gone and bought EA new title F1-2001 for my PC, it`s an average pc
AMD-Thunderbird 1.4Ghz... 500+mb, GeForce 2 GTS (64mb), s-b-live..etc...
So i got back EB in Poole, installed the game tried to play in 1024x768 ( or
what ever ) and the game moved like a sliding picture show... oh shit i
thought ea have stitched me up again.. ( F1-2000 very bad ) so on the net i
went read about using old Nividia drivers, so thats what i did...12.90 was
what i ended up using, and boy what a difference.... I now play in 1280x1024
with all set to max... except the pit crew...... that hilights in red if i
put it to full...? I`ve yet to try it on full..
Now the game only stutters when i spin with my foot hard down on the gas
pedal...? i think it may be the smoke..? not sure.
What is odd is that the game plays better using a higher res..much like it`s
predesesors...?
I like the feel of the car... you can feel the way it moves around on the
grooves..esp on/off throttle through corners. It`s made me a smoother driver
already.. You can brake late and go from 7th geat to 2nd in mere meters or
the car swaps ends much like in real life, GP3 limits how fast you can
change down.
I prefer the rain in GP3 as the track reflections are amazing.. in F1-2001
the track dosn`t change colour or anything, you just get dark sky and
rain.....?
The AI is much better, but needs much fiddling with... I was battl`ing Kimi
as the US- GP this morning.. and if i looked down the inside at the corner
underbraking he would often lift of the brake pedal and run into the corner
hot... lose the rear end then gather it all up in front of my nose !! VERY
COOL !.. there speeds are a little down on the straights but the make up for
it on the twisty bits...
The rules and better.. stop go`s for jumping the chicaines and for cutting
corners..as well as for jumping starts.
I`ve got my Logitech wheel set up so that.. the buttons are as follows....
pit limit, pit call, clutch, LCD screen change.
The last thing is a neat feature.. as when you become more comftable with
the car you can scrole through the settings and readings of the car with the
flick of a button.. ( on the straights is best ).. You get all the gaps to
other cars on the diplay ( as well as pit guy calling front and rear gaps )
you can see damage, fuel needed for race, wing settings..,Penilties, theres
also a picture showing the tyre temps/wear, car skid plate on ground... and
more.
The pit stops are good.. although without help it`s hard sometimes to get on
the spot...
Also good is the way that if you brake a front wheel off ( plus other
things ) you struggle back to the pits only for your race to end.... not
like in GP3 where i`ve got back with just two wheels and 21 sec`s later am
back in the race...?
I`m not putting GP3 down, it`s a much more stable game...with a lot of good
surport and features..and i will still play it lots.
Having the clutch on a button on the wheel is cool, as at the start of races
where you are on a slop.. you have to hold the brake down, blip the trottle,
hold the clutch and keep it in first gear... when the lights go out... you
launch... many of the other cars can stall on the grid or fail to launch.
They lose gears... catch fire... smoke.. you name it....
The graphics are great.. the sound is amazing... even when you go over those
few bricks at the start finsih line in the Indy track you get a little blip
of a rumble.... The wind noise is scray...and the pit voice is neat.... even
Jim what`s his name from ITV is in it...?
You can drive a two seater Minardi,Arrows and the 3 seater Arrows....
The cars are pretty true to there real grid places.... the Prost is crap....
and the Mclaren humble..the Ferrari Awsome and the Williams mighty ! ( my
choice )
They have the correct gears ie 7... etc..
The game is also a little hhhhhmmmmmmmm how do i say.... "shit at times",
it`s a bit hungry on the pro and graphics card side, also my car sometimes
floats above the track if i have dry soft`s on in the rain......? i mean by
about 3/4 feet... and it pitchs like something used in Star Wars to get
across the desert.....? plus theres no collision on wheels or wings left in
the road.... these parts kind of fall off but floating up in the air the
just sit on the ground......? it looks naff....
The lack of force feedback reminds me of GP2.. very nice... but with F.F.
would be better...
Also one thing i do like is the way the cars feel free to move
about........? for some reason in GP 1/2/3 i`ve always felt like the***pit
was just a drawing in front of me, and if there was a car pn my inside on a
corner i was kept wide buy some invisible force.....? also it seems harder
to move side to side on the track it relation to your true speed.. but
F1-2001 seems much better than that... you can float into corners....
ie..like what Michael does... oversteer into some corners.. very nice 4
wheel drifts..... front end understeer controllable on the throttle...many
other things that take time to find..
Once you have the game set up though don`t go changing it.. as I tried
messing with the res size to see what it did.. and it just seemed shit...
Gp3 will stay on my hard drive, but F1-2001 will also ! unlike 2000, CS-2000
!