Automobilista 2 Review - Probably one of the best single player Racing Sims currently on the market

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

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.

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.

You can have full manual control in the pits, and there is a spotter setting in there somewhere as well.

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.

Nice review!

@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.. https://youtu.be/of8CSL7x4ZU?si=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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

switching off all movement and turning off tyre sound worked wonders for me making it feel more drivable.

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.

They need support to grow..but it is what pc3 should have been! My go-to sim! 8.5/10

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.

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

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

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)