rec.autos.simulators

If one judges the game purely on the demo then these are my observations.

FOR:
1. The circuit graphics are gorgeous
2. The cars are beautiful with good light shading
3. Force-feedback works well
4. low-frequency growling motors sound good
5. Replays look superb
6. The circa 1937 Donnington track is faithfully reproduced (probably worth
buying just to drive the tracks!)
7. The interface is very stylish
8. You might dissagree but the brakes don't seem to lock and are hardly
noticable in their effect but I think this may be correct as brakes were poor
those days and braking was done much earlier.
9. The car feels good to drive with a good sense of speed. As they were like
tanks, the sensation of pitch and roll was less in 1937 and I think this has
been correctly observed.
10. The frame rate at 800x600 must be high as there was no noticeable loss of
rate even in tight turns where screen scrolling is most intense (see computer
spec. used - below)
11. Drivers heads do not move even when turning corners!
12. No Left-Right view (look behind only)

AGAINST:
1. The AI seems to be poor. Did cars really hit each other as is seen in the
demo?
2. I won the 3rd time I played the demo, and would probably have won the 1st
time if I had driven Donnington circa 1937 before playing this.
3. the dx7 graphics are shimmery and *** the eyes over a period of time.
800x600 is max. in this demo (and could be in the full sim?). Glide support for
3dfx could have improved this no end.
4. It's been mentioned before but SKY INFO is bad news in a sim (for us pure
simmers, anyway)
5. added to that, the end of the race immediately states 'GAME OVER' and fades
to black. PURE ARCADE!
6. I could not get the brake pedal on my MS FF wheel to work and had to use a
button. Could not be configured in OPTIONS. also steering linearity and
null-zone not configureable and gear-change was automatic only.
7. could be a limit on replay saves unless this screen scrolls
8. Compared to GPL the ingame wheels poor.

My relavent computer spec.

P111/500
3DFx 3-3000
128mb ram

Alan

My MS  FF Wheel and Both pedals work great and there IS an option for manual
transmission and you CAN configure the buttons on the wheel..........dont
remember exactly where I found it but it IS there somewhere. (did not see
null zone or linearity settings)

I actually like this game after playing for a couple hours. My best lap time
so far is 1:24:92 and best race time is 5:58:15.  Anyone else out there who
doesn't absolutely hate this game? (notice I didn't call it a sim) . Having
never driven a 1937 Mercedes I don't know what it's supposed to handle like
and sound like but it seems to be what I would expect a car that old to be
like. Give it a chance and I think you will like it . It's far from GPL but
is that a good reason to dismiss it so soon??? Frame rate is not the
greatest on my PII 350 ,128 MEG PC100 SDRAM,12 MEG V2 SLI. But it's only the
(first) demo.

You really must have been playing a different game - or was this meant
as sarcasm? I've NEVER played a video driving game that felt worse to
drive than this. The Commodore VIC-20 version of Night Driver was
better than this.

Joe McGinn
==========================================
Staff Writer for the Sports *** Network
http://www.racesimcentral.net/***.com/
==========================================

The readme reads thus....

<snip>This race is set in the scenic French countryside, accurately
reproduced from a track used in 1937. You have 2 laps of the circuit in
which to beat the other cars, starting from Pole Position on the
track.<snip>

Donnington is in France?
Does this mean the French won at Waterloo after all <G> I'd better swat up
on my history again.

Gawd this is sheer professionalism to say the least.

<snip>Controls

The default method of controlling your car is with an analogue steering
wheel. Force feedback is supported on wheels equipped with this capability.
Only two buttons on the wheel are used: <snip>

Actually, If you try to configure a MSFF everything seems to want to default
to axis y! Does this mean that only one button is needed <G> I did get to
configure 4 buttons on the wheel in the end by playing beat the dialogue
box. This is by far the most fun I had with this farcical "demo" How the
hell you are supposed to get the wheels and pedals to be
recognized......Well I only have an IQ of around 140 I'm afraid Mr Hasboro!

To a certain extent, Sierra dropped the ball with GPL in terms of the period
modelled and saleability to the general public. IE most Americans and
younger guys have no affinity with 1967 GP cars. At least this title was a
superb sim in the purest sense Mr Hasbro. It will be pleasing hard core
simmers and period afficionado's for a long time to come.

This title of yours SOS (Save Our Sales?) is a born loser. What self
respecting 16 year old arcader would be seen dead driving along a dusty
trail in a 60 year old Merc when the street cred guys are tearing it up in
the latest version of superthundermegadeth atomic armageddon? What self
respecting mature simmer would be seen running an irreverent arcade
depiction of their Legendary heroes, ending a race with the immortal arcade
words "Game over", considering the alternative era of racing available to
him.

Sorry guys, close but no cigar. Of course I'm probably hopelessly wrong here
and you will sell millions off the back of Mr Crammond's efforts!

5 hours to d/l on my crappy modem and 15 seconds to delete. ROTFLOL

Mark

?? I have an Acts Force RS and IMHO, they sucked. No sense of
transition from surfaces, no impending loss of control, etc. GPL's
much better. I maxed the forces out, still weak.

They should fade and not haul the car from 150 to 30 in what appears
to be a few hundred yards. Did they brake in the '30s by hitting other
cars? I won't even comment on not being able to lock the brakes...

Did we play the same demo? The cars corner like 1993-spec F1 cars, the
steering is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too sensitive, and it's IMPOSSIBLE to get
any sense of understeer (or oversteer, or any other semblence of
car-physics...) Reminded me of Colin McRae but no shred of physics at
all. Didn't it seem odd that you could'nt win at GPL for at least a
month or so, and here I won the 3rd race I did...I'd figure with the
ancient suspensions, I could throttle-steer. Hah.

P2 300, 192MB RAM, Pure 3d II Voodoo2, the frame rate sucks and
there's a terrible slowdown on the fastest part of the track. Turn on
the mirrors and it's SHIT. Turning, though, had no effect on rate.

Does it seem like you're doing more turning than you need to for the
hairpins? It seems like I'm doing a 360 but it's only a 180...maybe
it's me, but something seems amiss here...

This is a damn shame, I was so fired up about this! Definitely not a
sim. Cripes, Dethkarz was better than this.............

(sorry...)