rec.autos.simulators

Now, I'm certainly no expert on what constitutes a sim, and what doesn't, but
perhaps these words from someone more knowledgeable than me will shed some light
on just how good this game is:

As arcade-oriented this game is, it certainly makes an honest effort to
encompass many sim-like handling qualities (something that has always made NFS
games stand-out among other pure arcade drivers in the past). I just wanted to
list all the neat handling behaviors I've experienced in the game so far.

?power-on understeer (even more so on AWD vehicles)
?brake-on understeer
?power-on oversteer
?trailing throttle oversteer
?trailing brake oversteer
?massive balanced powerdrifting
?lifting the inside rear wheel causing it to overspin with power application at
speed, with resultant gentle oversteer (you also get the resultant rpm flash and
inside tire trail mark)
?at low speeds while tight turning, you can lift the inside rear wheel, visibly
lock it with light brake application, and then do a donut style oversteer with
throttle application
?observance of slip angles when it comes to turning traction in the front as
well as lateral control in the rear
?increase in launch traction and general off-axis stability on AWD vehicles
?lateral squirm as the drive wheels hook-up while launching hard
?increased turning traction after brakes are applied to cause a forward weight
transfer
?observance of rotational inertial causing the car to wag like a pendulum (if
not, spin out entirely) due to overcorrection
?naturally, there is an observance overall car mass when it comes to general
mobility and collisional contact between cars
?observance of a difference between rolling traction and sliding traction
?I'm pretty sure there is an observance of increased downforce with speed on
certain cars (though drafting seems to be missing, as far as I can tell).
?it appears that independent tire loading is in effect front-to-rear and
side-to-side (the variable gradiations of tire tracks left by extreme manuevers
are convincing if not interesting, at least)

There's probably a few more, but just this seems like a pretty full plate giving
way toward extremely varied handling experiences and responsiveness to many
driving tactics. I wonder if there are any handling features that are missing,
such as those that appear in your typical full-sim driving games? Anybody care
to comment?

--
"Life is what you experience between racing games"
Galley

This game (demo) is awesome!. Sure no *** sim, but i never thought NFS
pretended to be that either.
The tracks are pretty NFS to me, with lovely graphics (running full details
everything, 32bit, 800*600, and gets 25fps on my Duron 800 + GF3.
I can also feel the poweroff oversteer in the car, etc. Well,
very fun to get chased by the cops thru a beatiful landscape :)
Wished those tracks got converted to F1 2002 instead of boring chicanes ;)

Well, unlike NFS3 (HP1), it does make a gesture in the direction of a car-
like driving feel.  But NFS5 (Porsche) was much more realistic, so it's
expected that many people would see this as a step backwards.  I understand
that simulation isn't the goal of these games, but for my taste NFS5 struck
the perfect balance -- for an arcade/console-type game -- between realism
and gameplay, and sort of represents the minimum degree of realism that a
game can have and still be compelling.