With ABS on you don't have to worry about locking up the wheels of your car. ABS isn't designed to make your car stop sooner, it's designed so that drivers still have control whilst braking. It pulses the brake so that you can still steer the car. Because, the wheels are still rotating, they will still have an effect when you steer. When the wheels lock, steering has a lesser effect, as your wheels effectively become four rubber feet on which the car sits.
If you do want steering control whilst braking and ABS is off. You can either pulse the braking (cadence braking) or just apply less braking force. You'll find that the car still slows down but without the loss in control.
All cars and tracks
Enter CRAIGSAYS as a driver name.
Assisted-Steering
Without it, the car can spinout, losing you lots of time as you have to get the car back on the road. AS is there to help out in the event that you lose the back end of your car. What it does is it calms the effect of your steering input by limiting it to what you need to keep the car in control so you don't steer into a slide, making it worse. By limiting the steering, the car simply slows rather than spin out.
Because it lets you steer to the limits whilst it's still on, use it to learn how much you can throw the car into each corner before AS has to engage.
Auto-braking
If you're a complete driving simulator novice, or you're brought up on a diet of Mario Kart or Ridge Racer, the chances are your braking distance judgment is non-existent. If you're a GT vet, you should be OK. AB takes braking away from the game. When you approach a corner, the car will slow down for you at the same rate as the other cars in the race. If you're racing at a harder Opponent AI level, the brakes will come on later.
The braking is optimized for the racing line, so if you're going wide into a corner, it won't compensate for you. You can over-ride AB if you want and just brake for yourself if you find that it doesn't use enough. Also AB doesn't necessarily use the most efficient braking points. You can out-brake you opponents without it, so it's worth learning not to rely on it too much. It just eases you into the game by taking away the responsibility of braking.
Circular Steering
This is THE way of playing Lotus Challenge. If you're not a dinosaur and are willing to try out new techniques and control methods, then you won't regret learning Circular Steering. Circular does cover more of the stick's movement than the Combined Steering system. Using the same clock face system, it goes from 7:30 via 12:00 to 4:30. This gives you about two and a quarter times the amount of control, which makes it more forgiving for the clumsy thumbed player. There are several benefits when using Circular Steering.
First of all, it gives you a finer degree of control of the car. This leads to more subtlety when you're driving. On the fast tracks, when you're flying along at speed, the fine level of control really comes into it. It allows you to smoothly thread your way through traffic, as heavy steering movements are not the order of the day.
Second, it allows you to hold long bends much easier than tapping the D-pad or Analog stick. On tracks such as Arizona or Florida, where there are long sweeping bends, this really helps, as you can still change lanes subtly on the bends.
Third, if you're hardcore and you're playing the game with full damage, sometimes you damage your car and it starts to 'pull' to one side. You can subtly adjust the cars 'neutral' position and make it go straight by holding the stick slightly to the side, depending on which direction it's pulling in. Bit like driving a second-hand MK11 Fiesta!
Combined Steering
Imagine the analogue stick movement as the face of a clock. Combined steering uses 9:00 via 12:00 to 3:00. It also has the conventional left/right, 9:00 via neutral to 3:00. This system is there to encourage you to try the circular steering method. The combined nature of this system means that whilst you're learning the Circular method, you can always jump back to the conventional method in emergencies such as catching a slide. With practice, you will eventually get used to holding the stick forward for when you drive in a straight line. Some people say this is uncomfortable, but it's no different to raising your hand to hold the wheel in a real car. The benefits of circular steering will be described in the next section.
Driving aids
Driving aids are for the complete novice who isn't as practiced in the art of driving a raw sports car efficiently around the track. They take away a lot of the responsibility so that when all the Driving Aids are on, you only need to worry about left,right and go!
Despite it's accessibility, you won't be holding any competitive lap records if you keep using them. Driving Aids tend to over compensate. They do help you keep the car in control, but the cars can go a lot quicker around the track if you switch everything off. Well, if you race just as fast with driving aids on or off, you'd leave them on all the time won't you. And you'll never get to experience the joy of beating a lap record with your own fantastic driving and not the CPU's.
Ending bonus
Successfully complete all challenges for Jack and Zoe and finish in first place in all championship races to unlock all cars and a reverse mode.
Headlights
Press R1 during a race to turn on your headlights.
Traction Control
This completely takes away the responsibility of throttle control. Without it, any heavy handedness with the throttle can cause your drive wheels to lose traction and start spinning and smoking. If left spinning for long enough, the cars can start to donut (spinning on the spot), throwing you in a random direction, sometimes in the opposite direction to your competitors! This problem is worse if you're wheel spinning whilst going around a corner. Because there's more yaw momentum (turning force) your car could flip out even more.
Traction control also helps out if you come off at a corner. Invariably, you end up in grass or gravel, which gives you less tyre grip. Again Traction control will help you out by providing just enough power to get back onto the road.
ABS...