'Kart Racer' -
Simply The Most Realistic Karting Game Ever Made!
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Karter Jim Cassi, and his team of developers have achieved
something that has never been done before – make a decent
kart simulation game.
Titled ‘Kart Racer’, the game is the work of a team
of karting enthusiasts who just want to simply make a good, and
realistic karting simulation. Even sweeter is that this is a completely
free add-on for the superb racing game rFactor!
Using the open architechure of PC Race Sim rFactor,
Jim Cassi, and friends got to work at producing this little
gem.
Here is some Video of Kart Racer in
action -
So, what’s rFactor all about?
rfactor is basically a very decent racing game
simulation. Like any other PC driving game you buy it, install it,
take a drive, and have some fun. The unique feature that
rFactor has is it allows people to create add-ons (aka mods) for
it so budding developers can use rFactor’s ‘Open
Architecture’ to make their own cars and tracks for use in
the game.
You would think these ‘mods’, or add-ons
would be low quality affairs that you wouldn’t bother playing.
However, you would be wrong. The cars, and tracks that people make
for the game are truly fantastic, and are of the highest quality.
What’s even better is that you can download
all these mods, and add-ons for absolutely nothing. They
are completely free!
Graphics
The first thing I noticed about Kart Racer was
the very polished circuit designs. Each track has a decent
amount of detail. Buildings, stands, ambulances, and many
other features are well detailed and offer a good degree of authenticity
to the game. Xplex, and Matsuoka being particularly good.
Generally textures are very good. Some of the circuits
do occasionally suffer from a little slowdown, but it doesn’t
really distract from the play.
The karts look slightly disproportioned in regards
to the driver in the seat. It does look a little odd. However, from
the onboard view the steering wheel and kart look great as your
driving, and feel very realistic. The engines look pretty
cool, and recognisable too.
Overall the graphics are good, but to be honest
this didn’t concern me, what I wanted to do is sink my teeth
into the handling.
Gameplay, and Handling
With the game you get two karts –
Shifter, and Rotax. Each kart handles
very differently and requires different techniques.
Rotax
The main problem I found with the handling and
feel of the Rotax kart was the fact it pretty much felt
like a real Rotax kart. The developer has done a very good
job in mapping the power characteristics of a Rotax MAX engine.
So that means no power low down.
The actual handling of the kart is generally good.
The kart feels like it's connected to the road, and the brakes work
the rear end. For sure it’s not super realistic, but
it has come a lot closer than any karting game ever. This
is a new benchmark for other game developers to go by.
However, I would like to have a little more snappy
brakes. The brakes are good, but you don’t get the
instant bang you get in a real kart. You can trail brake
in this game and get the rear working in a realistic manner, but
not to the extent I would like. For example, crazy lock ups like
you see on our
Lock Up Page are pretty much impossible, and getting the rear
to work hard is tough to do. Achieving a perfect simulation of this
would be a huge task for anyone, but the developers have done a
good job.
Set-up changes are limited but you are able to
change gearing, castor, weight distribution, brake pressure, and
a few over tweaks. The set-up changes do result in realistic changes
to handling. For example, the default setting for the Rotax is low
castor. My kart felt like it needed a lot more front end
so I whacked the castor up to full, and the kart handled much better
with better turn-in.
The handling overall is pretty good. There are
a few things I would like to see improved to increase the realism,
but that will come with time.
Shifter
I prefer driving the Shifers to the Rotax. They
seem to have a little more edge to them. The engines are
more responsive, and the gear changes. keep you awake. I love the
way you have to shift through the gears so fast.
I recommend that if your wheel has a gear stick
you use that instead of flappy paddles as it adds more realism
The kart itself handles very well indeed. I think
the rFactor architecture suits a kart with front brakes and gears.
I particularly enjoy attacking kerbs and
getting the kart to work. You really can feel everything
that is happening with a decent Force Feedback wheel. Going over
the bumps at Rock Island really puts a smile on your face.
Overall both the Rotax, and Shifter are huge amounts
of fun to drive and both offer a respectable level of realism. Obviously
things could improve in certain areas, but overall the karts feel
OK.
Personally I would love to be able to have
the actual human body model programmed in the game so you can lean
the driver to the left, right, front, and back. Another
thing that would be great is the ability to tune the carb, and choke
the engine. I understand these things are far off in terms of being
done but we can all dream.
Online
Some of you may not be aware of the hugeness of
online gaming, and neither was I a year ago. But once you have experienced
racing online with a decent simulator there is no turning back.
This is where Kart Racer comes into it’s own. The
idea that I can race decent handling karts online, against other
karters around the world is amazing. And for anyone out
there who gets the mid week blues between real race weekends would
have a perfect tool to keep his or her mind focused.
My computer did have a few issues racing online
when it crashed a couple of times, and it did have the odd bit of
lag here and there. But overall it's so much fun racing against
people for real, and some of the guys that race this game online
are very quick. No race is easy!
How to get the game
If you want to get rFactor and
the Kart Racer mod you must first go to the rFactor
site and download the game for about £30. Once you have
done this you must go to the Kart
Racer Forum page to download the Kart Racer mod. Be sure to
download all the extra updates as well to keep the game up to date.
All download instructions can be found in the forum. Kart
Racer is now on Version 1.1, so make sure you have that
installed as it has superior physics to version 1.0.
Closing Comments
Kart Racer has set a new standard in terms
of kart racing games. Unlike every kart game before it
Kart Racer has karts that actual handle similar to real karts! OK,
so the handling model could be progressively tweaked, but the general
feel is pretty good. At least now we have a standard from
which other karting games can build and improve.
What Jim Cassi and his team have achieved
is monumental. He is not getting paid to make the game,
and we do not have to pay for the Kart Racer add-on. It
costs us £0/$0 to add this to rFactor! So for free, you get
the finest kart game ever made so far!
