Totally Clueless and Need to Know How to Get This Game Started - Help Please?

Hello all. My 8 year-old son is dying to get this game. I'm just wondering how easy/difficult it is to get this game going for someone (me) who has NO clue how to program anything. I have a PC laptop and I think it meets the system requirements. I understand that an external controller would be needed. It looks like the xbox 360 controller would be best...? Again, no clue... Is it just a matter of plugging the controller in and then it works? From looking around the forums it looks like there is some kind of programming needed in order to get the game up and running. I have zero programming experience. Once it's installed, how difficult is the game play? My son has been gaming for a couple of years (mostly wii u and ipad) and is pretty good with controls but not sure if the game setup/options would be too advanced for him. Any advice or help is appreciated. Thank you!

 

Im 15 and this is how i got the game up and running

For the game:
1. Download Steam if you haven't already here: http://store.steampowered.com/about/
2. Make a steam account if you haven't one already
3. Buy the BeamNG Alpha from here: http://sites.fastspring.com/beamng/product/alpha
4. Enter debit/credit card details
5. Your Steam Redemption Key will be on screen after purchase, also sent to your email.
6. Open Steam
7. Goto Libray tab and click the plus button in the bottom left hand corner.
8. Click on Activate Product on Steam
9. Click Next
10. Click I Agree
11. Enter Key Code, then click next
12. Game should start loading
13. Once download is complete click play and it will download required files.
14. Game will now launch
15. Happy Playing!

For the controller:
1. Buy official Xbox 360 wired controller.
2. Download the drivers from here: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/d/xbox-360-controller-for-windows . And select operating system
3. Install Drivers
4. Goto Control panel
5. Click Small icons near the top right
6. 2nd collumn in from the left and 3rd row down there will be something called device manager, click on it.
7. There MAY be a Other Devices tab, if so right click on the controller and click update.
8. It should now update, and go through the proceed
9. It should now work in BeamNG Natively
10. To view controls press F1 on the key board and it will be the Xbox Controller

There is NO coding skills involved, UNLESS you want to change the binding of the controller.
It Pretty Simple to play Drive, Crash Respawn (Q) Repeat.
Downloading mods is pretty simple also, if you get stuck there are plenty of Tuts on youtube
KillerPr0x

 

On both windows 7 and 8, unless you were an ass and clicked the cancel button when the window popped up, the xbox 360 controller drivers will automatically be downloaded and installed when plugged in.

That is if it is a 100% legitimate controller not a 3rd party clone. Otherwise, locate it in device manager and update driver.

BeamNG has no problems with the official controllers. The third party ones have a different GUID and require an input map to be created in order for BeamNG to be recognised. I dont consider an inputmap or jbeam to be programming but its not the most straight forward thing.

 

Like nadeox suggested, I'd highly recommend that you try out the tech demo to make sure it runs on your laptop. It is a very demanding game and most laptops have a tough time trying to run it smoothly.