rec.autos.simulators

I've had MS:CPR for a couple months now, and have downloaded Arne's track
fixes (which are great) and Jose's new car sets (the F1 cars are superb).

Here's my take:

On Pro mode, with no cheats on, the game doesn't exhibit the problems I've
heard people complain about, namely magnetic walls and steering problems.

I think, with Linear steering and speed sensitivity the game actually
simulates driving well, as far as adhesion to the track. Now, the tires
temp is modelled, and weaqr down effects definately impede your ability to
get around corners as time goes on. I've only driven sports cars on a
closed track, never open wheeled racers like these. The acceleration seems
close to what you guage from watching TV cams, perhaps these cars are a
bit too quick from 0-100.

I also don't really have any Pit problems, the crew makes the changes
under race conditions like I would want, and I don't mind the tractor beam
effect once on pit lane.

I don't race the AI. It is terrible. On street tracks it hits you way too
often (even with the patch) and the oval tracks, even playing with the
times in the races subdir still doesn't get you cars that evenly race.
Worst of all, the game certainly cheats in relation to the physics model.
The AI does wild *** moves that would certainly send any human driver
careening out of control. In addition, since it doesn't really follow the
physics model you do, it accelerates impossibly on street tracks since it
has no downforce since it doesn't need it. At least that's how it seems.
Combined with the fact it slows up too much in the chicanes and navigates
like a drunk stuttering blind man, it's unplayable as a single player sim.

In test lap mode, as a straight sim of a closed track test, it's not bad.
The 4 best road courses (Portland, Mid-Ohio, Road America and Laguna) are
all great fun to drive just for time.

The best part of the game as well is the DirectPlay API. Just getting one
or two people to drive the road courses isn't too bad. It's actually quite
fun.

I haven't used the track editor, but others have and have greatly improved
the tracks. Arne Martin has done quite a good job here.

In any case, it's in the bargain bin at Best Buy for $9.99. If you have a
D3D card, and don't have 3DFX it's only $10 and I think it's not bad.

Can others elaborate on why, specifically, it's so disliked? The head
panning? I like that actually.

Also, I can't find the best times listed on the Apex outside of the setup
file names. Is there a list of people's lap times on pro mode with no
cheats on? I'm in the low 1:20s on Laguna, and the setup claims a 1:11,
which I have no idea how they got that fast.

-dgd

Well I don' t care much for CPR. The only reason worth playing it is just to
see awesome graphics, starved of memory.

The best sessions are the test sessions, and even those I can' t figure out.
For instance, I tested at the new Homestead track by Arne Martin, my fastest
lap in my first 3 sessions was a 25.51. Then for no reason with the same
settings and setup, I couldn' t go past 27 seconds. Most laps were actually
in the 29s and 30s. NO matter how many runs i did, I couldn' t even get
close.

CPR has a lot of good features, like the head panning, the pit crew
actuually move, etc. But, overall it needs a lot of work!

My brother likes it over all other racing sims, I know it' s only because of
the graphics. He' s big on graphics! Personally, I favor ICR2 anyday over
CPR.

Hopefully ICR3 will be 3dfx compatible, and have some of CPR, GP2 & n2' s
features!

Krisstian

http://team-x.com/ <--------still under construction

Your're fastest in the qualifying sessions.  There's a big difference between
testing & qualifying, I don't know why.  On ovals, there's as much as a 5 m.p.h
difference for me between testing&qualifying using the same setup.
Racer X
Veteran Sim Racer
Victory Lane-
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1423/

I've never heard of this before from anyone. My times are the same whether
in test or qualifying. Within tenths or even hundreds of a second of
eachother. Wish I had an explanation for you. Are you sure you haven't
changed the fuel load or switched on the pits and enabled/disabled tire wear
and fuel consumption? A re-install sounds too simple but sometimes is all
that's needed to fix a game.

Dave
( DmndDave)

If Microsoft was spending millions every year to advertise in your
magazine, you would not write a negative reveiw on any of their software
games, would you?

I have yet to see a bad reveiw on CPR in any Magazine.