I’m off to a brilliant start!
Thanks to the recent arrival of Goat Simulator, simulation games have become the butt of jokes throughout the gaming industry. And it’s not an unfair criticism per se – there is a plethora of ‘simulators’ that were meant to be realistic, but pack a physics engine that makes Mario Kart look believable. Make no mistake, however – the simulator genre has some true gems, and no community knows this as well as sim racers.

You see, in most areas of simulation, quality is a rare commodity. Want a truck simulator" It’s Euro Truck Simulator 2 or bust, really. Bus simulator" OMSI is the only answer. If you want a racing simulator, on the other hand, you’re spoiled for choice. Assetto Corsa, iRacing and Project CARS are just a few examples of how high the bar is set in this industry. Not all of these games are pretty, but they all pack immensely complex physics engines. These keep track of tire temperature, wear, and deformation, suspension geometry, and basically anything else that could affect the way the car handles. All of the aforementioned games also come with laser-scanned tracks, so that every little dip and curve is recreated perfectly. iRacing even takes the time to gather the masses and dimensions of the components in each simulated vehicle – and if that means physically disassembling the vehicle to obtain that data, that’s exactly what they’ll do.
As a resu...