rec.autos.simulators

Pathetic about sums it up:

Pathetic handling qualities, I love full realism like GPL, but have lots
of fun with Porsche Unleashed and even Gran Turisimo, but this game
makes a Ferrari handle like a 1962 Buick land yacht.

Pathetic graphics code, yea it looks great, but it is NOT fully DirectX
compliant, and even says "we only support the following video cards" and
list the normal Nvidia and ATI cards, but then a few pages down it says
that Radeon 8500 dont work properly and may cause "an unstable PC
environment"....yea like the ROCK SOLID lockups in my WinXP, so hard I
have to power down, and the graphics corruption  that pops up every 10
minutes of play.  Last time I checked ATI drivers were fine, and fully
certified.....wonder where the problem is.....couldnt be sloppy half
assed programming....no....

Have I mentioned the NO IN CAR VIEW?   What is this 1989?  I could
almost overlook this glaring ommision if not for the constant babble
from EA spin artists about how the game will be fully customizable, from
arcade to hard core simulation fans.......I should know by now that this
kind of talk means they are making a***poor arcade game, but hope to
snare as many unsuspecting customer as possible before the word gets
out.

I would love to say the reason I am so disapointed was because my
expectations were so high after Porshe Unleashed, but this game isnt
disapointing becuase my expecations were too high, its disapointing
because I can find almost NOTHING good about it.

Ah well.....looks like someones trying to milk the NFS franchise for
another buck.

--
*****

2Late4U

ERROR: Reading Pop-Tart? in drive A:    Delete kids [y/n]?_

    Try the 6193 drivers at www.rage3d.com  they fixed my nfs6 problems.

rms

Yup, this game series has gone backwards with this release.

I'd just like to point out the NFS: Hot Pursuit games are developed by
another outfit than the one responsible for Porsche Unleashed. In fact,
IIRC, Hot Pursuit games are not related to any other title in the NFS series
in the driving model/gameplay mechanics area.

I haven't tried the demo (don't even know if there is one, actually), but,
personally, I don't hold much hope for this sequel to what I thought was a
bit of a stinker: NFS: Hot Pursuit.

Jan.
=---

NFS never claimed to be a realistic driving simulator.

Its more a driverissue i guess.

In car view sucks in 99% of the games out today anyway.
Only LFS have done a good***pitview in my opinion. GPL comes second
then.. nah..

Well, i think its pretty fun. I look at it more that its some N64
arcaderacer
or Spy Hunter 3 :D then its fun

Its not as bad milking as Nascar4->N2002, and F1 2001 -> F1 2002 imo.

Eh.. read that site again.

GF3 Ti here and no glaring graphics problems (a little corruption in the
reflections), but game slows down to jerk-o-vision when there are no other
cars around? -Driver issue? <g>

Any in car view is better than no in car view. Non of the external camera's
in NFS:HP2 comes close to being workable for wheel control and the bumper
cam gives a very poor idea of the car's size.

I move to differ, there's good***pit views in: GPx, MBTR, RC2000, STCC2,
N2k2, SBK2001... (ok, technically no "in-car" view in that last one... ;-))

Even in that respect it falls well short of the mark, IMO. Sense of speed
and control is sporadic, AI react to the corners instead of driving them and
therefore seem more interested in becoming obstructions than in actually
racing the player. The cops are annoying more than challenging and I can't
speak for the full game, but the tracks and cars in the demo are decidedly
uninspired. I'd rather go back to playing Motorhead or ReVolt.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the arcade direction is the wrong
way to take the NFS series in, as the resulting games are invariably no fun
to either type of player.

The passing of seasons, drivers and teams at least provides an exuse in
those cases... what's the excuse for producing another Hot Pursuit game?

Jan.
=---

GF3 standard here, no problems at all with fps.
Duron800 with 384MB ram, using 30.82 Nvidia drivers.

I dont see why a nonworking incar view would be good, but we are all
different :)

;-))

SBK2001, yes, its got a great one. but i cant agree with STCC2, and N2k2.
Well, i only have N4, but incar view, you couldnt see a darn thing almost.
It feels like
the head of the driver is in the backseat or something. :(

I hope LFS will be Needforspeed type racing but with gpl physics. But I
still enjoy the
arcade physics too. but then again, im a big fan of Ridge Racer too :)

-Tim

Well, you know... drivers nowadays, fairly petite and light as they may be,
still reprensent a fair chunk of weight. Which designers position as
favourably as possible, to the detriment of all round visability.

I don't see why simracers should be spared this particular discomfort.

Jan.
=---

Because we have no peripheral vision and we're looking at a 2D screen -
these factors need to be taken into account.  'Live For Speed' and 'Ferrari
355 Challenge' get it right - why can't others?

It has been a matter of debate of whether sims should compensate for lack of
sensation from the real situation or not and I think each developer seeks
it's own compromise.

This is a matter of taste, not of right and wrong.

Jan.
=---

Sooo true.  There's a term for these scenarios, 'sim-headaches.'

No, it's just trying to be a good game. On the PS2 it is. The PC
version is sorely lacking.

The reason is especially distressing ... apparently the company that
did the port didn't like the Black Box driving engine, so they decided
to bolt their own on instead.

So instead of a solid, fun arcade driving game, the PC version is a
mediocre game at best.