Hmmm..... got F1RS on friday.
First impressions:-
I'm a little disappointed, slowdowns that were in the demo are still
there. On my humle iP166 (non MMX) & 3Dfx with 21 cars it crawls when
they are all on the screen at the same time. I have reduced it to
round about 12 cars now and this is better, not perfect but better.
This is a disapointment as I don't really want to race with half the
field. Why can't we have some resolution options to set it up in
512x384 and a little more flexibility in detail settings.
This is my major gripe - I have a friend who said he got _no_
to suggest they have no slowdown either -now either this is entirely
subjective and I wouldn't be happy with their 'smooth' or its time to
get a new CPU (and m/board with 83mhz). One things for sure I'm gonna
pursue this.
Handling - this seems better than the demo - i.e. no 1st gear
cornering on 5th gear corners.
AI - hmmm not 100% sure yet - at times they seem really good - at
others they are up your backside destroying your rear wing.
Graphics, well as we've all seen the demo, are excellent.
Sound, well I think its damn good. No complaints here from me.
Setup options - well it seems OK ....but........->
Gripe number 2: Menus & bugs? The menu system is appalling, slow to
react (if at all) and generally ill thought out. I've had a play on
TIME ATTACK (GHOST) and saved some setups off on Monaco, can I get the
load button to react to load them in? - can I bollocks. Does anyone
have the same problem? I've read that the Replays option also has
problems as I've not tried this yet (I'm not really that bothered
about this feature) I'll not comment but how some of the stuff got
past QA is beyond me - why the hell didn't someone say god this menu
system is shit lets bin it and just do a simple (read GP2) system
thats logical and doesn't irritate the shit out everyone.
Difficulty and driving aids system is terrible - (and this is
compounded by the menu system) why didn't they model it on GP2. I do
hate it when people try to be different just for the sake of it - for
Gods sake GP2 did it right. If someone does it right then copy it -
there is no shame in that.
I'm hoping that UBI are gonna rectify the problems. It has such
potential (from the demo we could all see this), but despite the cool
graphics etc.....I don't feel it has toppled GP2 at least not without
some extra work.
Bugs:- is it me or do the wing mirrors sometimes not display anything.
Conclusion:-
Somewhat disappointed - and hoping that they are not going to do a
Microprose (which IMHO didn't have some of the problems that this has
- at least IMHO).
everyone seems to be going back to (even if I did get a free copy of
Pod thrown in).
Dave