Hot Lap Racing Steam Charts & Stats

Pros * Handling similar to GRID (2008)/GRID 2 minus the suspension detail * Career mode is better than Forza Motorsport (2023) * All cars have cockpit cameras * No rubber-banding * Decent amount of content for a small scale indie game * Local Splitscreen Cons * AI is terrible. Bots need lots of work * Collision system is really bad. In combination with chaotic AI, makes the game borderline unplayable * Graphics are bad * UI is underdeveloped * No split times * Time trial leaderboards are not separated in car classes. * Halo beams are way to big and create massive blind spots. No way to make them transparent * No damage model * Music is annoying * Audio is unrealistic and fits better in Mario Kart * Sausage curbs will launch you in space * Has multiplayer achievements and multiplayer is dead unless you set up private game * Follow camera needs more sway This game is not simcade as advertised. It is 100% arcade. All cars handle like open wheelers and you have to drive them as such to be fast. Handling reminds a lot of first 2 GRID games, just less detailed. There is little to no body roll and suspension feels like you are driving open wheel race cars even if they are production cars. Suspension is very stiff and turn in is very sharp, all cars feel light and none of the them will understeer. Brakes are super effective. You can brake in last few meters in every corner and still make it also in GT cars. If you don't expect any level of serious simulation out of this, you can get used to handling quickly and it's not all that bad. HLR has very bad collisions system. Hitboxes are larger than car models and on touching anything car spins around it's center point, like it has only one contact point with the ground right in the middle. It would be manageable normally, but in combination with AI drivers this makes the game borderline unplayable. AI drives like it is playing pool with cars. Bots are so bad, they will ruin your every race, unless you qualify in P1. AI races are mostly survival. If you come in contact with AI, you are gonna be the one spinning 100% of the time. And bots will contact you. They drive like psychopaths in tanks - chaotic, bumping into everything and will send you to shadow realm even on straights. ALL AI races will be about figuring out how to stay far away from bots and quickly get away from them after overtakes. And what makes this even worse, in career races, there is no restart. So make sure, you qualify well. Bots brake way to much, to early and in combination with erratic movements, overtaking them is not always straight forward job. Pro tip: Always start races with chase cam and keep an eye on all bots around you. If you just stick to race line, even on straights, they are gonna punt you out 100% of the time. At least there's no rubber-banding, which usually ruins racing games. There is a reason to push and build a gap in case you make a mistake. AI will not be stuck to your bumper. Game has mix of real and made up cars. Some are licensed, most are made up or close copies. Tracks have little to no variation, elevation changes or interesting layouts. They are forgettable apart from off-brand Daytona, Paul Ricard and Magny-Cours. Graphics are bad. There are no noticeable post processing effects, filters, particles or special effects of any kind. Lighting, textures, everything is flat. Car liveries don't always react to lighting and maintain the brightest, cleanest colors. While technically game is not bad, devs clearly are missing some firepower in art departments. Assets have varied quality, detail and style. Visual style for all the assets is not unified. It looks very dated. Recently I've been playing a lot of older racing games from PS2/Xbox era and somehow those games look significantly better than this. It would have been much better if devs chose to make visual style more artistic, stylized maybe even low poly or retro style if they could not manage higher quality assets. But if gameplay for you is more important than visuals, I guess you can get used to it. Bad design extends to UI/UX. It is underdeveloped. Visually it feels like a placeholder or pre-made assets. Sessions will auto start without you confirming. Game does not show split times, which is very obvious in time trial modes. Time trial leaderboards are not separated in classes. It is the same for all cars, so If you want to compete, you can do it only with the fastest car. No restart button for races/qualifying. Halo beams usually do not translate from real cars to flat screen and take up to much space. That's why games usually come with option to make them transparent, but not here. In this game they are extra massive and create big blind spot right in the middle of the car. Music gets annoying quick. It's some kind of experimental fruity loops synth pop. I turned it off after few races. It's to obnoxious, repeating and does not fit the game. Cars sound like asset packs or public library sfx that would fit in one of Mario Kart clones rather than in more serious racing game. They are flat, non distinct, unrealistic. Despite unappealing presentation and horrendous AI, somewhere underneath there is a good indie racing game, that has a great potential if devs put more work into it, by addressing those issues. Game feels like passion project from racing fans. And most problems seems to be coming from lack of experience in game development or lack of resources. While technically it is very solid, presentation is rather outdated and AI is some of the worst I've experienced in any racing game. Career mode is better than many AAA racing games in recent years in terms of progression, events, unlocks. On top of that it has empty, but still working multiplayer, even local split screen, which is very rare as well. Handling is rather simple, but aggresive and sharp. Sadly racing fans have been so starved for good racing games that even this one seems like a somewhat decent option, but only on a deep sale and if you have impeccable patience. I would not recommend it for full price. It's asking way to much for what is here. But it is decent enough second monitor game if there's nothing better to play.