OK,
I've had a bit longer on MGPRS2 now, so here are some more comments.
1) the AI is way improved. Not perfect but way different from F1RS. The
other cars drive very aggressively, and are VERY difficult to beat.
Previously, you could overtake any of the cars by outbraking them in
corners - no more. The cars have incidents between them which didn't happen
before, and now if you are involved in an incident, when going into the
pits, the other cars involved are there too! This did not happen before.
2) very significantly, you can now make pit settings from in-race! and with
the race paused! This was one of the most annoying aspects of F1RS, i.e. you
wasted a lot of precious time in the pits with that silly menu system
adjusting the fuel and tyres because the clock didn't stop. Obviously in
reality the driver would have radioed ahead! Now, you press F11 to get the
menu up, then press P to pause, make the adjustments then you're off back in
the race!
3) another major annoyance with F1RS was the fact that if a race was
abandoned, say to reload a save position, you had to wait for ages while the
sim went through every lap to the end. Now, it is instantaneous. Whew what a
relief.
4) there is now automatic adjustment for rain tyres instead of the old 'it's
raining, change to wet tyres'!
5) the new carsets from Lee Keane help to give a 1998 feel to it as all
teams and drivers names are editable.
6) sound is greatly improved not so much in the quality of the samples, but
in the realism of the race. Now, the sounds from the other cars are much
more realistic in terms of the volume level and where they appear in a
left/right context. I still can't hear any 3D effects though.
7) as I said in my previous mail, on a V2 the 800x600 mode is superb, the
detail on the cars is amazing. (With the D3D version you can go to higher
res.)
8) the new flag system also works well especially the blue (overtaking)
ones - it's great to see the back markers getting out of the way!
There are a couple of down sides so far -
1) I have had 2 or 3 game crashes - mostly in the pits
2) I get no sound in replays! Does this sound familiar?
When I've done a full race, I'll report again.
Iain