pocket and found that F1 Racing Championship was not only reduced to 19.99
but for loyalty card holders it was down to a mere 13.49. I've been sorely
disappointed with F1 2000 and especially GP3 have been felt desperately in
need of a modern F1 sim so I thought I'd give it a go as I wouldn't loose
out much if it failed to deliver.
Much to my surprise and delight it is by far the best modern F1 sum to date
and is simply a hoot to drive. It's not GPL but is the closest any modern
sim has come to it. As all us GPLers know it all comes down to how the sim
"feels" to drive and F1RC although not quite to GPL standards dumps on all
the other modern F1 Sims from a great height.
GP3 just didn't feel right at all, there was something seriously wrong with
the steering and the traction was appalling. Unlike GP3 in F1RC you can
actually control the car properly and slide it around to your hearts
content. The car slides in a progressive fashion and it all seems smooth and
flowing and you can catch and correct slides rather than simply spinning off
with no warning a la GP3.
The traction modelling is superb as although you can spin the wheels in the
first four gears (as an F1 car can) the resulting slip at the rear is very
catchable. Again with the brakes they are beautifully progressive and
controllable and don't suddenly snatch sending you hurtling off the road.
Lock the brakes and you can feel it though the FF and when you start to
understeer it goes light. Steering is normally heavy and weights up in
corners but follow another car closely and as you get a tow the wheel goes
disconcertingly light.
Graphics wise it really is very impressive is bay far the best looking F1
Sim to date. the most important thing though is that the circuits are
modelled to a degree that no other racing sim has ever reached. The cambers
are as they should be (unlike GP3!) and the curbs are modelled as they are
in real life at each track. The circuits really do look like they do on the
TV. The cubes deserve special mention because not only do they look right
but they feel right when you go over them. Some you can ride and others not
and they give a realistic kick though the FF and the are the only curbs I've
seen modelled properly in and race sim.
You can have changeable weather as in GP3 and not only does it look better
it doesn't slow the system down like GP3. The transition from dry to wet is
again very progressive. Yesterday when I had a race at Monaco where it
stated off dry and slowly got wetter but I managed to stay out for several
laps on slicks quite happily sliding the car around until I really had to
pit for wets.
It runs well on both my PIII 765 with GeForce DDR and my old K6-2 417 with
Voodoo2 SLI. On my GeForce system I run it at 1280x1024 bit (it can run in
32bit) but I've had to turn car detail down to 50% as it's slow with 22 cars
on the grid, which isn't a problem as even at 50% detail the cars look
better than in most Sims.
Downside wise the sound is not that great and the menu system is not
brilliant but it's not bad. It wouldn't install on Windows 2000 but it would
run straight from disk. I installed it on a Win98 machine and copied it
across and it now runs perfectly on Win2K. I've only been racing for a
couple of days so it remains to be seen how good the AI is but so far it
beats GP3. I've been rammed up the backside a couple of time but that's
because I'm more used to GPL braking distances. Apart from that most
accidents have been my own stupid fault.
There are lots of really nice touches such as the way you see your fingers
flick the gear paddles, your tyres leave indentations in the gravel traps,
you drive off from inside your garage and there are even proper stop and go
penalties.
I've been looking for a decent F1 sim for so long and now I think I've found
it and I heartedly recommend it to anyone else who loves driving. It's still
not quite a new GPL but it really is a complete hoot.
--
Some Call Me Tim