[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2olxBCWGFp4[/youtube]
Game Stock Car by Reiza Studios came on to the scene in 2011 and is based on the Image Space Incorporated Physics and Graphics engine. ISI are the makers of rFactor, so it’s based on that exact engine. They are Based in Londrina, Brazil and with a development staff spread all over the globe. If you’ve downloaded a lot of mods for rFactor, chances are you have already enjoyed some of the creations from members of Reiza Studios.
Now let’s talk about the title. It’s probably the least hyped or marketed sim racing title on the market today. It’s only available via digital download and it goes for only $24.90 and here’s what you get.
GSC 2013 contains all the content from the 2012 version as well as some new additions. Per it’s name, GSC contains all the cars and drivers from the 2013 Brazilian Stock Car Championship. The name Game Stock car can be very misleading. Some may have thought that this title was only about the Brazilian Stock car series and those cars are fun to drive, but my favorites are the open wheel racers that are included. Additionally, it includes some historic Formula One cars, Go Karts, Camaro SS Street car, Mini Cooper racer and The Opala Stock Car which was the first car used in the early years of the Brazilain Stock Car series.
Night-racing is also implemented on all tracks and features a possible 24 hour time cycle.
For the review my PC and Sim Racing setup are:
AMD 6 Core PC with 16 Gigs of Corsair Vengeance RAM
Dual Nvidia 580 GTX video cards
3 Asus 22″ monitors
Thrustmaster TX 458 Italia Racing Wheel with T500 pedals
Derek Speare Designs Button Box
Sim Instruments dash
Sim Vibe in Extensions mode powering two buttkickers under my seat & pedal set
Would love to run my shifter and other peripherals, but this game engine only allows three controllers at once. Bummer is that the dash is considered a controller but I like running with it due to my field of view setting.
Wheel Settings
For the formula cars I set the degrees of rotation at 270 – 320 in the Thrustmaster profiler and then for the others, up to 900 depending on the car. If you wonder why the steering may feel sloppy, it’s because this game engine doesn’t adjust for up to 900 properly. I feel it’s easiest to just start at 300 or so in the Thrustmaster profile
Physics
The best on this engine to date in my opinion. The cars feel connected to the pavement and the force feedback goes right along with it.
Graphics
They’ve gotten better with age considering the dated engine and only using DX9 rendering technology. Some of the best field of view settings in all of sim racing right out of the box. WOuld love to see this title on an updated graphics engine
Sounds
Some of the best in sim racing! From the time you enter the garage, to how the engines fires up , or even as it’s prepping to fire, to the moment you shut down, it’s incredible. The sounds help translate the raw horsepower and rigidity of the cars. There’s not one car in this title that doesn’t sound right
Tracks
Except for Interlagos, I’ve never heard of most of these and unless you follow the Brazilian Stock Car Series, or live in Brazil, I doubt you have either. I tested every track using the Formula 3 cars since they are easy and fun to drive. Default setup with 30 Degrees of rotation and 15 liters of fuel
Most or all of them are really fun tracks to learn and drive. A lot of them aren’t very long, but offer a good challenge. It also includes a handful of street courses that are a blast to tackle.
Force Feedback
Probably the best this game engine has to offer. It uses “Real Feel” technology and it really dialed into the physics engine.
Sim Vibe
Feels incredible with GSC 2013. You can feel the rumple strips, bumps, etc. Of course it’s full tailor-able to your liking.
AI
This game engine isn’t known for great AI, but they have done a great job making it competitive. Is it perfect? No.. But what AI will ever be able to mimic a humans behavior.
Multiplayer
The best and pretty much only way to experience multiplayer is in a league format. The multiplayer lobbies are usually a ghost town if you’re looking to race against a himan any time of the day. In a league environment it woks great if you’re on a solid server with lots of bandwidth.
Modability
This title has a lot of mods available since it uses the rFactor game engine which adds more life to it beyond the base content
Damage
Very well done.. Parts fall off of your car, and you can even catch it on fire.
Presentation
A little dated and bland compared to say Assetto Corsa. Im sure due in part to the dated game engine. It does the job though.
Cost
Probably the best bang for the buck in sim racing right now
Pros:
Great physics engine tied to strong accurate force feedback
Takes the ISI rFactor engine to the highest level possible. IMO, the best use of this engine to date
Lots of content for little price
Series gets better with age
Modding community
Cons:
Dated game engine
Only able to have 3 controllers plugged in simultaneously
Track data not listed.. Had to go to the “GDB” file in the games locations directory to find the info
Can’t drive kart on all tracks and vice versa
User interface is a little dated
Resources for title:
Mods:
Just when you think the ISI original rFactor engine is dead, here comes the Reiza team and they take the engine new heights and get all they can out of it. I can’t imagine what these guys would do with the rF2 engine and tire model. They sure have massaged this one to feel like rF2s.
I think they should change the name of this title to Reiza Simulated Racing (or something like it) so people don’t confuse it for something that’s limited in content and about stock cars. It’s also been modded due to it’s sharing the same game architecture as rFactor, so it goes far beyond what this nice package has to offer.
We want to give this title a 10 / 10 but due to the dated engine and not being able to use more than 3 controllers, we give Game Stock Car by Reiza Studios 9 of 10 on the Revs Scale
I hope you’ve enjoyed this review of Game StockCr 2013.
Check it out for yourself here as they have a 30 minute demo you can try out :
Nice review, I bought this a couple of days ago after some recommendations on the forums here. I haven’t fired it up yet as I’m concentrating on learning to lap consistently in AC at the moment but I’m looking forward to it.
Great review Darin. I posted my thoughts on this much underrated title last year, which you kindly commented on. I agree that the name is likely one of the main reasons it is not as popular as it should be. Even though the game engine is a little dated I still consider it 2nd only to Assetto Corsa for gameplay and physics, certainly better than RF2. Please keep the excellent videos coming as the added exposure can only improve its popularity worldwide. Our Australian racing league (Sim Racing Australia) is so impressed by the title that we use it exclusively. We’d love you to drop by one day for some down under driving. Keep up the excellent work. PS…Looking forward to a review on the new RS1 from RSeat.
Nice work Darin! Following are my two observations regarding some of your comments. First, regarding the game title, yes I understand that for people outside Brazil it does not mean anything, but the fact is that this game is the official simulator of the Stock Car series from Brazil. So, at least in Brazil, without this name it would never receive the attention it received. It has all drivers, teams, cars models (Chevrolet Sonic & Peugeot 408), car paints, tracks and most of the rules from its 2013 championship. Second, regarding Rubens Barrichello, you are correct, he drove the car 111 during the 2013 championship. After he quit Formula Indy at the end of 2012 he moved to Brazil and raced the full Stock Car championship, finishing in 8th place. Nice work for him too in his first year, coming from a career made over open wheelers, mainly Formula 1.
Just bought it too, love the perceived “real feel” FF. I own Assetto Corsa, RBR2013,LFS and Dirt 3 and I seem to enjoy this at the moment. If LFS had more tracks and Aesstto Corsa had online they would be GSC2013. Gotta love the Karts and probably down the line the modding community will add more. We need this to get exposure.
Just started with GSC, love it its one of the best feeling sims i have tried. What FOV are you using on the stock car in the review? I have tried most settings and cant find anything that looks as in proportion as yours in the vid.
Great review bud. I’ve just got this game and I think it’s awesome 🙂