Dear reader,
This time it’s me that needs the coffee…
For the first time in what feels like decades, I pulled a mad one last night: I was up gaming, on a Sunday night, until (slightly) past midnight!
I’m in my mid early thirties, so this was a rare occasion and one that may take days to recover from.
The culprit for this unhinged behaviour was a wonderfully captivating, rhythmic and playful indie car game called Car Service Together.
In Car Service Together, together with others, you service cars. (Consider this my first official Traxion review).
At the risk of sounding like my old school teachers, the game was just good, clean fun. The premise was simple, the mechanics were clear, the reward was frequent. Together with our CTO Kamil, we fixed cars, bought equipment for our garage and laughed a lot whilst we put Bunty’s Bangers (name of the garage, not my OF account) on the map!
Grab a coffee, there’s a lot to go through today
Tom Bunten, Traxion.gg
Where to start?! Content, content everywhere!
The top-end sim racing market is awash with great new content, updates and DLCs - what to dive into first?
Le Mans Ultimate 1.3 - Slow and steady wins the race.
As Liam Gallagher suggested in 2002, Motorsport Games are moving up the sim racing ladder, little by little.
As I type this, face of Traxion and all-round good egg, John Munro is playing the 1.3 update and making up his mind how to convey to you whether it’s worth getting excited about.
Of course, reading through the patch notes, the key update that the community will no doubt be fixated on is the inclusion of Korean as a language option. After that, I suppose it would just be:
Seven new track layouts
Support for Logitech TRUEFORCE
Reduced loading times (by 20%)
Improved broadcast overlays
The simultaneous release of ELMS DLC Pack 3
So what’s in ELMS DLC Pack 3?
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Duqueine D09
This sounds to me like a racing game studio with its affairs in order. The release on 31 March includes a nice combination of new content and QOL updates.
There is clearly some groundwork being laid here.
Career mode in late 2026
Console release in early 2027
Addition of Genesis to WEC Grid
“Le Mans Ultimate, before this recent update, used Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) for its user interface and menus. Now, it has changed to Choerent.
“This is the most uninspired line of a game’s patch notes – and media alert, nonetheless – that I’ve ever read. It’s the kind of coding parlance that seems really cool to the developers, but the user couldn’t care less about.
“Yet, it’s also this patch’s most significant change.
“You see, the sim’s previous menu codebase was not allowed on consoles. This change won’t mean a noticeable difference for current drivers. However, this is a significant step for Le Mans Ultimate on its journey to PlayStation and Xbox.
“It must make that journey for parent company Motorsport Games to continue its prosperity, too – the console market is ready, starved of driving simulations. So yes, another LMP3 car, a Spanish circuit and marginally quicker loading times are all welcome. But this coding nerdery is pivotal”
Which payment model do you prefer?
RaceRoom adds three free tracks!
13 years after its release, RaceRoom Racing Experience releases three free tracks.
That is in itself, an impressive statement. RaceRoom strikes me as one of those titles that knows what it is, knows what it isn’t and just keeps building.
Laguna Seca, Mantorp Park and Twin Ring Motegi are all added to the title’s free tier.
Laguna Seca is interesting.
Our leader and sim racing deity, Tom Harrison-Lord has long been working on an investigative journalism piece on the dark side of car and track licencing for racing game studios, so no doubt this news caught his attention.
Laguna Seca was removed from iRacing’s list of free tracks in September last year and now costs users who hadn’t bought the track before that point $14.95.
Yet, somehow, KW Studios have managed to renew its licence with the California-based track at no extra cost to their users - very impressive!
More content!
Ferrari 288 GTO
Ferrari 296 GT3
Sebring International Raceway
Ford Mustang GT3
Alpine A110 R Ultime (Solar Pass Level 1 reward)
Lamborghini Temerario (Solar Pass Level 15 reward)
Pininfarina B95 (Solar Pass Level 50 reward)
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series (Online Store)
Pagani Huayra Roadster (Italian Dealership)
Bentley Continental GTC Speed (Online Store)
Dodge Viper SRT Coupe with ‘VR Kit’ (Mid-season update)
Hyundai N Vision 74
Kuala Lumpur Street Circuit
Road Atlanta (short)
Fuji Speedway (shortcut)
2022 Nissan Calsonic Impul Z GT500
2022 Honda NSX GT500
2024 Honda Civic GT500
2021 Nissan Motul Autech GT-R GT500
2022 Toyota GR Supra GT500
2003 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) JGTC
2003 Honda NSX JGTC
2002 Toyota Supra JGTC
2004 Nissan Fairlady Z (Z33) JGTC
Caterham Seven
Licences cost racing game studios money. So it could be suggested that a flurry of new licenced content releases might indicate a buoyant market and/or a more forward-thinking mentality by the OEMs and racetracks to use gaming to build brand loyalty with race fans.
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News Highlights This Week from Traxion.gg
Like sim racing? Have ears? Then listen to the new, weekly format of the Traxion Control Podcast!
Our AI Pledge
If you’ve ever read a Traxion.gg article, you’ll know that the writers over here all have very distinct voices and opinions. It’s this character and sound that I think makes Traxion special.
Human creation is becoming a rare commodity with which the media seem to trade less and less. But not at Traxion. We don’t use AI to write our articles on the website, and I pledge to you, that I will never use AI to write this newsletter.
Last week’s poll results
Last week we asked whether you aspired to add motion to your rig. This one was surprising - I actually thought fewer people would want to add it.
Whilst 52% of you said no, a whopping (who says “whopping” anymore…) 48% of you either had it or wanted it. That’s a huge market for Moza.
Want to get involved with Traxion Control?
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