do, but yes, further mod videos are needed to show off the true modding power of AMS2.
I'll have a look at discord, I don't go there very often though, and I don't do FB at all I'm afraid. been there, done that, won't be going back.
I will also keep an eye on AMS2 Multiplayer, see if the numbers improve, and if it's tempting to enter. Thank you for the link, I will check it out :)
@@OlderGamersPerspectiveIt's better on Discord than FB (don't use it much myself either), multiplayer is usually more populated between 3-10pm UK time with usually 1000+ playing, this is more often than not when league events are run, Slipstream do Sunday and Mid week 10 week long championships @ 18:45 start time.
RCO has several hourly and also weekly events where members are required to start in Rookie class and complete 3 clean laps before they can register to race, they have their own player ratings system which decides your available tiers.
So yeah there's everything from time trial groups, to set races any member can join to full on championship leagues that can be found.
They need support to grow..but it is what pc3 should have been! My go-to sim! 8.5/10
Yes, you are right. PC3 doesn't get a good rep at all. I am tempted to buy it just to see if it's as bad as people say. For the life of me I don't know how they dropped the ball after the success of PC2.
But, we do now have AMS2, which is a very cool single player experience.
@@OlderGamersPerspective it is modded pc2 but really great🤝🥂
Nice review!
Thank you, glad you liked it :)
You should look a racecraft online. A multi player system for ams2. Ranked by safety and race consistency you get some good clean racing
Thank you for the tip. I will take a look.
i have to agree with you, AM2 is 1 of the best out there
It surprised me, considering how old the engine is that's running the sim, how good this actually was. It certainly will be something I use a lot, and I can imagine that once I start to mod it, AMS2 will just get better for me.
BTW - Do you have a link for that other sim you wanted me to look at? I couldn't track it down.
@@OlderGamersPerspective Sorry, but... Notice: Drive is no longer available on the Steam store.
Ah, that's why I couldn't find it, thought I was having an Older Gamer moment there. :) Thank you for checking for me.
my brother, did you search for spotter in options?
I did, yes. But I looked under game play options and audio, when in fact it's listed in the second tab of the gameplay options under display. I guess that's why I didn't find it. But I have found it now and will do a follow up video on where it is to help out others who couldn't find it.
The VW is a "Gol", not a "Golf"... pretty different cars, despite the names. Cheers!
You know I did see that, but I thought it was just a truncated name badge. Thanks for telling me. It did remind me of a golf that I used to drive, I guess that's what fooled me. Was the Gol a racing version of the gold or a totally different car?
@@OlderGamersPerspective The Gol is a Brazilian local project from the late 70s intended to replace a car called Brasilia, that was an attempt to replace the Beetle (but the Beetle were produced in the country until the 90s, outliving the Brasilia). It's a little smaller, lighter, simpler, cheaper and under powered than the Golf (that was sold in Brazil as a category above). This "Copa Classic" cars is based on a vintage race modified league that happens in Brazil, but the cars represented on AMS2 are specific from the Rio Grande do Sul state local league, but it's (both B and FL) based on the 2015 championship (if I'm not mistaken). The actual 2023 (that you have all the races available on UA-cam) championship had way more car models and the São Paulo state local league is even larger. If not mistaken, the current Copa Classic regulation have one or two more divisions (one were an experimental using vintage compacts from the 90s, that I hope someday Reiza deliver on AMS2).
Anyway... the Gol had eight generations and the AMS2 versions (Copa Classic FL and B, plus the Hot Cars, that is based on the 80s Divisão 3) are all race modified based on G1, but two different revisions (the Divisão 3 is the first revision from 85, I believe, and the Copa Classic on the third or fourth, from early 90s). The Gol was discontinued on 2022 and only two variations still on the market (the Voyage, that is a Gol sedan, and the Saveiro, that is a small pickup truck).
Fascinating. Thank you for the detailed breakdown. I'll be sure to name check you when I talk about this in the follow up video I am planning for AMS2.
Forgot to say that the Hot Cars (Divisão 3) was fully supported by VW, but the Copa Classic is an amateur league. Because of that, the HC has high specs as it was intended to have the top Brazilian Drivers from it's time with bigger budgets (even if it was supposed to be an entry division for Stock Car Brasil, most of it's grid was shared, as there wasn't that much drivers in the country, back then, with money to race professionally)
@@OlderGamersPerspective Cheers, mate! If you liked the Copa Classic cars, just try the Hot ones
Good review overall. The biggest problem imo is not the game mods or certain problems with vr but the madness engine. Absolutely dead gorgeous? Sure. However , it carries some peculiarities that render certain cars a bit of a pain to drive. Over time , Reiza have massively improved upon the driving behavior of most cars however there still are some cars that require you to use slip angles that are frankly a bit too much to reach race pace. Some slip angle is always necessary but when you are doing inverted steering wheel on a gt4 or an f1 , there is a problem.
I highly suggest , you grab the original AMS in the upcoming Christmas sale. I think you'll be left impressed on the physics side.
Some good points, thank you. I will look at these issues in the coming days. I am not a big F1 driver, but I am tempted to do some of the lower class formula cars. Are they suffering the same slip angle issues?
I do have AMS 1 in my library, I bought it in the Humble deal a while back, and one of the things that intrigued me with this title was the large mod base that supports it, so it's going to be one I look closely at soon.
@@OlderGamersPerspective it is entirely hit or miss in my experience. As you said the car selection is absolutely imense. So take your time and enjoy everything ams2 has to offer
Thank you, I will start to explore. Any cars there that I SHOULD try? Something perhaps that not everyone thinks of?
@@OlderGamersPerspective For sure Brasilian stock cars. Fantastic cars and definitely under appreciated. They introduced them to iracing too and it's a dead series literally no one racing them. You can start with interlagos but then there are a lot of crazy unknown Brazilian tracks for them like curitaba for instance or that airport ( don't remember the name ). The sprints with the steering wheel in the middle of the cockpit are also fantastic cars.
I hear a lot about the Brasilian stock cars, so I will have to try them out and see what all the fuss is about. Good call :) As for a car with a steering wheel in the middle... Yeah, that HAS to be driven :)
re. MOZA wheel: You realise the Moza is development of the past couple of years and is also not that commonly used? Fiddly is ok. Not operational would be a problem. Spotter? Crewchief is best-why complain? No career mode: thank God for that! And yes, as you, I started with a VCS2600. ;-)
It's certainly a wheel that is fairly young to the market, but the video I have made on the Moza R9 remains my most popular video of all time, so it is, at least, interesting to a lot of sim users out there, even if ultimately they do buy something else. But yes, you are right, fiddly is good, or at least okay-ish, not working is worse. And thankfully, when it is setup, it performs flawlessly with AMS2.
Spotter I eventually found, with the helpful comments here, there is one built in, it's no where near as good as crew chief (the latter I reviewed in another video), but it is there, once you have tracked it down inside the less than helpful options menus.
No career mode is a good thing? On that we will have to disagree. For a sim racer that is mostly used for off-line single player racing, it is an essential element and I look forward to it being added later this year (or next). I mean, if it wasn't something people wanted, the mods that exist to make it happen would not be as popular as they are. But hey, it is a subjective point of view, and you made me smile this morning as you took me back to the 80's when I worked in a shop selling VCS2600's :) Those were the days :)
In its current state, AMS2 and Project Cars 2 shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence.
I agree with the spirit of what you are saying, but for those that aren't aware, I do need to mention AMS's linage. But yeah, AMS2 is a long way ahead, from where PC2 was when it ended.
What a daft comment. ASM2 is Pcars 2.5, with less content available without DLC. If Pcars 2 had the same update it would be an overall much better package.
@@inky5168 of course, you’re entitled to your opinion. I personally think that calling AMS2 PC2.5 is the dumbest, most uninformed opinion I’ve ever heard.
With LFM announcing that they're partnering with AMS2 it's probably going to be one of the better Sims in general, as well as their recent partnership with IMSA, out of AC, ACC, and AMS2, I 100% prefer ams2
It does look mega interesting and I hope to get involved with LFM soon.
@OlderGamersPerspective I've done my first race with lfm recently and am going to start running miata cup until it comes to AMS2, once the foundation has been laid for ams2 I'll def be jumping ship from AC
@@SledgeHeadRacing And of course AC2 Evo is on the horizon.
@OlderGamersPerspective yes, but with how established LFM is with AC1 and how established the moding comunity is with AC1 It will probably take a while for Evo to get traction with the comunity, unless it has a very good online match making system out of the gate, I don't expect alot
@@OlderGamersPerspective I was talking to one of the LFM team members in the discord and they're hoping to have the first session before the end of 2024
5:56 the game does have a very basic spotter but its hidden in Options > Gameplay > Display > Spotter. It is off by default. I'd say this is a classic example of bad UI design this game has.
Hi, thank you for commenting. Yes indeed, I found this setting eventually, mostly after other people pointed out where it was hiding. I've got an update to this video where I talk about this setting and how to install Crew Chief, you can find it here :)
ua-cam.com/video/yZv1EWY57DA/v-deo.htmlsi=N-749AxWJoi1hU-T
AMS2 for me its one of the best Games for Racing, FFB is so good, with Racecraft i drive F3 Online-very nice👍👍
Thanks for this Video
No problem 👍Thank you for the feedback :)
It's not "based" on Pc2... It merely uses the same engine but it's all been done from the ground up by reiza...
Hi, thank you for commenting.
Based on is a poor phrase. I should have said, 'inspired by'.
Career mode is coming but it will take a while 2025 is the plan but knowing reiza habit of taking their time and delaying it could come in 2026 hopefully I’m wrong though
Absolutely love ams 2 though is by far the sim that takes most of my time currently
Oh and it does have a spotter you just need to manually enable it
Yes, I eventually found the Spotter, with the kind help of peoples comments. It did fool me by being in the DISPLAY tab of the game options :) But I got there in the end.
I saw that Career mode is delayed for a year. That is a shame as it's really the only thing that's missing for me. If that were in place, I would have a lot more motivation to do the single player races. That being said, I haven't yet got into the championship mode...
👏👍
😎
I love AMS2.
me too :)
Not nearly enough force feedback. Still a floaty feeling with most camera settings on zero. Fairly decent graphics though.
Yes, it can feel a little floaty at times, but when you get used to it, it's fine. And yes, graphics are great.
The game should have some kind of career imho
I agree. There was talk of it getting it soon, but they have now pushed it back to 2025, which is a shame. I guess they are trying to ramp up the sim and the content to combat the onslaught from AC2, due out sometime soon (ish).
Good ffb but weird physics. Driving on a straights is like walking on a high wire, trying to balance yourself. The car has no grip on straigths
Did you try it with the latest patch? That felt pretty tight, at least in the cars I drove, but I didn't do much with formula cars.
AMS 2 still has terrible physics. Cars sliding like stupid and updates don't fix it much. I love to play this game because of excellent VR performance but I hate spinning during most of the races. I don't believe that they going too fix it with update 1.6, rather I'm looking forward for Assetto Corsa Evo release ,
I have seen that patch 1.6 is going to address these issues, so I am more hopeful, but I understand your doubts. More testing is going to be needed, when they release the patch. Hopefully soon. Evo I tried at the Expo, video on my channel about this, and that was cool, but the FFB didn't impress me as much. But the version I was using had Pre-Alpha on the splash screen, so make of that what you will.
7/10, overpriced, few players, many multiplayer delay bugs, sound bugs, camera bugs and bipolar random grip. Nice tracks and cars pack, historical content is the best, I recommend it for solo play too, not online.
Yes, I would agree, solo play is the best setup for AMS2, although I would imagine that if you have a group of people who would meet up for this, and race together in a closed race, that would be cool. But at the moment, I am not tempted by the multiplayer in AMS2.
@@OlderGamersPerspective quite a few leagues use it.
belive me many people hate online racing / or not have that much time during a day .... and then AMS2 is perfect solution...