I have GP4 and F1 2002, and I can honestly say F1 2002 is by far the
better sim. They both have fudged physics, but the fudging in F1 2002
is much more realistic than GP4. Slamming on the brakes and nailing it
into a tight hairpin pushes the nose out just as you would expect,
scrabbling for grip, while lifting or braking in the middle of a
medium/fast corner will upset the rear end. It's not accurate, just a
good approximation.
As for GP4, I just qualified 18th at Silverstone in a 2001 Renault
WITH NO FRONT WING! That is the realism of the sim!
In terms of graphics, GP4 is very bright (eg grass is bright green
here in the UK, apparently), and the tracks are almost flat. In F1
2002, the visuals are much more realistic, but drive down the
backstretch at Monza and you will need to pit to blow chunks - there
is bump modelling on the racing surface, but they are a little too
big. The GP4 interface looks like it was drawn by the winner of a
competition off the back of a cereal packet, and while F1 2002 is
hardly at the cutting edge of user friendlyness (sp?), it still wins
out.
Just one more point - Geoff Crammond and people spent ages modelling
the marshalls which come and push your stranded car off the track, and
they look very nice in 3D, but they didn't realise that it looks very
strange having one guy push my car off the track when it is resting on
the undertray...
In short, F1 2002.
> I don't know about best, but after playing GP2, F1 2002 is a worthy upgrade.
> I was nervous about purchasing an EA title since they tend to like keeping
> gameplay arcade-ish, but after having a chance to see and tweak the car
> setup options and drive a few tracks, I am thoroughly impressed with it.
> Sure they could improve this or that here or there, but I've probably wasted
> more than 6 hours just at Monza to get consistant 1:30s - ouch! At this
> rate, mastering one track will take months, and mastering all of them will
> take years. But maybe I'm just slow. ;)
