rec.autos.simulators

I know some people have been saying SODA is no good, but I think they are
wrong.  I have a 3Dfx myself, the game has 3D support for rendition only not
even Direct 3D this alone doesn't ruin the sim.  The game has great physics and
you can really hang the rearend of the truck out.  The game was sluggish on my
K5-166 but I since upgraded to a K6-233 and it runs pretty good in 640 x 480.
I have been wanting a good off-road sim and test drive off-road wasn't it.
Less than a year ago I was watching this series on ESPN and said to myself this
would be cool on the PC.  Great graphics don't make the game playable just look
at MS CART.  Just set your view to an external one and you can see the cars in
MS Cart  are turning on their center axis just like MS Monster Truck Madness no
wander the car feel is wrong.  SODA on the other hand has a very good 3D
physics model that even acounts for the suspension movements.  Flips, rolls,
and landing on your roof are all designed in.  I'm sure this eats a lot of CPU
cycles all by itself which was probably why Papyrus didn't support this in the
NASCAR series.  With the built in track designer you can even design your own
tracks and have the computer trucks learn them.  Although there are some
problems with this learing if  you put damage on.  During a 5 lap race the AI
trucks were taking this large jump at over 80 MPH while I was taking it at 45
MPH to kep damage low, on the last lap passed all the other trucks as they all
broke before the end of the race.  To be fair on this I haven't even checked
their website to see if there is a patch.  If you have a 200 MHz machine and
like a real off-road sim, best one I have seen, then get SODA and if it's
discounted then that's even better.  

Jerry

I'm not sure, but at $15 I think this is the Best Sim ever!!  ;)

Even at full price, I believe it to be one of the best ever.

Jake Myers

The cars im MS CART DON'T turn on a center axis.  I think your confused with
SIERRA's CART racing.

I was sort of let down that the 3Dfx patch was cancelled.
Honestly, given a choice, I'd take a SODA 3Dfx patch over the N2
patch. SODA needs it more. Guess NASCAR has bigger mass appeal...
On the plus side, the new Verite cards aren't the compromise they used
to be, so that's what I'm going to get next.

I have been mostly hot lapping with my P133 because the framerate
really seems to drop with the other trucks running. It doesn't seem to
be just when they're visible, either.

Should be playing network SODA games by the end of the month. That
should be lots of fun.

--

 http://www.users.fast.net/~fusion1
 (dirt bikes, rat bikes, rental car abuse...)

Well, PC Games and CGW sure did like it.

PC Games: A-
CGW (Mar.): 4.5 Stars (Gordon Goble)

steve

--
Steven Travers

Just change the camera to a rear view while driving slow then turn your
steering wheel back and forth slightly and you will see the car pivot on it's
center axis, looks just like MTM trucks.  Compare this to SODA, F1RS or GP2 and
you'll see what I mean.  This is not how real cars track, the rear tires should
follow the front tires lead.  MS CART cars must have four wheel steering like a
Honda Prelude.  

Jerry  

[..]

Andrew.