>Yes, I played GP3 today. Actually, I played the preview version that
>Micropose/Hasbro had at the ECTS computer games expo. I'll let you
>know the full details later when I write a full report. There is good
>news and there is bad news...but mostly good. Ta for now.
there were plenty of other people who we taking pictures with their
digital cameras and camcorders. So I'd expect that there would be
plenty of screenshots around on the Internet by now.
I spoke to the Microprose rep there and read the printed information
there. These are the pertinent details (if you've been waiting for an
early release then forget it...that was the bad news!)...
1. The game is 60% complete.
2. Release date is Spring 2000.
3. Has new physics.
4. Full tumble.
5. Weather effects.
6. 3D graphics card support.
plus "much, much more!".
The game was running on a PIII 600MHz with steering wheel (and gear
paddles) and pedals for brake and acceleration. There was only one
track available and it was Monaco. The season is based on the 1997
season (I remember the guy telling me but I forgot to write it down
so now I'm not too sure !). The game has all the options of different
types of difficulty that GP2 had with the same type of driving aids.
I started on the grid. I was in a Ferrari around about 6th position.
I waited for the green lights to go out...and away I went. The
graphics were excellent. The driveability was brilliant. I really
enjoyed the game. I had some problems at Tabac by braking too late
and I did this a few times. But I soon sorted it out.
The first thing that you notice is that the steering wheel moves. And
the steering wheel has a lot of indicators on it. It had...
1. Speed
2. Revs (LED indicators duplicated on the left and right on the
steering wheel.
3. LCD display showing position, lap times, etc
4. At the bottom of the steering wheel there was a LED display that
showed the time elapsed in seconds (however, see my later note on
on-screen Race Time).
5. The driver aids that are enabled or disabled.
6. Support for force-feedback controllers.
The***pit has the tradition GP2 style damage part indicator on the
right and also showing when the plank bottoms.
On the side of the***pit there is a small map which looks like the
outline of the circuit. Don't recall seeing anything dynamic in that
image.
Also, you can see the nose of the car along its length from the
***pit to the nose tip (the 1997 Ferrari nose was quite high). And
you could see the writing that was on the top of the nose (did it say
Ferrari on it? Didn't have time to turn my head sideways to read
it!). I'm sure you car livery experts could tell me what it should
be!
There is something called the "Race Time" at the top of the screen
(and so partly obscuring the view). I did not have the opportunity to
check whether this "feature" could be switched off...but I would
imagine so. The Race Time was measured in seconds and thousandths of
a seconds (much like lap times). However there was a discrepancy
between the Race Time and the time that appears (in whole seconds) at
the bottom of the steering wheel. The steering wheel "timer" was
about 3-4 seconds behind the Race Time. It could be that the Race
Time is started the moment that the green lights went out and that
the steering wheel timer is started when the cross the start
line...although I can't imagine that it took my 3-4 seconds to cross
the start line from 6th position ;-)
When braking it appears as if your head is thrown forward as
everything seems to "move in" towards you.
The frame rate was excellent. It made the car a great joy to drive.
However, I did notice that a couple of buildings seemed to be jarring
a bit...there wasn't a smooth progression. But I'd expect that
Microprose may have sorted things out by then or that 3D cards would
be a lot faster when the game is officially released. Oh, and faster
PCs will be out by then too :-I
The track was nicely textured showing the parts where the track was
darker due to all the *** that had been laid down (ie the racing
line!).
I went into a tyre barrier and noticed that it was quite heavily
pixelated (very block graphics) at close range. However, this wasn't
the case with some of the signs I happened to come very close too.
Also the tyres didn't look very real to me especially has they were
all flat...there were no contours to the tyres. They looked like a
wall that was painted black and white (oh yea, some tyres are painted
white so you have the black and white pattern that you normally see
at most races). I hope that they've got this on their "Things to Do
List".
The sky was all blue and cloudless. However it appeared that the sky
colour had a very slight gradient as it appeared to ever so slightly
turn a light shade of blue. I also have no recollection of seeing the
sun or noticing any sun-glare effects...hey, the helmet has a visor
so there should be some glare ;-) That's an in-joke.
The tyres also move left and right when you turn the steering wheel.
I have a vague recollection of the tyres also moving up and down but
I could be mistaken and was concentrating a bit on racing. The tyres
also rotated when the car is moving. The car I was driving (a
Ferrari) had Goodyear stickers on the tyres and so these moved as the
tyre rotated.
When braking or turning sharply I could hear the tyres screeching.
However, under heavy braking with loads of tyre screech I did not
notice any signs of tyre smoke in the rear mirrors. I'm may have just
missed it and if it hasn't yet been implemented I'm sure it will.
I did not have an opportunity to test the "Full Tumble" feature :-(
I also did not have the opportunity to test for car setups and other
telemetry features. I don't know if they've been implemented yet.
I just want to add that if you enjoy GP2 you're gonna love GP3. It's
all familiar but new. But i think that you're gonna need a quite a
powerful machine with powerful 3D graphics to run it well :-(
How much of the physics they've finished I don't know. Also, I do not
know if the preview game was collecting all the telemetry data, etc.
This sort of thing can slow the game down. So the preview played
really well but I cannot tell what the finished game will look like.
I managed to pry some pricing info from the rep...he thought that it
would be in the region of GBP34.99 but this was under review.
What else did I notice at ECTS? Well, there was a Jordan sponsored
wheel and pedals for the Nintendo and Playstation. There was also a
McLaren wheel and pedal combo for the Playstation and PC. At the
stands there were full-sice replicas of the Jordan and McLaren cars.
The Jordan wheel and pedal combo should also be released for the PC
sometime in the future. BTW, I wouldn't by these two wheels...too
much plastic for me. I use the F1 SIM wheels and pedals at home and
it sure is a sturdy beast.
I also tried the UBISOFT F1 game and I didn't like it...it felt too
much like an arcade game rather than a full blown sim. there were
other F1 games there too but they were all like the UBISOFT
version...horrible!
Well, I guess that's all for now. Hope that you found this report
useful.
--
Kulvinder Singh Matharu
Website: http://www.racesimcentral.net/
(note : e-mail header address deliberately mangled)