- 7,120
- Lisboa
- FLAT_TWELVE
Last night, after one hour of GT5P, I spent again several hours playing FC online (my offline career is suffering from this but ... ). It all started with an invitation from Biggles, he was hosting a lobby racing the 360GT. I had the car unlocked, but not bought, so I went to buy it, put a blue stripe on it (to look distinctive 
) and joined his lobby (4 racers with me). And ...
... "oh no, braking zones are off and we're going to race in a italian circuit (don't remember the name) I barely raced in so far. Wait ... assists allowed? hmmm ... unusual, but I won't take advantage of it ..." . So ... first race was a total mess, I only got the hang of it in the last few laps and even so I managed to have my fastest lap 2 seconds better than the guy in 3rd place. Biggles and some other guy were, of course, only dots in my screen from turn 1 onward (did I mention that the first time I messed up was ... turn 1, first lap?
)
Then I thought "Well, Biggles will show some mercy on this poor soul and will turn "braking zones on". But no, the guy was in a bad mood and not only did he keep the settings (assist on, but I defended my dignity and kept them off) but he also chose ... Virginia Raceway
.
As it happened I was 1st in the "grid", so I just did the straight and parked to let them guys all by. Then, made a mess of myself the entire race and even parked again when they all ... lapped me
Biggles left after that race, not to be seen again that night. Then ...
I got a message from GTP_ENERGIYA saying he was back in business with FC, so I opened up a F430 Chalklenge room and we went straight to Monza. He asked me to keep the assists available, since he's now just returning to this game, so I did.
After a few races, we already had company. From these boards I saw only Mekanaizer - for a few races - but several other players showed up.
We did Monza, Spa, Silverstone, Redwood Park (Gilles Villeneuve), Infineon and a few others. Players were showing up and leaving, but a steady cmpany arrived, a brit called RSRacer, very fast, impressive really at Infineon (where I sucked). And then, when we arrived to Paul Ricard (by that time just the three of us, it was about 2.30 AM in my country), suddenly 5 (FIVE) americans showed up, filling the room completely. All of them had headsets, mid race I kept hearing them asking if the race was about to finish.
So, I went for another one at Paul Ricard. Won it with RSRacer behind, Energiya 3rd and the americans all over the place
Back to the lobby, I hear them saying that the host should be driving with assists on (because those were the session's settings). I coulsdn't take that lightly, so I went for my headset, plugged it in and after (courteously) saying "goodnight gentleman", I also told them "I heard you asking for me to take all assists off, so I'll do just that. Would you like to pick the circuit?". They thanked and asked for ... Spa
Energiya had left, so the Spa race had no real history. I had a nice fight with RSRacer (he's on my friends list now), and the americans ... well, half of them gave up, the other half was all over the place again
It was all great fun, after the race we had a few laughs about it (one of them later sent me a friends request) and what I understood from them was that they were all real life friends that planned on a FC night without knowing the game really well. However, they were keen on returning.
I maybe a bit hopeful here, but I think FC could be just starting to grow a community in both sides of the Atlantic. If that happens, I hope system3 or eutechnyx have online stats that'll show it and they take good notice of this.
Wow, I just realized I wrote a huge post, if anyone managed to read it all ... my compliments, you just lost a few precious moments of your life reading a useless piece of text.
) and joined his lobby (4 racers with me). And ...... "oh no, braking zones are off and we're going to race in a italian circuit (don't remember the name) I barely raced in so far. Wait ... assists allowed? hmmm ... unusual, but I won't take advantage of it ..." . So ... first race was a total mess, I only got the hang of it in the last few laps and even so I managed to have my fastest lap 2 seconds better than the guy in 3rd place. Biggles and some other guy were, of course, only dots in my screen from turn 1 onward (did I mention that the first time I messed up was ... turn 1, first lap?
)Then I thought "Well, Biggles will show some mercy on this poor soul and will turn "braking zones on". But no, the guy was in a bad mood and not only did he keep the settings (assist on, but I defended my dignity and kept them off) but he also chose ... Virginia Raceway
.As it happened I was 1st in the "grid", so I just did the straight and parked to let them guys all by. Then, made a mess of myself the entire race and even parked again when they all ... lapped me
Biggles left after that race, not to be seen again that night. Then ...
I got a message from GTP_ENERGIYA saying he was back in business with FC, so I opened up a F430 Chalklenge room and we went straight to Monza. He asked me to keep the assists available, since he's now just returning to this game, so I did.
After a few races, we already had company. From these boards I saw only Mekanaizer - for a few races - but several other players showed up.
We did Monza, Spa, Silverstone, Redwood Park (Gilles Villeneuve), Infineon and a few others. Players were showing up and leaving, but a steady cmpany arrived, a brit called RSRacer, very fast, impressive really at Infineon (where I sucked). And then, when we arrived to Paul Ricard (by that time just the three of us, it was about 2.30 AM in my country), suddenly 5 (FIVE) americans showed up, filling the room completely. All of them had headsets, mid race I kept hearing them asking if the race was about to finish.
So, I went for another one at Paul Ricard. Won it with RSRacer behind, Energiya 3rd and the americans all over the place
Back to the lobby, I hear them saying that the host should be driving with assists on (because those were the session's settings). I coulsdn't take that lightly
, so I went for my headset, plugged it in and after (courteously) saying "goodnight gentleman", I also told them "I heard you asking for me to take all assists off, so I'll do just that. Would you like to pick the circuit?". They thanked and asked for ... Spa Energiya had left, so the Spa race had no real history. I had a nice fight with RSRacer (he's on my friends list now), and the americans ... well, half of them gave up, the other half was all over the place again
It was all great fun, after the race we had a few laughs about it (one of them later sent me a friends request) and what I understood from them was that they were all real life friends that planned on a FC night without knowing the game really well. However, they were keen on returning.
I maybe a bit hopeful here, but I think FC could be just starting to grow a community in both sides of the Atlantic. If that happens, I hope system3 or eutechnyx have online stats that'll show it and they take good notice of this.
Wow, I just realized I wrote a huge post, if anyone managed to read it all ... my compliments, you just lost a few precious moments of your life reading a useless piece of text.
