rec.autos.simulators

that makes 2 of us.

F1GP,ICR2 and NFS

Three of them are equally matched.

Mark Yeung

You missed NASCAR Racing for the stock car set.

Mike

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___/ \___ Speed Bump Motorsports...  The name says it all.
NRL95 #110 Hershey's Kiss Chevrolet Monte Carlo
PRO95 #53 Hershey's Kiss Penske PC23/Ilmor D
SIMCAR96 #45 Hershey's Kiss Pontiac Grand Prix
IVGA #2027 (membership, not the car!)

: Nascar Racing by Papyrus. Any game from Papyrus I would recommend.

Hi! Just read this group and you will get it. There's two teams who do a
good job. PApyrus with their Indy Car I + expansion tracks, Nascar + exp.
tracks, than a newer Indy Car II. The other team is Geoff Crammond and his
family (I guess) and he really understands playability of the game the best.
He made F1 Gradn Prix (or world circuit in USA), and that is rather old. The
sequel should be out this year (I hope:) and will be one of the best games.
There is one more thing released by Electronic Arts, called Need for Speed,
and that is a very neat multimedia game where you drive several excellent
sports cars on a couple of tracks and road courses. It has more of an
arcadish feel to it, but all the others are much much more. So if you can
afford it go for them all :) and maybe get a T2 steering wheel unit.

I hope I was of some help, Domagoj

   Seriously, now, they're both good games.  If you have a strong
preference for one series or other, that might help you make your
decision.  Other data to consider is that, while both are quite
similar (they use the same *basic* driving model), ICR2 is only 6
months old (vs. NASCAR's 18 months), so ICR2 is a bit further
along the optimization curve and runs faster on the same machine.
If you have a P5 >=100MHz, this becomes less of a consideration.
Also, ICR2 comes with 15 tracks, while the original NASCAR had 9
tracks plus a 7 track pack add-on.  I'm pretty sure ICR2 is
CD-ROM only (around 40 meg full install).  NASCAR comes in floppy
(warning - VGA ONLY!) and CD-ROM (both VGA & SVGA), probably 25
meg full install.

   The Papyrus games stress having a good car setup and learning
the tracks thoroughly (ie: can be hard work).  If you prefer a
good arcade game, I've heard a lot of good things about Need For
Speed (although I haven't tried it myself).  I'm pretty sure NFS
is CD-ROM only.  It has a lot of other goodies (videos, etc.) on
the CD (ie - chocked full o' data).

   Finally, F1GP2 might be out sometime this year, :) and we are
cautiously optimistic about how it will come out.  Likely to be
CD-ROM only.

   PS - ICR1 and F1GP1 are available for a song nowadays and have
pretty decent game play, if outdated graphics (VGA).  Particularly
good choices if you have a lesser machine (486 <=33MHz).  Both are
*probably* only available on CD nowadays.

Pick one or more: Model Rockets (competition-NERCB) / PCs (even Atari!) /
ICR-PRO / NASCAR-NRL / Who needs a life when you have multiple non-lives?

Kelvin
Do the Dew   Simcar #69

I use F1GP and ICR1 regularly - both have their good points and bad points.
However, on the whole, I'd say that ICR1 wins pretty much hands-down. The
reason? Firstly the graphics (in terms of texture etc) is much better. The
AI of the CCs is also better (this really is the biggest let down for F1GP -
it really is no fun sometimes when you're continually getting rammed by the
CCs). Having said that, you need a higher spec PC to get a good frame
rate with ICR1 than you do with F1GP, which in terms of graphics is much
simpler. The engine sound on F1GP sounds more realistic - though I like the
nerve jangling screeching of ICR1! Things like control response are better
on ICR1 as well (particularly gear changing - it's smoother on ICR1). The
good thing about F1GP is that it is simpler to get up and running. It has
less parameters. Good, I mean, if that is what you want. I personally
like the complexity of ICR1. Of course the other good thing about F1GP
is that it is based on F1! I like Indycar, but it is nice to drive around
a circuit and then watch the race - F1GP does give you a good feel for
the basic characteristics of a circuit. Having said that, the racing is
more fun (and harder) on ICR1 - apart from the problem with the F1GP
CCs - which makes it unrealistically hard. I'm using F1GP a lot at the moment
mainly because the F1 season has started, but also because my 486 can't
hack ICR1 with a sufficient number of competitors with full detail. When
I get an upgrade I'll be back with ICR1. In short, if you want a technical
challenge and something that is going to take a while to get used to, I'd
go for ICR1. If you want a more `arcadish' sort of game, then get F1GP.

BTW, if you've got a high enough spec PC get ICR2, it's really nice. I
suspect also that F1GP2 will be a quantum leap improvement on F1GP. Come
to  think of it get both!

Alan

PS

CC = computer car

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The views/opinions expressed here are my own and do not
in any way reflect the views/opinions of my employer.
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