(plus my 1 hour of play time at E3)
- great sense of speed
- graphics are nice; not Superbike 2000 spectacular but nice. The upside
is...
- it runs silky smooth at 800x600 with all options on (except most
mirror details) during a race with 21 cars (on
my Celeron 500 with TNT2). The same can't be said for EA's F1 2000...
:-(
- game engine gets a little bogged down if you are behind a bunch of
cars at the beginning of a race but I guess
that is to be expected. Smooths out after cars spread out
- cool virtual***pit with moving steering wheel. You can adjust this
view too (zoom further back from the
steering wheel if you want more of a GPL look)
- on the physics side it feels and drives A LOT like GP2 which is a good
and bad thing depending on how you
look at it. Physics engine in F1 2000 is still tops for modern F1 sims
IMO (GPL still best overall though :-)
- easy accessibility; anyone can drive this thing with all help aids on.
Turn them off and you've got to be careful.
Still seems easier to drive than F1 2000 but I suspect the default
setups for GP3 may have something to do with
that (they have a lot of down force!)
- tracks are good and offer variety. Reminds me of GP2 tracks with
textures :-) The track surfaces are pretty flat
(realistic?) compared to F1 2000 in that there aren't very many sudden
elevation or camber changes. I'm not
sure if this makes F1 2000's tracks unrealistic but I find EA's tracks
more exciting to drive on (although they may
not be 100% authentic). I prefer looking at GP3's tracks though.. :-)
- AI seems to be like...GP2! This is a good thing since it was never a
problem in the first place. There are 5
levels of difficulty so it easy finding an AI setting that you can be
competitive against
- engine sound reminds me of GP2 (bring on the user add-ons!)
Initial impressions;
I really like Grand Prix 3. People who are slagging it just had higher
expectations I guess. If they could 'pretend'
that there was never a GP1 or 2 and look at it as a Formula 1 racing sim
that is competing against EA's F1
2000 and Eidos F1 World Grand Prix then maybe they wouldn't be so
disappointed. Stacked up against these
other two titles, I think GP3 is currently the best "MODERN" F1 racing
sim for the PC. Although there are many
things I like about EA's F1 2000 too, I just don't have an O/C'd Celeron
800 to run their game with most of the
details ON during a race. Is my ideal F1 sim currently available? Not
yet! For me, it would use a little of each
from the following sims currently on the market...
- Superbike 2000 graphics engine (beautiful and smooth); tracks (detail
is amazing!); improve on already
quality pre and post race payoff sequences
- F1 2000 physics engine (not as complex as GPL but good enough for a
modern F1 sim)
- GP3 telemetry, assessiblity and ease of use, garage setup features
(plus add ability to check tire temps for
proper camber adjustment)
- GPL's AI, sound, force feedback and multiplayer (GPL's ability to
practice/qualify, then race in mulitplayer
mode while playing over the internet with smooth frame rates)
Until this sim comes out (quite a wish list, I know!) I will happily
enjoy playing Grand Prix 3 for my modern F1 fix
and GPL for my historical F1 fix with a little hotlapping in F1 2000 for
good measure.
Lighten up people! Would PC racing be better 'without' GP3...I think
not!
My congrats to the entire Microprose GP3 Team. I will be one of the
first in line when it's released in North
America at the end of August...
- Jeff