More tuning required with my force feedback, perhaps? Switching to a gamepad was a literal game-changer, however, and to me feels like the optimal way to play BeamNG in Johnson Valley. I tried reducing the strength of the force feedback but lost nuance in the handling. Using my wheel and pedals (Fanatec CSL DD with WRC Steering Wheel and Fanatec CSL Elite pedals) to test out the map, I found the ruts and bumps a little too much to bear and it was a struggle to keep the vehicles under control. It would also be great to have dynamic weather too, but this is understandably a more onerous task. At the end of the day, it’s the driving that matters. There’s a Baja-style base camp filled with caravans and racing paraphernalia, but the whole place just feels dead.īut this is an accusation you could level at any of BeamNG’s maps. I’d expect to hear gusts of wind for example, or the distant call of an eagle (it’s a massive cliché, I know). One criticism I have, however, is that there is a general lack of ambience to Johnson Valley. This applies to tyre smoke on asphalt too, the effect is very impressive. The way sand is kicked up by your car is also worthy of note, it feels like the BeamNG team has made steps to increase the volume and look of dust particles. With stony outcrops perfectly suited for BeamNG’s big-engined rock crawlers to expansive dunes ideal for the new Autobello Autobuggy, there’s great variety at play here. The Baja 1000 is a famous race across the rocky deserts of the Californian peninsula, where different classes of cars compete against each other in a gruelling test of man and machine.Īnd Johnson Valley delivers in this respect. No, this location has been specially selected by the BeamNG team to showcase its Baja 1000-inspired roster of new vehicles. The golden hues produced by the sun’s rays on the desert sand are massively atmospheric, evoking the location of the 1971 movie Vanishing Point.īut you can’t look too closely at the landscape, as one wrong turn can result in an almighty crash – Johnson Valley is not for the faint-hearted.

Speaking of light, Johnson Valley looks particularly sumptuous at sunrise and sunset. The way light hits all the nooks and crannies on these twisty trails is a marvel of BeamNG’s physically-based rendering (PBR) models. These have huge bumps, uneven cambers and look utterly convincing. There’s nothing amusing about that name.Ī particular highlight for me are the rough lanes dotted all over the map.

Beamng speed bump map