rec.autos.simulators

by **Revvi** » Sun, 05 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Well I'd be pretty gutted if I bought a Panoz Roadster and it rolled like
shit, itssupposed to be a sports car..geddit? s p o r t s c a r wait till
you drive the other cars such as the '68 Mustang or the Mustang you don't
have to unlock. I love track based sims and bought MM for a bit of a fun
blast and it certainly is that. I tried the demo but bored of it in minutes,
the MM demo made me go out and buy the full version the next day..I played
it all night with a mixture of manic laughter and swearing at the other road
users :-) The AI cars you race against are pretty damn good and the other
cars on the road behave as they would in real life, and if I did'nt know
better I'd say Bill Gates ***ed real motorists and made them crash so the
programming team could make the crashes look as good as they do :-)

Have you actually played MM? from that statement I would think not

Replace realistic with boring...for me MM is more realistic..but then I
prefer the realism in the dynamics of the car and not because it has eye
candy wheel trims falling off :-)

Revvin

by **Jon Van Ginneke** » Sun, 05 Sep 1999 04:00:00

No I have a NASCAR Pro which for some reason the game isn't reading when I
try and assign it....

> >I was impressed with the first Driver demo, but this was a bit of a let
> >down. It seemed to have no improvements...

> You don't have an analog joystick/wheel for driving games?

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

by **Jon Van Ginneke** » Sun, 05 Sep 1999 04:00:00

There is something in the grafx menu that deals with max framerate...toggle
through the choices, one eliminates pop-up but gives you rather bad fps if
you are running a lot of eye candy, pedestrians, and cars.

Jon

> The building still pop-ups very close to your view with the slider to max.

> > >Yup. I can't stand popup and this game has too much of it.

> > Turn up the draw-distance slider. Duh.

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

by Jo » Sun, 05 Sep 1999 04:00:00

You've found the Driver options screen? (It's is a little hidden, so
people miss it - on the "main" screen where it says "demo chase" hit
the left/right arrow.)

If you are getting there and it won't let you use it, I don't know.
Maybe make sure you don't have your wheel setup with seperate gas and
brake axis, it probably doesn't support that.

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

by Jo » Sun, 05 Sep 1999 04:00:00

>The building still pop-ups very close to your view with the slider to max.

On second look, you're right, there is still some popup. Maybe they
could make the highest draw-distance longer - though with the
open-ended environments they have you'd probably need a pretty
powerful system to run it that way.

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

by **Tempor** » Mon, 06 Sep 1999 04:00:00

> >The building still pop-ups very close to your view with the slider to
max.

> On second look, you're right, there is still some popup. Maybe they
> could make the highest draw-distance longer - though with the
> open-ended environments they have you'd probably need a pretty
> powerful system to run it that way.

Midotwn Madness is open ended and a LOT more detailed than Driver and the
draw distance is far enough you don't really notice the pop in at all. MM
runs fine, and Driver runs fine as well, since the graphics and details are
so lacking.

by **Tempor** » Mon, 06 Sep 1999 04:00:00

THANK YOU, I knew someone on this world has to have my POV.
The races are very good, but the most bang I get out of it is the Cruise
mode.
The night mode in MM is more impressive than the one in Driver. I mean,
there aren't any
street lamps in this version of Miami, and the mood of the game doesn't
change a bit;
it like driving in the daytime except it's dark, everything is strangely and
highly refelctive, and you got that thunder effect I wish I can turn off.
Playing Cruise mode in MM at night using the night setting reminds me of
those car trips home.

Ditto, you do know when something hit you, and from where, based on the
suspension movement when in
the dashboard mode. MM also simulate driving on a flat tire, although the
tire never catches fire...

Ditto, never thought of the word boring to describe the 'arcade' physic of
Driver. Feels more like the arcade physic in Gran Turismo, which was kind of
stiff. People complained that in MM, the car spin out or slide a lot, but
wouldn't wouldn't it slide if YOU took a sharp turn at 90 MPH???

- Show quoted text -

by **Revvi** » Mon, 06 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Like I said I prefer track based sims but wanted a game for a little fun and
to show off my new FF wheel with as well as GPL and SCGT..I tried the two
demos with a slight leaning toward Driver as a friend with a Playstation
said it was good and the fact that Microsoft are the spawn of the devil :-)
The driver demo was uninspiring and looked like a washed out version of NFS
or something similar and for me the MM demo was great, as I said I went out
the next day and bought the full version, its not often I do that (AoE was
the lastI can remember) Apart from all the points I made above I liked the
idea of realistic city modelling and not just blocks as in Driver, another
thing that got me interested was the idea of there maybe being add-on disc's
for MM with other cities, add-on discs being a thing Microsoft often do in
their titles and the fact that the box and CD are emblazoned with 'Chicago
Edition' also hints to me that there may well be more cities in the
pipeline.

Revvin

by Jo » Mon, 06 Sep 1999 04:00:00

>Midotwn Madness is open ended and a LOT more detailed than Driver and the
>draw distance is far enough you don't really notice the pop in at all.

I don't find MM any more detailed. And Driver has much better weather
and "time of day" effects, and I think the car models are as good if
not better.

But the main thing to me is the gameplay. Driver has a much better
physics/driving model, and the gameplay seems a lot more varied and
interesting.

Don't get me wrong, I loved MM, but it does lack replayability.

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

by Jo » Mon, 06 Sep 1999 04:00:00

>THANK YOU, I knew someone on this world has to have my POV.
>The races are very good, but the most bang I get out of it is the Cruise
>mode.
>The night mode in MM is more impressive than the one in Driver. I mean,
>there aren't any
>street lamps in this version of Miami, and the mood of the game doesn't
>change a bit;

Huh? Not only are there streetlamps, the night mode is much better.
Hell the night mode's even dynamic, you can watch it change from dusk
to dark - and just as it's getting dark the streetlights come on.
Damned impressive if you ask me.

The powersliding is much more realistic and fun in Driver, IMO.

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

by Jo » Mon, 06 Sep 1999 04:00:00

>Like I said I prefer track based sims but wanted a game for a little fun and
>to show off my new FF wheel ...

Driver has a MUCH better FF implementation. MM has typical cheesy
arcade racer gimmicks, just collisions and rtoad textures. Driver FF
models tire grip so you can actually USE it for information, plus it
makes the driving much more immersive.

Well they'd BETTER. MM was a good game, but it has very limited
replayability value.

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

by **Revvi** » Mon, 06 Sep 1999 04:00:00

FF wheel ...

Well can't argue that, the demo I tried was the unnoficial one and it only
had keys to use, the AI was also very easy to beat, could lose the cops in
the carpark

I found the playability of one city fine in MM compared to Driver, it
reminds me of the old spectrum game Turbo Esprit with its block design all
lokking the same

Revvin

by **Wolfgang Preis** » Tue, 07 Sep 1999 04:00:00

>> On second look, you're right, there is still some popup. Maybe they
>> could make the highest draw-distance longer - though with the
>> open-ended environments they have you'd probably need a pretty
>> powerful system to run it that way.

>Midotwn Madness is open ended and a LOT more detailed than Driver and the
>draw distance is far enough you don't really notice the pop in at all. MM
>runs fine, and Driver runs fine as well, since the graphics and details are
>so lacking.

One problem with the popup in Driver stems from the choice of
location, I believe: you could see the few higher buildings in the
Miami scenario from far away, since they are not blocked by other,
nearer highrise buildings. In MM's Chicago, there is almost always a
skyscraper nearby that blocks the view into the distance.

Having said that, I have to admit that the designers of MM have done a
marvelous job with the artwork, especially when driving at dawn. It
looks great. OTOH, when you set the time of day in Driver to dawn or
night, the pop-up problem is also diminished. I think I will drive by
night mainly.

--
Wolfgang Preiss \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.

by **Alex Pavlof** » Tue, 07 Sep 1999 04:00:00

On Sat, 04 Sep 1999 07:23:47 GMT, "Jon Van Ginneken"

>I was impressed with the first Driver demo, but this was a bit of a let
>down. It seemed to have no improvements, even though GT claimed that the
>old demo was a very old beta....HA!....if that were the case this game would
>have been also much improved. It wasn't.

Well, actually, games aren't supposed to improve from beta. They're
supposed to become more stable and tested. What's supposed to happen
is that all features are implemented by beta (or maybe even alpha),
and the last part of the development process is fixing bugs.

However, that being said, the computer game industry has marked habits
of slipping deadlines, and what was previously known as "alpha" pushes
over into "beta."

So, if a product doesn't change much from beta to final, it can mean
that the product has had a longer testing and bug fixing period.

--

Gamer / Programmer
But not a Game Programmer

rec.autos.simulators

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(

Official Driver demo still blows :(