rec.autos.simulators

Just thought I add my 0.02cent worth .

When I read and saw the earlier review / screenshots of
this Rally Championship 2000, I was not very optimistic.

Seemed like another QAF rally or something like that.
This game is great if you like to get the rally experience
without paying through your nose.
( the real thing is very expensive )

1) No more invisible wall
==========================
This to me was the main problem with the old game.
YOu could actually bounce off those invisible walls
without going off.
Not the GPL thing !

Now RC2000 has lots of area if you over cook the corner
and sometimes it even has cliff sides and deep ditches
which you can't get out.

However the pathway itself is very narrow, just like in
the real rally.

2) sense of speed
===========================
Of all the games I tried , this is the only one that
could really give a sense of movement and acceleration.

Partly due to the excellent graphics in the game,
you DO ACTUALLY FEEL := "wow this is fast"

The sort of breakneck feeling that you get when
you watch the "in-car camera " of actual footage.

This is very well presented here.

3)out standing graphics
==========================
I am using one of those modern graphic cards, TNT
so your experience might be different, especially
if you use those inferior older card like voodoo3   :-O
( 3DFX is part of our *** history )

THIS IS A MUST SEE !!

4) steering too pointy
=========================
Although in real rally cars the steering
ratio is very high, ie cars are very pointy.

In a computer game and using joystick,
it is VERY DIFFICULT to accurately
place the cars.

Compounding this problem , the  roads
in rally are very narrow and curbs that will
easily bounce you off.

5) great inertia and weight transfer
=========================
True to real rally cars which has practically everything
stripped off to save weight, ( some even  use  carbon
fibre to save weight ).
These rally cars have very high POWER-WEIGHT RATIO.

Hence they do behave a little like radio controlled cars.
and do bounce around quite easily and jumps over humps
and crest with relative ease.
Again this is consistent with real rally cars.

6) fantasic navigator
==========================
the new navigator give very informative
lead on what is ahead....
if only I was listening.

Several times I overcook a corner and lands into
a ditch, then I recalled someone saying " chicane ahead "

But use only the FEMALE navigator.
The MALE is hopeless.
He would say " chain ahead ",  " dirty " , when he meant
chicane ahead or thirty.........
Sometimes I actually look to my side and thrash him
with my spanner  !!
This is what happens when you ask a scot man to speak
english..............................UUURGH.

--
Best regards

SINGAPORE

Even more so than GPL?

Phil Winstow
     ICQ: 57400677

Well if you take off Shift-R (you can have a reset feature in RC as well),
there is times where I can be simply stuck and can't do nothing more than
Retire in GPL.  It will often happen, per example having your car balanced
over a hill crest.  It especially happens when I loose tyre contact on a
surface with one or both rear wheels.  And it also happens when you
magically get stuck on some walls <g>

I still wish we could get "stuck" in the sand.  I have simply never heard of
a sim who offers such a thing, well I can't remember if there is indeed one.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

Ok well I've 2 points here.

1. Yes, it is the best damn feel of speed I've EVER seen in a sim!!
2. Not wanting to start this conversation again, but GPL's has a scence of
power but as far as a scence of speed goes, GPL is well off the mark.

Anyways, I'm off to join the New "RC2000 cult" :-)

--
GraDee (Who feels lonely around this time of year.)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Karting "3.65"
www.esatclear.ie/~karting
-------------------------------------------------------------
"The dozens and dozens........."

yeah, me too but I think the problem is that,
the sim makers feel that if people keep getting stuck in the sand they'll
just get pee'd off.

Which to most simmers, getting stuck is real but the sales of GPL proved
that the majority is probably "arcade" or at least fun racers, meaning they
just want to sit in and drive from the start, without having to get "trained
in".

Oh, BTW, I was told that OF1RS has something like this, engines stall if you
don't keep it runing inthe traps and so on but I'm not sure if thats true.

--
GraDee (....who can't find his wig!?!)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Karting "3.65"
www.esatclear.ie/~karting
-------------------------------------------------------------
"The dozens and dozens........."

But it's not accurate !!! I don't care if the sense of speed is the best,
it's over-done, like C:PR was over-done also.  Some of us have raced in
real-life (open-wheel, touring cars, rally cars, etc..) and be sure that we
all agree it's a great sensation, but not accurate.

The sense of power is perfect in GPL, and the sense of speed is accurate in
GPL.  And even more if you can psychologically slow down the environment
around you.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

I have no idea why, but this is one of the funniest things I have read here
in a long time.

Marc.

"

Yeah yeah, ok, In racing on a track somehow you don't get this sensation of
speed because everthing is at a distance, but ploughing through a wood,
totally surrounded by trees and anything you can think of, going as fast as
you can is the biggest rush you can have. When things are close up it gives
the feeling of speed. I really don't quite understand how you mean by it
being totally inaccurate, if it were a losed circuit sim, this movemnet
would seem unreal, not rallying.
Maybe you are refering to the physics, ok, so they aren't "fully" realistic,
but its the closest damn thing you can get right now, and its damn fun for a
change.

Ok, well, at speed GPL, gives one hell of a rush too, I'll give you that, I
think thats only that way though becasue of how the cars goes all unsteady
and weird we you shift up to 6th gear.

I have commented before however that at lower speeds (aka 1st - 3rd) gear it
is almost impossible to get a fell of how fast you are going, the only way
sems to be to train yourself into***pit view and keep watching the clocks.

For me it's not!  I've done some Rally racing and be sure the sensation is
way slower than those games like Rc2000 and Sega Rally.  The thing is, as a
driver you should always try to mentally slow down the surrounding.  All the
best drivers in the world, whatever type they are runing, try to slow down
the environment psychologically.  And when they do is when it's the most
successfull ;)

You shouldn't be caught with the sensation of speed. It is the worst thing
to happen to any driver.

It is so accurate when you find the "sweet spot".  For those who don't know
what's the sweet spot, it's a psychological state of mind where your
concentration can't be as higher as it is.  All the surroundings are slowed
down, your brain is reacting perfectly to the inputs of the car.  You and
the car form only one.

clocks.

That's very accurate. In real life one of the biggest problem you have in
racing (open-wheel, stock car and especially in Rallying) is to
over-estimate a corner, thinking that you can easily turn when your 20mph
over the speed that you should take it.  It is very difficult at low speed
to accurately think of the speed your going.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

a kind of "g-force" simulation by using
the tress and things moving pass you.

--

Thanks and regards
Leong
SINGAPORE

whereas the "sense of speed"
describe the experience of RC2000.

Actually I was expecting a motorcycle sim to
do it  but luckly for us, RC2000 came through

--

Thanks and regards
Leong
SINGAPORE

which part is not accurate about the sense of speed ??

--

Thanks and regards
Leong
SINGAPORE

: But it's not accurate !!! I don't care if the sense of speed is the best,
: it's over-done, like C:PR was over-done also.  Some of us have raced in
: real-life (open-wheel, touring cars, rally cars, etc..) and be sure that we
: all agree it's a great sensation, but not accurate.

Do you count yourself as one of those with racing experience?  Just
curious, as you have worded it rather ambiguously.  

As for the sensation of speed, I would say it is dead on.  I grew up not
so far from you (Ontario - hell, anything less than a day's drive is
"close" to a Canadian) and did a lot of driving on the gravel roads up
north.  Occasional flirtation with the laws of the province and the laws
of physics convinced me that speed on gravel is a different experience
that on a more civilized road.  Still, not quite like what one sees in
RC2000.  Recently I made my first trip to Britain and drove about 2500
miles on an assortment of dual carriageway, A-roads and B-roads.  The
majority of the A-roads were "holy shit" tight, with stone walls and
hedges just off the outside of the curbs.  The B-roads were
outrageous.  The Mobil 1 rally is held mostly on a class of road I would
consider "sub-B".  It really is that narrow, and the sensation of speed
really is like that.  

Stephen

Slot