I have just completed racing several races at Milwaukee (quite fun) with
Microsofts newest simulation game. Precision Racing..
Let me give you some insight into the game, and tell you why this new game
from microsoft is exactly like Microsofts Famous Flight Simulator Series.
I have racing experience, albiet in Karts - a different beast, but I have
driven fast, and at least experienced driving in a racing environment. I
don't claim to be good at racing, or an expert, but I do have a little
experience under my belt. Your comments and constructive criticism are
welcome.
First of All, let me tell you about all the things that I like. Yes, I do
like some of the things that Microsoft as added to the "Racing Genre"
Precision Racing (PR) simulates the physics of racing in the CART league.
The physics model of the race cars feels realistic. This is the first game
where I have raced where I actually had to attempt to conserve my tires for
the last half my run between pit stops. Indycar, Indycar II, Nascar and
Nascar II never made me feel as if my tires "went away". Imagine my surprise
when I am racing first at Milwaukee turning 187mph laps in professional
mode, and suddenly, after I have burned about 20 gallons of gas, I start
getting loose in the turns. Just to expirement a bit, I went in for a pit
stop for just 20 gallons of gas (yes, I wanted to see if it was my tires
going away or just the large shift of weight from the gas I had burned). I
jump out onto the track, reset my weight jack, and start turning laps, and
sure enough, my tires are just gone. No grip the corners. I go in yet
again, do the full pit stop and come out and turned fast laps again.
The next time, I was determined to "save" my tires for the latter laps
between pit stops. I turned the boost down to 1, popped my fuel up to 11. I
figured that since Gas was not the determining factor on pit stops, but worn
out tires were, I might as well turn up the juice - to help my car get
lighter quicker. My strategy now was simple - burn rich on gas and take it
easy in the corners so that my tires don't go away. The strategy worked,
and I noticed that my tires now stayed with me quite a bit longer than
before.
Also, while I was cruising the tracks in the game, I noticed that the
shifting weight of the car plays a much more dramatic role that the other
Papyrus racing sims that I have raced. Apply the breaks in a fast corner,
and most of the time, I understeered and dug into the corner. My rear
slipping a bit? feather the throttle, throw some weight to the rear wheels
and the car tightened up. cool!
Another new feature which is just awesome. Microsoft sticks with their
Wizard paradigm. now, instead of deciphering the various arcane settings
that you can play with on your CART car, you can tell a mechanic wizard how
your car handles in high speed turns, low speed turns, during braking etc..
when you complete the five questions, the mechanic then recommends changes,
and asks if it is ok to make these changes. When I have used the wizard, I
was instantly able to tell that changes had been made. And, furthermore, the
changes related directly to how I answered the wizards questions. In
Papyrus' series, I could pretty much change things drastically, and I would
feel little if any change in the car. That does not mean that their models
were right or wrong, it means that Microsofts game lets the racer
concentrate on racing, and not on the arcane mechanics of race car trim!
good move microsoft!
I have a matrox Millinium and a Monster 3D card, 200MMX Pentium, 64Megs of
Ram and the game is very fast with all options turned on. It gets even
faster if I turn the***pit display off. Generally, I race with the
***pit display off.
Pit stops are great! when you enter pit lane, the computer takes over
driving your car leaving you to handle a pop down menu that asks what you
want changed. The choices are quite complete:
Recommended,
Custom
or Spash and Go
You can hit enter and the crew will do what it thinks is best. (The pop
down menu gives you a quick summary of this). If you choose spash and go,
you will get a splash and go. If you choose custom, you have a
comprehensive list of items to change - make sure that you select quickly!
If you have not completed selection before you pull into pit lane, the pit
crew will wait until you finish your choices before starting the pit stop.
They could have changed this last part by following papyrus's lead and allow
you to build up pit stop choices during racing, OR allow you to hit the
escape key to pause the race and then make your choices. However, you can
imagine the problems that would cause during a multiplayer race!
Now, on to the downsides.
Just like Microsofts first Flight Simulator simulated flight very well, but
everything else was kinda lame, Precision Racing is the same kind of deal.
I hope that we don't have to wait years for PR to turn into a product like
Microsofts latest Flight Sim 98.
Crashes are just not right - it is actually very hard to munch your car.
Testing crashes involved Fontana Speedway going the wrong direction at about
200mph and crashing head on into a computer car. I was lucky, both of us
drove away to continue the race unscathed. Well, I guess that microsoft
created a racing game, not a crash simulator! The damage is just as bad
when racing normally also. Yellows are almost never thrown unless you have
damage on, and you blow some wheels off the car. Generally, if you crash
into a wall, you will damage or lose a tire. If you clip a car you might
crunch a wing. The car definately feels the effects of damage, and
generally you can get the damage repaired during pit stops.
If you do happen to damage your car, you can toggle the damage key (X) and
your car will be repaired instantly. I like that feature because for
someone like me, I can continue to race if I goof up. Please note however,
if you do lose a tire, it will look like it was repaired, but it really is
not - leading to major confusion and handling problems. The missing tire
only becomes apparent when you pit and you see that one or more of the
wheels is missing. It's kinda neat to watch your car cruise into the pit
with all wheels, and then, the second that you stop, the damaged tires
dissapear only to be replaced by the pit crew during the pit stop.
The car AI is terrible. Just try and get all 35+ drivers onto a track at
once! It does not work. The cars sometimes get out of your way if you are
way faster, but most often, they stick to their lines and crash into you and
other computer cars. When this happens you end up with a knot of crashed
and moving cars in the middle of the track! No yellow flies of course!!!
Then, when the computer cars try to get out of the way, they spin, and crash
into each other, often taking many, many laps to clear the knot.
Bottom Line?
Good buy. I am pleased with spending money on this game. I am waiting for
Microsoft to attend to some of the more grevious problems in the game, but
computer AI aside, crash physics aside, it is a good game with a seemingly
solid model based on actual racing physics.
Details?
PRO:
Race Setup Wizard!
Great car physics
Good pit stop idea with the computer driving you into and out of the pits
Good modelling of tire wear
Good modelling of pit stops
Ok flexibility of pit stop changes.
CON:
Racing AI sucks
Computer cars get lost when they are involved in a crash
Computer cars have a tough time trasitioning from 0mph to full speed
Yellow flag logic almost not present at all
Inability of computer cars to handle congested traffic
Please write with comments or observations!
-Kevin Hill