Endurance Motorsport Series preview: why hasn't anyone thought of this before?
Gaming
Playing as driver and mechanic in online co-op? Brilliant Skip 5 photos in the image carousel and continue reading
In this present chapter of the games industry, in which it's rare enough to play a game that hasn't been preceded by at least nine sequels or released twice already before its current remastered form, new ideas are thin on the ground. But the developers at KT Racing have evidently had their thinking caps on lately.
Endurance Motorsport Series is a strikingly generic name for a strikingly bold, fresh racing game. In the simplest terms, you get to be the driver, the strategist and the race engineer all at once. Or stick to one role and play in co-op with your mates occupying the other roles.
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It's as simple as that, and yet nobody's really tried this before. The line between motorsport management and racing sim has always been kept crisp and clear, and other than the Codemasters F1 series letting you run a team off the track and then drive the car at race weekends, no one has dared to step across it.
Hypercars, LMP2 and GT vehicles are all on the roster here, as are a mix of real-world tracks like Spa with some supermarket own-brand fictional circuits inspired by the circuits who evidently wouldn't sign the license agreements. We're not talking Gran Turismo 7 -levels of encyclopaedic rigour, then, but that's not really what EMS is going for. You might like
As we quickly discover on track at The Green Hell, the handling has a simcade character rather than an all-out simulation. KT Racing wants this to be equally compelling for direct drive wheel users and racers who like to sit back on the sofa with a gamepad in their hands, and that's a smart place to pitch the accessibility level considering there's a co-op element, which means selling the game hard like Jordan Belfort to your gaming buddies in Discord. Lower barrier for entry equals greater likelihood of getting friends involved.
Oddly enough, though, it ends up being more compelling with a wheel than a controller. It takes some time to figure out that you can brake much later than when the reasoning gland in your brain starts yelling at you, and even a shade after the 'seriously, brake now' cortex chimes in.
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You've got so much more stopping power and lateral agility than the cars in Assetto Corsa Competizione or iRacing give you, which means half the challenge is finding where the new limit is. And the analogue inputs of a wheel and pedal make that a bit easier to feel your way into than the sharper stick waggles and trigger squeezes of a gamepad.
In third-person cam and using a controller, it's clear there's a bit of fine-tuning still to be done on the handling before EMS releases later in 2025. Specifically, the relationship between camera movement and turn-in rate – it's tricky at present to judge how much grip you've got, and the strange understeer-oversteer-understeer phases we experienced through Spa's corners (admittedly, in the wet) felt short of convincing.
However: switching between driver and engineer is just as gratifying as it sounds. With one button tap, you're out of the car and watching several data readout screens from the pitwall. Here you're given all the information to analyse the best pit window, the optimum tyre compound, and where the clear air is on track when you exit the pits. It's enjoyable enough to play both roles, but the prospect of playing as a duo and having each co-op teammate committed to their role is genuinely exciting.
Because it's genuinely new. We need to shout about these risk-taking games from the rooftops in 2025, because there aren't nearly enough of them. So keep doing what you're doing, EMS . Please make it an easy sales pitch when we get onto Discord and try convincing our mates to join us.
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Endurance Motorsport Series is due later in 2025.
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'We need to set firm boundaries so that saying 'no' becomes a respected choice, not a sign of weakness, a mark of wisdom, not a failure.' The Brain at Rest: Why Doing Nothing Can Change Your Life by Dr Joseph Jebelli (Torva £20 pp256). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members 1. Walk slowly through a forest. This helps to improve our creativity and problem-solving abilities. While you're there, hug a tree, which reduces cortisol and activates your brain's default network. 2. Listen to sad music. Not only does it improve your mood, it's also associated with stronger mind wandering, which can enhance your intelligence, creativity, social empathy and emotional processing. 3. Try to nap for 30 minutes daily. It reduces stress, regenerates damaged brain cells and makes your brain bigger. One study suggests that nappers' brains are 15 cubic centimetres larger.
