rec.autos.simulators

Alright, here's the review of CART World Series by the PSX Power ezine,
followed by my rants:

"The CART association is a fast-growing alternative to traditional Indy
car racing, offering a similar style of racing cars, but subject to
different rules and regulations. And now, like most racing series these
days, it has been turned into a PlayStation game."

:|: Geez, what an insult to CART!

"...CART World Series' closest competitor is Formula 1: Championship
Edition.  Immediate comparisons aren't good. Any title would have a
difficult time being compared to the modern-day wonder that is F1, and
when put side by side, CART's shortfalls quickly show up."

:|: Did these guys really play this game?!

"For a start, the controls seem over-fiddly. The steering is tight to
say the least, and it seems to stick to the road like glue..."

:|: Hello?!  This *is* an Indy car, with enough downforce to race
upside-down...!

"In CART it's almost impossible to unstick the car from the track, and
the end result is that when you're zooming up to a corner too fast,
rather than spectacularly sliding off, the car doesn't seem to turn fast
enough, and just plows ahead in a straight line and crashes into the
wall. Frustrating to say the least..."

:|: Well...yes.  It called understeer, and it's called braking-induced
understeer.  Do it - get in your car, and go about 60, and get on the
brakes somewhat hard.  See what kind of steering ability you get!  You
know, there *is* a car setup option....  I'm curious as to what happened
in F1CE!

"The strongest feature of the game is the AI. Rather than driving around
like morons, the drivers are actually intelligent and drive
aggressively. So much so that they sometimes collide - this is
especially good when they do it in front of you and you're forced to
drive through spinning cars that are shedding debris all over the track.
That is definitely the best part of the game, because it does really
feel like you're racing in a competitive environment."

:|: Yes, this is true.  I especially like making up several places
passing guys who can't handle the tri-oval at Nazareth (has anybody seen
this?)....  And I've noticed the leader of a race actually drives
conservatively, and second & third drive their a$$es off trying to catch
up!  Now this is racing!

"When it comes down to it, CART is a fun game that, on its own merits,
offers some cool features and exciting racing. But, and it's a big 'but'
(almost as big as Ricki Lake's), compared to other racing titles, CART
doesn't stack up..."

:|: Compared to what?!  Andretti Racing?!  Rage Racer?!  NASCAR?!
Burning Road (there's a hot title <g>)?!  CART is, by far, the most
realistic and the funnest open-wheel simulator game on the PlayStation
market (I've seen the 'fun'-aspect-related posts on this NG, and I
wholeheartedly agree.  I originally bought a PlayStation for Formula 1,
and know now I would buy one for CART.  CART is my game, since CART
Precision's requirements will be way too high for my computer...!

-John :|:

I think your comments are right-on. Fact is, the guy who wrote this
article obviously doesn't know enough about the sport to have taken
this assignment...

On Fri, 17 Oct 1997 23:59:26 -0700, "John P. Wilson"

Yes, but it is funny. At first you have to wonder if he is joking...

Precisely. Like the review at, I think, Digital Sports says, Jacques
Villeneuve says exactly this- the CART cars are much more "edgy" and
"twitchy" than the F1 cars. And they *do* have a shocking amount of
downforce... what's the figures? The car weighs 1100 pounds sitting
still, and something like 6000 pounds at 240 MPH.

Frustrating, eh? That is what it is all about- keeping control of the
car!! This guy was looking for Ridge Racer, I think.

Spot-on, again. One thing I really like in this sim as compared to the
old F1 (don't have the new one, probably won't get it now) is that the
gearing *really makes a difference*. In F1, the transmission was
basically a "penalty" item- you either shift at the right RPMs, or you
go slow (with that annoying low-rev sound they had). In cart, you can
really choose a gear to avoid wheelspin, to save gas, you can pop a
clutch and spin out...

The key in CART is, in general, keeping the back end from stepping
out- when it does, very bad things happen. However, the input control
action from my wheel is fast enough that you can catch it... but it is
tough. I now remember the in-car cameras of this past season, and the
incredible speed of Andretti's hands going to opposite-lock coming out
of road-course turns... exactly like you have to do in this sim.

The best part of the game... that is hard to say. The more I race this
sim, the more I realize it's depth. At first glance, I almost returned
the thing- fact is, Sony did a bad job of making it's features
apparent. Like, who can figure out how to save your calibrations and
settings? It can be done, but it took me a week to discover it (in
this newsgroup). However, I don't think there is a more realistic
handling sim on the market- let's see how MSPR does. The credits list
Moore, Herta, Pruett, and Rahal as advisors on the sim, and I think it
shows.

CART is shockingly good. The more I use it, the more I like it.

But it has bugs- lots of them. None fatal, though.

I'd say Mid-Ohio is a real problem course; the AI is *too* fast , and
I can almost never finish a race there because they are braking so
much later than me and generally hitting me. That is the only problem
course, I've found. Nazareth has had some spectacular accidents; the
key there is to stay alert and hold on; most cars in front of you will
eventually wipe each other out, in spectacular crashes.

Laguna Seca is fabulous looking, and drives great, but what is with
the speeds!?! They appear to have no relation to the speeds I am used
to from ICR2... you can add 50MPH to some turns. But that is a detail
for me, because the racing feels right, and is great.

It was gutsy putting Michigan and Fontana on the same sim- an average
sim would have a tough job making them seem different enough. This sim
succeeds- and the setup for each track for me to win is quite
different; lower gearing , more downforce on Fontana, I;ve found. And
they feel very different to drive; you come out of turns 2 and 4 in a
very different way from each other.

Finally Homestead makes sense to me- it is a fun track! It is sort of
boring to watch, but I think I'll enjoy it more next season. It
reminds me of racing Indy (IMS) in an old Papyrus sims. SUre, it is
smaller, but it doesn't feel much smaller to race on, I guess because
it probably takes about the same time to get around one lap (just a
guess), and lining up on the 4 straightaways is an interesting
challenge..

How in the hell does this sim store entire races in it's memory? The
replay system is flawed tot eh point of uselessness (rather than
seeing my race from 10 minute ago, I want to see if from 10 *seconds*
ago!).. but technically amazing. It is almost as if they were out to
prove the old Psygnosis claim that "it wasn't possible to save replays
with analog controllers" wrong.

Yeah, some of the AI really gets me sometimes.  Especially on the big
ovals...Michigan and California.  They take odd driving lines to block
you, and Tracy will almost always run you into the wall.  But I do drive
my a$$ off to win, and even 10% of a 500-miler seems an endurance
race....

Don't get me started on this, I'll find a way to prove it...!

-John :|: