so this review will be very unbiased in the respect. Prior to playing GP3 my
favorite F1 game was Ubisoft's MGPRS2. I have played almost every other race
game arcade and sim...just not GP before.
I have only played the 'demo' version of GP3 for about an hour or so but
here is a quick take on it. For those of you who think that this version
won't represent the final...well, I would beg to differ because even if it
is beta Im sure the only things being worked out are a few bugs and minor
tweaks - not a complete makeover of a fully playable game.
That out of the way - on to the details.
-GRAPHICS ( ***1/2 out of 5 )
Dated but well done. Some items (ie barrels) are very pixilated up close and
some track side objects (sand traps and grass) are very bland, however the
overall look is fairly crisp and sharp. The road is very easy to distinguish
from the surroundings which was something I though F1 2000 did not
accomplish. The display features can be adjusted to suite almost any system
and my GeForce SDR, 128MB 600E system had no problem pushing out the 26fps
limit. Yes, the game appears to be tied to some frame limiter like GPL but
with a much lower limit that does affect the sense of speed.
-PHYSICS ( **** )
Well, its not GPL but it does beat everything else out there. However, GPL
wins by a lap and a half while F1 2000 and GP3 fight it out for a distant
second. Followed in 4th by MGPRS2 while F1WGP is retired. (ICR2 was not
include but would have given them all a run for the money)
Two of the biggest physics issues with GP3 that I can see are that the cars
stick to the track almost too well (but, Ive never driven a car like this so
maybe that is realistic - it just doesn't have that loose seat-of-your-pants
feel of GPL) and secondly the game appears to incorporate a canned 180 spin
if you get to far out of control. Maybe its not and maybe I just think I
should be able to partially catch myself on some of the spinouts but you are
always left facing the opposite direction.
On the positive side the controls are very responsive and there are some
nice affects when going of the track or getting stuck in the sand.
-SOUND ( ** )
I found this to be one of the games weakest points, moreso than the outdated
graphics. There are almost no sound other than your engine. You do not hear
other cars as they come by you. Your engine sounds ok but downshifts and
braking are very distracting. Skids and bumps are nicely placed but all in
all this game does better without sound or at least the engine turned way
down.
-INTERFACE ( ****)
The user interface is very complete but I found it hard to access the garage
once the race weekend had started (I have no instructions). There are many
options to select from in respect to driving aids and car setup. The driving
aids are very annoying and make it even harder to drive if you ask me. I do
not get a lot into the garage setup but I will confirm one rumor : no tire
pressure option. You can also select between all sorts of different damage
options and, yes, you can turn on engine failures. There are several driver
levels (rookie to ace) which basically take away more aids and add more
penalties and failures. However, you can modify them to some extent in the
different levels.
-SPECIAL EFFECT ( **1/2 )
GP3 has very nice weather effects on the track but I still tend to like the
look of the water splash in MGPRS2. GP3 has a moderate amount of moderately
produced flash but it is clear the developers did not put a lot of concern
into this side of the game - other than the almost overly used brake smoke.
The game does do a nice job with capturing the feel of acceleration and
braking from the***pit but never gets up to top speed leaving you feeling
as if your driving in slow motion. The game also suffers from lackluster
damage effects. Some body damage and a flying tire or two but I did not
witness anything as spectacular as the end over end flaming car of GPL. In
my view GP3 barley manages to accomplish the effects MGPRS2 did a few years
back.
-DIFFICULTY ( **** )
Here is were GP3 appears to distances itself from the others. Top notch
physics is not all its made out to be as we saw with F1 2000, because the
best physics can be hampered by bad AI. GP3 from what I have seem has some
very nice AI. They appear aggressive and have a very good sense of their
surroundings. You can set them to run equal or based on 98 stats. Running 98
stats I found Schumacher to act very lifelike as he would take your line
away and force you to change your path in order to avoid hitting. Other
drivers are much calmer and will hang back and wait for bigger openings to
pass. All in all the AI seems very good however I did not provide much of a
challenge for them so I will leave this topic open.
-OVERALL ( ***1/2 )
GP3 is no GPL killer and those of you looking for this will have to wait for
another challenger (MGPRS3?). The game is very good though and I would rank
it as the best of the rest, however, as I said earlier, I have not played
GP2. From some other reviews Ive read this game is nothing more than GP2.5
which may very well be true. For those of us who have not played GP2 though,
this may just be the modern F1 we are looking for. Or possible a nice update
for those GP2 fans...just don't expect GP3 to shake the tree too much
because all of the current F1 games seem to be very weak in respect to GPL.
GP3 does nudge out the current crop bit it is starting to looks like GPL is
the McLaren/Farrari of sims while everyone else is striving to be Williams.
Feel free to post your questions and Ill answer the best I can, however, I
will not respond to anyone wanting to know where I got the 'demo'.