Been reading about CPR in the newsgroup for a while, just picked up
my copy today, and here are the first impressions of a confirmed
racing sim junkie for what it's worth...
Preface - I've grown tired of GP2 and neither ICR2 nor NECKCAR2;-)
have been able to hold my attention for very long. So I'm really
wanting CPR to be the next great sim that I can be obsessed with.
General Summary - "Awesome unrealized potential" is the first
statement that comes to mind when I'm playing/evaluating this sim.
It does some things very very well, some others very poorly, and
one very important aspect is absolutely atrocious. Overall I think
it's a decent first effort. Should you buy it? If you are a
junkie like me then you must. Otherwise I can't recommend it.
Will I play it? For a while, but I think it's probably destined
for the ICR2/NECKCAR2 wing of my hard disk (It'll never hold my
attention for very long).
Positives:
1. Driving/Physics model is the best I've seen IMHO. I feel like
I'm driving a race car rather than a slot car (Pro Level, no
driving aids). Could it be better? Yes, but it could also be alot
worse.
2. Garage is absolutely intimidating. If all these adjustments
really have an impact on performance then this is the highlight of
the game.
3. Linked and network play options. I'm calling these positives
without having actually tried them. I hope that they live up to
their potential.
Negatives:
1. The panning thing is really annoying. I turned it off. It's a
good idea, maybe, but not now.
2. The computer controlled pit thing, and the computer controlled
pace lap thing, and any other computer controlled thing (can't seem
to blow the engine either). It says on the box "simulator" and
IMHO pit stops, pace laps, and overrevving are an integral part of
simulating auto racing.
3. That thing that's supposed to be a manual sucks! I've been
around long enough to remember software that actually came with a
manual, and the industry trend towards not even producing one at
all really annoys me. Why? Because I actually read the damn
things, I wrote in them, I posted notes on them, and I learned alot
from them. Help files don't work for me either, because you can't
write all over help files. I need something printed that's
actually useful. Keep in mind that I've been around the industry
long enough to know that I was about the only person alive who ever
actually did read the manuals. It's just one of my peeves, like
the comedian Dennis Leary complaining about being unable to buy
coffee flavored coffee anymore.
4. It's Windows based. To put it simply, the first time that I'm
75 laps into a race at Laguna Seca and I receive the message that
"Cart.exe caused a general protection fault in module ......" I'm
going to be really pissed. Windows is not a stable enough platform
for computer games. Heck, sometimes Windows is not a stable enough
platform for Windows, but most of the time that's not Windows
fault.
5. Finally the thing that relegates this sim to the s***heap is
the AI. To say it sucks would be offensive to things that suck.
It goes far beyond sucking to some new level for which the word has
yet to be invented. In fact I think I'm going to incorporate it
into my vocabulary. From now on when something more than sucks I'm
going to say it CPR's, or perhaps it CART's. The
Microsoft/Terminal Reality team has made a quantum leap backwards
in the art of creating racing sim AI.
Final Thoughts - So there you have it, my impressions after about 6
hours of play. I'll continue on with it, and I'm sure I'll find
other things that stand out about this sim both positively and
negatively I just felt the need to speak out about it today.
Intelligent comments or disagreements are always welcome, so feel
free to engage me.
Also, please note that I didn't mention anything about frame rates
or that it ran poorly on my 486/100 with 8mb of RAM. IMHO, games
push the limits of technology. If you want to play the game then
you must play the game ($). That 486/100 or Pentium/133 for that
matter makes for a fine business computer but it is not a ***
machine.