WRC 5 Thoughts ...

Since ever, really, i wanted to learn to drive Rally. It's interesting. Such online competition would be i assume, really great. No one to crash into you no one to spoil your lap. It's you and the time. Imagining that?

For those who know me might be wondering, seeing me speaking about Rally since i have never ever drove one. Truth to be told, this is for them, my first interaction with racing games was Rallying. I always hate when one guy is bothering you with how good he is in something and you are not. So we had this guy playing Rally, and happened to work at the PS1 gaming store, and we who went to play Tony Hawk or Crash Team Racing at the time, having only 8 - 9 years, wanted to beat him. He was perhaps 25y at the time. But we couldn't. Tracks were really long and we couldn't bother with learning them all. I think that at those times racing games kinda stuck with me and i continued till this very day. 

Leaving aside my totally irrelevant stories about it, my point is, that maybe i am not really  good speaking about Rallying since i dont have much experience with it. But i am not here to talk about that but about new game that is coming up...

As time passed by and we are now 2015 Richard Burns Rally is still regarded as the best simulation when we speak about Rally games, which dates from 2003! 
I have on just few occasions tried Rallying and since RBR was the best, as far i knew, it was the only one i drove. But the graphics that game had and still has, are appalling! So i never bothered much. At the time, back then in 2003-04 and the following years, i was too busy with driving F1. I was totally into F1 ! But i am very keen to finally try out something that would be worth spending the time on it. Not some arcade like all other rallying titles, but a simulation that will surpass Richard Burns Rally! 

Now Kylotonn Games have published some images from whats to be their upcoming rally title, WRC 5, and we can see the first glimpse of the new Rally... i hope it will be more towards simulation than arcade! Since every Rally game is arcade! -_- 

Not much i know about Rallying games, even least i know about this game, other than it's the first time the WRC series will appear on next-gen consoles. They have teaser on their facebook profile. 

The picture below which was have been published on the game's official Facebook page, they show M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS kicking up some dust. Where this is, id say Texas haha and you'd laugh. I have no idea really. 



What is interesting is that the game also has WRC driver Sebastien Chardonnet as its ambassador! That's cool! Like i have said i really hope we can have one great graphic looking game with great sim-racing simulations, to be worth really. And we can read the comments on the people in their posts, asking just the same thing! 
We can hope and expect that the WRC real life driver will, or is contributing with his experience and helping the development team. We can only hope that will result in a great game, fun and challenging... 

WRC 5 as i have read will be out for PC, PS3, PS4, X360, X1 and Vita and that's not all! Their rivals from Milestone with Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo which will go out for PC, PS4 and X1 when they are going to be released later this year, we, who love sim racing, can expect great things when it comes to rallying, finally!

And perhaps i can try myself again in a much more realistic game for the first time after 15 years. Stay tuned!  

Sim Racing - just a game or something more?

Just 10 years ago it was not an option even if available but today, PC simulations are big time part of real racing. We can see that more than on any other place in Formula 1.

PC simulations have reached that far, that they are used in high spending motorsport like F1 to cut the money spend while F1 teams are doing researches on their cars. 

I remember when i played F1 Challenge 99-02 back in 2000 and how i learnt about apex, about how tyres are damaging how aerodynamics work and all those things. I even learnt what drag was and how i could stay behind another car that would make me go faster. And i was only 10 years old. Those at my age, learnt about it perhaps 10 years later than i did. And now those same games, they are far more advanced!

By 2015 we have guy who never drove car and never left his country went from very cold place to a very warm one and drove at most 20 laps in Formula 3 car and was only 2 seconds shy of the record at the track. To repeat, that guy has never driven normal car, F3 car is out of question. And he did that? How? Through the school of driving simulations on PC.

Can you play Call of Duty or Counter Strike and use those skills in real life? No! 

Can you play Pro Evolutions Soccer or NBA and use those skills in real life? Of course no, again. 

Strategic games? There is a little bit more of a brain activity but yet that's only a game. In real life you don't build cavalries or tanks in 5min. Neither you can press escape or pause or even restart after you crash some car, but you know what you are doing. You know the law of the physics you know how to apply the aerodynamics. You have steering wheel and you have pedals. And you work. You work on your reflexes you work on your senses and how that reacts. At least one guy who drove Nismo on Gran Turismo, had that luck that from playing it on Play Station 3 now is driving real racing car and is performing really good!

As time passes by we more often see new products and highly priced steering wheels that recreate the same power of the original steering wheels if not stronger. The only problem is that while driving in front of the PC monitor you don't feel any fear. That's crucial in racing, very often. In every other term about racing, you apply your brain and you are concentrated on the driving all the time. And if racing is state of mind, who says you cannot perform that in the real life? It takes practice, a lot of guts and you have to be passionate about it. If someone is good on simulations that doesn't mean he will be too good in real life. Perhaps he will be scared to death, who can tell. But still even in a game on PC you need some talents if you are the one who is winning or doing lap times other cannot. And not only that, you must have great understandings of the car and how to setup the car. How to find that tenth or some through car setup changes. That takes a lot of feel and feeling the limits. Not anyone can do it.

I regard myself as one of them. Those who will win etc. But yet there are times, often, when while i am thinking i am on the limit, that guy comes and he goes 1-2 seconds faster. Then you realize that you were mistaken. You felt like it was the limit but its not. You realize someone has much more understanding in working on the car setup or adapting it to certain track. It takes a lot of practice. 

Sim racing games today, at least by some of my friends, are taken as a very stupid, game not worth losing the time on, etc. I realized that they are not stupid but they are so much complex and they don't have time to bother with it so on the contrary they are one amazing piece of software that enables thousands of people out there in the world to enjoy their favorite cars and now as very popular thing, in fact started some year ago, tracks are laser scanned meaning that every bump every curb is placed 100% like it is and you would feel it. You can experience it. I know many people who are throwing money on their cars, preparing them, going and having drag races etc and sometimes i wonder, these guys dont have that much money to allow themselves that luxury why they spend whole fortunes on something they wont get any profit out of it, only pleasure, and still the pleasure, it doesn't have that big meaning when those same guys who are accelerating on that straight line and nothing more, if ever happens that we go to Nordschleife for real (which laser scanned i have experienced now many times)  i bet they won't have a chance against me even i have never been that much enthusiast about those drag races and never participated in one. Of course i won't go out there like i do in front of the PC but they won't know much about it while i would know every corner and how it comes. It won't be the same exact feeling for sure but you would know already even you have never tried it. That's precious!

The same guys who think that sim racing is joke are wondering how one can spend 2-3 hours driving in circles all alone...and if you put them behind the steering wheel they won't know how to start running the car. 

Sim racing technologies today are used by champions like Vettel, Raikkonen, Alonso, Hamilton, Button and the rest. Those simulations are very expensive softwares with parameters added directly by F1 team engineers the only ones who know the real engine paramaters of their cars and thats the only difference between that one and the one which is build by modders, people who earn money for living from modding. Those simulations in F1 are also generating the G-Forces through very big build cockpits who cost millions of dollars. Even though not one of them would ever say that both things are close because they are not but they still get plenty amount of informations out of them that they use in their races...races which count, on which they win points and eventually they win titles. 

Sim racing cannot be just one simple game. It's something more

Me as a Formula 1 fan

Greetings,

Since most of the videos are about simulations and sim-racing, me, as a Formula 1 fan i'd like to speak of my history with it, and i hope people who are also following Formula 1 and following me too, would like to read this blog.

My first sense of that, Formula 1 exist, it's not wonder that happened on 1st of May in 1994 when A.Senna died. I happen to be outside near the river Vardar in Skopje with cousins and the closest relatives having good time, while in that moment in Imola at Tamburello A.Senna hit the wall with more than 280km/h.

The relatives who followed F1 in those times, right away shed tears and that's the first thing i remember about that day, when i had only 4 years.

My next moment with Formula 1 was in 1995 when Schumacher still drove Benneton but was leading. This time i was actually watching the race with the same people, gathered again and i remember asking them, who is driving the blue car? Since blue was my favorite color. They said Schumacher is leading. And that's it. The second time i watched F1 was in 1998 and then i didn't knew who he was, or who was driving where. I knew nothing at all! So i asked, is Schumacher driving? Yes he is in the red Ferrari. Red? That's nice! Ferrari? Thats even nicer! I am cheering for him! As the time was passing and the rivalry with Hakkinen went stronger and stronger, in the years he was losing, like i always do, i am sticking with the weaker side.
Then Schumacher won in 2000 and from there on, there was no stopping for him.

Even today i remember how i was on a beach while all my relatives were in the water, and me, sitting in front of the TV and watching the race in a camp-trailer with people i don't know. It was 98. I still remember that pass at Spa of Hakkinen, i was again on the same beach. I was on that beach when Schumi broke a leg in Silverstone in 1999, and my father didn't tell me the race started. Although it was bright sunny day and water was really warm, there was music too and good mood everywhere, i was pissed off totally, ahaha, i miss those days!

So, the time has come for Schumi to finally lose, that's the time where it opened my eyes again, hey he lost! This is not good! 2006 was around the corner and we all knew its very likely that it would be his last season. Fighting with Alonso here and there. I will never forget that morning when the engine of his that never failed him in 5 years, failed him there in Japan, leaving Alonso with 10 points ahead with 1 race left in Brazil.

I now remember friends having jokes on me, how he was going to lose and never win again how this and that. Schumacher has already said that he is going to retire.

There was an interesting moment, its a destiny of unknown reasons, the race that i first watched of which i spoke in the beginning, with my cousins and relatives...well, thats the first time i saw Schumacher and then he won, and the second time i watched again in that same room and house in particular, was when he drove in China 2006 and won his last race! So, it happened that i watched his first and last victory in the same house and in that house i have watched only 2 races from '98 to '06, till today i still haven't watched 3rd race at the house of my cousins...

Going back and speaking of that morning and race in Suzuka, i had an exam tomorrow, it was raining, i had many obligations for that day to finish and this happened, his engine failed. I couldn't behave any different but cry a bit. All those memories and history and success, it came down to that moment and winning the 8th title. That was a hell of a bad bad really bad day! I still cannot forget the way i stared into the TV in disbelief...

So, friends had jokes on me and although Alonso needed to finish only 8th i couldn't stop but saying, "oh yes he will win! its not over yet its not over!" and same friends were wondering, why do i believe in him so much? Answer is easy, he was and is the greatest driver of all times and he never gives up! That's the beauty i think of the sport. Drivers can endure as much as they can like drivers but their bodies won't if they were playing football or basketball etc. So at this point their mentality comes in first place, and his (Schumi) was unbreakable!

Brazil GP came and he did a wonder. He was lapping 1 second faster than anyone else. He was driving with such an experience and very aggressive style! He past both BMW Saubers with one move, he tricked Fisichella and made him go wide, he scared Alonso a bit and then the puncture, crap! Then moved to the back and came again to top 4 passing Kimi Raikkonen in such a phenomenal way! To the right, Kimi blocked. Next lap, again, Kimi waits and Schumi did not respond, then Kimi had to make a choice and he went to the left or the inside of the turn 1 and Schumi was like "even if you block me there, i will pass you right where you thought i would! you cannot stop me!" and he went more on the left nearly touching right between the curb of the turn and his (Kimi) left wheels. And he did it! It was ... showing off! He was the best!

Schumi retired and i never thought that i am going to watch the way i watched while he was driving. Those are times that i miss!

2007 i was watching in shadow of that Schumacher was an consultant for Ferrari. But did not had any favorite. Then in 2008 came the boy of which was spoken few years back and how he was supported by Schumi himself, precisely in 2005 and they said he was VERY fast. It was Vettel. He had 15 years when sat and drove F1 car and was 17 years when drove quicker than Heidfeld. Everyone was aware of him. So in 2008 he proved to be a winner and i confirmed my wonders if he could be the next driver i am going to support while watching the US GP in 2007 and seeing him score first points and break a record. Youngest driver to win a point. From 2008 i was all in for Vettel and i am till today. It happened to be - next Schumi, if anyone can ever be, it can be Vettel only. In a weird way, i continued the way to follow F1 like i used to do. No teams nothing, only driver! Totally mentally i put myself in his skin and i look like a driver would. I don't care for the teams, i mean, i like his team to go forward and with it, he will too, but when it comes to beating Webber at Malaysia in 2013, i supported that move. Cowards said he was bad or he shouldn't have done it, but i support him. He needs to be like that! He is there to win and its no ones right to tell you you cannot do it cause of this or that. He knows that and i respect that.

From 2010 to 2013 he dominated the world. People say it was the car, say it was Newey say this or that. Truth is, no one won with slow car and no one won with bad team. It's very much about the mentality of the driver and his talent.
Vettel had both in abundance and thats why he is 4 times world champion and even if he stops today on 27 years he has nothing to prove more in Formula1.

I hope you liked this article this post, in the next ill try to speak more about the DuxVideos channel and sim-racing.

All the best!
Till next time,
Bye!

Introduction

Greetings,

My first account on youtube dates back from 2007. However the same was lost due to my lack of experience, which i am happy to say never repeated again, but i lost very valuable videos....

That account was created with sole purpose to allow me like, favorite and comment on videos. With time i wanted to participate in the creativity process and sharing videos, and so i did.

I raised to 2 millions of views until Formula1Management blocked totally my YouTube channel due to some rights of a video of F1 start at Bahrain in 2010 and the return of the great Schumacher, which i recorded with my camera from the TV (i still wonder why i was blocked and others are still posting same videos) who i followed since 98. I just wanted to share what was valuable to me, recorded from TV with my camera and did not put any official original video footage, it  was an historic moment but someone else did not thought that way. So, i got blocked lost my account and i had to start from scratch. Losing lots of videos, a lot of unique videos that i had only attached/uploaded on YouTube and no other place, they are lost forever. Those kind of moments i used to catch and upload were hilarious, like my friends random falling or crashing into something, whenever i got the camera something bad would have happened, something funny. Nevermind, i started from ZERO.

This time my YouTube channel is DuxVideos. My nick and my videos!
From always, starting like a kid, i had talent of drawing, filming, always wanted to do something creative.
When i got my first bicycle that changed. I was racing with friends and wanted to win, not much longer we played video games, with time i was very good at it and now that has turned into something greater. I am sim-racer. So with the years i really became pro. I really wanted someday in Skopje the city where i live, to be opened some store with simulators and all of the things allowing us, me and my friends to race together. Guess what? Like God heard my words in 2013 the new opened City Mall of Skopje, almost 9 years after what i wished like a little kid, was opened a store exactly like the one i wanted and right away was organized  Formula 1 Championship. I joined and after 7 months and 4 days of the beginning i became First macedonian Formula 1 Champion driving on simulator.
We drove rFactor with G27 Logitech wheels in Sparco seats with the whole construction of a cockpit and big TV screen. All of those races are uploaded on my channel and put in playlist.

My goal is to achieve big audience and people to recognize me. With time i have managed to do that, up to some point but not anything special though, although i became partner with GTChannel.com on 3rd July this year, funny is on that same day Vettel was born. I kinda lost my point now haha but nvm...

This is my first post and i have no idea about what to write, to be honest, i try to be always. I think readers, if any in the future, will appreciate that.

I like to talk about Formula 1 and with time i am going to and make blogger posts about it here. Was it driver or anything, i will post about Formula 1 and anyone interested in Formula 1 can freely join me.

From time to time i might speak about something else, but mainly about Formula 1 i assume, but let leave that for another time.

Thank you for your time!
Best regards,
DuxVideos