I’m in two minds about it. Xbox One X version, to me at least, looks like what I’d expect from base X1. The streams I’ve seen of PS4 version look a fair bit better but maybe the compression is hiding the flaws. It’s not bad, but it’s worse than I expected. I’m hoping that’s temporary and the x1x version gets a patch.
Controls on a pad. I might put together a vid as it’s complicated. But I’ll say I was disappointed initially as they didn’t seem to have made concessions. I played about with some PC sims and a pad out of curiosity a few months back and they were all pretty bad without the wheel, ACC included.
That said. I found this: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/smooth-xbox-gamepad-setting-acc-v1.27037/
And that pad setup (V2, not v1) I found to be pretty enjoyable. It has room to be tweaked, but I think I’m about two seconds off my best Nurburgring PC time with that setup, and the frame rate might well account for a lot of that.
Important note: steering assist needs to stay on. The fact that it’s in there and called that might put you off but it’s basically the kind of counter steer assist that Forza and GT have but don’t tell you about. It’s still a challenging drive that could see you spin out easily, even with the feature enabled. I’d go as far as to say with that setup and that assist, it’s a very enjoyable drive and definitely feels like a full sim as opposed to Forza et al.
I tried it disabled and it was ridiculous. Enabled, and it was challenging and fun. 🙂
Also, if you’re in car with steering wheel visible, it’s really bloody weird. The wheel appears to flip straight to its extremes at the slightest touch. This was in the PC version too and honestly it’s quite frustrating to see it here too, where a good pad experience is so important.
It’s visual only though, but extremely off-putting. Switch to either dashcam or bonnet view and it feels totally fine.
So. It’s a mixed bag. I personally feel that the shortcomings are readily fixed with some quick tweaks, and it’s a sim the like of which you won’t get on console elsewhere. Plus it’s fairly cheap. £35 I think I paid.