Nope, never do.
From my point of view, no it isn't.
Whereas GP4 will run decently in 1024x768 at 25fps with my current rig. The
difference isn't all that huge. Either way resolution = eyecandy only. It
doesn't look any less detailed in lower resolutions, just bigger.
I happily pushed the AI cars off the track in WC. I'm quite sure they didn't
suddenly make the cars just drive through eachother in GP2. More detailed
pieces flying off is irrelevant. Pushing a car off affects the race the same
regardless of how it looks.
That hardly makes or breaks the experience to me. True, cars toppling over
and pieces flying all over the place is more realistic and obviously doesn't
detract from the experience. But I drive a racing sim to race, not see cars
crash realistically.
What GP2 did quite happily do was totally break the car to pieces, lifting
the nose 45 degrees and dumping it back down when hitting a cerb at an odd
angle at 10kph. Actually GP3 did that too, I've yet to see it in GP4.
Come to think of it, didn't GP2 add the ability for the cards to turn x
degrees whereas GP3 enabled them to overturn completely?
That only adds another environment to race in. I drive almost all my races
in the dry and am quite happy with it. If a car blowing an engine in front
of me made the track damn slippery, that would add something much more
important. Immersion.
Whoppie, instead of seeing a static dash you now see a dash bobbing about as
your head is moved by G and a wheel turning. You couldn't even look sideways
until GP4. So much for virtual***pit as we know it from flightsims of
years and years gone by. Either way it's a graphical addon, nothing else.
If you prefer to watch the wheels turn while racing, you probably should
consider your priorities.
That's the one very nice thing about GP4 as opposed to the prequels. Not
that a fixed width track ruined the experience in the previous incarnations,
but track layout being accurate is very nice. Score one for GP4 (this is
actually where it scores its only point).
And this improves the drive how, exactly? It doesn't. Parts of it ruins it
imo. That guy saying "clear" when there's a string of 3 cars coming. Very
realistic, I'm sure he would do that in real life. The crew waiting till I
stop outside the garage after a flying lap, then not bothering to bring me
into the garage, leaving me there for the rest of the qualifying. Clever
clever and adds a lot to the realism.
Extremely tiny graphical addition
They act much the same now. They're better at giving you room and using the
room you give them, true, but they're still totally blind during qualifying.
And a less accessible car setup screen layout to make it as hard as possible
to use the extra data. In all honesty though, I never used data logging all
that much. I got by fine on simply tweaking wings based on where I was
losing time on track.
Graphical improvements are there, obviously. But at the core of it, not a
whole lot changed. A car losing a wing in a crash or going vertical then
slamming back down causing it to lose a wing, makes no difference to me, the
wing is lost and the effect on the race identical.
What the GP series lacks isn't graphical doohickieys. That's what GC has
been adding since GP2. It needs a more realistic and atmosphering F1 racing
experience. That means safety car, stop/go penalties, drive-through
penalties, realistic tyre wear (make it an actual point to go in and change
tyres) etc. It doesn't need virtual***pit, 3d pitcrew, more flat cardboard
cutouts lining the track, cars breaking off into 200 pieces as opposed to 5.
Those are sweet additions but they're not what makes the core simulation
work and fun.
I was disappointed when I went form GP2 to GP3, but not a whole lot so. From
GP3 to GP4 is a whole different story.
--
Frode
