BeamNG.Drive is the most fun you’ll have behind the wheel of a virtual vehicle. You can go anywhere, do anything, and tune each to your heart’s content. Many people find their feet – or their wheels – quite easily with BeamNG.Drive, but for others, it takes a little bit more time.
There’s nothing wrong with this. We all have games that we’re inherently good at, and not everyone feels that way about driving games. No matter your level of experience or your playing style, here are a few top-tier tips to drive better in BeamNG.Drive.
Use a controller
Playing BeamNG.Drive on a keyboard is no joke. You have to contend with steering within the rigidity confines of a solid button, you don’t have a sliding pedal of any kind to work with, and you need to keep track of so many buttons. You could always change the control setup so that you can decide which button does what and essentially create the perfect keyboard layout, but that takes time, and you still can’t rely on fluid movements.
The best way to mitigate all of these issues is to hook a console controller up to your PC setup. This way, you can control your speed better with incremental acceleration. You’ll also be able to steer better because you’ll likely have a joystick to work with. This will make the steering feel a lot more responsive and fluid. Lastly, you won’t have to contend with trying to remember infinite buttons.
However, there’s an even better way. If you can afford it, because these rigs are rather expensive, invest in a steering wheel and pedals for your PC. Now, you can drive your cars in BeamNG.Drive exactly the way you’d drive any car in real-life. This definitely makes the game feel more realistic and gives you so much better control over the car.
Roam free in BeamNG.drive
With so many driving games, especially those on Android, you need to do a number of missions and levels before you can unlock the free roam game mode. BeamNG>Drive is not the same in this respect. With BeamNG.Drive, you get instant access ro the free roam game mode, and we encourage you to use it.
Speaking from experience, tensions tend to run relatively high during a mission with a points system and a list of objectives. You’re stressed about finding a particular target on the map, driving without damaging your vehicle, or even just finding your way around the map.
Therefore, we suggest starting in free mode. Here, you can mess up, you can smash your car a few times, and you can get lost. In fact, you probably will. But the only way to find your way is to become lost in the first place. Free roam gives you the ability and the freedom to do all the things you need to do in order to become more comfortable playing the game. Practice your cornering at different speeds so that you can develop a little bit of an instinct about how to judge a corner and how to negotiate it.
Practice your launch so that if you’re ever in a race, you know how to handle your car just right. To that point, free roam is also the best opportunity to get to know your car a little bit better. All of these things will help you become a better driver in the game.
Try as many cars as possible
BeamNG.Drive gives you a decent selection of cars, especially if you count all the trim options that each car comes in. You’ve also got access to hundreds of thousands of mods that introduce real-world cars into the game. In fact, if you want to put that entire download process aside and just build your own cars from scratch, you can do that too with Automation.
The point is, no matter which way you choose to play, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to vehicles. Why would you stick to just one? Trying out as many cars as you can when you first start the game will give you the best idea of what your ideal vehicular match is. Maybe you love the look of the Civetta Bolide, but when it coms down to it, you find it doesn’t handle all too well. You can add that to the list of things you know about the various vehicles and base your decisions on that in the future.
Take it slow
Don’t misunderstand me here, I don’t mean drive slow. We all know we want to go fast when we play BeamNG.Drive. By ‘take it slow’, I mean explore the slow motion feature. If you’ve played Need For Speed, you’ll be familiar with the slow-motion feature. Essentially this feature is designed to be used when you are going at breakneck speeds and need to negotiate a particularly tricky corner or other feature of the environment.
Hitting the slow motion trigger lets you move much slower, even though your car records the same speed on its speedometer. This is useful if you’re in a race and need to avoid an obstacle – especially in the case of a street race on an active stretch of road.
Replay and reload
These two controls will be your best friends when you first start out. The first lets you retry a particular scenario. This is helpful if you can’t seem to get a scenario right or if you want to challenge yourself to do it better, faster, or more efficiently. The second control is to reload your vehicle.
If you get into a little bit of trouble and end up upside down on the road – or worse, crushed by the force of your own collision – you’ll be able to reload your car, which will put you the right side up on the road.
BeamNG.drive: Just drive
We can list options for you try till we are blue in the face. At the end of the day, the best way to gain competence in a specific task or area of experience is to practice. In BeamNG.Drive, practice loosely translates to go out there, get your game on, get into a vehicle, and tear up the streets. There’s no better advice than that. Just drive.
Speaking of vehicles, be sure to check out our list of the best cars in BeamNG.drive.
