Although not free, it’s worth it to anyone who can appreciate racing games. None of the cars in the game may be real, but the racing definitely is. This is a racing *simulator*, not an arcade-y Need-For-Speed-like game, with a solid online multiplayer system along and a more-than-acceptable AI. On lower graphics settings this game simulates driving fantastically, and the downloadable S2 version is free to try (although heavily restricted) without a paid license so you can test it without consequence….. Although fun, this is not a game well-suited for the casual gamer, and one can easily find themselves overwhelmed in the sheer amount of variables one can configure and even the shock of not being able to control the vehicles properly without taking some time to master the training courses as you would have to in real life.

Everything from suspension and tires to color schemes and number of people in the car can be altered minutely for every car model presented, but in offering a wide enough variety of cars with pre-sets for various race types the necessary user configuration for comfortable interaction with the game is cut down to controls and basic gameplay elements.

Best played with a racing wheel and pedals (which does work well), and is better viewed if you use your video output with a TV or normal computer monitor. Keyboard steering can be configured to an almost arcade-like quickness, but is still annoying to the point where you’d want a real wheel. Great fun overall once you’ve gotten the hang of real racing, and the full S2 license (the one you’d actually want) is priced at 39 USD, 24 GBP, which is understandable for a high-quality racing simulator.

It ran with fantastic FPS at lower graphics settings on my ASUS 1005peb with a 2gig RAM stick as opposed to it’s stock 1gig. Haven’t tried it with only 1gig. It MAY run questionably on anything of lesser power, but it does in fact run well on a netbook, case in point. It works, and newer models than mine should handle it as well.

Written by ThreeFac3

Website: http://www.lfs.net/

Download: http://www.lfs.net/?page=downloads (Demo and Full version)