I started Sim Racing and I didn't like it.

I've been interested in Sim racing for a long long time. The entry cost is quite high, and I found it hard on the wallet not knowing if I would like it or not. I never tried a wheel and do not have any friend into racing games.

I've finally bit the bullet and got myself a 2nd hand G29 and shifter on PC.

I bought AC cheap and finally tried it out! And... I got disappointed so hard.

I found the interface hard to understand, I spend a lot of time in the menu, with the mods and Content Manager. I got disappointed by my driving skills, the feeling of speed was not what I expected. The game was ugly. So I spent some time checking the graphics, how to get the impressive rainy weather I saw on YouTube, tweaking the force feedback with a Lut file, some more time in the menus and on the internet instead of racing.

And the setup was heavy, clamping the wheel to the desk, blocking the pedals, holding the office chair to avoid moving back, setting the position... And then removing everything afterwards until the next session...

So I bought a next level racing 2.0 wheel stand.

And I got disappointed again: After all the time and money invested, the setup is still not easy. It's heavy as hell. It's helping, but getting ready to race requires a lot of motivation... And the driving still feels like a chore...

I bought some caster wheels.

Still, the driving felt bad. I was not having a good time. I felt lonely crashing around... Some more time searching the web got me to download crew chief. Awesome piece of software, but again, some more time searching around.

After some time, I didn't even took the rig out. It was too much effort to get so little joy out of it. The expensive toy I worked so hard to get to work was taking the dust. I was disappointed.

Then... I got an email from steam with a sale on Dirt Rally 2.0. I thought "it's 2€, I'll give it a go", but... I didn't.

For a few more months the rig of shame was watching me from the corner of the room...

Then I got some time, and set it up again to try that new game. And... I loved it!

Straight out of the box, without even the need for a mouse or keyboard, I was out there racing! No tweaking, no checking the bindings. The game prompts you the key to press for the handbrake. I felt the speed, the dirt, and the rain. I got punished when I was taking too much speed but I reset my car and race again with the clic of a button. Look how broke the car is! Fun times! Let's try that one again. And the virtual copilot presence even broke the loneliness of the race.

It was scary, I almost gave up, but now I like it, and I'm feeling like I'm improving.

Let's see how it goes in the long run. But I'm relieved to finally get some joy out of it.

TLDR: bought a basic rig but I was not having fun on AC, and thought I was not into Sim Racing... But actually I was not into AC. Dirt Rally did the trick.