bad boy. After an hour or so of playing, here are my initial
thoughts, in no particular order.
1. I needed to make no changes to my PLR file for split axis to work
correctly. I looked and the center values were set properly. Thank
you ISI (altho I still think you should have an in-game calibration
routine - would be much easier than fiddling with a million sliders
and editing a txt file that casual users don't know about).
2. Nice graphics. I was completely underwhelmed upon booting up and
going to Monaco, but after driving for a bit I'm finding things to be
very pleasant. The color palette is still ridiculous, but not nearly
as bad as F1 2001. Melbourne doesn't make me feel like I'm driving in
some psychedelic neon green nightmare anymore. The***pits are
amazing. I never really liked the***pit graphics before aside from
the Ferraris. In particular, I *hated* the Williams***pit. But
every marque is well done in this version. I don't weigh graphics to
strongly when evaluating a sim, but they are very nice. My only
complaint is the color saturation and I may play with the track
editing tools to try and fix that using the textures that ship with
the game.
3.Physics. Feels similar to F1 2001 when driving a good line. When
on the very limit, the cars seem really easy to slide around in. Not
a complaint, just an observation. I don't feel nearly as out of
control when hitting the overexaggerated bumps, altho part of that is
down to better default setups I think. I've tried both setups for
each track, and they seem much better than the ***that F12k1 shipped
with. The collision physics are still humorous a good portion of the
time, altho I've seen realistic crashes more often than not. Real
wheel-to-wheel contact is much nicer than being able to play bumper
cars. I still have those completely inexplicable "brush the armco
slightly, nose flys up in the air, car flips awkwardly about like a
dead fish" moment, but not nearly like in F1 2001. I actually
witnessed a beautiful N2002 style barrel roll when Frentzen drove over
my rear wheel at Melbourne.
4. Replays. Nothing has changed from what I can tell. Full screen
replays are actually full screen now without that annoying 1" border
around the screen, which is nice. Still, I wish I could at least turn
instant replays on and hotlap saving without having to save huge
replay files every time I drive. This area needs a ton of work.
5. Team-based interface. Pretty, but changing your team is a pain in
the ass. It shouldn't require digging through menus of options in
order to select which car you're driving. Not sure why this was
changed, other than to say "new interface" in the marketing materials.
6. Telemetry. Very well done. I had problems with the Telemetry app
in F12k1 because I run the game at a different resolution than my
desktop, but F12k2 resized everything appropriately, yay. I seem to
be experiencing a problem, however, with a resource leak in the
telemetry util. Anytime I use it and return to the track, the game is
slow as nails until I reboot my computer. Could be my problem, so I
don't want to make assumptions just yet.
7. *** FIA. These tracks suck, and I'm not referring to how poorly
modelled most of them are. Seriously, while I love the feel of the
game, the only tracks I can remotely stand to race on are Monaco and
Malaysia.. Monza in its current configuration is a joke.
Hockenheim at least provided interesting drag races, and forced an
interesting compromise between downforce and drag because of the
distinctly separate sections. Now it's just a pile of bollocks. The
British GP should have gone back to Brands Hatch as was rumored 3
years ago. The only challenging corner at Imola is a big ugly chicane
now. I'm surprised you haven't stuck one back into the Eau Rouge
complex. I cannot wait for SBDT to release some converted GPL tracks.
8. *** FOA.. Matchmaking servers please. And issue some licenses
for multiplayer. Bernie, you remember when you priced yourself out of
Long Beach, and you lost one of the few decent GP venues in this
country? Well, you're doing the same damn thing with your game
licenses, except that in this case everyone is racing NASCAR sims
instead of CART. If a CART game were released today with the Papyrus
matchmaking service I don't see why anyone would bother buying
simulations of your piddly overpowered go-kart series. Surely it
would be better to give licenses for multiplayer at less than you'd
like to make from them rather than not making any $$$ from it at all.
Jason