Ok as a GPL player a quick few thoughts on EA's sadly heavily flawed new
game...
Ok, so on high physics the game feels ok, but lacks on the limit feel at
breakaway and realistic curb reactions due to pathetic 400hz physics model,
200hz on normal mode, which is undriveable. Id think a 800hz+ model would
bemuch improved. You can feel a huge improvement in suspension sampling from
200 to 400hz, so id imagine for this game double or triple that would
improve it to a decent level.
The replays are a joke, cant even watch the others from the pits,
the whole system is highly flawed and basic compared to the 4 year old GPL
and certainly N4/02. After those full GP races in GPL having the replays of
the whole race available from the world championships is an essential part
of enjoyment. As well as saving those 2-3passes a lap monza races
huh...Sadly F12002 falls well below expected levels of replays from the sim
master Papyrus.
The multiplayer code is absolutely pathetic, my modem seems to work
perfectly in GPL, N4, or shooter games with 20player+, in F1 2002 its a
warping, disappearing cars, lag, glitches on player joining, crashes
onsession changes...basically its the most pathetic effort at multiplayer
ive
ever seen...Id even go as far as saying i doubt ISDN would be any good over
2-3+ players and basic 512/256 adsl prolly maxed out at 5-6...Basically for
me this rules out serious playing of the game in a league arena due to the
fact everyone hasnt and should need a 10mbit connection just to be a client
on a basic racing sim...
Reasonable effort EA sports, but seriously flawed in all the areas that
matter. Having such bad multiplayer code for everyone bar hugh end cable
users is simply lazy. As ive said before I can run warp feel 1 foot behind
someone in GPL or N4 on 28.8K modem, while also having 4cars visable
aheadand one behind, at 56k even 6 cars ahead and 2 behind with patches for
gpl.
I hope from this you can see the coding is probably the worst ive seen in
any game ive ever played online...even Operation Flashpoint is better! and
thats terrible...Online play is everything now, what the hell are EA pissing
about at...
After 3years of nose to tail 20 car grids in GPL this is sad state of
affairs...
4/10 40%, must try alot harder.....
David