rec.autos.simulators

Plainly and simply--YUCK!  Based on about three hours of time.   The menus
are a bear to wade through.   If there's mouse support in this, I wish
someone would tell me how to start it.  But to the game/sim (?)--

I'm running this on a p133 w/3dfx version installed.  As far as I'm
concerned there is very little sensation of speed.  This is true from the
lowest detail level to the highest (Ninja, it's called--who knows why?)
with only one car on the track.  When other cars are on the track there is
still little sensation of speed, and frame rates take a big hit to boot.
Again, this is true even using the low detail option.  I would estimate
frame rates with a full grid and low detail on my machine/w Monster 3d to
be less than 12-15 fps.  After running N2 at almost full detail with frame
rates between 25-30 fps, I find F1 to be intolerable in this respect.

There's more.  Crappy sound, mushy/twitchy controls (with a TM Grand Prix
1),  a physics model taken from god-knows-where, and worst of all, the only
way to exit the dog that I've found is by going through what seems to be a
hundred screens.   Turning the machine off and restarting win95 is
honest-to-god almost as quick a way to get back to your desktop.  

But it's pretty.  Really, really pretty.  So pretty, in fact, that I'm
going to delete the 3dfx version I installed and reinstall the Rendition
version to see if that could possibly help gameplay any.  But I'm not
holding my breath, and I don't have the heart to try it tonight.

Rest easy, Papyrus/Sierra.   So far you're still the only show in town!
Looks like N2 is still king.

Jerry Morelock

Evidently the sound hits the frame rate big time in this game.  After
cutting out the announcer/commentator the frame rate was helped quite a
lot, thereby helping you have a little better sensation of speed.  Even so,
this game suffers from its arcadish physics model.  The cars don't seem to
go anywhere but where they are pointed--no drift in corners, for
example--and forward momentum is minimal at best--let off the gas and the
car quickly comes to a complete stop, without even using the brakes.  And
this is in the more "realistic" Grand Prix mode.

No matter what anyone says, there is NO***pit view.  What you have is a
progression of views that starts you out at the nose on the ground (sort of
like the front bumper view in N2) and gradually moves you back to a
perspective somewhat like N2's far arcade view.  The view closest to a
***pit view shows the nose of the car and the two front wheels, but the
perspective is more like you're sitting ON the car, not IN it.  Very
unsatisfactory.

Nevertheless, F1 is amusing as an arcade game once you begin to get used to
it.  And as we've all heard before, the track graphics are great!  Being
from the school of  "I want it all", I offer this plea:  "Please, God, let
Psygnosis patch this so we get real-car physics, decent opponent AI,  and a
real***pit view."  With that, and some help in the sound department, F1
could be a real contender.  Alas, until then, it's just another arcade
driver, albeit a very, very, pretty one.

Opposing opinions welcomed,

Jerry Morelock

And the verdict is . . . still a resounding YUCK!  

Controls and physics modeling are so bad in this dog that even the graphics
started looking like s**t.   Right now, I can't even say that this is a
good arcade game.

This dog's going back tonight!  Sometimes ya just gotta get burnt to learn
that the fire's hot.  Sorry all you European guys--we wuz warned--believe
it!

Jerry Morelock

l8er
ronny