OK I'll address a few things which I think are important in a sim such
as this:
Feel: quite nice, A bit more 'twitchy' than GP2 - a bit of a hybrid of
GP2 & ICR2. The demo only allows brake balance settings to be changed,
so I can't tell how much the setup influences handling that much.
Physics: Seems OK, there is a tendency to want to 'escape' under heavy
braking, something that wan't in GP2. Again I'd like to be able to
adjust a few more settings to see whether they work ok. As I said the
setup options in the demo don't work (i.e you can't select them) - but
they do seem to be there.
Speed: Pretty fast - except at the end of Rettifilo into the first
chicane at the start of the race when all the cars are bunched around
the chicane. It really slows down here. This is a bit of a concern. I
hope they address this in final version. GP2 does this too in highres.
BTW: I have a p166 classic, a guy said he gets no slowdown on his PII
266!
Sound: Not as good a GP2 in terms of sound quality, change downs
sounds a bit rough. I think its a lot better than Psygnosis F1. One of
the complaints about other hearing other cars in GP2 is addressed -
you can hear them from the***pit.
Track: It seems OK, gradient isn't really apparent at Monza, though
where you expect a little bit it is there. The Track at least at Monza
seems more accurate than GP2. I've seen video footage of F1RS (that's
the new abbreviation) at Monaco at this seems to have a lot of
gradient - more than GP2. So signs are the tracks are better than GP2.
Other: Pit crew is wonderful - no cardboard cutouts here, 3D pitcrew
remove and change your nosecone, rear wing etc... There is a guy with
a fuel filler too. It really is nice.
MISC:
It has a***pit (different ones for each car). Your wheels spin. Your
wheels are visible in front of you (looks a lot like ICRx). You pick
up dirt on the tires. It has mirrors - though they are a little small
(but useable). It has wet races - I've seen this on video too and it
looks very good.
Reservations:
1) The slowdown with lots of cars.
[Begin examination of perhaps why this is so]
Now this is either: too many polys, too many textures (texture
thrashing) or not enough optimization.
In the first case (too many polys)- I'm not sure they are using
reduced detail models for stuff further away. This could be addressed.
Second case (too many textures) - this could be addressed by a number
of ways - I think there a too many frivalous textures at the point
where it does slow down, a few could be lost with little impact - I
could live without the sky & cardboard cutout crowd (lets have an
option to turn stuff on/off selectively). Another way is the details
on the cars. If a car if far away don't bother to texture it - just
shade it the appropriate colors.
They may have thought of these as they are obvious - but you never
know! If it is a texture related problem a 6mb voodoo card would help.
Finally optimization - well that speaks for itself.
[End examination]
2) The car seems to be under autopilot when coming out of the pits -
you don't seem to get control back until your car is right on the
track. Someone said there may be an option to turn this off. I hope
so.
3) Joystick control needs a bit of refinement - It just isn't as good
as it should be. There is a tendency for a bit of drift. I think this
is a dead zone issue (i.e. its not big enough)
4) Views in the demo are limited to***pit and two behind car views.
In game options are noticeable by their absence - no detail settings
etc.... (I think its a beta after all)
If they address these points I'm sure there will be very few
complaints. I'm sold already.
To be quite honest having played it for a while, if you told me it was
GP3 - I would believe you. It certainly has a lot of GP2 in the way
it feels, I can't really explain it - it just does. I'll temper that
too by saying it does have some ICR2 feel in it too!
If you can afford the time, download the demo - I thought it well
worth it. I have *never* downloaded a demo larger than 20MB before - I
did with this (27MB) and wasn't disappointed. It took about me about
2.5 hours to download on my 33.6.
Dave