those of us who thought that based on the demo are correct.
I am an F1RS fan for the following reasons. The attempt at realism is
laudable. They didn't always make it, but there was an honest attempt to
make this a real sim. The patches...although it was frustrating that so
many patches were required, UbiSoft did at least release patches that seemed
to be in response to user requests (the glue-like grass, for example). The
graphics are top-notch (as good as I need, anyway) and assuming you have a
3dfx card, do not need a supercomputer to get great frame rates. The
default set-ups are pathetic, but thanks to people like Guy Cote some
terrific set-ups were done that transform the handling of the cars
tremendously. The original sounds of the engine and shifting are horrid,
but again, fans to the rescue.
The menu system is incredibly badly designed and documented, canned spins
(or at least canned spin processes) are used, the controller support was not
what it should be, the game won't remember set-ups from one session to
another, the throttle control is detached from reality...i.e., you can rev
to 12,000 r.p.m. and drop the car into first gear and the revs will drop
immediately to idle and then progress upward as though you were not already
revving the snot out of the engine. This is crucial (and very, very bad)
not so much for the one-time drop into first gear at a start but because
this is the way all gear shifts are handled. The engine's torque and power
are not modelled in a dynamic fashion, but in a static one instead (I could
spend a lot of time explaining this, but those of you who care will likely
already know lots about it). The grip levels on pavement are too low, on
grass too high (still, after the patches) and on wet pavement too low.
Sound support has always been a problem.
Nevertheless, all in all, you could have a lot of fun with F1RS...and hope
that the major physics flaws could some day be addressed......which brings
us to MGPRS2.
The graphics are, for all intents and purposes identical to F1RS except that
there is now support for higher resolutions. Fine...I don't really care as
640x480 looks fine to me as they have styled the graphics quite well and
they give a good sense of speed.
The sound support is worse than in F1RS, if this is possible. More problems
with more sound cards. And the sounds themselves, already horribly
inadequate in F1RS are actually worse in MGPRS2. There is a debate as to
whether the quiet little electric motor-like buzzing and click-ratchet
shifting is actually what you would hear in a real F1 car wearing a real F1
regulation helmet. I only know what the cars sound like from the outside
and this ain't it. If in fact that's all you can hear of the monstrous
motor a few centimetres behind your head, then how on earth could you hear
other cars or the sound of your car driving on the grass or the tires
squealing. The grass (rippling-crunching) is about triple the volume of the
engine.
You can adjust all of the volumes of the individual sounds (with the Sound
Editor supplied--in French language (in the UK version of the game)) and the
overall sound levels (engine versus other sounds versus announcer's
messages), but the original sound adjustments and several of the samples are
ridiculously inadequate. Personally, I am using the same third-party engine
and shift sounds that I used for F1RS. Whether I use these, or the original
sound file (pack), I get sound cutting-out at points where there is supposed
to be echoing (close to an enclosed area) and I cannot hear the opponents
cars at all. (For reference, I had the same problem of sound cutting out on
F1RS after switching from a SB AWE32 to a SB PCI128, but the latest driver
release from CL fixed that--not so in MGPRS2.)
The physics have NOT been updated at all--just tweaked a bit in a manner
that could have been done easily in a patch to F1RS. The grip levels have
been increased dramatically to what "seems" to be a more natural or
realistic level. The default set-ups are now usable, so you can actually
drive the tracks without doing hours of set-up first. The throttle seems 20
times more sensitive than in F1RS, but unfortunately, it is just a very
cheap trick...
The throttle sensitivity is now adjusted by gear. If you are in neutral or
in 6th gear, the normal 100% range of throttle is available. The range
steps down by gear, so that by the time you reach first gear you have 100%
of the throttle sensitivity crammed into about 10% of the throttle movement.
In other words, do anything other than barely touching the throttle from
launch and you will be doing a full-throttle tire-burning exercise in
futility. This is even more unrealistic than the original F1RS, though if
you are a moron, it may give you the illusion that there is more power
readily available in first gear than in the taller gears. It results in
maximum throttle acceleration requiring a series of progressively deeper
throttle movements as you go up through the gears. This may suit some
digital controllers, but I have no idea who would think it was suitable for
an analogue controller or who would think it was an improvement over the old
system.
The menus seem to run a wee bit faster (and are still too slow, but not
agonizingly and ridiculously slow like the ones in F1RS), but the same
illogical and confusing design was used. It seems as though they just
couldn't be bothered updating anything that actually required real work. No
one--not even the most ardent F1RS fans, liked the menu system. The game
does remember what set-up you were using (thank goodness), but there is no
"default" setting to get back to the original easily.
The retro-mode had some possibilities, but it was obviously not given the
attention and polish that would be necessary to make it a great part of the
game. I love the fake names for the teams...at least someone here had a
sense of humour. Instead of Team One, Two, etc. that are used in the
regular part of the game to replace the real names that are no longer
licensed, creative names like Team Beta Julietta are used. Now I wonder
which famous Italian car company that would represent!!! :)
Only one track and the same ridiculously unimproved throttle physics and a
lack of grip render the retro mode a bust. They actually have four cars
with four distinct and interesting motor sounds and four distinct and
accurate***pits (and four names that don't require too much knowledge to
figure-out), but they could not come up with anything better for sounds and
***pits in the main part of the game??????
On the subject of the lack of licensing, it really is a non-starter for all
of us 'net-types since all of the tracks and cars and***pits have already
been re-done by fans, so you can have your up-to-date details in the game.
The question for me is why are we paying full price for this?
The AI? I haven't managed to race much yet--mostly because I cannot hear my
opponents and the tiny mirrors are wholly inadequate to use as the only
basis to place opponents. UbiSoft claim a big improvement in AI, but quite
frankly, I would fall out of my chair if it was anything other than a minor
improvement. Those of you in the know please let us know what the actual
changes are to the AI.
Full price for a patch....that you have to rely on the good works and
generosity of fellow gamers just to get back to the level of accuracy of
F1RS!!!!!! Sorry, in my mind this is a gross rip-off, a huge misstep by
UbiSoft and that's why I am writing this post.
Many, many months passed between v. 1.09 of F1RS and the release of MGPRS2.
The game is a minor update (and in some ways a retrograde step) to F1RS.
How can it have as many or more bugs related to the main part of the game as
the original F1RS did??? It is unbelievable. Patch support, so far, is
worse than for F1RS.
Take it or leave it...it's up to you. If you own F1RS I would highly not
recommend buying MGPRS2. If you don't own it, then I would highly recommend
waiting until enough patching is done to demonstrate that this title is not
going to be orphaned in its current bug-ridden state. And, then, if the
bugs are fixed, buy it if you like modern F1 sims. and can live with a
physics model that is so far behind GPL (and apparently not an advance over
F1RS) it will make your car spin...at all the wrong times and for all the
wrong reasons.
Marc.
-- "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist---"
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Marc Collins
General John B. Sedgwick's last words, 1864
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