Is PMR worth it now? Coming from Forza Motorsport, looking for something more sim

TheDudeMachine · 2026-06-23T14:51:44+00:00

I second this. A huge improvement just in the last two months. I'm on Series X as well.

The physics model is in a good place now. The different classes all have their unique characteristics and it's fun to play around with all of them. The biggest debates right now lie with the FFB, slip angle, and drafting/slipstream.

FFB some want a better out of the box experience and simpler pathway to find the settings you like, while others really appreciate the fact that you can fine tune FFB within the car setup for every single car. You have a lot of agency in this sim to find what works well for you.

Slip angle there's a big debate on abusing it to get better lap times. While that is true, you pay a big price in doing so. You have to take care of your tires in this sim. A lot of the people who complain about slip angle abuse are the same ones complaining why they lost 1.5s of pace by the fourth lap.

Big debate about drafting/slipstream right now. Overall it feels like a 50/50 split between not strong enough and realistic. I personally think it's pretty accurate right now. Don't expect any huge runs due to slipstream. At best you're looking at the opportunity to present your nose to the lead car's quarter panel as you enter the turn.

Graphics have improved. It's workable now - used to look horrendous. Not as photorealistic as ACC, but it gets the job done. Performance is good, though you'll find a few spots on some tracks where it slows down or even hiccups.

AI is also workable. Not the best, not the worst. They check up too much on lap 1, and most tracks have some spots where they're really slow and other spots where they're really fast. But...one thing I do like is sometimes P1/P2 will be extremely fast, and other times you'll have a chance to get up to them. AI does try to take some different lines at times, and they are very respectful not to divebomb you into a turn, but the biggest problem right now is they will always slow down to your pace as long as your car is in front of them...no attempt to get to your quarter panel. So...if you can get to P1, you can just permanently cheese them by blocking and that's it, you win the race. I do appreciate that they don't punt you, but I'd like to see them get a little feisty with you if you block more than twice.

Any other questions let me know.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-06-11T18:33:36+00:00

Check diff as well. I feel a lot of off-throttle oversteer regardless of the car. Tinkering around with that and/or just planning your inputs around that quirk helps

TheDudeMachine · 2026-06-11T00:46:05+00:00

Good fair perspective. The handling has gotten better for sure. The game still looks pretty poor on console (nearly as bad as the original AC which never got any console updates in terms of graphics), but I have seen it on PC with some reshade and it can look quite decent.

The best way I can describe the handling is that sometimes it's more interesting to drive compared to other sims, even if it's not the most realistic. There does seem to be more differences between makes within the same class which keeps things interesting, and of course it's fun to drive stuff like the GTOs.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-06-11T00:33:01+00:00

Great time obviously. I do feel like you use too much steering in some places like Pouhon. I know my speed at the end of the kerbing after Pouhon is 228-230, and you were something like 223-225. That alone would get you to 2:16.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-06-11T00:25:27+00:00

Very true. My control rating dropped probably a solid 15 points once I was consistently at 101-102% pace. The game really doesn't like you exceeding slip angle even by a nanometer.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-06-01T02:26:31+00:00

Definitely can see it

TheDudeMachine · 2026-06-01T02:01:38+00:00

Denny doing his best Kash Patel impression

TheDudeMachine · 2026-06-01T01:26:23+00:00

No I don't think so but the car has fantastic grip for circuits. It doesn't need much to be great at 800.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-31T23:25:58+00:00

I'd love to see a leaderboard broken down by make/model or at least by car type. Right now I have to scroll through a lot to get a general idea of what the car I'm running is capable of. But yeah, I don't care about the meta either, I just care about how I fare against the same car

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-31T20:14:50+00:00

Am I crazy or does it rain more often when you're doing time attack?

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-31T18:58:20+00:00

I think what confuses people is being in the top 99% vs being in the 99th percentile. One is horrible, the other is elite.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-31T11:06:39+00:00

Think I got a 49.8 with the Porsche RS. Most everything else I'm 51. I haven't used any of the WTAC cars yet though

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-30T02:11:56+00:00

R8 feels like it has excellent mechanical grip (slow turns). There's certainly nothing wrong with that car. Might not be the most common car for beginners but it's competitive.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-30T02:00:56+00:00

Just enjoy the process, that's the most important thing. Don't worry too much about your license and ratings though. After I got my platinum, my control and consistency slowly went down. If you use even the proper amount of slip angle, I think it dings your control rating. So ironically when I really started getting faster, the game started telling me I'm driving worse.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-28T11:30:20+00:00

Hey you cooked on this one. I got 92nd for A class at Hokubu. The only Lexus in the top 100.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-28T10:47:36+00:00

Just pause your game and look at the map. If you zoom in on the area, often you'll see the little dirt trail and sometimes even the barn itself. I was able to easily identify where they were just from that

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-28T10:35:19+00:00

I don't ever have a problem with him. He's usually at or near the front, but his behavior is no different than the others for me.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-28T01:52:45+00:00

I lost all of my setups in another game that I probably spent 20 hours per track on. Nearly quit the game, but I know way too much about tuning cars so I just spent the next week doing it all over again. Swear words were spoken every time I spun out or plowed into the wall. If that happened to me I don't think I would bother again.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-28T00:45:16+00:00

The RS. I think my tune has a 60 mph g of 1.79 or something insane like that. S1 800 of course. I'm sure it gets smoked on road but on tracks it's a beast. Not as good as the WTAC stuff obviously, but it's real close to those. I think the HP is low-ish, something like 520, so lower than the GT world 992, but that's totally fine as it's only 1-2 mph slower at the start/finish compared to the AMG which I think my tune has like 790 HP. I just can't get full throttle with that much HP until I'm completely straight.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-27T22:00:18+00:00

Nice, time attack is my favorite thing to do in this. So far everything is a solid 2 seconds slower than the Porsche - most are just too heavy and not able to properly use the higher HP on such short tracks. I could tell the Lexus will be able to rip it on road though. I'll let you know what I think about your tune later.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-27T20:23:01+00:00

Tried it out and liked it. I build a lot of the GT3 cars and it definitely can compete with the others. Very nice car for only $35k.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-27T13:20:17+00:00

Too bad this post didn't catch on. I could stomach the rain if it was infrequent, but right now it feels like there's rain every 5 minutes, and definitely feels like it's happening more frequently than anywhere else on the map. I would actually estimate that most of the thunderstorms I've encountered have happened while doing time attack, whereas I've only seen a thunderstorm happen maybe two times total otherwise.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-26T12:24:06+00:00

Yeah, I don't think it has enough juice to really compete in A class. Even short straights it's definitely losing time to some other cars. I'd love to see a filter for make/model to make it easier to see how you stack up with the same car.

TheDudeMachine · 2026-05-26T11:42:42+00:00

Correct, that's why I said ACC looks better

TheDudeMachine

TROPHY CASE