easy to beat on the ovals. >>
Its actually fairly easy to beat anywhere if you spend some time hotlapping
first. I downloaded all of the 1997 results from SpeedCenter so I could work
on beating each real-world Pole. I managed to get a 1:33 in Australia, and
once I grabbed the pole in qualifying, I won easily. Ovals are just not worth
it right now because of the speed limits. At Nazareth I could go almost flat
out on 2 of the 3 turns with a fairly loose setup, but the game limited me to
192 mph. That put me off oval racing pretty fast.
The AI is MUCH much better. They do an almost inhuman job at somehow not
hitting you regardless of where you are on the track, but its very easy to plow
into them when they get bunched up going into tight corners. But the AI still
needs work on their racing lines & speeds the way Papyrus' did. For instance,
going into the first kink in Australia, I can just dab the brakes, downshift
and dart through it, almost straightlining it. The AI cars slow down too much,
so I could get by them mainly by making sure I darted to the left of them while
they were still slowing down. They lost more time in that kink and another one
on the backstraight than anywhere else on the track, where they were
competitive. The real challenge is on the Zone, where there are some good
drivers. I got thoroughly smoked at Rio by someone even though I thought I was
doing well. I was losing 2-3 seconds PER LAP!
Even though it sounds odd, F1RS had a major part in helping me learn how to
appreciate CPR more. Not because there's anything wrong with F1RS, but because
it successfully taught me how to use more finesse in ALL of my driving inputs.
That finesse is just as badly (if not more so) needed in CPR than it is in F1RS
because of the drastically reduced rear-grip and complete willingness of the
car to go loose under heavy acceleration.
I disagree. I think the driving model is totally different with the reduced
grip and near steering/control changes. I could hammer the gas down on the
previous version, knowing that the weight transfer would make the rears grab.
Now they don't grab...they keep right on sliding, and you can't just overcome
it with more throttle. By rewarding smoothness and perfect lines, the sim has
become a LOT more fun. Of course, next week at this time, I may be cursing it
again! (Seems I go through 'phases' with these sims <G>)
another patch before getting CPR. >>
My recommendation would be this: if you're going to race the AI mostly, buy
F1RS. If you're going to go online and race other people, take your pick, with
CART perhaps having a slight edge. F1RS has people racing on Kali (though I
can never find them online when *I* am) and CART uses the MS Internet ***
Zone, so you can often find people to race with there at any time. Of course,
neither of these stand up against the low-latency heaven and 20 car grids of
NROS, but then that's NASCAR :).
Randy
Randy Magruder
Staff Writer
Digital Sportspage
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
