A few questions and thoughts from playing the trial so far.

[Starkwolf]

My first question: Is the trial version the current version of the game, or before updates?
Second part of that question: If it is the current version, is there any intention of upgrading aircraft physics?

My overall impression playing the trial so far:
I have very intense mixed feelings about the game so far. I didn't expect to love the powerboats as much as I do, for me it ties the ground vehicle racing. I really appreciate some of the water physics (although I would expect irl wakes would have a greater impact, so maybe just turn wakes overall up a notch?). I love how if you get too close to the boat in front of you that water that gets thrown in the air slows you down significantly.

The driving physics, while a bit arcadey for my liking, certainly get across the sensation of driving well enough, except for some very out-of-place-feeling added stability, but if marketing to a non-sim audience it makes sense and not too big of an issue, suspension of disbelief isn't too hard.

The storyline is infamously cringely and belittling, everything about the atmosphere feels like you are mocking your audiences supposed low self-esteem. "Letting your opponent set the pace, for now. That's confidence." No, that's just outright losing and so irritating to listen to that stupid announcer, even when you are winning. Worst of all was probably the bit about it all being about likes and fame. I'm sorry what!?! Like you think your players are only playing this because of a fame-based power fantasy? Some people actually like driving fast, has that occurred to the devs? Way to completely make your players that actually like racing itself feel that their opinion is not cared about. That said, this is a common complaint and something I knew coming in, so I will try to avoid dwelling on this too long, but I have a lot more I could say about it. Knowing about it coming in though, I accepted it as a downside before I even started.

The flight physics were very disappointing. I get that this is an arcade game, but while the flying doesn't have to be accurate, it shouldn't be a struggle to suspend disbelief that you are in an actual plane. The movements are, for the most part (knife flight being a pleasant exception) way too rigid. I tried experimenting with classic aerial maneuvers (especially skids), and I found it positively sad that only pre-scripted maneuvers actually work. If you want to sell the air portion on the basis of aerobatics, you are going to need far more sophisticated physics for your playerbase to suspend disbelief than an air race, I'm surprised you didn't use air racing as your introduction. Aerobatics are just downright unpleasant due to the rigid flight physics. I would guess that it may be a limitation of what I assume is a driving-based engine trying to do flight rather than a flight based engine trying to do driving (the latter works way better at its secondary function relatively speaking if this idea is ever reworked). But I really hope there is a workaround, I love aerial stuff and would love the aerobatics if the flight physics felt more immersive. A simpler thing to implement, however, would be not hearing and seeing the engine see and hear a loss in power as if throttling down when doing a loop. If these were pre-injection engines that would be fine, but these are stunt planes. All it does is draw attention to the fact that you don't even have real stall physics, you have to work around it by making the engine produce less power.

Unlike the storyline which I expected to be bad, I had high hopes for the map. I found it to be a real let down, a number of states (especially Minnesota, where I am from) off the map entirely (replaced with the Dakotas for my state). I get that a giant map could be a problem in terms of production, but at least have a roughly proportionate representation of each state. Accuracy isn't necessarily important when it comes to roads and natural geography, but again please try to put each state in roughly its correct location with roughly its correct shape. I really hope that either in updates or future iterations of this franchise (if the theme of maximizing disciplines and fields across a real world nation) that we will see a better representation of each state/province that, while not necessarily accurate to its counterpart, does a good job of evoking its counterpart. I felt that "dairyland" was really tiny and threw Minnesota and Wisconsin together. Also, being unrealistically small was noticeable, so on a side note anything that could be done to obscure this (which I assume is a necessity) would be appreciated. "Dairyland" really felt like it was thrown in as an afterthought. Also, the shape of Lake Superior was completely weird near where Duluth would be.

The courses themselves were really pretty fun. I loved the map design in that aspect!

I loved how the economy is setup: with free "loot" (i.e. parts) lying around and winnable after races. I'd like to see more of it in freeroam but it is nice that there is as much of it in freeroam as there is. Plenty of vehicles means that you still don't feel it negates the value of the other in-game resources and feels good to collect.

Finally, are any of the things I mentioned different between the trial version and the official version? Are there any plans to improve any of the things I complained about? Other thoughts related to this?

[Ham uwu 6969]

trial is the same as full version file. Dev did update the game from time to time with some content, but one hand gives us a good one, another gives us straight up garbage. Still, the update is improvement in overall.

planes are unresponsive due to performance level, max level aerobatics flicks like no air resistance.

powerboats so far are just straight water sprint, I prefer jet sprint than holding forward button simulation.

storyline? no one really play for those, some people even turn off voice just to not cringe to death.

street racing and hypercar have updated handling, while touring car has the old handling, both have upside and downside.

[Starkwolf]

Originally posted by Han:

trial is the same as full version file. Dev did update the game from time to time with some content, but one hand gives us a good one, another gives us straight up garbage. Still, the update is improvement in overall.

planes are unresponsive due to performance level, max level aerobatics flicks like no air resistance.

powerboats so far are just straight water sprint, I prefer jet sprint than holding forward button simulation.

storyline? no one really play for those, some people even turn off voice just to not cringe to death.

street racing and hypercar have updated handling, while touring car has the old handling, both have upside and downside.

Thanks for letting me know I can turn off the voice. I assume without missing necessary instructions at any point?

[Ham uwu 6969]

Originally posted by starkwolf:

Originally posted by Han:

trial is the same as full version file. Dev did update the game from time to time with some content, but one hand gives us a good one, another gives us straight up garbage. Still, the update is improvement in overall.

planes are unresponsive due to performance level, max level aerobatics flicks like no air resistance.

powerboats so far are just straight water sprint, I prefer jet sprint than holding forward button simulation.

storyline? no one really play for those, some people even turn off voice just to not cringe to death.

street racing and hypercar have updated handling, while touring car has the old handling, both have upside and downside.

Thanks for letting me know I can turn off the voice. I assume without missing necessary instructions at any point?

ehhhh... dont think there is anything necessary, all the race is just "win the race". Still, keeping the subtitle may help, less cringy than their voice.

[Starkwolf]

One other thing I want to mention is that I really hope Ubisoft doesn't look at people not playing aircraft and assume their playerbase doesn't have an interest in it at all (which might be true but I doubt it). The playerbase probably would be interested if it were done right.

[Lady Dormouse]

LOL No one likes Hiro it seems.

As mentioned, part spec level is going to play a big role in how any vehicle in the game handles.

For airplanes, you can try using Extreme Mode to get a much snappier plane. On an XBox Controller Extreme Mode engages with the X button depressed. Personally I always use it for Air Race planes. I don't use it with Aerobatic planes though to be honest as it's just way to responsive.

Not sure how you are playing the game, but if using a controller you'll want to go into the menu --> options --> Controls and maybe play around with Steering Linearity and Deadzone.

All vehicles have pro-tuning, though you probably don't have access to that in the trial. Tuning can make a huge difference in how any vehicle handles.

I've heard people say that the boat racing in this game is about the best they've found, thanks to the water physics.

I think the game would be much more expensive with that degree of detail and inclusion for the game map. Hey, my state of Oregon isn't present either. I think the only game giving such good coverage to the US to be like what you are wanting is the American Truck Simulator game. But then you are buying State DLC if you want anything beyond California, Nevada (and I think Arizona maybe?)

Granted, I'd love a game like this where I could go cruising with that much detail and space, but it's not something we'll see in the present for anything like this price.

[Starkwolf]

Originally posted by Lady Dormouse:

LOL No one likes Hiro it seems.

As mentioned, part spec level is going to play a big role in how any vehicle in the game handles.

For airplanes, you can try using Extreme Mode to get a much snappier plane. On an XBox Controller Extreme Mode engages with the X button depressed. Personally I always use it for Air Race planes. I don't use it with Aerobatic planes though to be honest as it's just way to responsive.

Not sure how you are playing the game, but if using a controller you'll want to go into the menu --> options --> Controls and maybe play around with Steering Linearity and Deadzone.

All vehicles have pro-tuning, though you probably don't have access to that in the trial. Tuning can make a huge difference in how any vehicle handles.

I've heard people say that the boat racing in this game is about the best they've found, thanks to the water physics.

I think the game would be much more expensive with that degree of detail and inclusion for the game map. Hey, my state of Oregon isn't present either. I think the only game giving such good coverage to the US to be like what you are wanting is the American Truck Simulator game. But then you are buying State DLC if you want anything beyond California, Nevada (and I think Arizona maybe?)

Granted, I'd love a game like this where I could go cruising with that much detail and space, but it's not something we'll see in the present for anything like this price.

I still have about an hour left, I might mess around with the options a bit, thanks.

[Starkwolf]

Decided to buy it, thanks for the advice. Turning off the voice really reduced the cringe factor!

Not sure I would have bought it at full price, but at 75% off I suppose.

[Lady Dormouse]

Originally posted by starkwolf:

Decided to buy it, thanks for the advice. Turning off the voice really reduced the cringe factor!

Not sure I would have bought it at full price, but at 75% off I suppose.

Enjoy! =)