These points are based on about 3 or 4 days play only.
First impressions,
The manual (or should i say leaflet!). The previous 3 games have had thick
juicy manuals full of detail and data. This one comes with a megre 30 page
thin effort that doesnt mention tracks, setup information or just about
anything other than how to drive around in arcade mode.
Its all very well saying "Use the GPaedia" but its a hell of a lot easier to
sit down and digest printed information than to scan through a small window
of text on a dodgy coloured background with irritating background music.
Lets have a return to real documentation with complex games !
A lot of the same problems as GP3. I calibrate and play my FFB MS wheel and
cant then use the in game menus without unplugging it as the selection keeps
permanently scrolling (it works fine in the game). Even the mouse wont work
as the selection keeps changing. Its an identical problem to GP3. It makes
altering car setup during practice sessions very fiddly.
Why isnt standard Direct Input utilised and an option to disable controller
in the menu ?
Black flags.
Very irritating and still hasnt implemented the simple stop/go and
drive-through penalties. Slowing the car to 50mph for a while isnt valid
for a jump start. Its not THAT hard to implement a stop-go within the 10
laps forecast. As it stands simply cutting a corner even if it has no
effect on the time and/or position EVEN IN PRACTICE can result in a black
flag, Example at monza, the first bend just putting 1 wheel on the green
paint on the inside of the kerb leads to a flag. A lot more could have been
done to fix this black flag problem which has been here since the original
F1GP game.
Safety car isnt modelled either.
Launch control is nothing more than a turbo traction control at the start -
it doesnt help you start as soon as the lights go on, simply stops wheel
spin. Again surely not a huge programming effort to cure.
Performance:
System is an XP2000+ with Geforce2 GTS card, 768mb ram.
Running in 1024 x 768, automatic settings results in about half detail being
selected. Its fine in practice with higher but CPU occupancy in a race is
130-140% on non graphic intensive circuits. Even with settings down to half
it still spikes to 120-130 at times during a race causing some odd
behaviour. I think i may have to knock it to 800 x 600 eventually or risk
turning so much detail off im not going to get turn points etc.
Overall:
Looks like an upgrade to GP3 not a new game. It seems most of the code has
just been ported, the teams updated (to last years only) and welded onto a
new graphics engine. Not even known bugs have been addressed and new
features are at a minimum.
Having said that, the gripes aside its still a very good game and one im
likely to be playing for a long time.