rFactor 2 is a bizarre game. It's widely praised for its physics and force feedback, and those praises are totally warranted.

The core issue, is that this excellent driving model is locked behind what's the single most annoying and confusing piece of software I've ever operated in my life.

This will be your experience when you first install rFactor2.

1- The game downloads and installs as you would expect.
2- You boot it up, it immediately takes you through the wheel setup (ironically given everything else, it's probably the least annoying wheel setup of any sim if you consider the quality of the FFB)
3- You reach the main menu, try to start a race and... there's no content installed.

For some bizarre reason, even the game's official content must be installed through Steam Workshop. At least there's a nicely labeled "here's all the free official stuff pack available", so downloading the content is as easy as clicking on subscribe on that bundle.

4- You boot up the game again after downloading the content
5- You thought the content was already downloaded and installed? Because it is not. Every single car and track has a relatively lengthy install process, and with the hundreds of items you just downloaded from the workshop, this process can take an hour or two to finish.
6- You finally make it to the race setup screen again. It's not exactly straightforwards, but nothing you can't get your head around within an hour of playing. The most annoying aspect here are the visual inconsistencies, like some cars having thumbnails on the menu and others lacking it, or a lack of details regarding what the cars actually are if you don't happen to recognize the name of one.
7- Finally, after another lengthy one-time-per-track loading process, you are racing.

Except it's not over. The free official content is plentiful, but fairly old, so you'll soon want to purchase anything to spice it up (and to their credit, there's some pretty cool stuff you can get). Here you will discover two things:

1) The game doesn't sell its DLC as... DLC, as far as Steam is concerned at least. All is sold through its item store, which is still done through Steam so it's not a giant issue, but you'll need to access it in-game or from a web browser.
2) They are very expensive. A single track can cost as much as an entire DLC Pack from ACC or AMS2, and if you want to save some money you have to buy these $40-$60 bundles of content.

Anyways, enough ranting. There is something in here for sure, but it's just covered in annoying bullshit to deal with and with the breadth of sims available, it's just not worth it.