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The thing is, even if it is more realistic without assists, this is fundamentally a game. People are constantly telling others not to use assists, “it’s not realistic”, “you aren’t a real racer” etc. Instead of spreading the mud across the windscreen like they might do in real life without water, they actually clean your windscreen, so use this to your advantage and turn them on briefly anytime your vision is obscured. If you use either of the available cockpit camera angles, you will notice that your windscreen gets covered in dirt during gravel rallies. Use your wipersĪs for the wipers, well they don’t only help you in the rain. I’d therefore recommend sticking your lights on during darker stages and leaving them on throughout. This can often happen when you don’t expect it, such as arriving at a hairpin, hidden by the shadows. The lights are important as this game can be a bit dingy at times, especially when the sun is having a snooze or you are under the trees. The handbrake, we will get to later, but make sure it’s in an accessible place on your controller or wheel that’s easy enough to find and press whilst you are turning into a corner.
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Aside from your basic driving controls, you will also want to have buttons mapped for your handbrake, your lights and your windscreen wipers. There are a few specific buttons you will want to map which will make your life far easier when charging through a stage.
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Try using the ‘ahead’ setting, otherwise, you will find that as you get faster, the notes begin to come in a little bit too late for you to react in time. This is a balancing act but generally, I’d recommend never using late or very late. Set it to very late and they will tell you about the corner you are currently crashing into, set it too far ahead and they will tell you about the corner you will arrive at in about five-10 seconds time. There are five options to choose from, and this affects how early or late the codriver calls out the relevant pace note before a corner. To avoid unscheduled meetings with the scenery, we would recommend making one more change, and this one is important the co-driver timing setting. Once you have nailed the descriptions of the corners, you can then listen out for the details that will give you that extra edge. So, if your co-driver says “right 4 long 70” they mean there is a long, medium-speed right-hander coming up, followed by a 70 metre straight. If you hear short, medium, long or very long in a pacenote, that is referring to the length of the corner and if you hear a number such as 50, 100, or 150, these are the distances between the corners. Other corner types you may come across include hairpins, which are nearly 180 degrees, square lefts and rights which are 90-degree corners and flat left or rights, which are, you guessed it, flat out. Having said that, however, it can often line up nicely as tighter corners with lower numbers will require lower gears. One means a very tight and slow corner, six means a very fast and open corner, and the rest fall into place in between.Ī common misconception is that this number indicates what gear you should be in for each corner. This is telling you which way the corner is going and fast the speed should be taken. For example, “left three” or “right five”. The most common instruction you will hear will be a left or right followed by a number between one and six. Don’t worry, we are here to help, so I’m going to run you through some of the basics of pace notes. These may sound a little daunting initially, with lots of numbers and words being thrown your way whilst you try to wrestle a 380-horsepower rocket ship. The pace notes that these co-drivers read are the important part, as they guide you through each individual stage, warning you of the perils that lie ahead. If you like your notes in English, you also have the option of a female voice which is a nice touch. Thankfully, there are six languages to choose from, these being English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. Hearing your co-driver is one thing but understanding them is quite another. So important in fact, that we are covering it before anything else. Understanding your co-driver and their pacenotes is critical to staying on the road and setting fast stage times. The only type of motorsport where the passenger has as much control over the outcome as you do is rallying.
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