F1-2000 - Why I won't buy it on Day One.
Well folks, I am glad I tried this thing out prior to buying it.
If you don't want to read a major whining rant, you might
want to move on to another post.
First off, I want to say that I am VERY grateful for developers
who take a chance on creating *** sims, and at it's maximum
realism settings, F1-2000 is pretty damned ***. If it's
so ***, then I guess you might wonder why I won't be snapping
it up the millisecond it hits the shelves.
Here are a few of the reasons.
These are my impressions from the MYTH (Final Retail) version of
F1-2000, not the earlier CLASS-released BETA version.
* REASON #1 - Why I absolutely won't buy F1-2000 on Day One
EA/ISI:
What's up with the frigging TIRE SQUEAL? Have you ever witnessed
an F1 race? Have you attended ANY type of race?
If not, then here is some info you may be interested in. When there
are 25, or so, F1 cars in a clump at a venue like Monaco, it is VERY
damned difficult to hear the tiniest squeal from anyone's tires.
F1 cars are really, really noisy . 'K?
Why didn't you actually -listen- to what you have created here,
or at least have someone that actually goes to races, (of any type)
listen to it?
To group: This particular developer, ISI, while having a good
handle on the physics of the cars is not.. err.. sound savvy. Just
like their previous title, SCGT, there are nearly NO ways to
control the sounds that are dished out to us, the user. If I set
the sound effects slider to 10%, I will hear no crashes, etc.,
but my damned tires will continue to holler at the *slightest*
provocation. I *can't stand* the continuous squealing, so I
will pass on this one, until editors are made by 3rd parties,
as was done to fix the ludicrous sound situation in SCGT.
With SCGT, I rushed out and bought it, and lived with the ***
sound for a while until someone finally made an editor to rip
the sounds. At that time, I changed the engine and other sounds
and my SCGT sounds are on GTINSIDER, and other sites etc..
The sounds that I and others created made SCGT much more
likeable. Again, this will have to be done to fixed the f**ked-up
F1-2000 TIRE SQUEAL, of all things.
I simply can't bear to listen to it, and I won't be paying for
F1-2000 until it is fixed. Don't worry, I won't be sitting here at
home secretly using this warez copy of F1-2000. It is off my drive.
I will wait and see if there are any editors released and what the
user comments are, prior to running it again. If it is fixed, I will
buy it that day. Not before.
I HATE the squealing sound!!!!!!! ;)
* OTHER REASONS I would be irritated even if the SQUEALING
problems were fixed.
EA/ISI:
Why is there only about a 1/4"-1/2" of pedal travel prior to full
braking? I use a TSW wheel/pedals and I don't have this problem
in any other sim. What's up with F1-2000 that it will go full
brakes with 1/4"-1/2" of pedal travel? I have over 2" of pedal
travel in my pedals and you only let me use 1/4-1/2" of the 2".
It really, really makes it difficult to modulate the brakes,
EA/ISI, when you design your simulator this way. Care to
tell us why it is like that? Is there a way that the users can
do yet more hacking to fix this problem? Will you help them hack it?
Also, EA/ISI, why is it that even with SMOKE detail at LOW
that every car, including mine, emits powerful plumes of SMOKE
at nearly EVERY corner? The first time I saw it, I thought the
entire field had blown their engines.. LOL. I had to turn off the
smoke in order to see where I was going, when following the AI.
What's up with that, EA/ISI, and will you help 3rd parties hack
it to act like real racecars do?
EA/ISI, why does the run down to Eau Rouge, one of the most
famous and recognizable sections of race track in the WORLD,
have only a -very- slight slope, not a dramatic drop, like in real life?
Same with Monaco..
Why are the elevations made MUCH less dramatic than in real life?
You may remember that you did the -same- thing in SCGT with
Road Atlanta and with Laguna Seca. Didn't user comments affect
you when you created this new title. Do you at ISI have a TV or
VCR so you could actually LOOK at an F1 race and see that the
elevation changes in F1-2000 are FAR too understated?
[sigh]
* Note to newsgroup: I have some other irritants that bother me
with this title, including the POOR graphics performance. I won't
belabor those, since I can simply reduce major amounts of detail,
view distances, cars viewed, etc. I can crank down the res to
640x480 on my PIII-600/256mb/V3-3000. Silly ***like graphics
beauty shouldn't bother me, cos' after all, I'm hard core, right?
I have to do this majorly reduced detail thing to maintain a
*consistently* decent framerate in *races* with F1-2000.
After my ranting, some of you may wonder who pissed in my Cheerios.
Well, I guess my expectations pissed in my Cheerios. I thought
this was gonna be a nice sim, and in many areas it is VERY nice.
Physics modeling, for example, is very impressive. FWIW, there
is more to enjoyable sim racing, for me, than simply the physics
modeling.
EA/ISI:
What's up with the engine sound? Why does it make
those little frequency jumps as it revs up? This is most
noticeable in the external replay. It's as if you take a sound
loop and change it's frequency in steps. You do something
like: 8000,8300,8600,8900, etc. The jumps are very noticeable
and sound silly. It would be much better if the jumps were
MUCH smaller, like 8000,8025,8050,8075,8100 .. etc.
This is not a biggie, I'm just wondering if there is some
way to [sigh] 'hack' it to make it sound like a real racecar, and
not some cheap FOR..NEXT loop in an 80's BASIC program.
[shrug]
O.K, enough whining, I am gonna go do something else and try to
make my ears stop squealing, and put a few drops of Visine in my
eyes to clear out the tire smoke. :)
There is a -nice- sim under all of the incredibly bad elevation
and sound detail, and I will buy F1-2000 immediately when it
is *fixed*, by either the developer (unlikely) or by 3rd parties.
Not before.
For now, I am going to sit back and watch people post that this
can't be the 'final retail' version, and that all will be well in the
REAL store-bought version, that my controller and system is crap,
that I should support '***' developers by buying it anyway,
that I am a pirate slimeball, (even though I have an unfixed
PURCHASED Nascar Revolution on my shelf)... Blah, Blah, Blah.
I guess when it actually hits the store shelves all of these questions
will be answered by the posts here in this newsgroup.
You heard it here first .. . :)
Let the flames commence. Next ..
--
* rrev at mindspring dot com
* unit.26 - s.p.u.t.u.m.
* http://www.racesimcentral.net/