TL;DR This pack gives you a way to enjoy rFactor at its best. Each track is essential in its own way, as classics of their type. Le Mans for its beautiful day/night cycle and high speeds, Nurburgring for the track layout, Azure/Monaco for its history and technical challenge, Sebring for its door-to-door racing and concrete track. Introduction Refer to my Nurburgring Endurance review for my intro and system specs. My GT3 Pack review and performance discussion may also be of interest. This is my early impression of the Track Expansion Pack which is currently (still) 25% off and therefore this review might be of particular interest to potential buyers. I have about a couple of hours on each track at the moment, all against 30AI using the GT3 Pack cars and using default set-ups with FFB at 100% on my G920 (G29). Load times and VRAM are based on an 8GB graphics card. I had no performance issues with any of them, though I am happy with >45FPS generally and certainly Le Mans was stretching my card to its limits. DLC Contents: 4 tracks (Nürburgring, Le Mans, Sebring and the Circuit d'Azure) Cost: about £17/$22USD (currently 25% off that in sale) Sebring 90% VRAM, loads in 1m20s, sunrise 7.30am Short track with several technical corners and lots of potential overtaking action between cars where corners widen out (particularly the first and last corners) and on the two short-ish straights. Not as much track FFB as I expected when racing across the concrete, but that may well be true to life. The concrete surface that covers about 20% of the track provides more visual interest in the track itself than normal (the exception being graffiti at Nurburgring). Even where it is conventional tarmac, there are lots of patches of darker material and and damp keeping it varied all the way round. At night there is plenty of variation at the trackside, with RVs parked around most of it and lights and bridges providing visual markers. That said, as there is almost no elevation change around a lap, I still find it challenging to remember where the next corner is coming, let alone work out where to brake. All of which adds to the challenge of course. Sebring comes with four layouts, three of which are significantly different to each other. The school layout, for example, is pretty much just two straights linked by a few of the most fun corners the track has to offer. Circuit d'Azur (Monaco) 80% VRAM, loads in 1m50s, sunrise 6am A track that needs no introduction, this implementation is solid. A nicely rendered city environment to race around that offers a serious technical challenge. The corners make it hard work with something like a GT3, but tremendous fun with something nippier like a Radical SR3-XX or McLaren MP4/13 (the classic for this track). As the surroundings are tall, this is one of the few tracks that doesn't give you much at night or sunrise. Push to something like 11am though and you get nice lighting with tree shadows. Le Mans 95% RAM, loads in 3m15s, sunrise 6am This one took me unawares. I think I did a few laps of Le Mans in Project Cars years ago, but haven't played it in a game since. The first thing I hadn't expected was the 6 minute loading time, but that settled down to a more bearable 3m after the first load. So inevitably that means it is using most of my VRAM, but I had no performance issues once loaded up (65FPS minimum). Comes into its own at night, with all the blue glowing distance markers, brightly lit start/finish area, and track wall lighting. This is the first time in rFactor that the garage exit (at night) has made a visual impact - 'wow' I thought when it loaded in. Sunrise is also lovely. So it is a track where the endurance racing idea actually strikes me as tempting, with the atmospheric day/night cycle helping reduce the monotony. I didn't think I would find myself loading up this track much. Endurance racing is fun in principle, but I don't have the time to do it much, if ever. For just racing a few laps, the long straights would get a bit dull, thought. But actually once I got the hang of the track the four flat-out sections are glorious, as are the linked sweeps and tight curves at the end of each one. 10 lap races with a day/night cycle really get me into the flow of the track, with lonely sections on my own, lights flashing by, and intense door-to-door cornering as the train catches up. It also makes for some lovely replay footage. Nurburbring Refer to my Nurburing Endurance Pack review. Conclusion Initially I found myself a little surprised in that I was not totally sold on this pack. But with a bit of time, especially at Le Mans and Sebring, the quality of the tracks and racing on them started to shine for me. Each track is essential in its own way, as classics of their type. Le Mans for its beautiful day/night cycle and high speeds, Nurburgring for the track layout, Azure/Monaco for its history and technical challenge, Sebring for its door-to-door racing and concrete track. So for enjoying rFactor at its best I think this is a vital purchase. You don't get this quality from most free DLC.
